A NC teacher pushes back against a bill that would dictate how to teach history | Opinion

As a history teacher at High Point Central High School, Bruce Blackwell teaches about the past, but now the present has come barging in.

Ninety miles from his classroom, Republican state lawmakers in Raleigh are pushing House Bill 187, legislation that would limit how racism and sexism can be taught in the schools. It states, in part, that no teacher should present history in a way that, “Any individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress.”

“This bill does not change what history standards can and cannot be taught,” said Rep. John Torbett, a Gaston County Republican and the bill’s primary sponsor. “It simply prohibits schools from endorsing discriminatory concepts.”

Blackwell disagrees. For him, a Black, 35-year-old North Carolina native, the bill is an intrusion that aims to distort history.

“If you look at history, there’s always one group that felt they were superior over another, whether it was to force a group out of their homes or force a group into enslavement,” he said. He noted that women in the United States didn’t get the right to vote until 1920 and that it wasn’t until the voting rights law ended barriers to Black people voting that the nation became “a real democracy.”

Blackwell doesn’t want any of his students to feel ashamed by history. He just wants them to know the truth about it.

When he teaches about the Founding Fathers, his class discusses the fact that some were slaveholders.

“People like Washington or Thomas Jefferson, were they people of their times or could they have done more?” he told me. “It’s having that conversation and letting the kids draw their own opinions. It’s not me pressing.”

Blackwell doesn’t think teachers are imposing their views by discussing the reality of the past.

“The people who are pushing this agenda, I’m wondering where they get it from.,” he said. “Are they going into a classroom and actually seeing this type of rhetoric being taught to students? I really believe that’s not happening.”

What is happening in schools, he said, is a shortage of teachers as well as infrastructure problems. Sometimes the heat doesn’t work and there’s no air conditioning. There are also cases where students go hungry because they can’t afford a school lunch.

“There are more important things to worry about than what they’re assuming about what teachers are communicating to students,” Blackwell said.

The proposed legislation addresses a nonexistent problem, he said, but if it passes it will create real problems. For one, he said, it will set back efforts to diversify the ranks of teachers.

“We want more Black males and people of color in general in teaching, but they’ll look at this and fear they are going to be scrutinized, especially if they are at a school that is predominately white,” he said. “They are going to be intimidated into not teaching certain things or there’s going to be blowback from a parent.”

Blackwell, who teaches at a school that includes a mix of whites, Blacks and Latinos, said he hasn’t heard complaints about his taking a forthright approach to teaching history.

“I’m thankful that I’ve never had any blowback from my students. There’s never been a parent who has questioned anything,” said Blackwell, who has been a full-time teacher since 2015. “It’s always, ‘My child loves your class, they love learning about things.’ ”

If House Bill 187 passes, he said he doesn’t plan to change how he teaches.

“It’s sad,” he said of the legislation, “but I’m somebody who is willing to fight for what is right regardless of the outcome. If you look at the people who have gone before, you have got to take a stand at some point.”

While Republican lawmakers want to tell him how to teach, Blackwell wants them to learn.

“They’re not here with us to really see what is going on. They’re not coming into our classroom,” he said. “Truly, they should visit a classroom and see what’s going on. They might learn something.”

Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-829-4512, or nbarnett@ newsobserver.com