“Have you checked your messages lately?” the co-teacher who works with me during seventh period asked when she came in.
“Nope.” But I was curious. So while I walked back to my desk to enter roll, I checked my phone. There was a message on a group chat.
I couldn’t help it. I just started laughing. Howling, in fact.
“Mr. S?! What happened?” several students asked. While I’m not a “don’t smile before Christmas” type of teacher, I rarely find myself simply laughing so hard it’s difficult to control myself, but when your world suddenly goes from absurd to Czech-film absurd, there’s no other reaction possible:
That’s right — the state board of education is voting on whether or not to ban the textbook our district adopted.
Now, as absurd as that sounds, it’s not entirely the school board’s fault. The new state law allows any South Carolina citizen to challenge any book that’s currently used in any school in the state. So some parent found something in the textbook that she didn’t like and lodged a formal complaint. According to the state regulations (as I understand them), that sets in motion the whole process of reviewing a book and then voting on its status.
At the end of the day, I added my own thoughts: Mississippi, look out! South Carolina is hell-bent on making to the bottom of the education ladder. Then as students were dismissing, the chat picked up again:
Why would I want this? Because perhaps that would shake up enough people that many would finally start campaigning against this absurd new policy. Were the book to be banned, that’s literally millions of dollars down the drain.
“We as taxpayers should consider a class-action lawsuit if that happens,” the science teacher suggested. I don’t even know if that’s possible, but it’s a lovely thought.
In the end, I don’t think it will get banned, for the fiscal reasons outlined above. But it did get me thinking: if I were a retiree living in close proximity (say, a thirty- or so minute drive to Columbia), I would challenge books on a weekly basis. I would challenge elementary school books, middle school books, high school books. Before one challenge got resolved, I would lodge another. I would make it my personal mission to gum up the system so much that the school board itself would regret the legislation and push back against it.