“In the nineteen-twenties, the curriculum in question was biology; in the twenty-twenties, it’s history. Both conflicts followed a global pandemic and fights over public education that pitted the rights of parents against the power of the state. It’s not clear who’ll win this time. It’s not even clear who won last time. But the distinction between these two moments is less than it seems: what was once contested as a matter of biology—can people change?—has come to be contested as a matter of history. Still, this fight isn’t really about history. It’s about political power. Conservatives believe they can win midterm elections, and maybe even the Presidency, by whipping up a frenzy about ‘parents’ rights,’ and many are also in it for another long game, a hundred years’ war: the campaign against public education.” Jill Lepore in The New Yorker: Why the School Wars Still Rage.

+ “That, of course, is the pernicious intent of bills such as these: to stigmatize and shame gay and transgender people under the guise of protecting children from inappropriate conversations about sex. There is a long and ugly history of tarring gay people as sexual predators. DeSantis and the law’s supporters are playing into this slur by conflating ‘sexual instruction’ and any mention of LGBTQ people, and claiming they’re doing so to protect children. The irony, of course, is that the people most likely to be hurt by this law are kids in Florida whose families look different from those of their classmates.” Sarah Longwell in WaPo (Gift Article): I object to Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill as a lesbian mom — and as a conservative. (And, one assumes, just as a decent person.)