Seth CotlarCheck out this 1980 leaflet from the "Pro-Family Forum" claiming that secular teachers were "indoctrinating" young people in public schools. They depicted standard approaches to teaching social studies as a form of "molestation."
Oregon far right activist Walter Huss received this pamphlet from Walter Crotty, who was getting in touch because he'd recently received literature from the combination Christian political organization and Multi-Level Marketing scam called "Help America" that Huss started after he was deposed as OR GOP chair.
That Crotty letter is really something else. "I am doing in-depth research, and am going to take polls and surveys, and am constantly getting books, courses, etc...The Communists have made a study of people and how to manipulate and bedevil them with warped, Red psychology...But with God's help I am (or have the potential) of being smarter than all of them put together (God and one is a majority)"
Crotty was just one of scores of "Christian Patriots" who responded positively to Huss's efforts to organize them to "save America."
"Emboldened by what they see as a conservative mood in the country, parents' groups across the nation are demanding that teachers & admins cleanse their local schools of materials & teaching methods they consider antifamily, anti-American & anti-God." https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/17/us/parents-groups-purging-schools-of-humanist-books-and-classes.html?unlocked_article_code=2LG1nh9lIqiUtEvtZcD182pivKhNOOQ96sTiW-Wx31DHbwKX7mhMqXx6uuL00YFrhMgUdFzMDQ1q7DAON0ApWMFJ-P3Etkrxs16MGUddf0li2HDHg0QFq64_AyYiC_6SGY6wDk4nVDybYU-9wk4q1ySug-0xmcAN6ULDV9NMHTLZvMWMFiZvIOnO_JkMkkrbrZSLbO4SBGMlTJboPSsMqRQgGOHdyDiuHQ9pgAXtulfc85otrDASvgEbtv9m8yvuhALvLox4jB0tvZ5ncm9rTjkGb1uCMX2QPxJObY78BDNTpOM150SiCXruer1UwbDidLaF088_7R-PgXuHYfqgQDM6hwmXYW5Rp9KfsJJfUPasIi4wffztWTKTXHNkXclsTg&smid=url-share
In 1981, just as today, these far right efforts to ban books and shape curriculum to fit their minoritarian view of the world was an authentically local initiative that was also tied in to a coordinated, national movement.
"Secular humanism" was to the far right activists of the early 1980s what "wokeism" is to their descendants today, a "meaningless catch-all term used by these groups to describe all the nation's ills."
That anti-secular humanism pamphlet was in the papers of Walter Huss, a far right political activist who served as chair of the OR GOP from 1978 to 79. He was an anti-LGBTQ activist his entire life. Here are some more doozies from his files. They might ring some bells.
Here we learn that the people being censored in 1989 are the good Christian Patriots like Walter Huss who were trying to get books removed from public school libraries and curricula.
A reminder that the goal of these far right anti-education activists is to have a chilling effect on what teachers do and say in the classroom. These intimidation tactics are deployed, of course, by people who think they are on the side of "freedom." Screenshot is from 1981 NYT.
You'll be surprised to learn, I'm sure, that the previous generation of far right educational activists/book-banners in the late 1950s wanted kids to be reading the books that were used in the 1920s. https://twitter.com/SethCotlar/status/1532807428542038016?s=20
Mike Meadway 🇺🇸 🇩🇰 🇬🇧@sethcotlar I remember this; I was in high school when this stuff was going on. A couple of years after this article, we had the shenanigans with the PMRC as well.
GlennMG@sethcotlar Are those the same "Christian" values that killed suspected witches in the Holy Commonwealth of Massachusetts?
Mike Switzer@sethcotlar I was 11 in 81. Reagan was President. It felt like they were still teaching us 50s BS. By the time I was 14 in 1984 I was pretty sure most of what they were teaching me was nonsense, as far as history went anyway.
CarlRJ@sethcotlar yep, same thing every time. It’s reactionary. It’s “if we could only go back to (when I was a kid) everything would be simple and comfortable (and we’d be in charge)”. And they want to make sure their kids do not, under any circumstances, learn how life really is.
“Those who don’t learn from the past are condemned to repeat it” - we take this as a warning, they take it as a contract they’re eager to accept.
Nicole ParsonsWithholding education from women, PoC, and immigrants has a long history.
Capitalism has a voracious appetite for pooly educated workers and Republicanism seeks to create them deliberately.
Bleistifterin@sethcotlar and here I am, thinking that teaching kids how to make judgements is , like, the whole point.
ClauClauClaudia@sethcotlar Interesting that Richards didn’t think it worth mentioning what play was at issue. Clearly the tale of awful persecution was supposed to speak for itself.
Urban Hermit@sethcotlar it may have been a bogeyman to them, because they are anti intellectuals, but I looked into it and became a casual secular humanist when I gave up my Christianity. In fact I think the best version of God is a secular humanist. "No particular version of religion is 100% right, how you treat each other is what matters, and I believe in humans to figure it out and become better". That is the God that I will tolerate.
A Robbart@sethcotlar I remember these groups -- seems like only yesterday! "Moral Majority" (Jerry Falwell) and Eagle Forum/Concerned Wm for America (Phyllis Schlaffley). I love that they were worried about Creative Writing and the New Math. New Math! Really -- I'd forgotten that bit.
BadWoof