Dubbed the Ministry of Truth after Orwell’s counterpart in his book 1984, our federal government’s new Department of Disinformation has claimed the right to punish free speech if they don’t like what is said. As I can’t help but think how things will affect our kids, I wonder how this may filter down into school classrooms.
Will children be able to offer differing opinions about the climate crisis?
Can they defend their opposition to evolution being
called fact when it is a theory?
How about when they are taught that math answers don’t have to be exact? Will they be able to bring statements from others defending the need for precise solutions?
Will parents’ rejection of the teaching of the 1619 Project bring the federal government knocking at their door?
I can foresee some teachers asking the students where they got their information? If it can be traced back to their parents, will the teacher be able to reveal those parents’ guidance as disinformation to the Department of Disinformation?
If this all sounds far-fetched, wouldn’t a Department of Disinformation have seemed far-fetched two weeks ago? We may be seeing the “Land of the Free” slipping away from us, but we must never surrender the “Home of the Brave.” Stand firm on the rights stated by our founding fathers.