Young people are the future of this country. So in turn, society as a whole places a great sense of responsibility onto their educators from the moment they start kindergarten until they graduate from college. Yet, it seems as of late we have replaced this responsibility with politicizing what they can and can not teach.
Political polarization is not a new concept, and schools have often been at the epicenter of political events. From Brown v. Board of Education banning segregation in schools and Tinker v. Des Moines protecting the freedom of speech of students at school during the Vietnam War, public education is no stranger to government involvement. However, there has been a notable shift from the government intervening to protect students’ rights to legislation directly affecting teachers in the workplace.
Since 2020 and COVID-19, teachers have been forced to not only deal with the learning curve the pandemic imposed on students but the additional, more political consequences of this event. Parents’ beliefs regarding mask mandates found their way into classrooms, and so did their opinions on other assets of school life.
Even posters as simple as “Everyone is Welcome Here” in a middle school in Idaho led to complaints of forced ideology and a sixth grade teacher resigning from her job in May.
Encouraging posters are not the only things being limited in the classroom. While large parts of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill have been overturned, there are still aspects in action that bar classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity. Simultaneously, book bans and legislation limiting discussion of race and identity in the classroom are still occurring in 2025.
People worried about political perspectives being forced on students are simultaneously ripping away crucial discussions and topics many students care about.
Not only are there restrictions being placed on what teachers can discuss in the classroom, but recent events call for regulation of what they say in their personal lives. ABC News reported that by Sept. 23 of this year, over a dozen faculty members of K-12 schools and universities across the country had been removed for comments following the death of Charlie Kirk.
There were also instances of people calling our university to fire an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media for comments about “right-on-right violence.”
Instances such as these are often pushed into the limelight, and educators find themselves self-censoring to avoid such backlash. The University of Alabama has seen this first hand when SB129 went into effect in October 2024 and professors like Richard Fording, who teaches Political Science, reported that it had been increasingly difficult to talk about race or racial inequality, topics that can be controversial and open staff up to risks under this legislation.
He continued to say that many educators in the state are changing what and how they teach topics in fear of being targeted. Self-censorship not only arises out of the fear of persecution from faculty but negatively affects students.
When teachers start to change the content they teach or the way in which they discuss it, students lose valuable perspectives and ways of thinking. The mission of teachers is not to tell their students what to think, but how to think for themselves by providing them with diverse and nuanced content.
Books about LGBTQ+ characters are not going to change a student’s identity, but instead can create empathy for those who may look or live differently than them. Discussions about the effects of segregation or racism will not target White students, but show respect for students of color and their history while the classroom as a whole can engage in meaningful discussion about the world they are growing up in.
Students are the future of tomorrow. It is imperative that we provide them with wide-ranging knowledge so they can become independent thinkers. The world is never going to change if we restrict what an educator can teach their student. By limiting content and speech, we are limiting unique perspectives. If we are seeking to bring in an era of prosperity, the first step is fostering a multitude of brilliant and diverse minds.
