It’s so reassuring to know Canada’s schoolteachers are on the lookout for the tiniest of harms that might befall our kids.
The latest example of exuberant emotional vigilance comes from the London District Catholic School Board which has decided that some students might be “triggered” by the African-Canadian novelist Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes.
That’s right: students need to be kept away from a classic modern novel by an African-Canadian author to, as the school board put it, “create an inclusive and supportive educational environment for all students.” The school board was so concerned about any harm that it was upset that the public even knew about the policy. When a teacher leaked this news to Hill himself, the school board put that teacher on paid leave. You just can’t be too careful.
As a father of four, I’m more than a little aware of all the dangers that schools now guard against. For instance, last week the school kept my kids inside for recess because it was “too windy” outside. Earlier in the year, the office warned students that a fox had been seen near school grounds — so those who walked home through the trails on the woods should be careful. Yes, that’s right. A school that prizes itself on its environmental and nature education thought kids were in danger from a neighbourhood fox.
Now that the snow is flying, the kids are warned to make sure it only flies naturally. The school rule is that no one is allowed to pick up snow. Presumably, it might lead to them having fun and throwing snowballs.
Emails were sent home around Halloween warning us to beware of culturally offensive costumes. And, in high school English classes, the kids are taught to avoid “cultural appropriation” and to watch out for other “triggering” behaviours. Yes, in English class.
This is the context from which I — and no doubt other Canadian parents — learned of the other outrageous stories of school-based moral anxiety this year. There was Sackville Heights in Halifax, where teachers thought the presence of veterans or military personnel in military uniform might be too dangerous for kids. They asked everyone to wear civilian clothing to create a “welcoming environment for all.”
Then there was the Ontario school principal who decided Canadian Remembrance Day ought to be politicized by playing a Palestinian protest song as part of the event. Remembrance Day, the principal claimed, was normally just about “a white guy who has done something related to the military.” And we all know the harms that might come from thinking a white person ever did anything good.
Other school boards have been culling books from their libraries because something in those books just might be offensive to the sensitive young minds of the student body today. Schools seem to think that being “inclusive” means insisting that words — like “Voldemort” — are harmful and shouldn’t be seen on a page, let alone spoken aloud.
Is it possible the teachers don’t know the lyrics of the popular rap music my own children listen to? Quick test: find me a Lil Baby or 21 Savage song that doesn’t use the N-word or talk about “b–ches” or drugs. Might take you a while. Is it possible that the kids are already exposed to “danger” on a daily basis and of their own volition?
Now, before it seems like I want to bring back dunce corners and the strap I should emphasize that, in many respects, I’m impressed by the emotionally attuned nature of modern teaching. One-on-one, I’ve enjoyed many conversations with teachers who seem open to really understanding the children in their charge. It seems a welcome development.
But there is also the need to be aware of unintended consequences and the possibility that good developments can be corrupted for nefarious purposes. We are seeing both of these in contemporary Canadian schools. There’s reason to think all of this concern about “safety” is doing some actual harm itself, and also that some school boards are using the language of harm as a cover for some otherwise pretty authoritarian and often quite illiberal political behaviour.
Teachers should be made to read Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier, a book which delves into the possible side effects created by our overly sensitive therapeutic approach to childhood. She points to evidence that shows how continuously focusing on children’s emotional states can increase anxiety and exacerbate the very problems the system is trying to help. Constant talk of psychological trauma can, in other words, make children feel worse.
This doesn’t mean we should revert back to a time when it was not acceptable to talk about feelings. But it does mean we ought to be aware of how trying to help can in fact make the patient worse. Or, in this case, it means acknowledging that by constantly treating our kids as patients on the verge of being harmed, schools are worsening the emotional fragility they’re trying to treat.
It would be nice if teachers — and especially principals and school board officials — were introduced to classics of ancient wisdom. The timeless advice of pre-Christian stoic philosophers like Seneca and the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius is to ignore insults and treat them as being beneath your notice, like a lion does the growling of small animals. Are you insulted? Then laugh. Perhaps agree and say, “If only you knew the half of it.” To give an insult attention is to flatter the one insulting you. The stoics would have laughed at the very idea of a microaggression.
This doesn’t mean that they were above responding firmly to a threat. But it does mean that they knew the difference between a petty insult and serious danger.
Of course, all of this assumes that the concern for safety is actually about the child and not merely a pretext for imposing one’s political views on the student body. At a time when too many schools act as if social justice is just a neutral category outside of politics, it’s increasingly common to include politicized lessons in the classroom — whether it’s about Black Lives Matter in English class or radical decolonization in history.
In this context, the language of harm and safety can be used as a smokescreen to remove any old books or ideas from the classroom that might complicate the hyper-politicized picture that schools are trying to impose. As the French revolutionaries taught us over two centuries ago, when you’re trying to create a new world, it’s best to first wipe the slate clean. In those years it was about creating whole new calendars and measuring systems and, in the Reign of Terror, new headless guillotined bodies.
In 21st-century Canada, it’s about making sure all of the books only have the right words in them. It’s about getting rid of books that might be beautiful novels, but might also not be fully up-to-date in their thinking.
And, of course, it’s about making sure all of the snow stays on the ground. We can’t be too safe. After all, it’s for the children.
National Post