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Sue Lani Madsen: State’s schools failing mandates to teach morality, patriotism

Who would have thought a simple screenshot of one paragraph of the Revised Code of Washington could be a popular social media meme? RCW 28A.405.030 is little changed from the original text included in the 1881 unrevised Code of Washington, but unlike the amusingly anachronistic laws ferreted out by the Law Revision Commission, this one is not obsolete. The current title and text in full:

“RCW 28A.405.030 Must teach morality and patriotism – It shall be the duty of all teachers to endeavor to impress on the minds of their pupils the principles of morality, truth, justice, temperance, humanity and patriotism; to teach them to avoid idleness, profanity and falsehood; to instruct them in the principles of free government, and to train them up to the true comprehension of the rights, duty and dignity of American citizenship.”

Failure to teach these precepts is a misdemeanor for any educator or school board director, unless and until the Legislature would like to revise or remove a law that has lasted more than 140 years. It’s survived many updates, RCW reorganizations and renumbering, most recently in 2003. It’s a classic and it’s been rediscovered.

One of those sharing the meme was Russell Neff, a concerned parent, former engineer and current substitute teacher. He sees individual teachers doing good work but fractures in the structure of our educational system, in part by a loss of focus on the values of morality and patriotism required to be taught under the RCW.

Neff frequently works at Lewis and Clark High School, where the halls are filled with history, but he feels “the values on the wall at LC are at risk, now those are seen as flexible too.” He shared a photo of a plaque on the wall of the historic school, placed and dedicated by the January 1926 graduating class.

THE AMERICAN’S CREED

I BELIEVE in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign nation of many sovereign states; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.

I THEREFORE BELIEVE it is my duty to my country to love it; to support its constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag; and to defend it against all enemies.

CLASS JAN 1926

It’s a statement recognizing the universal values essential to holding the American experiment in democracy together, even knowing they have always been imperfectly lived out. It’s from a time when duties were emphasized as the logical companion to rights. And it’s a reminder that our nation is made up of 50 states, each allowing its residents political power through frequent free and fair elections.

The apostrophe in the American’s Creed puts responsibility for the “I believe” statements squarely on the individual. That puts it at odds with many of the more recent additions to curriculum, lumped under the term CRT by protesting parents. Critical Race Theory is more accurately used to refer to an academic legal framework, but CRT is now shorthand for the applied postmodernism underlying modern curriculum, a philosophy focused on group identities and rights without regard to the “duty and dignity of American citizenship.”

From “Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity” by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, “The intense focus on identity categories and identity politics means that the individual and the universal are largely devalued.”

And thus the collision between universal values and the requirements of RCW 28A.405.030 to “impress on the minds of their pupils the principles of morality, truth, justice, temperance, humanity and patriotism” with curricula teaching fluid truth. Modern pedagogy has been infused by a postmodern knowledge principle that denies the existence of objective truth. Feelings are more important than facts. We are no longer striving for “a perfect union, one and inseparable” but merely a collection of intersecting identity groups focusing on group grievances.

Civilized society requires we agree on a core of universal values. We can start with a simple test by school boards for organizations seeking to partner with schools – how will you advance the principles of morality and patriotism as spelled out in state law? How will you as a community partner add value to the basics? Not just the basics of reading, writing and ‘rithmetic but the principles of free government and the responsibilities of citizenship.

Parents have woken up. They’ll be holding school boards accountable.

P.S. For all the teachers and administrators out there doing a tough job well, loving on kids every day and trying to turn out responsible adults who can read, write, do arithmetic and think critically, may you be blessed with patience as the policy debates continue.

Contact Sue Lani Madsen at rulingpen@gmail.com.

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