WAKE UP!. . .THEN YOU’LL BE WOKE!  Please don’t go back to sleep just now!

According to Merriam-Webster, “woke” means “aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)”12. A March 2023 USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll found that 56% of Americans said it means “to be informed, educated on, and aware of social injustices”3.

Somehow being woke has been  turned into “go back to sleep and don’t hurt their [our?] feelings with the truth,”  encouraging the defense mechanism of denial.

Being anti-woke, especially in schools and universities suggests a disdain for the intelligence of youth and a doubt that the truth shall make us free.  That’s the deal: protect them from realty and they will not know any better?  Until too late?  At what age can we be trusted with the truth?  Apparently those in universities cannot discuss the truth, either (See Ohio’s efforts to ban protests by students and staff alike).

The call for not hurting their feelings with the truth suggests being hurt only by warped “liberal”  facts. What’s wrong with sharing all the facts, both pro and con?  I’m not afraid of looking at both sides of facts.  It’s being sneaky I resent.  For instance:  Being told that “corporate spying on workers improves trust” is only one example.

What led me to post today was related to wokeness, but it came in through the back door.  I found a compendium by Lisa Delpit titled Teaching When the World Is on Fire.  Realising the apparent timeliness of the topic, I checked it out and found the research it reported very timely and that perhaps it might put some future fires out.  Then I noticed that it was published in 2019.  Whatever was well-researched and recommended –especially how to get students to trust educators enough to report safety concerns about other students has not been incorporated into a climate of trust–just the reverse.  The book is a collection of experience and research by well-known educators, including research by the U.S. Secret Service: The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative  July, 2004.

A 2-page appendix lists Books on Immigration for Young Readers, possibly heading for being banned in schools. So it looks like the problem of school shootings may still be limited to teachers carrying guns.?  I wonder how that would instill trust in our classrooms? Sorry, just being sarcastic. I do suspect that I know.

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