MERIDIAN, Idaho — As Idaho lawmakers continue to battle over various education funding bills, Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin called one such bill a tool to "indoctrinate children into believing they are inherently racist."
But how is any of the curriculum in Idaho's schools promoting socialist ideologies and racism? The 208 asked one teacher at Rocky Mountain High School about their thoughts on lawmakers' claims. The nine-year veteran teacher said it'd require a massive leap to believe anything like that is happening in Idaho's schools.
"This is pretty much a manufactured argument. it's not something that is happening, certainly at the high school level, certainly around here. teachers are not social justice warriors. teachers are here to educate," Justin Tharpe said.
The English and theatre teacher said some education leaders are already afraid to speak out on certain topics.
"I would say even before this particular argument came to the forefront, I personally know teachers who are scared to talk about these things in class: race, gender, sexuality, because of sociopolitical circumstances," Tharpe explained. "We have a lot of people in this district in the LDS church, lot of conservative viewpoints out there and so frankly some teachers are scared of parents of what they're going to say and how they're going to react and the controversy they could bring. It should not be controversial, it is not controversial to say that America historically has had a racist problem. to say that is not true is denying reality."
He added that it's his goal that his students never find out or can figure out how he votes and that he'll routinely take an opposing viewpoint to a student's in order to challenge them.
Tharpe added that these claims are being pushed by a group and students understand the gravity of some topics.
"I think this push is from a group of people who prefer to see the world and America as they want it to be seen, not as it necessarily is and teaching uncomfortable truths in the classroom is one of the most difficult but rewarding parts of our job cause kids respond to it. Kids get subtly," he said. "Teenagers get that there's nuance in the world."
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