There has never been a more important or more challenging time to be an educator in the United States than right now. We are still emerging from three dizzying years of the pandemic and trying to fully understand their impact on our students, the faculty who teach them, and the staff who support them. The social fabric of our nation is torn, and our politics are broken in ways that profoundly influence what happens on our campuses and in our classrooms. And the impact of political and social strife on educational institutions is not just incidental. Schools and colleges – teaching and learning, the free and open exchange of ideas, and far too many of our most vulnerable students – are under attack.
Every day there is a new flurry of headlines about government intrusions into the day-to-day functioning of educational institutions that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. The long and varied list includes the anticipated end of affirmative action in college admissions, book banning, state censorship of what can and can’t be taught in classrooms, attempts to eliminate tenure, state legislatures de-funding and dismantling DEI programs and attempting to criminalize care and support for LGBTQ+ individuals and communities, directing public funds to overtly discriminatory religious schools, installing partisan politicians as college presidents, and even the hostile takeover of a public college in Florida with the unabashed goal of remaking it as a clone of a private conservative Christian institution. These are just a few examples of the Orwellian world in which teachers and administrators are trying to educate students whose personal growth and educational journey was already turned upside down by the pandemic.
The challenges to education are not only coming from outside our institutions or from the political right. In a recent op-ed in the Boston Globe, Sian Bielock and Phil Hanlon (the incoming and outgoing presidents of Dartmouth College) point out that the nature of discourse and expression on campus is being questioned both from conservative groups trying to ban discussions about race, gender and sexuality, and LGBTQ+ issues and progressives who want to limit content that is upsetting to many students. Issues related to how students finance the ever-increasing cost of education – student loan debt, student employee wages, and student workers unions – are front and center in ways they haven’t been before. And there are important new questions confronting schools and colleges as employers trying to attract and retain faculty and staff in the aftermath of the pandemic and the great resignation.
So, there has never been a more important or more challenging time to be an educator in the United States than right now. And there has never been a more important time for educational leaders to be active participants in thoughtful discourse – both on campus and in the public square – about the state of our institutions.
To be sure, 2023 is a complicated moment in time for educators to be outspoken. Given the many competing constituencies educators are always trying to balance and serve, most of us are hesitant to wade into the fray on issues that may be politically charged or polarizing unless doing so is essential. But there is a long and important history of educational leaders as public intellectuals helping to shape the national conversation about crucial issues. And now, more than any time since the height of the civil rights movement and Vietnam War era, the country, the communities we serve, and the students to whom we are committed need to hear from us.
The good news is there are many current examples of influential educators weighing in on important national conversations affecting education. In addition to Bielock and Hanlon, over just the last few months many college presidents like Christine Paxon (Brown), Christopher Eisgruber (Princeton), and Adam Weinberg (Denison) have published notable articles on issues ranging from academic freedom to free speech on campus to the economic return on a college education. Their voices, and the voices of other high-profile educators making thoughtful, principled, and data-driven arguments are crucial to advancing the goals of our educational system.
But meaningful engagement is in no way limited to what principals and presidents have to say on opinion pages. Teachers are speaking up at school board meetings to push back on those who want to ban books and limit the content of their lessons, and in many cases erase essential elements of our shared national history. Administrators, mental health providers, coaches, and consultants are writing blogs and making podcasts and presenting at conferences and professional meetings. Being part of the conversation matters. Sharing ideas, asking questions, and providing fact-based insight into what’s happening in our classrooms and on our campuses is crucial to reframing the national conversation about education in ways that will better serve students.
We are at the end of another long academic year and all educators – faculty, staff, and administrators – should be thinking about taking some well-deserved time off to recharge. Go to the beach or the mountains or the golf course or wherever you go to unplug for a while. Rest, relax, and be good to yourself – maybe read a banned book. But when the time comes to start focusing on the next academic year, make it a priority to engage in public discussion of the issues that will define American education for the next generation.
There has never been a more important or more challenging time to be an educator in the United States and your voice matters.