“Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change.”

– Fahrenheit 451

“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which [leaders] control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.”

– Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World

“The ideal set up by the Party was something huge, terrible, and glittering—a world of steel and concrete, of monstrous machines and terrifying weapons—a nation of warriors and fanatics, marching forward in perfect unity, all thinking the same thoughts and shouting the same slogans, perpetually working, fighting, triumphing, persecuting—three hundred million people all with the same face.”

– 1984

“We’ve got to redefine what the purpose of K-12 education is. Some would say it’s to produce critical thinkers. But my team and I believe that the purpose of a public K-12 education is to prepare students for post-secondary plans of their choice so that they can be a functioning member of the workforce.”

– State Superintendent Catherine Truitt, January 6th, 2022

That last statement is a hell of a statement from the top ranking official for public education in the state – especially that part about free thinking.

In her short tenure as state super, Truitt has said many things to insult teachers, demean advocacy for public schools, and belittle the profession.

This is the most insulting – not just because as a teacher my job is to help students become critical thinkers, but as a parent of young lady who has graduated from public schools and a son about to enter high school, I don’t want the person who makes the biggest decisions about our schools to think of my children (and others’ children) as “functional members of the workforce.”

It’s almost like saying that our job as public school teachers is to create good workers for those who can profit from them.

So what is the job of private education? Truitt seems very supportive of using public money to fund private school vouchers.

And does everybody on Truitt’s team really believe in her statement (especially all of those former educators)? Freebird McKinney? Julie Pittman? Former Principal of the Year Tabari Wallace?

What Truitt said is even more egregious as she herself is a former high school English teacher who surely taught students through the use of novels. In fact she reminded each educator in the state of that last week when she sent a blanket New Year’s Day email to all of us.

Makes one wonder if she ever used 1984, Fahrenheit 451, or even Brave New World as a text in one of her classes. They are commonly used. And by what she just stated, its seems they need to be more extensively taught in schools.

Because Truitt is literally showing how fiction offers strong insights on reality.

That is if you critically think about it.