By now, everyone who reads or follows the internet has learned of the Tallahassee principal who was dismissed from her position because the teacher of a 6th grade class showed the students a picture of Michelangelo’s David statue, a famous piece of Renaissance sculpture in Florence, Italy. Because early news reports got some of the details wrong, let’s review the essential facts.

The school in question is Tallahassee Classical School (TCS), a charter school that is a part of the Barney Charter School Initiative, which is a project of Hillsdale College (Michigan.) You can always spot one of these by the appearance of the word Classical in the school’s name. This particular school has existed since 2019.

The Board terminated the principal, but it was the governing board of the charter school, not the Leon County School Board as previously reported. The constitutional officers of the elected school board for the district have no power to intervene in charter school operations under Florida law. Barney Bishop III is the chair for the school’s governing body.

While the instigating event for the termination was the lesson that included the statue, it was the culminating event for the school as Bishop revealed that it was only one of several issues they had with the principal’s leadership. Although we may be inclined to disregard the whole matter as a tempest in a teapot, most likely, the issue revolved around parent complaints.

There are two issues at play: one, that parents were not informed about the controversial and perhaps disturbing (for the students) nature of the lesson; two, that the statue itself is pornographic. The number of parents making the complaint in this incident were two for the first issue and one for the second, not large numbers at all even for a school that has a low enrollment of 403 students in all its K-12 grades.

There’s not much more to say about this particular instance. A minority of parents do opt for charter school education, including the Classical model that is promoted by Hillsdale College. A minority of parents are angry, whether innately or stirred-up by others, about public school curriculum and teacher discretion over creating lessons. A Venn diagram would show that these two sets of parents overlap to some degree.

We could sum up by viewing this as an instance where the principal and teacher failed to understand the clientele or to use what is rapidly becoming a cliche, read the room. While the principal was dismissed, we have yet to learn what discipline was given to the 6th grade teacher.

TCS has a faculty and staff of 48 persons, of whom 15 are deemed in-field teachers (they hold valid certification in their subject areas from the Florida Department of Education), 1 is transferring credentials, and the rest are out-of-field for various reasons like their certification has expired or they need to add their current subject area to their certificate. It is a plus for them that they require state certification for their teachers, but a minus that the percentage deemed in-field is low, only 33%.

Most interestingly, no one on staff teaches science although the school lists it as part of its curriculum. That leads into what the Barney Initiative means by prescribing a Classical education for children ages 5 to 18. So as not to tax your patience reading the descriptions of Classical education on various websites, it may be understood as a learning curriculum structured by what used to be described as the learning of DWM (dead white men) or traditional curriculums in vogue during the early years of the Enlightenment in Western civilization.

Proponents of Classical education make sure to explain that the foundation of their model is Greco-Roman philosophical thought, such as that expressed by Plato, Aristotle, and other famous thinkers of the ancient world. For instance, “If a student were asked to read Plato, Virgil, Augustine, Aquinas or Locke because there will be a test on their content, the student would likely find them uninteresting. Our scholars read with a purpose. Like a treasure hunt, they are looking for the connections and development of ideas that span all great literature. When reason and belief are integrated, students are unlikely to be persuaded by college dogma.”

For what purpose would students be reading Plato? Like the Symposium, in which the men get drunk as they discuss the nature and pleasures of Eros, the god of love, and make reference to love between men. In these Don’t-Be-Gay days in Florida (remember to read the charter school room,) this cannot be in the curriculum. It must be a selective use of Plato in the curriculum.

Because, yes, Classical education comes with a purpose. It values everything that was valued in late medieval Europe (circa 17th and 18th centuries) “through a content-rich classical education in the liberal arts and sciences, with instruction in the principles of moral character and civic virtue.“

It emphasizes the use of traditional texts (those DWMs again!) and the practice of logic, rhetoric, and debate. It seeks to produce an informed citizenry of the virtues (an old-fashioned word) of art, science, and literature. Students learn Latin and mathematics and receive intentional instruction in moral principles and encouragement to practice them.

The challenge, for them and for others, is that we don’t live in the 18th century and social media savvy is more important for today’s students than the careful construction of an hours-long argument complete with the rhetoric needed to sustain it.

It also leaves out an acknowledgment that we live in a very different world from that of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. It glosses over the existence of LGBTQ people and that they too are endowed with unalienable rights. It ignores the experiences of Black people and others in the world who are not European in origin, and western European at that!

Does it even investigate the tensions in Renaissance art between those like Michelangelo, who painted male nudes on the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel and a subsequent pope who ordered that modesty drapes or fig leaves be painted over what the Brits would call the naughty bits?

It would seem, given the recent flare-up over the statue of David, that more critical thought may need to go into how the curriculum is developed and what resources are used, the kind of critical thought that Classical schools pride themselves on.

Perhaps Classical education advocates should even examine their belief in the superiority of Western civilization and American exceptionalism, both features of the learning these schools seek to impart to their students. While great advances have taken place under these auspices, there were also great evils of colonial exploitation and wealth extraction that continue to shape the world today.

Ah, poor David and his overly large-sized hands! What was the artist’s intent in fashioning his masterpiece so? It is a debate worthy of having, although many of us would agree that the typical 6th-grade student is too young for it. But it is not a debate the typical Classical education advocate is interested in having. It is a great piece of art, they acknowledge, admire it and move on.

And by no means ask why Michelangelo painted and sculpted the many nudes he and other Renaissance artists are famous for or why Leonardo da Vinci fled Florence.

Transliterated from Chinese, the word is a verb and it is used for the moment when students report a teacher to authorities for inappropriate teaching that diverges in the slightest way from the government curriculum.

Jubao. Given all the parental rights bills that have been rushed into law and the many more now moving through Spring state legislative sessions, it is fair to ask the question about how many K-12 teachers will be jubaoed this year.

Grumpy Old Teacher (GOT) ran into this term over the summer of 2022 when reading an article in the New Yorker about an American teaching in China who was blindsided when a student reported him to authorities. In this case, the teacher had made some editing comments on a student paper, which made their way to Chinese social media but no one knows how. The comments were reported, the teacher investigated with the Communist Party interviewing students, the university withdrew its support of him and non-renewed his contract.

Jubao! His teaching career was over, a moment every teacher can relate to.

From Florida’s Don’t-Be-Gay bill, which muzzled teachers from kindergarten to third grade from mentioning sexual orientation or gender identity that is now being extended to grades 4 – 8 in proposed legislation, or through grade 12 according to a proposed rule by the State Board of Education, to Florida’s Stop WOKE act, which stifled honest discussions of race in all classrooms, anyone including students can now report a teacher for anything that was said in a classroom if it is thought to violate these strictures.

Other states are passing similar laws. Then there are the attempts at setting up parental hotlines, dedicated phone numbers or email addresses where any parent can report a teacher for saying something they don’t like.

We are crossing familiar ground here. Many excellent writers have covered these attempts to censor public education classrooms including the increasing effort to ban books in the classroom.

There are no protections for teachers. Depending upon the state and the strength of one’s particular union, if one is a member at all, there may be very little recourse once a teacher is jubaoed.

The motivation of those who would jubao a teacher are seldom discussed. Is it a sincere belief that the instruction was age-inappropriate? Is it the imposition of moral values upon others, including the cramped moral values of those who are threatened by people who are seen as other? Is it a desire for revenge because a teacher gave a low grade for work, intervened in an act of misbehavior, or attempted to keep a student’s attention upon the learning?

Perhaps a student will decide to jubao a teacher because they did not make the cheerleading squad or a sports team. Any reason will do in these days of cartoonish reasoning by legislators currying favor to advance their careers or garner campaign donations.

Maybe it would be innate racism, a distinctive feature of the American character. In an example filled with irony, Grumpy Old Teacher (GOT) knows of a school where there is a Chinese teacher who many of the students don’t like. Students have complained about her. The complaints have no validity. She demands that they work, she demands they achieve competency in mathematics, and she speaks with an accent, which is often the real reason students take a disliking. In other words, she is an excellent teacher, one who does not seek popularity but strives to impart learning every day in her classroom.

Would she be jubaoed? She already has been although the students complained to the wrong person, in this case, GOT who sees the complaints for what they are: immature griping by teenagers.

It is doubtful, though, in these days of hyper-charged partisan politics that the politicians would react the same way. Attacking teachers has become second nature in states like Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Tennessee.

Teachers now live in fear of being reported for doing their job, that is, teaching. GOT hears the horror stories that are disseminated in political speeches and across social media about teachers not teaching their subject but indoctrinating students. However, he has yet to come across an actual example in any school in which he has taught, his many teacher acquaintances and colleagues, and even in teacher posts in social media and blog essays. The indoctrination claim is false.

Jubao! No individual can stop politicians from imitating China in their attempts to set up reporting networks and proscribe speech, especially those ideologically driven politicians who genuflect before their god of Christian nationalism.

But now, teachers, at least we have a word for it. Jubao!

May it never happen to you.

Welcome to the eve of another Florida legislative session or, as we locals call it, Looney Tunes when Florida’s attention-seeking representatives compete to see who can introduce the most crazy, most stupid, most overreaching, most gonna-get-the-internet buzzing, most own-the-libs bill for consideration.

A word about the title: Grumpy Old Teacher (GOT) knows about the racism that infused the classic Warner Bros. cartoons. It’s not only the banned cartoons the link will inform you about; it’s also the way stereotypes infuse the classic Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, and more cartoons. Some people object that Warner Bros. edited that out in the 1980s, but it’s too pervasive for editing to remove the underlying, offensive themes.

Given the current governor’s anti-woke campaign, which includes banning any teaching in public schools that might make anyone (white) feel uncomfortable about the past, bring up systemic racism, or imply that we have a responsibility to address past inequities, the title bears a painful irony even as GOT uses it in its general slang sense of ongoing mayhem.

“I’ve never owned a slave.” How often has GOT heard a white person say that as if the only issue in discussing reparations is the economic theft of labor before the 13th amendment passed. How about the massacres and violence directed against Black people whenever and wherever they built up wealth–places like Tulsa, OK, Wilmington, NC, and too many others to list them all that destroyed their property and took their lives.

“I didn’t do that.” How about the GI bill that benefitted returning white veterans of World War 2 but left out returning Black veterans?

“I wasn’t alive then.” How about the redlining that limited Black people to certain neighborhoods that then failed to appreciate in value the way that white neighborhoods did? The main way that white families built generational wealth was denied to Black families because of the racism codified into law and human behavior. What about that?

Ron DeSantis seeks to bring back those days, those Looney Tune days (feel the bitter irony?) with his anti-woke campaign. There is legislation to ban investments in businesses with environmental, social, or governmental policies that consider anything other than the rapacious pursuit of profit. There is HB 999 that would eliminate programs and centers that focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as well as majors and minors that could be considered CRT (critical race theory), gender theory, or intersectionality related.

Even now, the governor’s office is sending messages to colleges and universities demanding information about DEI programs.

But there’s more. SB 1320 would ban the use of preferred pronouns expressed by either a student or a teacher. It would extend the ban on classroom instruction about gender identity or sexual orientation through grade 8, the last middle school grade. (Because, as everyone knows, that’s all schools do. They’ve given up on teaching reading, math, science, and history because corrupting American youth is just so delicious and the mission is to reach them before they reach puberty around age 25 or so. Oops, sarcasm alert.)

HB 1069 would give authority over adopting sex education curriculum to the state Department of Education, which removes curriculum-deciding authority from local school boards. It would declare in statute that a person’s sex can only be binary, either male or female, as observed at birth from genitalia and that this is unchangeable, immutable, and forever.

SB 254 would prohibit parents from seeking gender-affirming care for their children. Oh, those silly parents who think that Florida’s Republicans led by their Dear Leader really hold parents’ rights as a moral principle! If parents do that, Florida courts would be given the authority to remove custody of their children and place them into the state system.

Oh, and all health-care providers would have to swear that they are not providing gender-affirming care just in case parents escape notice.

Then there’s the bill that would require bloggers to register with the state if they derive income from what they publish online.

Let GOT declare now that no one pays him for what he writes in this little-noticed blog. Further, he has denied WordPress permission to show ads on the pages that would otherwise provide a small stream of income to offset the hosting and domain name fees.

GOT knows how the GOP sneers at him because he gives it away for free. But there are more important things to life than acquiring money.

But the silly season is not done yet. The last example is SB 1248, which would outlaw the Democrat Party without mentioning it by name. After enjoying his more than 15 minutes of Andy Warhol fame, the bill’s sponsor walked it back saying he was only trolling the opposition. But what’s really hilarious is that when GOT did a Google Search for a link, Google added ‘cartoon character’ to the description, which fits the Looney Tunes motif of this post, that nowhere appears in the actual article.

Let’s not overreact. Every Florida legislative session, as GOT suspects happens in many other states, features foolishness designed to gain attention. These bills are doomed to die in committee. Two months is not enough time for the hundreds of bills that are filed to even get a hearing, much less advance to the floor of either chamber.

However, we have also seen how one year’s crazy-pants bill laughed out of town becomes a common-sense-how-come-nobody-thought-of-this-before law two or three years later. The first year’s objective is merely to introduce the outrageous to the conversation.

Moreover, Florida is also prone to the strike-all-and-replace amendment that takes place the night before the last day of the session in the house speaker’s or senate president’s office. The first 59 days seldom matter. It’s what the strong-arm leaders will put on the floor on the last day with the threat to vote for it or else. Bills that die in committee have a strange way of resurrecting in the budget or other legislation at the end.

Constant vigilance is required. Keep an eye on the principal actors, especially the Top Gov, who’s off running for president in Iowa as GOT writes … oops, he hasn’t declared yet … off promoting his book in key early primary/caucus states.