The cancel culture movement and forces which silence dissent and disagreement have spread from our nation’s college campuses into high schools across the country. High school students today are regularly afraid to speak their minds or to question the ideas and theories they are taught. They habitually self-censor themselves, fearful of saying the wrong thing and suffering undue damage including very real reputational personal, social and professional costs.

While it is tempting to blame teachers for creating a culture of self-induced silence, parents, communities, and politicos alike should really be holding school boards and administrators — those directly responsible for the curriculum in high schools — answerable for the current mess. Unlike professors, who have a fair amount of autonomy in their classrooms, high school teachers have far less discretion. Even with tenure and union protection, speaking out against the seemingly omnipotent zeitgeist of illiberal demands can be career-ending, as was the case for former Grace Church School teacher Paul Rossi when he publicly disagreed with the school’s powerful Office of Community Engagement this past April.

Rossi writes in his public statement, “As a teacher, my first obligation is to my students. But right now, my school is asking me to embrace ‘antiracism’ training and pedagogy that I believe is deeply harmful to them and to any person who seeks to nurture the virtues of curiosity, empathy and understanding. . . . My school, like so many others, induces students via shame and sophistry to identify primarily with their race before their individual identities are fully formed.”

Rossi’s sentiments are absolutely correct. And new data gathered from Next Generation Politics, a New York City-based organization aimed at helping high school students foster a culture of cross-partisanship and civil engagement, show that he is not alone in his beliefs: A majority surveyed say that despite attempts to create an academic monoculture, teachers actively promote diversity of opinion and discourse in their classrooms.

The snowball survey recorded responses from 250 high
school students at various public and private schools throughout New York,
asking about their views on cancel culture and school life in today’s polarized
political culture. Over half of students polled (55 percent) believe their
teachers are good or very good at seeking out and listening to viewpoints differing from their own. Seventy-two
percent of the students believe they themselves are good at exemplifying viewpoint
diversity, but they are less confident about their peers and parents. Under
half (47 percent) of students surveyed believe their fellow classmates are
genuinely seeking out a diversity of views. Just a third of students (36
percent) maintain their parents are good or very good at seeking out and
listening to viewpoints differing from their own. Students are even more
skeptical of the public at large: Only 6 percent of students believe the
general public is good or very good at seeking out viewpoint diversity.

It is clear that students are well aware of how polarized
most Americans are today and simultaneously recognize that many of their
teachers are outliers in their ability to encourage a truly liberal education.

Of course, there are plenty of high school teachers leading the progressive charge. Powerful progressive interest groups like the National Education Association regularly share views that advocate strong teacher political positions in the classroom, stating that education must be political and that “strict adherence to ‘neutrality’ — not expressing your views to students and/or avoiding political topics — is a tactic that can actually marginalize many students.” It should come as little surprise then that some high schools are even explicitly seeking woke teachers for their classrooms.

But woke teachers and a loaded, unbalanced classroom are the antithesis of a genuine educational experience which exists to help students struggle in finding their views and voices based on reason, evidence, and the intersection of numerous, often competing narratives. As a high school teacher in Charlottesville, Virginia remarked, teachers should absolutely be prepared to address current events, but they should hold back their opinions: “This is a place where students are finding and refining their voice and you are in an authority position.” Teachers are there to help students discover their views, defend them, and understand opposing views and logic.

Fortunately, this new evidence confirms that there remains a significant number of high school educators working today who clearly value discourse and disagreement, and they should be lauded and supported for promoting viewpoint diversity. It is critical that families and communities support these teachers and voice their discontent with the administrators and school boards forcing divisive and dangerous ideas into the classroom. The overwhelming majority of Americans reject the woke racism our schools are peddling. Americans must continue to push back against the silencing of ideas that threaten our nation’s core values. Let the teachers do their job and genuinely teach multiple viewpoints — our progress depends on it.

Samuel J. Abrams is professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

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