Photo from Wikimedia Commons Indiana Republican State Senator Scott Baldwin issued an apology on January 6 for saying that teachers should be “impartial” on Nazism.
The Indianapolis Star and Washington Post reported that Baldwin’s remarks came during a January 5 committee hearing about the education bill SB 167. Matt Bockenfeld, a history and ethnic studies teacher, said during the hearing that while he agrees with the bill banning teachers from expressing their opinions on political issues, he was concerned that the bill would require him to be neutral when teaching Nazism and fascism. “We’re neutral on political issues of the day,” Bockenfeld said. “We don’t stand up and say who we voted for or anything like that. But we’re not neutral on Nazism. We take a stand in the classroom against it, and it matters that we do.”
Baldwin, who filed the bill, responded by saying that “I have no problem with the education system providing instruction on the existence of those isms,” referencing Nazism, fascism and Marxism. “I believe that we’ve gone too far when we take a position on those isms … We need to be impartial.” He added teachers should simply “provide the facts.”
In a statement to the Star, Baldwin said the bill is meant for teachers to be neutral in regard to “political affiliation” and that he’ll ensure the bill will be limited to that intent. “In my comments during committee, I was thinking more about the big picture and trying to say that we should not tell kids what to think about politics,” he said. “Nazism, Marxism and fascism are a stain on our world history and should be regarded as such, and I failed to adequately articulate that in my comments during the meeting. I believe that kids should learn about these horrible events in history so that we don’t experience them again in humanity.”
Baldwin elaborated further in a statement to the Post that he “sincerely” regrets not making it clear that teachers should condemn Nazism, fascism and Marxism and apologized. “I said Wednesday that we need to listen and be open to changes that can improve the bill, and we are working on amendments to that end.”
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Midwest denounced Baldwin’s remarks in a statement. “The Nazis were responsible for the deaths of 11 million people, including 6 millions Jews,” they said. “Senator Baldwin’s apology doesn’t change the deep harms of using ‘impartiality’ or ‘neutrality’ as tools to sanitize history. This is part of the continued efforts by some to try and rewrite history and characterize extremism, racism and genocide as somehow legitimate. That is dangerous and despicable. It should be loudly rejected.”
Indiana Sen. Scott Baldwin's apology doesn't change the deep harms of using "impartiality" or "neutrality" as tools to sanitize history. https://t.co/1LMn3gbOlS
Our full statement here: pic.twitter.com/4fsYnF8rho— ADL Midwest (@ADLMidwest) January 7, 2022
The Simon Wiesenthal Center tweeted, “If this is what confused adults are saying, our nation’s children must be confused about what exactly they should be learning about Nazism and Fascism—that they are EVIL. We must never teach our children to be ‘impartial’ about evil.”
If this is what confused adults are saying, our nation’s children must be confused about what exactly they should be learning about Nazism and Fascism—that they are EVIL. We must never teach our children to be ‘impartial’ about evil. https://t.co/ss7n7KM122
— SimonWiesenthalCntr (@simonwiesenthal) January 10, 2022
SB 167, according to the Star, is “seen as a response to critical race theory,” also known as CRT. Journal Editor-At-Large Monica Osborne wrote in a March op-ed that many proponents of CRT, “a full-fledged school of literary criticism—a way of reading not just literature and film in classrooms but also everything that we come into contact with in the world,” believe that “racism is not something that happens between people on an individual level. It’s structural. It undergirds every single one of our institutions going back to and preceding the founding of America. This means that even if the majority of individuals are not racists, the effects of racism will continue to be seen because they are embedded in everyday life.” Critics of CRT argue that it is a “revival of segregation” and “an attack on free speech, a movement that keeps shifting the goal posts for what is acceptable and discovering new marginalized groups to protect and new words to render inappropriate,” per Osborne.
SB 167 would “would require schools to develop curriculum committees that include parents, to review all education materials, and develop portals containing materials, texts and lesson plans to allow parents to review everything taught in the classroom” and “remove an exemption to laws about distributing material harmful to minors for schools and public libraries,” the Star reported. The bill also bars teachers “from teaching a variety of concepts related to sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, or political affiliation is inherently superior or inferior,” according to the Star.
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