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The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
Conservatives are being blamed for the extra workload that Tennessee teachers are currently faced with due to the Age Appropriate Material Act, a new law that the Republican controlled Tennessee General Assembly passed this year.
However, in this year’s legislative session, conservative parents advocated to remove the exception to Title 39 Obscenity Laws so that schools would be subject to the same guidelines as all adults. House Bill 1944 (without amendments) would have addressed what conservatives believe to be the real problem regarding inappropriate content in books available in schools, but teacher and library unions lobbied against it.
The Tennessee legislature passed the Age Appropriate Materials Act requiring transparency instead. This law does not ban any book but requires schools to catalog all books in the school library and make that inventory available online for parents and other stakeholders.
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A Middle Tennessee teacher who posted a TikTok video that has been viewed over 1.5 million times shows her in a classroom on a Saturday. In the video, teacher Sydney Rawls – who works for Murfreesboro City Schools – explains that she is there on the weekend to catalog the books in her classroom in order to comply with the new law.
Legal counsel for Murfreesboro City Schools has stated that classroom libraries are considered to be the same as the main school library under the law. The school district is committed to following the law while also supporting teachers and to that end they have not created a hard deadline for classroom inventories.
A spokesperson for Murfreesboro City Schools said, “We have presented several options for teachers to utilize. Options include creating a simple inventory list, utilizing a book inventory app, or only using classroom books that are also located in the school library. As a district, we will continue to support our classroom teachers as they work daily to educate the students of our district.”
In the video, Rawls explains that she chose to come in and work on cataloging her books because at the beginning of the school year her students are taking assessment tests and when they finish they ask to read. If she hasn’t completed the inventory, she cannot permit the students to read the books in the classroom. With a new retention law that is also now in effect, Rawls wants her students to have unfettered access to the books in the classroom so they can practice reading.
The President of the Tennessee Education Association (TEA) says the new law shows a “lack of trust” in public school teachers and that the extra workload is a contributing factor to the state’s teacher shortage.
“This process is really unnecessary,” TEA President Tanya Coats said. “We are professionals in our classrooms, and we know what’s best for our students. We wouldn’t put anything in front of them that would be inappropriate or know it would be harmful to students.”
Parents disagree with that assessment. Some of the books available in school libraries could potentially be rated R or NC17 if they were movies.
However, conservative parents are not unsympathetic to the increased burden placed on Tennessee teachers. At least two chapters of Moms for Liberty in the state are rallying volunteers to help teachers catalog books.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
14 Responses
You must have missed the bill that DID pass and was signed into law that did remove the obstacle to having Tennessee’s obscenity law now apply to ALL books in the school library.
Of course, conservatives don’t care about public educators. They wanna take away our unions, and pay us even less, while insulting our intelligence. You’ll defend cops who let 19 small children get murdered while berating teachers who wanna expose children to a wide array of thinking. This whole post is a celebration of extra unpaid work, and heavy burden placed on teachers by a bunch of uneducated morons who couldn’t pass an English 1010 class of their life depended on it.
You need to reread your post. Do you realize how stupid it is. You talk about your intelligence while insulting everybody else’s intelligence. Nice. As far teachers unions go they are an extension of the demoncratic party. Of course you would say that about conservatives. I love your comment on “berating teachers who want to expose children to a wide array of thinking”. Really! Exposing children to porn and other filth. That is going to help them get a better education? The teacher whining in the video about having to work on a Saturday is really rich. So maybe she has to work one Saturday out of the whole year. Teachers get paid a years salary and don’t even work a full year. There are a lot of people out there that work every Saturday. Maybe the whole school system should concentrate on teaching children the basics like the the”r’s”. “This whole post is a celebration of extra unpaid work, and heavy burden placed on teachers by a bunch of uneducated morons who couldn’t pass an English 1010 class of their life depended on it.” This statement of yours is a real beauty. There is a whole lot more that I could say but your comments speak for your character. You are much smarter than us conservatives.
In God we trust not government or man.
Have a blessed day.
Teachers don’t get paid a yearly salary Wayne, tell me you don’t know anything about education without telling me. You have no idea what it’s like to teach, you wouldn’t last one day in a high school classroom. Teachers do unpaid work all summer! And work for hours outside doing lesson plans, grading, development, conferences, and so on. Wayne, what a way to change the subject. I’m talking about anne franks diary which was banned, why is one of the most important historical literacy books banned? Do you understand historical literacy? You conservatives are so special, you scream and shout insults and false truths about subjects that are way beyond your comprehension and than shout “oh my I just owned him and say whine whine whine” imagine someone coming into your job and telling you how to work and take away your retirement plans because they blindly follow a news source by a bunch of uneducated idiots. And you’re right, I am smarter than you when it comes to education. You explain to me historical, scientific, and mathematical literacy and how to Incorporate it to match your standards you have to teach on top of dealing with a classroom of students with various needs and than I’ll consider your opinion on teaching. It’s easy to feel the smartest in the room when you don’t even research more than two seconds.
Do you realize how stupid your comment is? Going on about sex and porn when that’s not even the topic. Why is anne franks diary banned? You don’t want kids to learn about the holocaust? Sounds like you wanna groom kids to be holocaust deniers. Not surprising since all of you think college dropouts should be experts on education, and think you know more than experts in the field of education. Tell me, how do you use historical literacy in a classroom since you’re so smart. How do you teach a disabled student? You don’t know do you? Of course, you people hate when poor people or workers have any rights. I know you’d love to break you back working over 60 hours a week for barley any pay with getting any healthcare insurance but teachers work so many hours outside of school and so much during the summer that they don’t even get paid for. Research for five mins before you blindly believe whatever someone with a microphone tells you. All of you are so special is hilarious.
Feelings get hurt? You try to justify the federal education system that is a failure. Example the teachers union in Minnesota. There are a lot of people doing the same things you describe as teachers doing without pay in their various jobs. I am sure that there are a lot of great teachers out there. You keep asking why they banned Anne Frank’s diary. Since you are smart so why don’t you ask for yourself why it is being banned from the people that banned it. You are definitely much smarter than I am.” Going on about sex and porn when that’s not even the topic”. That is your statement. “Parents disagree with that assessment. Some of the books available in school libraries could potentially be rated R or NC17 if they were movies”. That last statement is from the above article. No where in the article is it mentioned about Anne Frank’s diary.
My mistake also about teachers yearly salary. They only work ten months out of the year and make as much as most people that have to work the whole year. You assume that I don’t Know anything. Typical L*beral. You are so condescending towards all these comments on here.
The battle is not yours, But Gods. 2 Chronicles 20:15
In God we trust not government or man.
Have a blessed day.
You can’t blame the conservatives or the parents who are doing their absolute best to raise their children the best way they see fit. We can’t trust the legislatures, school boards and liberal educators who hate us and traditional American Judeo-Christian values. That way of life has worked for almost 250 years. When you step away from that, the whole country implodes like it’s doing now. And we are offering to volunteer our time to help these teachers catalog the books, a sacrifice for us too, but we actually care about what our kids are exposed to. We don’t defend bad cops either, in fact we don’t defend ANYONE who is set on destroying our children, our families, our jobs, our country our health and our beliefs, regardless of what “side” you’re on. Wrong is wrong. Right is right. Truth is truth.
Whine whine whine. If too many alleged ‘educators’ didn’t have personal agenda contrary to good order and discipline this entire matter would be moot. Inappropriate sexually explicit, morally reprehensible materials would not be in K-12 schools in the first place. LBGTQ agenda is totally inappropriate in elementary and high schools.
If they would of not had these Garbage Books in schools in the first place they would not playing the blame game now!!
Oh
Boo
Hoo
It is not a PUBLIC EMPLOYEES job to indoctrinate children period
If you consider yourself that superior and worldly
MOVE TO A STATE THAT IS WOKE & BROKE
Love your comment. Spot on. I wrote a reply to Mr. Clark but my comment is under moderation right now. So I don’t know if will be published.
In God we trust not government or man.
Have a blessed day.
So why is anne franks book banned? Scared for children to learn about the horrors of the holocaust? Sounds sus to me.
Most l*berals say the Hol*caust never existed. The bigger issue is that they also banned the Bible. God’s true word for humankind. No wonder the education system is failing generations of children. Morals and ethics are nonexistent in the education system.
In God we tryst not government or man.
Have a blessed day.
The teacher’s “whining” about the extra work need to get a grip! Once it’s done…it doesn’t have to be done again except when adding books. It’s not like she had to do this everyday. Teachers are leaving the profession because teaching isn’t about what’s best for the students anymore. Dumbed down curriculums and not focusing on education in.