Steve Irvin-ABC15

Germany, 1933...

A genocidal dictator rises to power through a democratic election, riding a wave of national pride amidst dire economic conditions, including soaring inflation.

He held big rallies filled with patriotic symbols, blaming outsiders for the ruination of the country. He promised to put Germany first, and restore the country's former greatness.

Within weeks of taking power, he ended the nation's multi-party democratic system, and shut down the free press. An army controlled by his far right party smashed printing presses and offices controlled by voices of dissent and opposition. He demanded unwavering loyalty, and installed sycophants at every level of government.

He even controlled schools, issuing dictates over what could and could not be taught -- to indoctrinate children into the party's far right ideology.

We know what happened next. Six years later, he invaded Poland, laid waste to much of Europe and sent 11 million people to their deaths.

Thank goodness we've learned the lessons of history.

Nearly 90 years later, we value our civil liberties and our democratic process more than anything else. We would never allow our patriotism to blind us. We would never give way to our tribal instincts by ceding our freedoms and our power for the promise of economic prosperity. We would never allow our citizens to be attacked in their own homes, or places of worship... for simply disagreeing with those who seek to entrench their own power.

We would never let that happen, right? We can see the warning signs, and unite behind a greater good. We can and we must use our voices and our power to ensure the darkest chapters of history are never repeated.

A child shows up for the first week of class in the fifth grade. The teacher soon notices, something isn't right.

For most of the day, tackling reading, writing, and science, the child seems engaged. Then, it's time for math, and suddenly the kid checks out. They're distracted and disinterested, as if they have already given up.

The teacher asks every kid to write a paragraph, answering how they feel about math. Do they know why it's important and how it will help them later in life? Do they enjoy it?

The same child writes, "I just can't do it. I'm no good at it." The teacher drills deeper, and soon learns the student was teased and ridiculed last year because they did poorly in math.

The teacher contacts the child's parents, who have also noticed the change. They begin a dialogue with the child, and with each other. They spend extra time, encouraging the student and celebrating the smallest steps forward.

Over time, the child's confidence builds, and their grades get better. By the end of the year, the child is acing math tests, and eager to learn new things.

This is an imaginary story, but every teacher reading this can weave a similar tale. It is the very reason teachers teach. The most rewarding experiences are the moments when a child discovers their own capabilities -- when the lightbulb suddenly comes on.

As it turns out, there has been a great deal of research into what psychologist and author Carol Dweck calls "Mindset." In a book by the same name, she cites decades of research into a "growth" mindset and a "fixed" mindset.

Those with a growth mindset relish the challenge of learning new things. They aren't afraid of failing, and aren't discouraged when they struggle to grasp new concepts.

Those with a fixed mindset frame their life by their perceived limitations. They believe they can't do it, and they avoid the disappointment of failure by barely attempting success, giving up at the slightest setback.

Dweck argues, finding the right mindset is critical to the learning process. It makes sense. Any one of us remembers a teacher who motivated us, challenged us, and taught us to believe in our own potential.

Educators have incorporated the research into their teaching methods. It even has a name: Social Emotional Learning. A child who is encouraged and supported by their school, their parents, and their peers will do better. It's not enough to simply present the subject matter; children cannot begin to learn if they've pre-determined their own failure.

But that's not how the governor and the legislature in Florida see it. For them, SEL is the new CRT.

When the Florida Department of Education banned more than 50 math textbooks, citing "prohibited topics," social emotional learning was clearly in the crosshairs.

The New York Times obtained 21 of the banned books, finding little, if any, mention of race, let alone a complex racial construct like CRT. Most of the books did incorporate SEL methods, encouraging students to cooperate and help each other.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis echoed the familiar "F*&% Your Feelings" t-shirt. “Math is about getting the right answer.... It’s not about how you feel about the problem.”

In reality, the school privatization industry has been working to demonize SEL, by suggesting it's part of some massive conspiracy to indoctrinate our children into radical ideologies (for reasons they never quite fully explain.)

The Koch brothers-funded Manhattan Institute has been busy churning out reams of supposition. "In practice, SEL serves as a delivery mechanism for radical pedagogies such as critical race theory and gender deconstructionism.,” Senior Fellow Chris Rufo told the Times.

Wait what? Getting kids to believe in themselves is a radical pedagogy? That's some serious tin-foil-hat thinking, and it's hardly the first time they've ginned up some imaginary evil plot to justify transferring more public education dollars into private hands.

It should be noted that Florida's wholesale book banning this week narrowed the list of available regular math textbooks to exactly one publisher: Accelerated Learning of Houston, Texas, a company formerly headed by fellow Republican governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia.

But it's not about steering millions of dollars in government contracts to your political allies. Really, it's not. It's about "protecting" kids.

Common sense tells us, this is a load of crap.

Teaching kids to believe in themselves, and develop a mindset for learning, is not some new "woke" concept. It's something educators have always done, long before it had a name. Every one of us has had a teacher who changed our lives -- not by what they teach, but how they inspired us to learn.

It's Friday.... time for a stress-relieving dog photo.