We shouldn’t be trying to punish public school teachers who express pro-Palestinian views

Do you want children to learn how to think?

Of course, you do. I bet you like rainbows and puppies, too. Every reasonable person says that future citizens in a democracy should develop the skill to reason on their own.

But we don’t really believe it. In our heart of hearts, we want kids to echo what we believe. And we’re wary of letting them think for themselves.

Consider what has happened in our public schools during the war in Gaza. Across the country, teachers have been penalized or silenced for making statements supporting Palestinians and denouncing Israel. If we truly embraced critical thinking, we’d let students evaluate these ideas. We’re afraid to do that, so we muzzle their teachers.

But some of the targeted teachers don’t seem to want critical thinking, either. Instead, they want to impose their views on their students. That’s called indoctrination, and — like censorship — it’s anathema to democratic education.

Teachers should be able to speak their minds about Gaza, but if you think they’re free to do so, you simply haven’t been listening.

A Florida teacher was placed on leave for sending a letter to school officials asking them to “publicly recognize the Palestinian community” after they sent out a message condemning antisemitism.

A teacher in Richmond, Va., was removed from her classroom for telling students Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza and that the United States was complicit in genocide.

And in Maryland, three teachers were suspended for openly backing the Palestinian cause. One of them had used “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” on her email signature; another wore shirts bearing slogans like “Free Palestine” and “Free Gaza.”

Just as concerning, if less visible, has been the stifling of teachers who have expressed support for Israel. In Loudoun, Va., officials ordered a teacher to take down a blended Israeli-American flag because district employees are prohibited from making “statements that further a political cause” during school hours.

But in the lawsuit against their district, the suspended Maryland teachers noted that instructors had previously worn clothing supporting Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ rights. Nobody raised a fuss about that. Clearly, the teachers were being singled out for their views about Israel and Palestine.

I understand that some people interpret “From the river to the sea” as a plea to eliminate Israel, or even to eliminate Jews. I’m Jewish, and I sometimes hear it the same way.

To the suspended Maryland teachers, however, it was an “aspirational call for to freedom and dignity for the Palestinian people.” If we valued critical thinking in our schools, we wouldn’t prevent the teachers from expressing that perspective. Instead, we’d encourage them to present it alongside other ones so students could decide what they think.

Here in Philadelphia, the school district finds itself facing accusations of antisemitism, too. A group of Jewish parents have filed a federal complaint about the climate in schools across the city and is calling for the creation of “a safe place for Jewish and Muslim students” and other remedies.

A new organization called Philly Educators for Palestine has rightly denounced the censorship of teachers and demanded a “respectful, healthy dialogue around the history of Israel and Palestine.” It has also called on the district to condemn “the ongoing genocide waged on the Palestinian people.”

Teachers should be able to speak their minds about Gaza.

I have argued that Israel’s behavior in Gaza might be morally objectionable for many reasons, but it shouldn’t be called genocide. So if teachers in Philly Educators for Palestine truly wished to foster a “respectful, healthy dialogue” around the issue, they’d have to expose students to views like my own.

And they’d also have to allow the students to conclude that I’m right and they’re wrong. A dialogue with a single correct outcome isn’t respectful or healthy. It’s propaganda.

To her credit, the Richmond teacher who charged Israel with war crimes urged her students to challenge her. “If you think that everything I’m saying is a lie, and I’m giving you propaganda, come prove me wrong,” she told them. “Go for it. I have no problems with that.”

But would she have a problem if her students decided that Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas was justified and that the bombing of Gaza should continue until Hamas is destroyed?

That’s the big question and everything — I mean, everything — rests on the answer. Again, teachers must have the right to condemn Israel in whatever way they choose. But they have no right — none — to recruit students to their side.

You can’t have a democracy if our educators are looking over their shoulders, wondering if the next thing they say will get them fired. But you also can’t have a democracy if teachers are manipulating their students’ thoughts, all in the name of critical thinking.

Right now, more than ever before, we need adults of every mind to let our children make up their own minds — about Gaza, and everything else.