Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com  

In the fall of 1975, I was a freshman at Central College in Pella, Iowa. I had spent the summer detasseling corn, so college rescued me from dew-drenched mornings and sweat-dripping afternoons.

I graduated from high school with twelve other students. I wasn’t the valedictorian or even salutatorian, but I was in the top ten. With that academic record, graduation from college was the goal, but it certainly wasn’t a given.

Like all freshmen, I first had to conquer general education requirements. One of those was a religion class. I attended Sunday school and church my whole life, so I registered for New Testament.

The first day, Dr. Eugene Heideman began by saying, “Welcome to New Testament class. If you think this is Sunday school, please drop this class now.”

He was telling the truth.

No one would accuse Dr. Heideman of being a wild liberal. He was a gifted scholar, and an ordained minister in the Reform church. He taught in-depth New Testament history and didn’t shy away from the controversial parts a pulpit minister wouldn’t dare touch in a 20-minute sermon.

He challenged us and made us uncomfortable. His goal wasn’t to indoctrinate. His goal was to force us to think critically. Like all gifted professors, he knew wrestling with assumptions would exercise critical thinking muscles, which would otherwise go unused.  

That’s what college is about.

This happened 50 years ago in conservative Pella, never once mistaken for Iowa City. Yet, every professor I encountered had critical thinking, and open discussion as core teaching values. The only worry about “woke” was being awake enough to attend 8:00 classes.

But that was then. This is now.

For the last few legislative sessions, Governor Kim Reynolds and her MAGA minions pushed to have a one-size fits all K-12 public school curriculum based on their brand of political ideology. Now, with House Study Bill 63, they’ve broadened their meddling to include state universities. 

The pretend professors under the Golden Dome think they know best. They don’t. Here’s what the bill would have the Iowa Board of Regents do:

The board shall adopt a policy to ensure that courses that satisfy the general education requirements established pursuant to section 262C.2 do not distort significant historical events or include identity politics or is based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, or privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States of America or the state of Iowa. The policy shall not limit the academic freedom of any course instructor to direct the instruction within the instructor’s course or limit the free discussion of ideas in a classroom setting.

Once beyond my freshman year, I double majored in English and history. Both academic areas require critical thinking and interpretation. 

This bill will choke academic freedom and substitute a narrow ideology designed to whitewash difficult and necessary conversations, while limiting critical analysis. Without freedom to openly discuss real issues like racism, sexism, and privilege, humanities courses will cheat university students.

This bill is full of what George Orwell calls “doublespeak” in his novel 1984. The first sentence has a menu of limits to academic freedom and then the last sentence contradicts the first by guaranteeing unlimited academic freedom.

Without talking about systemic racism, how could a history professor explain the forced displacement of native Americans by the Trail of Tears? Could slavery be discussed? How does a professor discuss the women’s suffrage movement without mentioning sexism?

How would an English professor explain the major themes in To Kill a Mockingbird without talking about institutional racism? Without talking about privilege and oppression in the meatpacking industry, how could a college class discuss Upton Sinclair’s 1906 Jungle?

There’s a reason it’s called liberal arts. The purpose of college is to broaden knowledge and enhance critical thinking. This bill would undermine those goals.