"[P]rogressive pedagogies... did not begin in the pandemic or after the murder of George Floyd, but those events accelerated enthusiasm for their adoption...."

"For more than a year, much of this curricular ferment has taken place online and therefore in families’ homes — hypervisible to parents who have new portals into their children’s classrooms. In addition, people are as likely to view these issues through the lens of the national news media as through their immediate circumstances: Viral clips of teachers behaving badly or of school board fights in distant states can seem to foreshadow what’s in the pipeline for their own communities or what might already be underway. Conservatives have skillfully harnessed unease.... Democrats do themselves no favors by ignoring concerns about a changed educational environment, or dismissing those who raise questions as entitled whiners (who 'just want their babysitters back') or ignorant bullies (for not understanding that critical race theory is only taught in universities). Notably, schools were closed for the longest periods, and have reopened in the least-recognizable versions of their former selves, in blue areas. These areas are also where newly progressive pedagogies have had the most traction. Public school has transformed in the past 18 months, and denying this is a surefire way to alienate voters — and undermine one of the most important institutions in many Americans’ lives ."

From "School culture wars stirred up voters for a reason: Classrooms really did change" by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela. (WaPo). Petrzela, a history professor, wrote the book "Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture."