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Oprah Winfrey said her fourth-grade teacher created a spark for learning and is why she had a talk show. Lin Manuel-Miranda said arts education saved his life and cited his sixth-grade music teacher. John Legend said his English teacher pushed him to apply for a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, which led to his becoming a successful songwriter.

Teachers have long played an important role in civil society. They shape, inspire, and change students lives. More broadly, Americas educated workforce separates it from other countries, leads to innovation, and fuels the economy. But as students head back to school, many districts cant find enough teachers to fill the classrooms.

School districts have fought for several years to find teachers, but the crisis worsened this year. Many cite stress from the pandemic, teacher burnout, low pay, and a decrease in college students entering the field. The Republican-led culture wars over what can be taught in classrooms not to mention the persistent threat of school shootings are other factors contributing to the exodus.

More troubling, the teacher shortage impacts poor urban and rural school districts the most. Further exacerbating the crisis is the lack of diversity among teachers.

A diverse teaching force benefits all students. It is more reflective of the real world, and makes white students and teachers more aware of cultural differences. Research also shows that Black students who have at least one teacher of color during their academic careers are more likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college.

The Biden administration is providing $65 million through the U.S. Department of Education to support evidence-based practices to increase the number of teachers.

Other states, including Texas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, have moved to a four-day school week as a way to attract more teachers, though the educational benefits appear mixed. Not all approaches are equally successful: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose states own culture skirmishes are driving teachers to quit in droves, added to the problem by allowing veterans without college degrees to teach. The teachers union there rightly said hiring unqualified teachers is a bad idea.

Heres a better solution: Pay teachers more for the important work they do. New Mexico recently increased teacher salaries by 20%. Teachers in Mississippi received an average salary increase of $5,100. In Georgia, lawmakers awarded teachers a $2,000 bonus as a way to increase retention.

The American Federation of Teachers has suggested other steps to recruit and retain quality teachers, including decreasing class size, ensuring school safety, and creating a culture where parents are more respectful of educators.

Given their impact, teachers deserve at least that much.

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Want more teachers? Pay them better - Alton Telegraph

Theres a line in The Summer Book by Tove Jansson where the narrator describes the fragility of moss. Residents of the tiny Finnish island where the novel is set are careful to avoid treading on the plant, and it is only farmers and summer guests who walk on it.

This is because (and it cannot be repeated too often) moss is terribly frail. Step on it once and it rises the next time it rains. The second time, it doesnt rise back up. And the third time you step on moss, it dies.

This kind of deep respect for nature is characteristic of Janssons writing, from the Moomin books, which focus on a family of trolls who live in harmony with their surroundings, to The Summer Book and the nine other novels and short-story collections she wrote for adults.

The Summer Book, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, now has a sizeable British fanbase, largely thanks to the independent press Sort Of Books reissuing the title in 2003. Its not hard to see why it is so loved: the novel is, as the author Ali Smith wrote at the time of its reissue, a masterpiece of microcosm, a perfection of the small, quiet read.

It also feels, as we navigate the climate crisis and generational culture wars, highly relevant. The slim volume tells the story of a grandmother and granddaughter exploring, arguing and playing together during a summer on the island. As Smith puts it: It would be easy to be sentimental here. Jansson never is. Instead, she uses this intergenerational relationship to highlight the importance of respect: for one another, for differing opinions and for the planet. Its a notably open-minded book, which is perhaps reflective of the open-minded life that Jansson and her family lived.

Sophia Jansson, the late authors niece and the inspiration for the granddaughter character in the novel, tells me over Zoom that she never realised her family wasnt normal growing up (whatever normal is). The Janssons were adventurers, discovering the uninhabited islands on which they would go on to spend every summer and campaigning in Sweden for girls to be allowed to camp outdoors. Following the death of her mother when she was six, Sophias core family was made up of her father, her grandmother, her aunt Tove, and Toves partner, the artist Tuulikki Pietil.

In The Summer Book, a friend from the mainland, nicknamed Berenice, comes to visit the fictional Sophia. Berenice, described as too well bred and terribly quiet, is scared to join in with grandmother and Sophias usual adventures, and quickly goes from being the object of Sophias admiration to a frustrating burden.

Toves poking fun, in a sense, at what people might think is normality, Sophia says now. The island, for the characters and the real-life family, was a place to create a new kind of normality, away from the conventions of the mainland. This was particularly true for Tove herself, who could live freely as an artist and a queer person on the island.

Within the family, Sophia says, there was just an unexplained but self-evident tolerance for whomever. As a child, she was never explicitly told about the nature of Tove and Tuulikkis relationship homosexuality would still have been classified as an illness in Finland at the time but she could see that they loved one another, and that the other members of her family accepted them.

Sophia has no understanding for people who have these very harsh opinions about who they choose to live with. This echoes the sentiment of The Summer Books grandmother, who, after an argument with her grandchild about the existence of the devil, firmly tells her young relative: You can believe what you like, but you must learn to be tolerant.

When Sophia steps on moss now, she still thinks of The Summer Books warning, telling herself OK, you can step on it once, maybe even twice, but the third time is really bad. This attitude of care and preservation is at the heart of The Summer Book: it proposes that every plant, every insect and, indeed, every person has a right to exist and to be looked after. And, 50 years on, that message is more vital than ever.

The 50th anniversary edition of The Summer Book, which includes an afterword by Sophia Jansson, is published by Sort Of Books (9.99). Sophia will be talking about the book in a virtual event at 7pm on 1 September hosted by Bookshop.org.

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A masterpiece: why Tove Janssons The Summer Book is as relevant as ever at 50 - The Guardian

It's tough for Republicans to win elections and enact their policies in this largely Democratic state except on suburban and rural school boards

New to podcasts? Here's how to listen.

California is a deep-blue state, with slim hope for conservatives to win statewide office or hold majorities in the Legislature.

Among the few places Republicans can win elections and change policies in California are suburban and rural school boards.

On this episode of the Fifth & Mission podcast, reporter Ryan Kost talks to host Demian Bulwa about the efforts of conservatives to push issues that energize their voters, such as loosening COVID rules, banning discussion of systemic racism and questioning LGBTQ rights on California campuses.

Photo above: Students demonstrate against a proposed ban on the academic concept of critical race theory at a meeting of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School Board in Orange County on March 3.

More Fifth & Mission podcast

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Listen: How conservatives are fighting the culture wars in California - San Francisco Chronicle

Two incumbents on the Mountain Brook City Council, including President Billy Pritchard, defeated their challengers Tuesday in races focused on the education culture wars that have gripped the affluent Birmingham suburb for nearly two years.

Pritchard defeated challenger Kent Osband, who was running on a platform of keeping the culture war from consuming Mountain Brook, 71 percent to 29 percent, according to unofficial results tallied by the city.

Osband said he was inspired to run for the Place 2 seat when Mountain Brook Schools cut ties with the Anti-Defamation Leagues anti-bias curriculum over what a group of parents claimed was ties to critical race theory.

Osband said the ADLs program, which came to Mountain Brook amid an anti-Semitic incident at Mountain Brook High School in 2020, was highly partisan ... under the guise of hating hate.

As I abhor both anti-Semitism and mind-numbing indoctrination, wherever it comes from, I investigated both sides and chose to publicly defend [Mountain Brook Schools] in an opinion piece in Southern Jewish Life. However, we need to do much more to keep the culture war from consuming Mountain Brook, Osband told Village Life. On the one hand, lets push harder for higher standards at MBS in both academics and behavior and insist that students meet them. On the other hand, lets extend our hard-won culture of tolerance and respect for religious differences to include political differences, too.

Pritchard, whose council duties included being a liaison to the Mountain Brooks Board of Education, did not list the issue as a top priority

Councilor Lloyd Shelton withstood a challenge from Tate Davis in Place 3, 67 percent to 33 percent.

Shelton, the chairman of the councils Finance Committee, viewed taxes and infrastructure as the major issues facing Mountain Brook.

Davis, who is in the construction and real estate industry, it is the utmost importance that the most qualified and skilled individuals sit on our Board of Education.

The council appoints members to the board.

In an open seat to replace the retiring Alice Womack in Place 1, Graham Smith, a former legislative director to Sen. Richard Shelby and member of the Mountain Brook Planning Commission, defeated sales manager Christopher Powanda, 73 percent to 27 percent.

In that race, Powanda campaigned on keeping all political groups and politically motivated curriculum out of our schools while Smith focused on infrastructure improvements and city services.

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Mountain Brook council incumbents win in election focused on education culture war - AL.com

Hours after passing controversial book policies, top elected leaders in Keller, Grapevine-Colleyville ISDs take our questions in their first interviews

KELLER, Texas The frontlines of the culture wars are being fought in North Texas school boards. It's been that way for a while at this point.

But, just this week, it came to a head as the neighboring independent school districts of Keller and Grapevine-Colleyville each hosted contentious Monday night meetings to determine what children are being taught in their schools.

In Keller, the debate mostly centered around books -- the culmination of a battle started earlier in the month when it was announced that the district had yanked 41 books off of its library's shelves, including the Bible and "Anne Franks Diary: The Graphic Adaptation," for further review after their presences were challenged by parents. More than 45 people showed up to Monday night's Keller Independent School District meeting to speak on both sides of the matter, with the board eventually voting 4-2 in favor of instituting a broad and conservative new content policy about what books can and cannot exist in their schools' library collections.

Around the same time and just a few miles to the east, the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District hosted almost 200 public speakers -- into a room that only seats 55 -- who showed up to share their thoughts onthat board's far more expansive plans surrounding what is and isn't acceptable in their schools. Six hours after the board's meeting began that night, its members eventually voted 4-3 in favor of instituting a new 36-page policy that, among other things, a) bans the teaching of critical race theory, b) implements a strict review process for library books, c) actively works not to promote, require or encourage the use of pronouns that are not aligned with the gender people are assigned at birth, and d) require people to use the bathrooms designated for the genders they were assigned at birth.

Heading into this week's meetings in both districts, it was clear that parties on each side of these school-focused issues were gearing up for a fight.

On an episode of our Y'allitics podcast released on Sunday, State Representative Matt Krause -- the state lawmaker who started his own book inquiry last fall when he asked schools across the state if they had some 850 titles on their campuses -- said he doesnt view the issue of book-banning as subjective censorship, but rather as finding the right balance for our kids.

It's always a good idea to ensure that the books that are in the library's bookshelves in your schools are appropriate, age-appropriate, the Fort Worth Republican said on Yall-itics. "What's appropriate in a Keller ISD high school may not be appropriate in a Keller ISD middle school. So, I think you always have those conversations. I think they're constructive.

Keller ISD mom Laney Hawes, meanwhile, told Y'allitics she saw things much differently. With four kids in the district, Hawes argues that major decisions affecting the lives of thousands are being made by less than a handful of people.

Its dangerous for a number of reasons because it sets a precedent that the values and the opinions of the current school board are going to dictate every bit of access the kids in our school district have -- and that's scary, she told the Jasons on Sunday's episode of Yall-itics. "We have so many different kids in our district, different races, different backgrounds, different family histories, different stories, different everything. And these kids need to see themselves represented in literature."

In the wake of Monday night's meetings, however, it appears Krause's camp has come out victorious -- their efforts spurred on by recently elected board members whose campaigns were backed by a conservative, Christian PAC.

Which is how we ended up this week with twoY'all-itics episodes, including a new one that dropped on Tuesday evening. After speaking with vocal proponents on each side of the debate, the Jasons on Tuesday hosted the people who actually voted on approving these motions on Monday. In this second straight episode on this contentious issue, the podcast was joined by Shannon Braun, GCISD Board Vice President, and Dr. Charles Randklev, Keller ISD Board President, to learn more about how their boards came to their decisions.

Perhaps most notably, Y'all-itics wanted answers as to how this process moved more quickly, how there wasn't more debate involved in a matter where 200 people show up to a school board meeting on a Monday night to talk out the merits on both sides of the issue.

"What we just passed was the law," Braun said in Tuesday's special episode of Y'all-itics. "It's already the law. Anybody who just voted against that, just voted against the law -- thats actually the problem... because were not following it, thats why. When you have teachers that decide... youve got people that teach what they want to teach, do what they want to do, promote what they want to promote."

And, to hear Braun tell it, that's not OK. There's a reason, she said, governing bodies over educational systems exist -- and, in her first on-record interview ever, she argue that it's the role of boards like hers to enforce those notions.

Dr. Randklev argued a similar point when asked about the fact that parents in Keller could already choose to opt out of reading material that they deemed inappropriate for their children.

"What do you do when you have a student in a classroom or a student that goes to a library?" Dr. Randklev asked Y'all-itics. "How are they going to opt out?"

Now, even with Keller's new policy creating a path for some removed books to eventually make their way back on to school library shelves, those are questions KISD and GCISD will no longer ask.

Not for the time being anyway.

But the fight, all parties concede, will continue raging on.

"Its a battle," Braun said. "This is a war for ideas right now.

What Braun brushed off in her first-ever on-record interview, however, was that there's any support from outside influences on either side of the debate, outright denying that any conservative groups helped draft GCISD's wide-ranging new policies.

As for Hawes? She doesn't buy that. Instead, she said she and other parents know full well theyre facing a David vs. Goliath situation. Their ultimate goal in this back-and-forth? Making school board meetings boring again.

This is something a lot of us parents -- and there are a group of us that is growing, growing even more over the last few weeks -- that have been talking about this, Hawes said. One of our big concerns is that we don't have millions of dollars. We don't have a giant PAC behind us. We also don't have the powerful motivator that fear is, right? Thats part of why this was so successful -- it was so fear based.

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The culture war is being fought in school board meetings and North Texas is the frontline - WFAA.com