A national survey has found some public schoolteachers are more reluctant to discuss hot-button topics in class amid restrictions in a number of states on teaching about racism, sexism and other oft-debated fare. The Rand Corporation survey of about 2,400 K-12 teachers across the country found one in four teachers were told by school or district officials to limit classroom conversations on political and social issues.

While activists and academics may tsk-tsk the findings — most parents are likely to cheer.

Parents know there’s much their children must learn to prepare for life and a career, and there’s all too short a period in which to learn it. There will be time enough later in their kids’ lives for the distractions of our hyper-politicized culture. For kids who can’t wait, they can find it all around them after school — on the web, cable TV and the talk-radio dial. Parents permitting, of course.

That’s not to say there shouldn’t be an opportunity for older teens in a high school social studies course to be taught about heated public policy debates over the likes of gender dysphoria, systemic racism or abortion. So long as they are presented in balanced fashion and don’t eclipse the rest of the class syllabus, there’s a place for it.

But those topics have no place in most school subjects at most grade levels. They are a waste of precious time needed to cover the core skills and knowledge that students will need for college, careers and beyond. It’s not just the proverbial “three Rs” but also music and the fine arts; sports and fitness; economics and finance — the list goes on.

Which is why parents can’t be blamed for welcoming some reluctance among teachers to court controversy. It’s divisive; parents on one side or the other of political and social issues are bound to be dissatisfied with how they are taught. And school teachers have more important things to attend to.

Meanwhile, news coverage of the Rand survey also reveals some responses that strained credulity. Education news service Chalkbeat Colorado, for instance, noted how some teachers, “reported cutting short conversations with students about slavery and the genocide of Native Americans because of new state restrictions.” Has there been any high school U.S. history text in decades that hasn’t covered slavery or the sad saga of American Indians? Really.

Chalkbeat also reported that some teachers complained how, “Sometimes parents put pressure on school leaders that filtered down to classrooms.”

“I have had parents come in and say, ‘If this is what you’re going to teach, my student doesn’t need to know about this,’” one survey respondent said when interviewed by a Rand researcher. “The teacher recalled the principal’s response was: ‘I don’t really think this is a good topic.’”

But isn’t that how public education is supposed to work — with teachers and principals being responsive to parents’ concerns? Especially when the classroom content in question likely didn’t belong in the curriculum in the first place?

Alongside all of that, it’s also worth remembering the glass in this case is well over half full even by the lights of the survey. Three in four teachers didn’t report feeling any restraint in the wake of the new policies in some states. Which means the restrictions either aren’t having much of an impact — or the majority of teachers are doing their job and sticking to the subject. It is school, after all, and not talk radio.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board

Less class time for controversy — just as well