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Public Schools, Protection, and the 1980S-1990S Culture Wars in Whatcom County, Washington

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Public Schools, Protection, and the 1980S-1990S Culture Wars in Whatcom County, Washington Western Washington University Western CEDAR WWU Graduate School Collection WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship Spring 2020 Rationalizations Within Neoliberalism: Public Schools, Protection, and the 1980s-1990s Culture Wars in Whatcom County, Washington Vaughan Shubert Western Washington University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Shubert, Vaughan, "Rationalizations Within Neoliberalism: Public Schools, Protection, and the 1980s-1990s Culture Wars in Whatcom County, Washington" (2020). WWU Graduate School Collection. 929. https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet/929 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in WWU Graduate School Collection by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Rationalizations Within Neoliberalism: Public schools, Protection, and the 1980s-1990s Culture Wars in Whatcom County, Washington By Vaughan Shubert Accepted in Partial Completion of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts ADVISORY COMMITTEE Chair, Dr. Josh Cerretti Dr. Johann Neem Dr. Michael Shulze-Oectering GRADUATE SCHOOL David L. Patrick, Interim Dean Master’s Thesis In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master’s degree at Western Washington University, I grant to Western Washington University the non-exclusive royalty-free right to archive, reproduce, distribute, and display the thesis in any and all forms, including electronic format, via any digital library mechanisms maintained by WWU. I represent and warrant this is my original work, and does not infringe or violate any rights of others. I warrant that I have obtained written permissions from the owner of any third party copyrighted material included in these files. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of this work, including but not limited to the right to use all or part of this work in future works, such as articles or books. Library users are granted permission for individual, research and non-commercial reproduction of this work for educational purposes only. Any further digital posting of this document requires specific permission from the author. Any copying or publication of this thesis for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, is not allowed without my written permission. Vaughan Shubert March 2020 Rationalizations Within Neoliberalism: Public Schools, Protection, and the 1980s-1990s Culture Wars in Whatcom County, Washington A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Western Washington University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Vaughan Shubert March 2020 Abstract This masters thesis is a case study of neoliberalism within Whatcom County, Washington during the 1980s and 1990s culture wars. I explore the interrelationship of State laws, rhetoric, economic policies, and local public discourse as a way to take seriously the ideological and emotional experiences of community members during the culture wars. Through examining public discourse, I focus on the ways in which people expressed their thoughts and feelings, and how these informed, legitimized, denaturalized, and destabilized established hegemonic practices and beliefs, as well as informed new rationalities, practices, and moralisms. As sites where social reality is created, I focus on new forms of education within public schools (removal of Christmas from public schools, KNOW:HIV/AIDS curriculum, the DARE program) enacted by State laws, policies, and local policies. These new forms of education acculturated students in values, morals, goals, and desirable behaviors in line with economic theories that saw forms of education as investment in human capital. The implementation of new forms of education placed increased demands and responsibilities onto families, teachers, and school officials to assume personal responsibility in addressing mounting systemic social and economic ills. Cultural tensions emerged in response to fundamental changes in the acculturation of students, and the ways in which public schools were to be used and operated by the State. iv Acknowledgements I pursued this study to better understand forms of power and the ways in which those forms legitimize and justify common sense realities which confine, exploit, and dominate. I wanted to modestly investigate how State power works in constructing our social realities that in my youth I could only sum up as, ‘Fuck the Government.’ Without my experiences as the child of a passionate public-school teacher and a justice- oriented police officer, this study would not be possible. I am grateful for the guidance and support of professors in the History Department at Western Washington University. Thesis Chair Dr. Josh Cerretti showed me what it meant to be an unassuming educator, how to hold students accountable in ways that took seriously positionality. Thesis committee member Dr. Johann Neem’s introduced me to foundational culture war texts that helped enter this thesis into the historical conversation. He and Dr. Sarah Zimmerman taught me how to read, and re-read, like a historian. In Historical Theory and Method Dr. Zimmerman made space for humor amidst the weighted concept. Dr. Hunter Price’s lectures exampled the art of historical narrative while I was his T.A., his writing methodologies resonated and helped me become a better writer. And Dr. Ricardo López-Pedreros — without his passion, expertise, and support this work would not be what it is. Within a variety of Dr. López-Pedrero’s courses (as both his student and T.A.) the walls were full of writing and my brain hurt from all the specificities, but the frameworks for understanding he provided to students (both undergrad-and-graduate), were revolutionary and critical, and for that I am grateful. And a special thanks to my cohorts, Jessey Roy, Michelle Shannon, Otto Schmidt, Emily Lampert, and Maria Parisot who pushed me to see, analyze, and understand in new ways. The friendship and kindness of Jessey, work ethic and humor of Michelle, struggle and growth with Otto, passion and care of Emily, and thoroughness of Maria’s thoughts influenced me greatly during this period. As I learned from Dr. Rand Jimerson, this research would not be possible without the archivists from the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies and the Northwest Regional Branch of the Washington State Archives, specifically Alison Costanza and Ruthe Steele. Their efforts in helping me locate the materials needed for my research, as well as maintaining and working with materials necessary for future scholarly research, is significantly appreciated and valued. I would also like to acknowledge that I’m not from this region, Whatcom County, or the Lummi Nation, Nooksack Nation, Coast Salish peoples. There exist unique, multifaceted, and complex histories here far beyond the scope of this study and my understandings. Yet, I am grateful for the opportunity to exist in this place and find community here, because the people within my study cared, a lot. They cared about the safety and well-being of children, what is just and right and by that, I’m inspired. v Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………….…….…iv Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………….…...v Introduction……………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 1 Christmas, an Idea: Laws, Losses, and Cultural Capital……………...……17 Chapter 2 Morals, HIV/AIDS, and the Kids as Capital……………………………….43 Chapter 3 DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) – The Neoliberal Trojan Horse. …………………………………………………71 Conclusion…………………………………………………….………………………101 Works Cited……………….…………………………………….………………….…111 vi Introduction The Bellingham Herald featured the article, “Brave New World,” graduating class of 1988, six photos of smiling students who were said to want, “more than anything else [,] to be free of fear,” and “the terrors of the unknown”1: “stability in their lives and careers,” “the bomb, disintegration of the earth’s protective ozone layer and, most fearsome of all, AIDS.”2 This local news story grappled with issues of economics, State power, a lethal epidemic, and centered the significance of student’s feelings. Changes were occurring in laws, economic policies, and discourses, yet those changes meant nothing without the people they affected. And in the northernmost county of Washington during the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s, fear had nestled firmly in the hearts and minds of students, families, and community members. The period of the culture wars has been dubbed a war of ideas, “a war of moral visions,”3 “a war for the soul of America.”4 At the core, new American laws and policies had emerged, and within, ideas about inclusivity, morality, and the economy were refashioned and repurposed. State laws and local policies fashioned in the second half of the twentieth century provided new forms of education, frameworks, and rationalities. Refashioned forms of understanding would inform the way in which social reality, and culture, would be produced through the site of public education. The impact of these tectonic shifts in American laws and policies would be felt, and responded to, by students, families, teachers, school officials, and community members. People with ideas, moral visions, and beliefs about the future, safety, and well-being of their children, affected by laws and policies, conveyed their
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