Public schools are ground zero in the battle over American civic life. Teaching history is under attack, book banning is on the rise, and leaders in red states are legislating homophobia in the guise of protecting children. Historian Natalia Petrzela locates the roots of such political backlash in cultural upheavals of the 1960s that continue to play out today, amid a climate of discontent mixed up with pandemic anxieties. With kids heading back to school this month, we revisit our recent education episode.