Overview:
Thomas Courtney, Teacher and Author with a New Book For Teachers, Parents, and Civic Leaders Concerned About Education in the Age of Trump 2.0 and Project 2025
We sat down with TER author, and Title 1 public school teacher Thomas Courtney to talk to him about his latest book. Mr. Courtney is a 30 year classroom veteran, guide teacher, and five time teacher of the year in San Diego, California. He has served on many committees and championed major initiatives from the lobbying of SEL funding to refreshing the standards for the teaching profession in his state. He has written many articles for TER over the years supporting public schools and defending policies that broaden and strengthen DEI. Mr. Courtney’s latest work focuses on the potential impact of Project 2025, edtech, and current federal and state decisions on the future of our educational system.
TER: Your book, Dystopian School Tales: 12 Visions of an American Education Dismantled, has an intriguing title. It also has an intriguing twist as it’s both a collection of fiction stories and also well-cited essays. What is the book about and where did the idea come to you?
Courtney: In 2024, I wrote a piece for TER about Project 2025. After reading the section in the so-called “Mandate for Conservative Leadership” I was gravely concerned about what the Heritage Foundation authors thought education should become. I wrote an essay as a warning to educators, and to voters. But when Trump was elected for his second term, I knew that this warning needed to be much louder. I became frustrated, angry, confused about how to sound that warning. And then, a friend gave me a call. My friend is gay. And she was scared in a way I personally did not understand. After her call, I wondered what it would be like to be a gay teacher, or for that matter a gay student, given the terminology being used in Project 2025. How would I feel?
TER: And you wrote another article?
Courtney: Actually, no. This time, I decided to write a story so I could convey the emotion my friend shared with me. I called it “Monday in Room B” about a gay teacher who is no longer protected by law. At first, I thought it was fairly dystopian, but after a bit of reading, I learned how fragile the laws are protecting those in the LGBTQ+ community. The reaction to that story helped me to see that folks needed to hear the potential impact in a different way right now. I love telling stories, and I thought having both a story and a brief analysis afterwards might help the general populace and my fellow teachers see those potential impacts.
TER: And you published that here, at TER.
Courtney: Yes, I sure did. It felt good to have a place to get something out that could illustrate what so many of us in education are worried about.
TER: When did you write more stories? Was it hard to imagine these dystopian educational futures?
Courtney: Honestly, a few came to me right away because of all the news that had been out from the Trump administration, or the new Department of Education, or the latest Supreme Court decision. But most of the stories were real-time reactions to what was happening throughout the last year. For example, I remember listening to Caroline Leavitt tell reporters their questions were “stupid” and I could envision this type of language trickling down to teachers who would support her arguments. I wrote Mrs. Foster’s Loyalty Test while I was visiting a school in Lithuania. I was sharing with teachers there about an exam that was being given to new teachers in Oklahoma. These veterans, who remembered Russia’s influence in their own curricula years ago, couldn’t believe it could happen in the USA.
TER: Your last story is quite impactful, and the longest of the collection. It ends, I think, with a lasting impression that is bluntly rather scary and hard to forget. Was that a story that came to you quickly or was it a reaction to something?
Courtney: You’re referring to “My Private Tutor Jeffrey” which made me both thrilled to write and quite sad, too. That came about as a result of watching a TV clip of Sewell Setzer taking his life in an effort to be with his virtual AI chat bot. I found the entire thing beyond tragic, and yet the very next day I attended a conference where AI was heavily featured as a potentially perfect tutor in the near future.
TER: What was the hardest part of writing the story?
Courtney: Each story is honestly very difficult for me to re-read. For the last story, like the others, I wrote Matthias from the first person perspective. That for me, was very hard because I didn’t need to use much imagination to be Matthias. I could have seen myself doing and saying, thinking and feeling all the things that Matthias goes through in the story when I was his age. I am so thankful I never had to live in a time when people might actually think a young man is better off sitting in front of a computer in his home like that, than at a school. I love the profession of teaching so much, and I just get so much out of being in a classroom with kids. I think, for me, I just can’t believe that five years after the pandemic, we are pursuing the types of things that Project 2025 wants. I thought we had learned a very different lesson by being so isolated and segregated.
TER: Where can readers find the book?
Courtney: The book, Dystopian School Tales, 12 Visions of an American Education Dismantled, is currently available on Amazon, as well as Barnes and Noble booksellers. I would love to know what TER readers think of the stories. If you feel so inclined, please do leave a review for other potential readers on either site.
TER: Do you have any new projects?
Courtney: Yes actually. I’ve partnered with Olympia Publishing to put out my first book specifically for educators. It’s called Teaching 102: The Other Lessons You’ll Need to Survive (and Thrive) in Today’s Modern Classroom. In point of fact, many of the original ideas for the book originated through articles I published right here at TER as well.
TER: This seems to be a trend.
Courtney: It is indeed. I’d like to share my appreciation for the courage and commitment of TER staff to give teachers like me a voice over the years. I am very thankful to be given a chance to share that voice, and I hope other educators reading this will also reach out to TER when they want to share theirs. I think those voices are desperately needed right now.
TER: We do too!
Thomas Courtney is a 6th-grade middle school English Language Arts and History teacher in San Diego, California. He is the author of many articles, memoirs, and short stories found in anthologies, magazines, and newspapers. He has written several books, including the upcoming Viral School Rhetoric: A Teacher’s Story of Good Intentions, Bad Policy, and a Pandemic, available in the Fall of 2025.
