Who’s Teaching at Your School?

 

This tweet a couple of days ago from a teacher attracted a lot of attention:

“So, this fall, virtual class discussions will have many potential spectators – parents, siblings, etc – in the same room.  We’ll never be quite sure who is overhearing the discourse.  What does this do for our equity/inclusion work?”

It prompted a long thread of responses from teachers across the country about how to get around what they saw as the clearly negative influence of parents in order to indoctrinate their students.  And the responses showed that this was not about teaching our common humanity and treating each other with respect, but rather how to instill race consciousness, disable students’ ability to think for themselves, and to increase resentment, guilt, and divisiveness. It also tells you they know how outraged most parents would be if they knew what their children were being taught.

The reason I have not linked the tweet is that the thread eventually drew wider attention and received a massive dose of outrage, causing the writer to protect his twitter feed and is now unavailable to anyone not following him.

Woke educational philosophy has begun to permeate K-12 education, not just colleges. I no longer have children of school age and our grandson is not near entering school, but if I had a child in K-12 today, I would do a social media search on every one of their teachers and if I found stuff like this would raise a public fuss and try to mobilize other parents. I’d also take a close look at the school curriculum.

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  1. CACrabtree Coolidge
    CACrabtree
    @CACrabtree

    Randi Weingarten would be so proud of this individual!  Ya gotta wonder if each one of these teachers have tattoos somewhere on their bodies:  “Lemming No. 1”, “Lemming No. 2” and so on.

    They remind me so much of those bland creatures in the Apple Macintosh commercial (shown during Super Bowl XVIII) who march in obediently to listen to their leader.

    • #1
  2. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Reminds me of this.  Relevant part  starts at about 2:50 mark……

     

    “Make sure the big people leave the room”…

    • #2
  3. CACrabtree Coolidge
    CACrabtree
    @CACrabtree

    Kozak (View Comment):

    Reminds me of this. Relevant part starts at about 2:50 mark……

     

    One of the most underrated movies of all time.  The opening skit with the Curtis Mayfield music is hilarious.

    • #3
  4. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    CACrabtree (View Comment):

    Kozak (View Comment):

    Reminds me of this. Relevant part starts at about 2:50 mark……

     

    One of the most underrated movies of all time. The opening skit with the Curtis Mayfield music is hilarious.

    The other one I thought of was Soupy Sales telling kids to send him “the green pieces of paper with pictures on them in their dads wallet or moms pocket book”.

    • #4
  5. The Scarecrow Thatcher
    The Scarecrow
    @TheScarecrow

    Kozak (View Comment):

    Reminds me of this. Relevant part starts at about 2:50 mark……

    “Make sure the big people leave the room”…

    Dude!! Absolutely one of the most underrated films.  Predates so many of the so-called originators of the new comedy.  One of my kids seeing it now would never get how subversive and original it was – maybe the same way I might feel about Sid Caesar or something.

    This Krusty the Clown forerunner was brilliant.  Also see the wonderful:

    • #5
  6. CACrabtree Coolidge
    CACrabtree
    @CACrabtree

    The Scarecrow (View Comment):

    Kozak (View Comment):

    Reminds me of this. Relevant part starts at about 2:50 mark……

    “Make sure the big people leave the room”…

    Dude!! Absolutely one of the most underrated films. Predates so many of the so-called originators of the new comedy. One of my kids seeing it now would never get how subversive and original it was – maybe the same way I might feel about Sid Caesar or something.

    This Krusty the Clown forerunner was brilliant. Also see the wonderful:

    Yup, and, as I recall, The Groove Tube was followed by Kentucky Fried Movie which was followed by Airplane and then the Police Squad/Naked Gun movies (all from the Zuker Brothers and Jim Abrahams).  Great sophomoric humor!  I wonder if we’ll ever see it again because of the humorless Progressives who appear determined to take over everything we see and hear…

    • #6
  7. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    Not directly relevant, but the concern of the teachers about not knowing who is listening in and watching reminded me about my late father’s experience as a pioneer in what we now call “distance learning.”

    In the mid-1960s the University of Florida put together a closed circuit network to help engineers working in the space program to earn advanced degrees (primarily Master’s) without having to quit their day jobs to go spend a couple of years at the University campus in Gainesville. The professors taught from a studio in Cape Canaveral, and live video and audio was transmitted to remote classrooms in Titusville, Melbourne, Orlando, and other places near where engineers were working in the space program. There was live return audio available back from the remote classrooms to the studio in Cape Canaveral, but no live return video because of bandwidth restrictions on the technology of the time.  

    After teaching there for three years my father was recruited in 1968 by a public university in California to help set up a similar system in southern California for the engineers working all over southern California who found it difficult to physically get to a university campus for classes multiple times a week. But the system never got off the ground. Too many professors were unwilling to teach to an unknown audience, since the lack of a return video from the remote classroom meant that the professor was never sure who might be watching. In the words of one math professor, “If the dean comes in and starts watching me teach, I want to know it.” The idea that there might be unknown persons in the audience really bothered many professors. I guess they intended to teach differently depending on who was watching.  

    I understand the current school at home situation has opened the eyes of a number of parents about what is in the curricula and teaching that their children are receiving. 

    • #7
  8. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…: Woke educational philosophy has begun to permeate K-12 education, not just colleges. I no longer have children of school age and our grandson is not near entering school, but if I had a child in K-12 today, I would do a social media search on every one of their teachers and if I found stuff like this would raise a public fuss and try to mobilize other parents. I’d also take a close look at the school curriculum.

    Or, send your kids to Hillsdale/classical ed charter schools. My kids’ high school not only had a strict, literal open door policy for all the classrooms, they had extra chairs at the back of the room for visiting parents. We could walk in unannounced with the understanding that we were civilized enough not to disrupt the class. I almost swooned on my first visit where they were studying the Bible as literature. 

    Conservatives have nothing to hide in their educational philosophy, because the goal is education, not indoctrination. I truly hope COVID kills regular public schools — my condolences to Ricochet’s public school teachers. 

    • #8
  9. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Maybe what we need is a “secret shopper” program in the schools.  Like what stores and healthcare organizations do now.

    Teachers should think someone is looking over their shoulder….

    • #9
  10. DonG (skeptic) Coolidge
    DonG (skeptic)
    @DonG

    How much would it cost to run an online school for any kid that wanted to join?  $50M?  Why doesn’t some conservative fat cat make a free online school with a patriotic slant? 

    • #10
  11. DrewInWisconsin, Unhelpful Communicator Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Unhelpful Communicator
    @DrewInWisconsin

    “Woke educational philosophy has begun to permeate K-12 education, not just colleges.”

    Oh, it’s been in the K-12 schools for a very long time.

    • #11
  12. PHCheese Inactive
    PHCheese
    @PHCheese

    I received an email yesterday that showed mugshots of 20 protestors arrested in Portland. The sender claimed 13 of the 20 were schoolteachers. This was not verified but I wouldn’t be surprised.

    • #12
  13. DrewInWisconsin, Unhelpful Communicator Member
    DrewInWisconsin, Unhelpful Communicator
    @DrewInWisconsin

    “What does this do for our equity/inclusion work?”

    Translation: “How might this affect our brainwashing techniques?”

    • #13
  14. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    The one thing about this insidious virus is bringing what is happening in the public and private  education world out in the light of day to be dealt with.  This is a big deal, and I am glad it is happening.  Parent – pay attention……..

    • #14
  15. ChefSly - Super Kit Inactive
    ChefSly - Super Kit
    @MrAmy

    DonG (skeptic) (View Comment):

    How much would it cost to run an online school for any kid that wanted to join? $50M? Why doesn’t some conservative fat cat make a free online school with a patriotic slant?

    Probably illegal.

    • #15
  16. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…: It also tells you they know how outraged most parents would be if they knew what their children were being taught.

    This.

    I love this moment in education when parents are present in the classrooms.

    It’s not just public schools. My oldest went to a private Catholic high school. On parents’ night, I saw on the wall of her world history teacher’s classroom a loving, flattering portrait of Lenin. I could not believe my eyes.

    We’ve got to get parents into American classrooms. I don’t think parents can change the curriculum, at least not on their own, but they can pull their kids out. Which I hope they do.

    • #16
  17. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    What’s interesting about the teachers’ concern about parents and others listening in to their lectures is how that concern runs counter to what the police and psychologists and social workers tell parents. My kids grew up in the Child Find era when pediatricians an others told us that the classroom that doesn’t have an open door to the parents is the one that the parents need to get their kid out of.

    How things have changed.

    The other thing that bothers me about teachers is their mistaken notion of what their right to free speech means. It does not mean they can say whatever they please to a child under the age of 18 who has a parent or legal guardian. The parent’s or legal guardian’s purpose in the child’s life is to protect that child from untoward and damaging influences.

    Teachers do not understand this. For that I blame administrators.

    It is wonderful that parents will be hearing teachers talk to their kids now.

    • #17
  18. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Also, the classrooms being open to outsiders will encourage the teachers to prepare their lectures better than many do now. I had an interesting experience in the many hours I spent watching our school committee week after week. The town made the decision to televise the meetings, which at first the committee didn’t like very much. But a strange thing happened. After a while, the committee members started preparing more thoroughly and carefully for the meetings. I don’t know if it was that they watched themselves later or if it was just that they knew that many more people were watching from home than had been before, but whichever it was, it was good for the town and good for the schools. 

    • #18
  19. Jules PA Inactive
    Jules PA
    @JulesPA

    Western Chauvinist (View Comment):

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…: Woke educational philosophy has begun to permeate K-12 education, not just colleges. I no longer have children of school age and our grandson is not near entering school, but if I had a child in K-12 today, I would do a social media search on every one of their teachers and if I found stuff like this would raise a public fuss and try to mobilize other parents. I’d also take a close look at the school curriculum.

    Or, send your kids to Hillsdale/classical ed charter schools. My kids’ high school not only had a strict, literal open door policy for all the classrooms, they had extra chairs at the back of the room for visiting parents. We could walk in unannounced with the understanding that we were civilized enough not to disrupt the class. I almost swooned on my first visit where they were studying the Bible as literature.

    Conservatives have nothing to hide in their educational philosophy, because the goal is education, not indoctrination. I truly hope COVID kills regular public schools — my condolences to Ricochet’s public school teachers.

    I’m a teacher. I can’t say I disagree. 

    I do remember reading a story about how Hurricane Katrina and the resulting devastation permitted stakeholders previously at odds to rally in the challenges and remake. Since everything was destroyed, all the old barriers were removed. 

    So much of fixing school problems is like trying to completely remodel your house, while living in it.

    We have lost our way. 

    • #19
  20. Jules PA Inactive
    Jules PA
    @JulesPA

    Kozak (View Comment):

    Maybe what we need is a “secret shopper” program in the schools. Like what stores and healthcare organizations do now.

    Teachers should think someone is looking over their shoulder….

    That is how I live in my classroom. 

    Do what’s right, not because someone is watching, but because it is right. 

    • #20
  21. Jules PA Inactive
    Jules PA
    @JulesPA

    ChefSly – Super Kit (View Comment):

    DonG (skeptic) (View Comment):

    How much would it cost to run an online school for any kid that wanted to join? $50M? Why doesn’t some conservative fat cat make a free online school with a patriotic slant?

    Probably illegal.

    Just make a homeschool consortium. 

    • #21
  22. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    The music teachers were my heroes in the schools. They gave the kids something that would enrich their lives and build up their self-confidence. It was real education: helping kids learn how to do things and about the great things others have done throughout history. My favorite sentence in the English language is “Hey, Mom and Dad, look what I can do!” :-)

    Watching kids learn and grow in their instrument and chorus classes made me think about the changes I would make in education. I would introduce lots of foreign languages and real science classes. Not classes for viewing An Inconvenient Truth. Real science classes. Astronomy. Botany. Geology. Physics. Physiology. The kids would love school and thrive.

    The music teachers are amazing. I wish educators in the other areas would redesign their strategy to match that of the music teachers.

    • #22
  23. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    MarciN (View Comment):

    The music teachers were my heroes in the schools. They gave the kids something that would enrich their lives and build up their self-confidence. It was real education: helping kids learn how to do things and about the great things others have done throughout history. My favorite sentence in the English language is “Hey, Mom and Dad, look what I can do!” :-)

    Watching kids learn and grow in their instrument and chorus classes made me think about the changes I would make in education. I would introduce lots of foreign languages and real science classes. Not classes for viewing An Inconvenient Truth. Real science classes. Astronomy. Botany. Geology. Physics. Physiology. The kids would love school and thrive.

    The music teachers are amazing. I wish educators in the other areas would redesign their strategy to match that of the music teachers.

    After hearing many a school orchestral performance, my greatest sympathies are reserved for music (band) teachers. God bless ’em. Choir instructors have it easier. 

    • #23
  24. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    The Scarecrow (View Comment):

    Kozak (View Comment):

    Reminds me of this. Relevant part starts at about 2:50 mark……

    “Make sure the big people leave the room”…

    Dude!! Absolutely one of the most underrated films. Predates so many of the so-called originators of the new comedy. One of my kids seeing it now would never get how subversive and original it was – maybe the same way I might feel about Sid Caesar or something.

    This Krusty the Clown forerunner was brilliant. Also see the wonderful:

    As big a progressive as Richard Belzer is, he probably can’t look at his (NSFW) Groove Tube bit nowadays, because it would remind him of the left’s worst projected thoughts about the current president…

    • #24
  25. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    ChefSly – Super Kit (View Comment):

    DonG (skeptic) (View Comment):

    How much would it cost to run an online school for any kid that wanted to join? $50M? Why doesn’t some conservative fat cat make a free online school with a patriotic slant?

    Probably illegal.

    No, they just don’t care.

    Betsy DeVos would sooner drown in money than use her fortune to save American education.

    Hell, she could have an entire DeVos university doing patriotic education, scientific education, classical schools, you name it.

    But conservatives don’t expect or demand that. So these billionaires get to playact Secretary of Education instead. Nice.

    • #25
  26. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Roaches tend to scatter when you turn on the lights. 

    • #26
  27. Tocqueville Inactive
    Tocqueville
    @Tocqueville

    I understand the concern and outrage of parents when they hear things like this. I am a mom and I dropped my membership to the American Library of Paris because they hosted a workshop for children starting at age 6 about gender neutrality (hosted by a young bearded woman – about 24 yrs old – who had had a mastectomy).

    We also monitor our kids and we had to deprogramme my eldest in kindergarten because her eco-fanatic teacher told her the world was ending because of manmade climate change. It was a thing of beauty to see the burden slide from her shoulders. A skeptic was officially born and now she refers to people who “talk about the planet all the time.” We see our role as providing a counter narrative.

    Likewise I find extremely disturbing the continual efforts on the part of these hard left activists to bypass the parents and the family. It makes me recoil emotionally.

    However, I am convinced that a child raised in a loving conservative family by loving and consciously conservative parents, who may have no other options but the public schools will not be vulnerable. The values of the family will predominate.

    The problem in our country is the liberalism of the parents. I really doubt a dipsh*t like that guy is able to “convert” a child from a solid conservative family.

    Proof of this would be the attempts of European governments over decades to counter Islamic extremism through public education. As soon as I read about an attack by a “French” citizen (second or even third generation immigrant), I see photos of his mom or sisters veiled and I reflect on the tremendous power wielded by the family which dwarfs the pitiful state programmes.

    Abigail Shrier’s new book about the transgender craze among teenage girls returns continually to a central theme: “look what’s happening to our kids!?😱” But the TRUTH is, and I am disappointed that Shrier and others dance around the fact, these are the children of left-leaning, consciously LGBT-friendly parents. The books tells horror stories: the internet, the collusion of schools and institutions … but there wasn’t one single example of a girl from a conservative parents falling into that trap.

    • #27
  28. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Tocqueville (View Comment):
    The problem in our country is the liberalism of the parents. I really doubt a dipsh*t like that guy is able to “convert” a child from a solid conservative family.

    Well, yes, that is a problem, but I suspect your children are still young. The culture dominates eventually, otherwise, how do you explain what happens to kids in college? And it’s almost universal (way more than a majority) that kids come home for Christmas in their freshman year spouting so much lefty nonsense that their conservative parents hardly recognize them. Kids fall away from their Christian faith. They start to take seriously the social justice nostrums and are outraged at all the inequality. Just because they’re not undergoing sex changes doesn’t mean they’re unscathed. 

    And it’s very intentional on the part of these institutions. The most egregious example when we were touring colleges for my eldest was right here in conservative Colorado Springs — Colorado College. The staff didn’t want to speak to me. Barely looked at me and certainly not in the eyes. Their obvious goal from the moment we walked into registration was to separate my daughter from me.  When they announced that students would be touring the campus while parents sat through more lecturing about what a wonderful (progressive) institution CC is in one of the conference rooms, I leaned over to my daughter and said, “we’re outta here.” She didn’t hesitate. Thank God she’s a Hillsdalian. But, that’s 1,500 students out of how many thousands being infected with leftism every year?

    We’re in a lot of trouble. The Left is totalitarian and it is ascendant. 

    • #28
  29. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    I taught at a public high school a few years ago in Texas.  I closed the door at the beginning of all my classes.  This, however, was not because I cared what parents saw me teaching.  I was, in fact, teaching the play that should not be named, which I was not supposed to do, even though it was in the students’ textbook.  (If you aren’t familiar, I was teaching Shakespeare.)

    Why did I close the door? 

    I was only there for someone’s maternity leave, but I was told by both her and the administration that the only thing that mattered were the worksheet drills they wanted the students to do.  (I am not making this up.)  I was supposed to “facilitate” learning per a formula the school had worked out to up student test scores.  I was given an egg timer and reams of paper. They used their hour with me every day to simply complete as many worksheets as possible.  

    Well, we did some of the drills each day.  Sure.  I was even completely faithful to “the program” for a full week.  But it became obvious to me that the kids were bored out of their minds and not actually learning anything new.  It was all very empty education.  

    So maybe I was even wrong to go about it this way.  I don’t know.  But I wanted to teach.  (Most of) the kids wanted to learn.  

    I closed the door and huddled kids into their worksheet “work groups.” However, they didn’t just scribble on worksheets anymore but worked through a masterpiece from the canon and then performed scenes for the rest of the class.  We walked like pirates around the room when learning about iambic pentameter.  I had them draw comic strips to represent the language that they found difficult to read.  I had them look into etymology and figure out how many words Shakespeare added to the English language.  I had them think about why the Weird Sisters were so Weird and then contemplate what is “normal.”  We chatted about power in the story.  We looked at morals and guilt.  We considered history in the 16th century.  We contemplated what is “universally human” and why Shakespeare still has something to say.  We formed teams and played “Bard Trivia.” 

    They had fun.  I had fun. 

    A kid gave me a coffee mug at the end of my short time with her class and said she’d learned more in those few weeks than in her entire high school experience.  (This does not, by the way, say much about me as a teacher.  It says a lot about the school where I was teaching.)

    Sometimes being a dissident in a classroom isn’t really a bad thing when the system is so totally inept.  

    At least that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.  

    • #29
  30. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Lois Lane (View Comment):

    I taught at a public high school a few years ago in Texas. I closed the door at the beginning of all my classes. This, however, was not because I cared what parents saw me teaching. I was, in fact, teaching the play that should not be named, which I was not supposed to do, even though it was in the students’ textbook. (If you aren’t familiar, I was teaching Shakespeare.)

    Why did I close the door?

    I was only there for someone’s maternity leave, but I was told by both her and the administration that the only thing that mattered were the worksheet drills they wanted the students to do. (I am not making this up.) I was supposed to “facilitate” learning per a formula the school had worked out to up student test scores. I was given an egg timer and reams of paper. They used their hour with me every day to simply complete as many worksheets as possible.

    Well, we did some of the drills each day. Sure. I was even completely faithful to “the program” for a full week. But it became obvious to me that the kids were bored out of their minds and not actually learning anything new. It was all very empty education.

    So maybe I was even wrong to go about it this way. I don’t know. But I wanted to teach. (Most of) the kids wanted to learn. . . .

    This is the joy and wonder of charter schools, but charter schools insist on parents’ participating.

    Without the parents’ and community’s presence, you could just as easily have been teaching the joys Mao’s Little Red Book. I knew a lot of administrators who were upset with the tight teachers’ contracts that would not allow them into classrooms beyond a certain limited number of hours each year. It’s great for older and experienced teachers. Not so great for new teachers or teachers whose students are not doing well.

    And the kids are part of an entire education system that will be testing them in competitive situations all the way through college. If you are teaching Shakespeare but the tests require that the kids know Ibsen, it is a problem for the kids.

    I think it is really good that many Ivies are now getting rid of their SAT entrance requirements. That alone will free up the high schools, home schools, and charter schools, and frankly the middle schools, from having to be slavishly devoted to a particular test. China is a one high-stakes test system, and it’s a horrible way for the kids to live and damaging to their intellect.

    • #30
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