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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.
Published in General
” I want to teach kids to think.” Well, teaching kids to think American history is evil is teaching them to think, too. You should more generally look at what we can find out of what young people think of conservatism. This would be of concern to people who understand there’s a future… If we instead also start blushing at teaching kids a “conservative vision,” then we’re not even pretending anymore…
Talk of “the parents” is also hopeless. It’s not the parents in vague abstract terms; it’s some parents in red states primarily, so long as those states stay red; & also so long as the teachers unions now trying to get political commitments to attack the basis of charter schools, homeschooling, &c. don’t succeed. Trust me, many of those in teachers unions, many liberal activists, are also parents. They’re fired up, alright, but not the way you like. The only way through is partisanship.
Teaching them to think US history is evil is teaching them *what* to think. This is not my goal as an educator, though I am intent on showing them why that argument is flawed. I am intent on showing them history that they’ve never heard at all.
This is the thing.
If you laud, say, YAF and leave out SDS, you are as bad as the teacher who never mentions that there were more young conservatives in the 1960s than radicals . If you introduce *Both Sides* (or the myriad of sides, since life is not just a binary) and help kids figure out how to analyze what’s being said by either group per the different world visions presented, you have a much better chance of that kid taking conservatism seriously enough to at least respect it.
Right now, they often only hear the Left’s side as the Right is obscured or caricatured. They reject what they don’t know out of hand as they get “woke” to only one ideology.
I was never annoyed that a teacher assigned Karl Marx. I would have been annoyed if there was no Adam Smith, too.
I did not care that my professors wanted to expose me to writers of color. I was horrified that they wanted to shank the Bard and toss him out.
Last thing, Socrates was a good teacher because he let students answer the questions for themselves. I noticed that the guy who teased the professor in Sugarland used the Socratic method… built a relationship… served as a mentor.
I’d take that from a liberal professor.
As for parents… you need a group that will hold a banner. I get that there are lots of parents with whom I don’t agree, but right now they are the only people along with the others you list who have a megaphone.
When my son was younger, I was very, very engaged with his school. You will never find a fiercer advocate for a kid than his/her mother.
My son made it through all of it, including time at an elite law school, with my family’s values. But he thinks for himself. They are actually the values he chose.
Well, I’ll split the difference between you and Titus on this. The Socratic method requires a level of maturity many (most?) secondary students don’t have. In this sense, I am for partisanship the way education was before the 60’s counterrevolution. Prior to that, public education was a project to educate and form American citizens, with the understanding of all that entails. Every classroom had a flag and portraits of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Remember? I do.
I’m a partisan of the truth that this is the greatest country ever devised by mankind, based on ordered liberty and the government’s sacred duty to secure the natural rights of its citizens. No more. No less.
And, btw, Titus, the parents who founded my kids’ K-8, E.D. Hirsch Core Knowledge charter school were atheist libertarians. But, they were as interested as any religious conservative in quality education. It’s only the hardcore lefty parents who want indoctrination — even in blue states. We’ve given them out-sized influence by ceding the education schools to the likes of Bill Ayers and requiring “education” classes and onerous certification processes of people like me, who are passionate about a subject (in my case, Math). There are plenty of professionals who might make good — maybe even great — teachers if they didn’t have to jump through the education establishment’s hoops.
The education establishment delenda est.
Fair enough.
Often claimed and seldom attempted.
You gotta hear both sides. Some say Jefferson was great, some say he was a monster. Probably the truth is in the middle… But he had slaves, so bomb his Memorial. Fair’s fair. What are you going to do, hear out the people who love a slaveowner? They’re systemic racists. Of course, you gotta here both sides–some say America is systemic racism, evil exploitation of all the minorities & non-stop horror, others say it’s not so bad, or it’s the best country–probably those people love the slavery & racism, they think it’s the best ever.
This is bound to work! After all, since conservatives are almost entirely shut out of the education establishment, how could they fail!
One of my favorite reviews as a professor had a kid write on one day he/she was “absolutely certain” I was a Democrat until the next day when he/she was “absolutely certain“ I was a Republican.
I don’t always succeed, but I try really, really hard to teach this way.
Even so, it’s also fair to say no one leaves my class not knowing that I love and respect the country.
Republicans had historic victories in 2016, wasted’em; in the last generation, divided gov’t has been the rule. But we can fantasize that somehow Republicans & conservatives will have the power & the will to destroy the educational establishment, when the media, academia, ed schools, teachers unions are all on the liberal side & conservatives can’t seem to even defend themselves at the Supreme Court, much less go on offensive. Also, young people hate your guts, but you’ll manage to get rid of the educational establishment.
How?
The only people who can destroy the system as it stands are parents. Not billionaires. A new university would be nice, but how do you get kids to go to it when the people who hire want degrees from Harvard? Isn’t that, actually, pretty small ball? (A few new schools from rich people?)
(See? I can pull out some nihilism, too.)
Maybe we can work all angles, Titus, but if we want to change education, we have to start with regular people at the lower grades.
These are worthy, decent sentiments, but nothing to the point. Do you really not see that liberals also “love & respect the country”–the country which elected Obama, supposedly will elect Biden, which is ruled by Roe, Casey, Obergefell, Bostock, the country that pays for liberal elites to be billionaires & run trillion dollar businesses, the country whose celebrities are uniformly liberal, or speckled with insane lefties, & so’s much of pop culture, the country where Dems win the largest number of votes almost every election?
Of course, liberals do not love & respect the white racist evil systemic monster, but who would? It’s evil–right there in the name! Who would love & respect the America where blacks were being lynched for fun or out of boredom? Only monsters!
Unless people are speaking about the same country, each loving & respecting the country while hating half of it is a recipe for another Civil War. The Confederates also “loved & respected the country”–the country which elected the likes of Pierce & Buchanan, & Douglas, & was ruled by Dred Scot, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, &c. They loved that country; respected it; killed & died for it.
Also, the Republican Party is a much weaker Vehicle for change than the PTA. I’ve seen both in action. No contest.
This makes no historical sense. Education was higher education decided upon by elites; from before the Founding, to gradual democratization through the landgrant politics, to the oligarchs of the turn of the century.
Anyway, if you believe employers want Harvard, it’s not just that you can’t build counter-Ivies–you’re locked out of the talent pool anyway.
Outside of a fantasy world, young people are shockingly liberal & have only become more so since they made Obama president–you think parents really have a lot of authority in America? Good luck!
The Republican Party passed No Child Left Behind. What in heaven or hell have PTAs done that’s comparable in influence?
As for what Democrats might do through the federal gov’t should they get back in power in 2020, we all stand a good chance to find out, so it’s not necessary to speculate.
So what you want is indoctrination from the right? Perhaps Liberty University then?
What is it exactly that you would have me do in my classes? What kind of teacher do you really want?
I will add one thing, @titustechera.
I am not on a different side from you.
I believe in the liberal arts.
I have been listening to Coleman Hughes talking about data and BLM and race, and I remember he got a degree in philosophy. He learned how to think. He reminds me of Thomas Sowell. This is very high praise.
I want to do whatever his teachers did, but I am absolutely certain that he rejected whatever he was “told” what to think. He learned how to form his own opinions. That is the only way forward that I see as worthwhile.
Again, the next time I have dinner with a billionaire, I’m happy to ask for his/her patronage, but since that has never happened, I will sincerely work hard in the corner where I am to make my classroom the thing I want school to be everywhere.
That’s a good thing. I prefer Moms to politicians.
That’s apparently the authoritative opinion in Portland!
Not speaking of anyone here, but I have long suspected that a lot of people who cite the importance of critical thinking and nuance aren’t fooling anyone but themselves.
Good and Evil have never been more black/one-shade-gray/white – but there is this weird state-change where neutral things can become evil overnight.
Well, if you look at elite America, revving up over the last six years or a bit more, suddenly public institutions have declared the majority of the people evil. Inclusion now requires punitive exclusion of the majority. People can entertain all the fantasies they want & not take seriously how fast & how far they are being driven into a corner; but that attitude doesn’t last.
Even in the service of good, I cannot adopt what I think is evil. I am not neutral about systems that history shows to be wrong, but I am also not a dictator in my classroom. I encourage free thought as much as possible. That is what I would want from someone teaching my child.
Touché!
Again, I do not know what you would have me do. I work in an institution that exists. I position the United States as a great country because she is, but we discuss her flaws. I am tolerant of opposition because that is the foundation of a free society, and I am not Herbert Marcuse.
Are we suggesting “tolerant repression“ from the right?
That does not lead where you want to go.
Lois Lane–again & again you make this strange, sorta veiled accusation that I’m telling you to indoctrinate or to have tolerant repression or what have you.
Will you quit that?
Would you like it if I accused you in some weird, sorta veiled way that you hate America & support woke attacks?
“TEACHER FIGHT!”
~everyone gathers in the quad~
I don’t understand *what* you’re telling me, Titus! It’s super unclear! I get you want us to ask billionaires to create new universities, but beyond that, I’m lost. Every time I say what I’m doing, you say something like that’s not good enough and I’m fooling myself or… something.
I am not trying to “veil” anything. I’m telling you how I have interpreted what you’ve written.
To be clear, I don’t think you “hate America.” I’m not sure how you got that one. I do feel as if you’re saying “indoctrinate from the right.” It’s some sort of existential struggle. I am naive to present two sides.
Anyway, I have said that I think we are actually on the same side, but I think we see different solutions.
You need to go to detention!
Also, cause I’m going to sleep, I do want you to know @titustechera that I am assuming positive intent. This isn’t Twitter. I’m trying to understand your position. That is really all. I’ll buy the first round of drinks in the bar.
Lois Lane, here’s what I said should be done. It’s not a long comment, back a page or two, I think #63. I’m glad one of the ideas stuck with you–because you don’t like it. But this is really shabby…
“To cut to the chase: Conservatives had better organize to lobby state legislatures & governors to help homeschooling, classical schools–all the educational alternatives preferred by conservatives.
Also, to create education schools to give conservatives the teachers they need.
To creates universities to create new elites who didn’t have to go to liberal elite institutions.
& to bully rich conservatives & Republicans into paying for all this.”
Next, I didn’t say that you said that I hate America. Just read the comment again: It’s right above yours & it’s plain English!
Next, I’ve told you before–I didn’t tell you to do anything about doing your job, because I’m not qualified.
Finally, if you persist in this accusation, I’m done talking to you. Someone says I want to indoctrinate & do assorted bad things–that’s not a friend to me. I’ve told you where I disagree with you on policy or what’s likely to succeed, where I disagree with you on facts or history on American education. But I’ve not accused you of doing bad things, or evil intentions or whatever. That’s the limit.