Photo Credit: Marijane Green |
If you’ve
worked in highly progressive academic environments and were not re-hired as
adjunct, granted tenure, or were not even considered for tenure unless you
belonged to organizations such as the NEA, AFT, or other Democrat-supporting
organizations, you were not alone.
If you’ve
worked in secondary education and were told that your opinions did not matter
because the entrenched Democrat bureaucracy did things entirely different from
what you perceive as common sense and logical in supporting an American education,
you were not alone.
If you
taught full-time or part-time and the Dean, Director, or Principal told you
that you must use a certain textbook that you found offensive, or that you must
teach or grade a certain way, dumb down the curriculum in order to allow
everyone to avoid failure and pass students who otherwise did not deserve to
pass but their parents were threatening to sue the school, you were not alone.
This is how
the politics in education work today and have worked for quite some time. Incisive
parents who were involved in their children’s education understood the schemes and
fads early on and took measures to protect their children by home schooling
them or putting them in private schools.
Other
parents who were seldom seen at school or PTA meetings were oblivious, did not
care who influenced their children’s world views, or were too trusting of those
empowered to shape their children’s minds eight hours a day. Television, Hollywood,
violent video games, alcohol and drugs did the rest.And a small percentage of parents were only concerned that Johnny received free tuition and free meals, thus they did not have to be responsible or participate in the education of their progeny. Why bother if the state provided free education, free meals, and paid teachers?
Everybody
knows that children see teachers as the ultimate authority and respect them. Some
teachers are truly exceptional, others speak with authority in their subject
area, and yet others are highly respected for their scholarship or as
influential role models.
But all
teachers are not created equal or driven by the same desire to promote American
exceptionalism and to shape tomorrow’s American leaders and thinkers. Most of
the students shaped today will be America’s busy bees and compliant followers
who believe everything they are told without asking pertinent questions.
Parents blame
their children’s problems on teachers and administrators. Administrators blame
everything on the lack of funding or the “low” teacher salaries when compared
to the private sector. But the private sector does not get three-month
vacations each year. Unionized teachers strike because their salaries are deemed
inadequate even though they are the best paid teachers in the country.
Corrupt
politicians and dishonest bureaucrats who retire from government or are fired receive
cushy and well-remunerated teaching assignments in private colleges around the
country, tasked with teaching ethics in general, political ropes, or social
justice.
Democrats
and some Republicans in higher positions of power receive millions in book
advances, idolized by the press and book reviewers. Students flock to their
classes so that they too can learn how to lie and cheat their way to the top in
the name of social justice.
Teachers say
that parents are the problem, their lack of involvement in their children’s
education. Parents are not teaching their progeny manners, respect for
authority, how to get along with other children without throwing a temper
tantrum, lack of modesty in clothing and shoes, obscenely priced when compared
to a teacher’s entire outfit, but expect teachers to provide pencils, pens,
crayons, glue, scissors, writing paper, and other classroom supplies to their
students.
Teachers find
fault with parents who never show up at school regularly, who never help their
children do homework, or check their homework every night. Some of their
questions are:
-
Do
parents help their children prepare for the next school day?
-
Do
they punish their children for being disruptive elements in the classroom or do
parents complain to the principal that the teacher is unfairly singling out
their child and thus she/he is the source of the problem?
-
Do
they blame the teacher when their child cheats on a test instead of making
their child responsible for their behavior?
-
Do
they teach their children to listen in class and behave properly, respecting
authority?
It is
certainly difficult for a teacher to be both educator and parent to someone
else’s child, especially when young teachers don’t have children of their own
yet, are not allowed to discipline students in any way for fear of lawsuits,
and must provide justification in writing for their lesson plans every day.
Using their students
as pawns, public school teachers and administrators have nominated themselves
the socialist political compass of our country and have allowed students to
walk out of the classroom several times in order to protest the Democrat cause
d’jour instead of doing the jobs they were hired to do, teach our children.
Teaching is
an art and cannot be taught by the College of Education or by the latest
education fad but it can be forced in a certain direction. Unfortunately, in
order to keep their jobs, most teachers use all the prescribed lesson plans,
worksheets, and textbooks provided by Common Core or whatever orders come down
from the administration via the Department of Education which attaches their
orders to school funding and grants.
Even though
President Trump had expressed his intent to end Common Core in our public
schools, the current Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, a wealthy business woman
and educational activist with no experience in public education, has made no
effort to end Common Core which is very much alive and well in most of our
public and private schools.
Whether the
teacher is marginalized or a successful indoctrinator protected by the teacher’s
union or by tenure, at the end of the day they must do as they are told in
order to stay employed.
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