Posted on 02/03/2007 7:30:17 AM PST by Scarchin
Folks-
As a conservative public school teacher I fight a daily battle to just keep the curriculum balanced. At the New England school I teach at, about five of us are conservative and the other 110 are liberal. This ratio is typical at every school I've worked. I am usually the only politically "active" teacher (in my personal life). I NEVER advocate one side or the other. My views are a mystery to my students. I encourage a rigorous examination of the facts - ALL of the facts.
Anyway - the reason for my post is to relate two recent occurances that reflect common experiences at my job.
One day last week a colleague, apparently in a bad mood, sought me out in my room to vent about something he heard in the news. I don't remember the specifics, but at one point I calmly stated that I don't believe that people are entitled to the fruits of the labor of others. I also said that I used the Constitution as my guide. This SOCIAL STUDIES teacher exploded "I don't CARE about the Constitution!!! I care about basic decency and human rights!" He then jumped into a non sequitor in which he stated that Dick Cheney revealed the identification of a CIA agent. I then just ignored him. A moonbat is a moonbat.
Yesterday, in my email, we got our weekly notice from the administration. In it was a note from someone in Guidance who offered her copy of Al Gore's movie for use in class. She said the other teachers have already used it "with much success!" I fired back a lengthy e-mail to all relevent parties in which I outlined the problems with the film AND the necessity for balance.
Earlier this year another colleague showed Loose Change.
I could go on.
The reason I'm posting this is to implore you to get involved with your local schools. YOU pay the taxes. YOU have a right to review the curriculum and ask questions. Especially if you are a parent of a student - pay attention and ask questions.
Jay Bennish is not an exception.He is the rule.
I can't fight this battle by myself.
PS - Please don't just post "Home school." Of course that's a solution for some, but YOU ARE STILL PAYING for this crap.
Thanks for the advice. It's nice to know you're "on the inside."
I bet the author of this piece was educated in government grammar schools.
Every once in a while they'll admit the truth.
My kids attend public school in the south and it's a world apart from what you describe. We do the pledge everyday and always have, in elementary school in kindergarten the first songs the kids learn in music is the National Anthem and the school song. Flags hang in the hallways and it is a huge deal to be chosen to do the flag hanging, they teach you all about the proper ways to handle the flag, etc. The ROTC program is huge and there are posters everywhere of the military in both the middle and high schools. And shhhh.....we still pray at football games. However, we have huge parental involvement in our schools, even most of the teachers live in the same community so I think that makes a huge difference.
What on earth is your point? He's talking about the schools of today, which have become politically charged as the author documents. You make no sense at all.
I love your post about schools in the South. Gives me great hope. Thanks. Out here in California we sometimes think the war is lost. Evidently not. Keep it up.
Liberals fear exposure the most. Parents have to expose the Liberal propaganda and brainwashing in our public schools at every opportunity. It's in the curriculum, textbooks, and out of the mouths of your children's teachers. The only defense is parents getting involved. I know this from first-hand experience.
I spent 9 years fighting this disease back in the 1980's.
FYI:
http://www.goalline.org/Goal%20Line/NatAtRisk.html
Well, that makes this teacher no different than SCOTUS' Breyer.
Thanks for the report. You're the canary-in-the-coalmine, the individual in the madrass. Keep up the great teaching, teacher. Your pointing out the indoctrinators by doing what you are doing (offering an opposing point of view with evidence to back it up from someone other than yourself).
Don't give up hope. For every student who is content to be propagandized, there is another who is searching valiantly to get out of the mind-swamp, to think for himself, to find his own path. I see many of them where I tutor; I run into them with my music students, too.
This is a good generation coming up -- observe them carefully, you will see it. Do something to help - volunteer at a local school, run a Cub Scout group, add your own valuable input. Kids are always yearning for adult input. You might just be the one who makes a difference in one child's life.
It's unfortunate that we've allowed mindless liberalism to become the philosophy of our educational institutions. The National Education Association is just an adjunct of the Democratic Party. It will take a conservative "long march through the institutions" to correct this situation.
Give the guy a break, for God's sake. While everyone should use proper grammar, is there really a need to pick his grammar apart?
Good gosh, he is part of a serious minority (a conservative public school teacher) in the bluest of regions in this country and is trying to fight the good fight against using crap like Al Gore's propaganda film. Criticising his grammar either means you disagree with him, or are missing the point completely.
YOU may be able to send your kids to a public school somewhere, but not everyone has that option or can home school. Unless you are one the the empty-headed liberals who BELIEVE Al Gore's junk, and think it is great to attempt to fill the heads of American kids with that mush, you should just give it a break.
We NEED teachers like him, imperfect grammar and all.
My word pulled a lot more weight when my sons were still in the system.
I, for one, appreciate your efforts and the spirit of your post. I'm sure it is frustrating and "lonely" in your work environment. It's difficult to know where to begin in trying to address this problem. I'm afraid that the public school system has gotten too far down that slippery slope to ever recover. Since growing up in the public school system of the 1950's and 1960's, I've seen the takeover by the Teachers' Unions and the decided shift in teachers to "liberal/progressives" with the resulting decaying of standards and outcomes in many of the public schools (some still do a great job, I'm sure, but this is much more the exception than the rule that was the case when I was growing up) -- just an observation: this is another out-growth or by-product of the Vietnam War and the old draft system... one of the last deferments you could get was if you were taking graduate studies to become a teacher -- so many in the anti-war movement gravitated into teaching. Even though these peaceniks are now approaching retirement, they've had 30+ years of indoctrinating ALL public school kids -- as Rush says, most have brains full of mush.
It's difficult to know where to puts one's efforts these days to correct this awful system.
I was wrong.
Every forum has Grammar Police.
Respectfully - get a life.
I said, "It's not in the Constitution."
She said, "I beg your pardon, it most certainly is."
I said, "Where?"
She stammered, "Well, I don't know where but I know it's in there!"
"It's not in there."
"It is most certainly in there!!"
And so on. I wish I'd had my pocket copy with me, I'd have pulled it out, slapped in on the table, and said, "Give you ten bucks if you can find it."
A little Irish humor
Dublin Girl - Demolition School Prank Call - Ireland, Dublin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27LYFw6Pyvo
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