NEA Shouts Down Conservative Teacher's Call for Tolerance

AgapePress ^ | July 23, 2003 | Jim Brown and Jenni Parker

[ZGuy]

A conservative educator from Pennsylvania received a chilly response while addressing delegates to the National Education Association's annual convention held in New Orleans earlier this month.

Sissy Jochmann, a second grade teacher from Pennsylvania and chair of the Conservative Educators Caucus, delivered a two-minute speech in which she urged the NEA to support students in their right to choose not to engage in homosexual behavior. But Jochmann says delegates booed and shouted angrily at her while she spoke.

Jochmann's speech called on the NEA to provide "a full range of information and support resources available on homosexuality" and to be more tolerant of people on all sides of the issue. But the audience met Jochmann's proposal with antagonistic heckling and jeers.

"At one point -- the representative assembly -- I was speaking to over 9,400 people. It was a thunderous roar -- they didn't even want to consider debating it," she says.

Apparently the powerful educators' union is less tolerant than it purports to be -- and Jochmann is not the first to call attention to the organization's double standards.

In an editorial written for the organization Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, Dr. Warren Throckmorton revealed that the NEA convention for the past two years has denied exhibit space to PFOX. Last year, convention organizers told PFOX, an organization that supports homosexuals' right to choose to change their sexual orientation, that no space was available -- although they continued to sell exhibition space to other groups. This year, the NEA refused even to accept the group's application.

Throckmorton is director of college counseling and an associate professor of psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. His research, "Initial Empirical and Clinical Findings Concerning the Change Process for Ex-Gays," was published by the American Psychological Association in the June 2002 issue of their journal, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. The researcher believes in the work of PFOX and decries the unfairness of the NEA in excluding its members' viewpoints from the convention.

Throckmorton says it is time for the predominantly liberal educator's union to work through its ex-homophobia. "With the NEA stonewalling attempts to present ex-gay information, one wonders what the leadership fears from ex-gays. What possible educational purpose is served by suppressing information?" the doctor asks.

Jochmann would agree that the NEA convention creates an atmosphere hostile to alternative points of view.

"It's just amazing how people are even afraid to say that they are Republicans at the NEA convention, because it's overwhelmingly Democrats that are represented," she says. Throughout the event, conservatives tended to be timid about expressing their views, Jochmann adds, particularly on the issue of homosexuality.

The Pennsylvania teacher says she has often considered leaving the NEA but fears if she and her conservative colleagues all drop out, there will be no one to speak up on behalf of children, as she did at the conference.

"It was a wonderful spiritual experience. I'll never be the same as a result. God really blessed me for my obedience, and to experience His power in that circumstance," she says.

Despite being subjected to liberal delegates' hostility, Jochman does not regret her decision to speak out. Her Conservative Educators Caucus gained ten new members at the meeting.

[Steely Glint]

"Are we concerned that US History is no longer taught with any emphasis?"

I am, it will be the downfall of the nation.

I know a lot of twenty-somethings. NONE of them were taught more than a smatering of U.S. history. One of them has a degree in history, yet didn't know who Andrew Jackson was, what he had done, or why he was significant.

Deprived of national context, deprived of an understanding of the Constitution, young Americans are now left adrift in an educational sea of Leftist/anti-American lies and propaganda.

History shows that socialism has failed dismally everywhere that it has ever been tried. History shows that free market capitalism is the most effective economic system ever developed.

But just try getting those two points taught in an American high school.

[nmh]

LIBERALism is intolerant.

[zook]

bump

[jackbill]

I have simple (perhaps simple-minded?) questions: What in the hell does homosexuality have to do with the three "R's"?

Perhaps a more relevant question would be: What in the hell does the NEA have to do with the three "R's"?

[CyberAnt]

There was a lawsuit against the NEA for using teachers donations for political purposes. The guy who started it is a friend of Rush's. His name slips my mind. Anybody know what happened with the lawsuit ..??

[reg45]

What in the hell does homosexuality have to do with the three "R's"?

Raunchy, Red Rumps!

[Gopher Broke]

Homosexuality has nothing to do with the 3 R's but neither does global warming or other issues upon which the NEA takes a position.

Folks, the NEA is not about helping kids or teachers...it is about advancing the LIBERAL agenda. Just like NOW and NAALCP, all about advancing the LIBERAL agenda.

If you are a conservative in these groups, you are UNWELCOME.

[eyespysomething]

you said a mouthfull

[Gopher Broke]

Two good alternatives to the liberal NEA:

Association of American Educators
Gary Beckner, Director
26012 Marguerite Parkway, #333
Mission Viejo, CA 92692 Liability Insurance - Yes
800-704-7799, 714-595-7979
http://www.aaeteachers.org
Email: info@aaeteachers.org

Christian Educators Association, International
Forrest Turpen, Director
P. O. Box 41300
Pasadena, CA 91114-8300 Liability Insurance - Yes
818-798-1124 or 888-798-1124
FAX 818-798-2346
http://www.ceai.org
E-mail: ceaieduca@aol.com

[twigs]

A friend of mine teaches abstinence in the schools here in the Philly area when she can. Several years ago, she and her colleagues made a presentation to a school committee about introducing their program in the Philly Public schools. Interestingly, the student representatives on the committee very much wanted the program. The openly gay man, although somewhat concerned about the Christian roots of the organization, was convinced that it would be a good program for the kids. Who absolutely refused? Said that the kids on the committee did not know what they needed? The teachers...

[Orangedog]

This is why I have little patience for those who try to stand up for "all" the conservative, hardworking public school teachers in the NEA....because there are only, what, 6 or 7 at the most in the entire country! Defund the public schools and let what's left of it collapse under it's own weight. Yes, it will be an ugly fight and we'll be called all kinds of dirty names, but the consequences of allowing this organization to continue to exist are a lot worse.

[headsonpikes]

U.S. Public Education is a great success - all of its major goals are being achieved.

It's just too bad that these goals do not include literacy, numeracy, or a knowledge of history and science.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

"It was a wonderful spiritual experience. I'll never be the same as a result. God really blessed me for my obedience, and to experience His power in that circumstance," she says.

God bless you.

[Guillermo]

Is this any wonder?

And the NEA types are ones who are very likely to say "we need to address the root cause of terrorism."

[Gal.5:1]

I agree, except for the part about the NEA being an educational (traditional 3R's) machine.

[Gal.5:1]

good definition of the NEA

[netmilsmom]

This is the e-mail I got from this wonderful Lady.

>>Thanks for the encouragement! It was an honor to stand for His righteousness in such a liberal environment! Please pray we always "speak the truth in love"! Were you there in New Orleans?? Sissy<<

I sent her this thread. Hopefully she will become a FReeper!

[ZGuy]

Way to go Netmilsmom!
And thanks for posting her response.

[Smich]

Hello Colofornian and all!
Sissy Jochmann told me about you guys, she is watching the thread but I guess hasn't registered. I am a friend of hers who, along with a few others, helped her prepare for this stand in NEA. In answer to your question about NEA stuff intersecting in to the classroom, it can be rare but certain organizations need watch-dogging: Check this out:
Go to www.massnews.com
Archives
Fistgate
See 2000 Veteran Teacher Traumatized...

This brave public school teacher in MASS was not an NEA member (joined Christian Educators union mentioned above) but her article illustrates how important it is to keep an eye on these groups. Parents can help a TON!! They need to watch public libraries for pro-gay stuff in children's books. They may not succed in demanding the books be removed, but they can force the library to accept books representing the opposite view (that homosexuals can change). Here is an organization that specifically helps with those efforts: http://www.pfox.com

There are a lot of public school teachers who pay union dues and don't agree with the NEA (now joined with AFT). But they seem to be asleep. Or if they go as delegates, they are afraid to shout their opinion, just like one might hesitate to yell for the Lakers while sitting in a Bull's game in Chicago! Had they been involved for the last 30 years, sitting on the delegates floor to shout "yea" and "nay" and the right times, putting forth better policy, we wouldn't be looking at the same union today. I hate to say it, but it's true. Too many have been asleep. If we were to scare up 4,000 conservatives for next year's NEA convention (first week of July in DC), we could shock the socks off of NEA and start to reverse some of its lethal direction.

[ladylib]

My niece lives in a school district where the high school is one of the top 100 public high schools in the country, according to "Newsweek." Her parents don't care how "good" the local high school is, she's going to a private prep school.