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I do. Until 100% of the pupils are performing at or above their grade level you as a teacher should be concentrating on being certain the students in your charge can read, write, compose a coherent paragraph, all at the grade level.

My students are well above grade level. I rarely have a student who leaves my teaching with a grade below the 90th percentile in my state.

I'm also a history teacher, so while I don't ignore grammar, and other issues, I'm teaching something different.

If my students weren't meeting basic standards, then, yes, I'd focus on those basic standards - but they are exceeding them by very large margins and if I didn't extend them well beyond what the curriculum requires we'd be doing nothing at all in the classroom for the vast majority of times.

Keep your politics out of the damned classroom.

I don't push my political beliefs on my students - I deliberately don't - but I will not let them remain in ignorance because of the prejudices of other people (especially of governments) either and I will not allow the official curriculum to stop me from teaching them more than it requires and other points of views besides those mandated by the curriculum.

When I encounter a geography textbook endorsed by the government that calls military personal 'harmworkers' (and that's a real example) as a retired Naval officer, I will make no apology whatsoever for telling my students about the humanitarian work carried out by the military. And that's just one example.

I do my best to give my students all sides of the arguments. If I only taught the curriculum, I wouldn't be doing that. In most cases, I'd be given them a highly left wing viewpoint I don't agree with if I did that.

“When I encounter a geography textbook endorsed by the government that calls military personal ‘harmworkers’ (and that’s a real example) as a retired Naval officer, I will make no apology whatsoever for telling my students about the humanitarian work carried out by the military. And that’s just one example.”

I’d toss it in the trash in front of them and say “Governments lie. It’s the only way they can exist. in the 20th Century well over 200 million people were killed by their own governments. Treat every single government employee or politician as a liar until proven otherwise and you’ll be well ahead of the game.”

Thus endeth the lesson for today.