When teachers use their classrooms as bully pulpits
Regular Get Schooled readers will recognize Mary Grabar, a local writer and professor who writes provocatively on education issues and educators. She is not one to hold back.
She lives up to her reputation in this new op-ed piece that will run in the Monday AJC. To read more from Grabar, go to her web site.
By Mary Grabar
Many of the signs at the recent Wisconsin protests against Gov. Scott Walker’s efforts to scale back public union power reminded us that “if you can read this sign, thank a teacher.” But they should read, “If you see a student holding this sign, shouting obscenities at Republican lawmakers, or drumming to drown out opposing voices, thank a teacher.”
Students have been primed to engage in such protest activities on behalf of those who hand out their grades. Teachers, thanks to unions, shirk their responsibilities to parents and citizens, and feel emboldened to use their classrooms as bully pulpits.
The one-sided presentations of history, and the pedagogical emphasis on critical thinking, collaborative learning, and community service, train students to see the kind of protests in Wisconsin as legitimate civic engagement.
Students, rather than learning the skills and obtaining the knowledge they need to become citizens of a free republic as the founders intended, get the idea that civics involves being part of a mob on behalf of “social justice.”
Indeed, teachers quite openly discuss their strategies for making students “change agents” for “social justice” — among themselves, as I learned by attending their professional conferences.At the 2009 conference of the National Council for the Social Studies, the largest professional group for social studies and history teachers, I saw a District of Columbia senator encourage teachers to take students as young as 8 to protests on behalf of his pet project — Washington, D.C., statehood.
A teacher, supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, bragged about how she went into classrooms to teach lessons on “social justice.” Another teacher gave a workshop on how to make middle school students into advocates for illegal aliens through emotionally manipulative exercises and adult-themed reading material.
At a conflict resolution education conference I participated in workshops where teachers shared tips on emotionally manipulating students in order to make them into “world citizens.” Emboldened by the political power the union gives them, teachers congratulated themselves for bypassing official mandates. They see students as “my kids” — putty to mold into political advocates.
Union advocate teachers admit that opposition to Walker is motivated by a desire to maintain political power. Writing in the History News Network, University of Washington history professor Michael K. Honey compares the current protest to Martin Luther King’s attempt to unionize Memphis sanitation workers.
“Organized, dues-paying workers and particularly minorities and women,” he admits, are “a potent base for the Democratic Party.”
Columbia University history professor Eric Foner, keynote speaker at the 2009 social studies association convention (a year after “socialist-anarchist” Boston University professor emeritus Howard Zinn’s presentation) in the London Review of Books, credits FDR with solidifying the liberal coalition, through the pro-union Wagner Act.Foner fails to mention that politicians can only gain by giving away taxpayers’ money to public employee union voters. Foner heralds Wisconsin’s progressivism — the first state to grant public employee bargaining rights. He then snidely notes that “Wisconsin was also the home of Joseph McCarthy, and its conservative persona is now in the political ascenda ncy.”
The juxtaposition of the name of McCarthy with conservatism is intended to connect “red scare” mongering with conservatism — the same lessons of classroom discussions and textbooks. But while this partisan might have applauded the consequences of the 2008 elections, nary a word is said about the voters making their wills known in the election of 2010.
Princeton history professor Julian Zelizer, too, writes in CNN that we are seeing “a rather strong assault by conservative forces against the political and policy foundations of the liberal coalition” that “FDR helped to create.”
For these history professors, a liberal coalition is good, but a conservative one is bad. Such one-sided accounts are accompanied by a pedagogy that similarly rejects fairness. History lessons involve group discussions following emotional prompts intended to direct students to feel antipathy for the United States. As they engage in privacy-infringing exercises in anti-bullying lessons, students are emotionally pressured to adopt a pro-gay agenda. “Critical thinking” questions are worded in such a leading way as to be a joke.
Textbooks openly encourage subversion. Mandatory “community service” projects replace contemplative activities and direct students toward liberal causes. Such pedagogy is intended to eliminate the standard of objectivity and independent thought.
Students become incapable of engaging in the kind of reasoned debate that has been the foundation of our system of government.
The display of mob rule in Wisconsin should therefore give us more reason to take back the power from these unionized teachers.Mary Grabar of DeKalb County is a writer and college professor.
–From Maureen Downey’s AJC Get Schooled blog
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110 comments Add your comment
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
March 13th, 2011
9:54 pm
I see. Critical thinking, community service, social justice and collaboration are BAD. Exercising free speech is BAD. Engaging in civil protest (as many of those same said founders did) is BAD. The only people who get bullied are gays. And somehow “critical thinking” and “contemplative activities” are in conflict with one another.
How enlightening.
Didn’t know teaching children to consider issues with a critical mind was a “liberal” thing. So what is the alternative? Passive sheep?
And the idea of “drumming down opposing voices” is downright laughable when you are discussing someone who blatantly said he would not discuss or negotiate or entertain any input from the opposition. I guess political advocates are okay, if they happen to agree with you.
JW
March 13th, 2011
10:03 pm
Thanks, teachers, for your dedication to our children and our communities.
I think that is what Ms. Grabar meant to say, but all the rhetoric got in the way.
irisheyes
March 13th, 2011
10:10 pm
Maybe she would feel more comfortable moving to a place like Texas.
I saw lots of high school students and college students at the WI rallies. I saw some younger kids, but they were with their parents. I guess parents aren’t allowed to teach their kids about social justice either.
“The one-sided presentations of history, and the pedagogical emphasis on critical thinking, collaborative learning, and community service, train students to see the kind of protests in Wisconsin as legitimate civic engagement.” ~ I disagree with the one-sided presentation of history, but emphasizing critical thinking, collaborative learning and community service are BAD ideas?? Plus, the Republicans keep talking about making these drastic cuts so that they aren’t passing the debt “onto our children and grandchildren”. Hello!!! These are the children and grandchildren they are talking about!! Maybe we need to listen to their ideas! Of course, this woman would have written the exact same article in the 50’s and 60’s about the civil rights movement.
ssteacher
March 13th, 2011
10:14 pm
It seems that Mary is of the belief that young people are not capable of forming an opinion and taking action on their own accord. I’m sure she would love the corporate scripts that will one day permeate our classrooms.
It was the compliance and lack of democratic participation of her (and my) generation that allowed the current atmosphere of protests. We were too enamored with trying to get our fair share of money that we failed to recognize the injustices done in our society. It will be these young people who will suffer and create the changes the nation needs because it is for sure Mary’s type will be too busy criticizing those who seek justice and equity in this nation.
Equitas
March 13th, 2011
10:23 pm
The students should not be used in adult labor issues.
The writer is trying to state that there is a fine line
between getting students involved and concerned
about the world around them, and becoming involved
in adult labor disputes. It seems as if sometimes
people seek to burden children with adult issues
earlier than what is necessary, while tolerating
child-like behavior for a longer period of time in
adulthood.
Competitive
March 13th, 2011
10:23 pm
Well said, Ms. Grabar
Atlanta Media Guy
March 13th, 2011
10:32 pm
I would like to see some respect for the WI Republican lawmakers. Banging on the windows of their homes at 6am, threatening death to them and THEIR FAMILIES! Sorry the union has exposed their thug mentality in WI. I’m a Democrat and I’m disgusted at the video of the protesters, their nasty signs and not respecting state property. They do have freedoms but we must have a bit of decorum or we will end up in another Civil War between conservatives, liberals and progressives. Good grief, I can’t recall a minority party shirking their responsibilities as lawmakers for TWO or THREE weeks. Elections have consequences and Walker ran on sound fiscal policy and was elected.
Government employees need to remember they work for US! My conservative friends tell me Obama is loving this since it creates chaos and that is what he wants. I hope their wrong, but I am tired of him voting present on Foreign affairs as well as our overspending and 14 Trillion dollar debt.
Equitas
March 13th, 2011
10:35 pm
The issue is not whether students can form
their own political opinions and take action,
but on whether educators should promote
and tolerate the organized and active presence
of children in a labor dispute. There is a major
difference between children being used to obtain
Civil Rights (which at the time also generated
spirited debate within the movement leadership)
and a labor dispute over collective bargaining.
I hope the collective bargaining rights are restored
,but students should not have had a visible role in
the labor dispute in Wisconsin.
JW
March 13th, 2011
10:56 pm
Is there not a contradiction in complaining about “the pedagogical emphasis on critical thinking” while within the same essay lamenting the elimination of “independent thought”?
d
March 13th, 2011
11:09 pm
The president of the Idaho Education Association recently stated that “you can’t put children first if you put teachers last.”
Dr. King stated, “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically… Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.”
Bobby Kennedy said “Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not?”
I teach Social Studies (which Ms. Grabar seems to think is a bad thing) and I tell my students the reason I want to teach the Social Studies is because it is all about us. My certification is in Geography (where we are and why we are here), History (how we got here), Economics (how we divide our scarce resources), Political Science (how we run our lives and govern ourselves) and Behavioral Science (why we do the things that we do). Does Ms. Grabar truly believe that what is happening in Wisconsin is truly unAmerican? Are we supposed to comply with what our government tells us and not question that which is told to us? Has Ms. Grabar forgotten that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”?
Ok, sure, Mr. Walker was duly elected the governor of Wisconsin, but I would argue that his margin of victory was just over 100,00 votes out of over 2,000,000 cast. I truly believe that by this time next year, if he is still governor, it will be by the skin of his teeth. To those who say that the 14 Democrats who fled Madison were fleeing their responsibilities, I would say, no, they weren’t. If the voices of the minority are going to be silenced by rushed legislation, then that minority has a duty to do whatever is necessary to make sure their voices are heard. If the voices need to be heard from Illinois, then so be it, but I can’t believe anyone who would say that the “budget repair bill” had any shot of a fair hearing in the Wisconsin Senate. I think the manner in which this legislation was handled was what Jefferson meant about government becoming destructive.
Arena
March 13th, 2011
11:10 pm
Most politicians are savvy enough to know those kids are too young to vote so they’ll (hopefully) be ignored. Even when they’re old enough to vote they probably won’t.
Darn Yankee
March 13th, 2011
11:15 pm
Wow. Change agents? I’m lucky if I can get them to do their homework, lol.
On a serious note, I think what we see now is more a symptom of a life less civil that is so common in the US today rather than something that all teachers set out to do. Blowhards like Limbaugh and his ilk have turned discourse into verbal fisticuffs all for the sake of ratings. The internet, social networking, Twitter, and blogs have lead everyone to believe that their opinion is both worthy of print as well as fit for consumption. This blog itself just had a post about the kids and their Facebook problem.
Am I saying that there aren’t teachers out there who do this? No, I’m not that naive. Do I agree with everything going on in WI? No. Do I think some groups, unions and politicians included, have ulterior motives? Absolutely. But you can’t keep stomping on people figuratively and financially and expect them to keep taking it.
Deb
March 13th, 2011
11:16 pm
Teachers need to be free to teach their own humanity in the classroom, but at what point does it cross the line into being considered “manipulation”? If I’m ultra professional in the classroom, I am not being sensitive to my students’ needs. If I am open and direct, I am being unprofessional. When we, as teachers, deal with the public, we are often caught in a Nomansland of crossfire, and depending on the culture of your class, your school, your community, you could be deemed right or wrong. If you are a little ahead-of-your-time, you are too “out there”. If you are behind the times, you aren’t engaging enough. Being a good teacher, IMHO, is like being a good artist, it takes massive amounts of SKILL and not everybody, 100% of the time, is going to like your art work. I feel so beaten down at times … Heck, why doesn’t everybody just home school their own kids? Teachers are said to be too liberal, over-paid, under-performing, socialist, and besides, taxpayers supposedly spend too much on education and never like the results. Everybody needs to downsize and Cut back on expenses and HOME SCHOOL THEIR OWN KIDS, PLEASE, and I’ll find a new line of work. Somebody else can get blamed for everything that is perceived to be wrong. Teaching our educational system is under-valued, under-appreciated and too political. No matter what I do, every single day I feel like I am emotionally or verbally beaten up by somebody – a parent, a student, the media … HOME SCHOOL YOUR KIDS.
Jeff
March 14th, 2011
12:00 am
I have little respect for a college professor who thinks DC has a senator. Maybe “Professor” Graber should have paid a little more attention in her Social Studies classes. DC does not have representation in Congress, only a non-voting delegate. This mistake is huge and puts into question every other claim she makes.
Dekalbite
March 14th, 2011
12:07 am
Here’s Ms. Graber’s website. She clearly has an agenda. Does she actually teach for a college?
http://www.marygrabar.com/
James H. Pittsford III - 26yr UNION MEMBER
March 14th, 2011
12:12 am
If the separatist agenda is successful, who will be left to power the economy? Most of the hoodwinked Republicans who agree with this attack on the working class do not have enough wealth to be included in the spoils. When Adolf Hitler came for the Jews the Gypsies didn’t complain because they weren’t Jewish, when he came for the Gypsies the academics didn’t complain because they weren’t Gypsies, when he came for the academics there was no one left to complain. This is a Republican effort to have a one party system, anyone who disagrees with them must be not only wrong but evil as well. They are bent on retaining power at any cost. They are not concerned with what is best for the country, only in what they need to do to perpetuate their reign. This country was run by a Democratically controlled Congress for forty years after WWII, they rebuilt Europe, won the peace, peacefully replaced an assassinated President, put a man on the Moon and returned him safely to the Earth. This country operates quite well without Reganomics. The reason this country is so far in debt, is because of Republican borrow and spend economics. Tax cuts for the greedy, and a war with an unclear objective. Anyone with less than $1,000,000.00 in a bank somewhere should be screaming like mad. They will come for you next!
HS Public Teacher
March 14th, 2011
12:27 am
LOL! It is always the teacher’s fault, right?
I’ve asked this repeatedly, but no one has ever responded – and I am asking with real hope that there is an answer out there…
There is the Board of Medicine where people that have practiced medicine represent the State of GA. There is the BAR where people that have practiced law represent the State of GA. Then there is the State Board of Education, where seemingly anyone at all can serve – no teaching experience required. Why is this? Why is it that people with not even one day of teaching experience have been leading the State of Georgia in education for decades?
Don’t you think that this might, just maybe, be a major reason Georgia education is in the toilet?
Can you image if the State Board of Medicine was filled with “business people” without any experience practicing medicine?
hypocrites
March 14th, 2011
1:42 am
The author’s use of rhetoric is stunning… ly boring. She also doesn’t seem aware that more egregious examples – such as rewriting history itself – have been perpetrated by her own pet political team. As if the serious concerns about the homosexual agenda weren’t enough to clue you into her extreme reactionary views.
It’s a shame, because I was almost prepared to respect her until I read this:
“I saw a District of Columbia senator encourage teachers to take students as young as 8 to protests on behalf of his pet project — Washington, D.C., statehood.”
Ms. Grabar, the District of Columbia does not have a senator. As an individual writing about the role of politics in education, I would expect you to know simple facts about the political system. I think you’ve spent too much time outside of the classroom.
hypocrites
March 14th, 2011
1:49 am
As if this wasn’t hilarious enough, the author of this piece also published a mary-sue romance novel or something.
http://stkarnick.com/culture/2010/03/12/tcas-fiction-friday-previews-dancing-with-derrida
Again, her rhetoric is as painfully forced as her personality. I wonder what political trauma she endured to become so polar? Immigrant parents?
She describes conservative belief in religious tones:
“My conversion to conservatism was cinched when I returned to school in the master’s program in English in the 1990’s. In spite of the hostility of most of the faculty and the torture of having to wade through postmodern nonsense,”
I bet she thinks of herself as a new Ayn Rand, lmao
AlreadySheared
March 14th, 2011
2:16 am
@Deb,
“Teachers need to be free to teach their own humanity in the classroom” – huh?
Who exactly is in your classroom to LEARN about YOUR humanity?
Fled
March 14th, 2011
4:00 am
Personally, I think republicans should get all the respect they deserve: none at all. I don’t see why people should not speak out about issues they feel passionately about. It seems that Ms. Graber does not realize that we do not need her approval. One might say that her disapproval indicates that something good is happening. She enjoys getting attention for being provocative: fair enough. Just don’t anyone make the mistake of taking her seriously. Can anyone say Ann Coulter wanna-be?
Republicans are disgusting. I don’t know any other word for it. They see people in the Arab world protesting, and they fear democracy (might cost them more at the pump, you know). They see people protesting in the USA and all they can do is jump for joy when another state enters the path of mediocrity Georgia has been on for a long time. Take away everyone’s rights!
Dems also have a lot of problems, but, like Pandora’s box, at least there is some hope when they run things.
The problem I think working-class republicans are going to have is that they are going to be the ones losing real fast now. Do they think Americans are special, that only Americans can think and do maths and figure things out? Think again. I’m not sure what skills Americans can offer that someone in another country cannot offer of the same quality and for less cost. Our only way out is true top-level education, and republicans fear educated voters almost as much as they fear unions.
The best thing about living abroad? No republicans for thousands of miles. What a beautiful thing that is.
FellowSSTeacher
March 14th, 2011
6:16 am
What about science teachers who develop scientists? What about math teachers who mold future engineers and physicists? HS Public teacher is right, it’s always the teachers fault. I grow tired of those who lump teachers into one group or another. Anyone who completes a college degree has come across at least 100 teachers or professors…and all of them are bad? Social studies teachers show students the significance of events. We teach not only what happend, but how and why it happend and why its different from a previous way. Why is getting a child to understand a bad thing all of a sudden?
teacher&mom
March 14th, 2011
6:47 am
I’ll admit it…I try to “manipulate” my students. I guess “The one-sided presentations of science (my word substitution), and the pedagogical emphasis on critical thinking, collaborative learning, and community service, train students to see the kind of protests in Wisconsin as legitimate civic engagement.
Silly me… I thought I was training them to look at the actual science behind the claims and not at the popular political rhetoric.
Yeah….I have encouraged my juniors and seniors to carefully consider political candidates positions’ on climate change and environmental issues before casting a vote. I guess that could be contorted to into a bully pulpit and voter manipulation. In my defense, I was making an argument for not allowing the political pundits to sway them when they had been given a wonderful brain to think for themselves.
And to further prove my “guilt,” I have been known to teach the GPS standards on evolution.
Bring out the stakes and kindling……we have a witch hunt to conduct.
Dunwoody Mom
March 14th, 2011
6:59 am
So, seriously Maureen. Why sully your blog with the nonsense of Ms. Graber? It really is not worth the space here.
catlady
March 14th, 2011
7:12 am
Absolute hogwash.
Again.
Jordan Kohanim
March 14th, 2011
7:36 am
“I have little respect for a college professor who thinks DC has a senator. Maybe “Professor” Graber should have paid a little more attention in her Social Studies classes. DC does not have representation in Congress, only a non-voting delegate. This mistake is huge and puts into question every other claim she makes.”
Very true, Jeff. Still, Ms. Grabar is allowed to make mistakes. Her focus is less on the actualities that exist and more on her theories of how education should work. Even with mistakes, she has the right to voice her theoretical framework.
Dunwoody Mom says:”So, seriously Maureen. Why sully your blog with the nonsense of Ms. Graber? It really is not worth the space here.”
While, I empathize with your frustration, I think, Dunwoody Mom, Maureen is trying to show the flip-side of the teacher/education reform debate. Ms. Grabar has a very clear agenda, and I think Maureen’s goal is to allow people to see both sides of the debate. While I wholeheartedly disagree with Ms. Grabar’s points, I respect her right to voice her opinion.
After all, “Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy.” ~ Jesse Jackson
RIGHT
March 14th, 2011
7:43 am
This whole WI union affair has shown that many teachers have none of the attributes it takes to successfully instruct our children.
Mike Nance
March 14th, 2011
7:53 am
It is pathetic that Ms Grabar chose to smear all teachers as wild-eyed liberals bent on indoctrinating their students because of a few examples she cited. I’d like to invite her to visit my classroom, or the overwhelming majority of my social studies peers who teach students how to evaluate issues. Pathetic, but I suppose not surprising. I’m sure if we just gave every kid (sorry, not “my kids”) a voucher we could avoid such indoctrination.
teacher&mom
March 14th, 2011
8:01 am
I agree that Dr. Graber has a right to her own opinion. I can’t help but wonder what would Dr. Graber teach in a high school classroom? Would she find it difficult to leave her personal philosophies at the door? Or would Dr. Graber be guilty of using her platform as a teacher to further her own personal beliefs?
I also think we don’t give our students enough credit…high school students actually can think for themselves and are not harmed by ideas/values that differ from their own.
Jeff
March 14th, 2011
8:14 am
I am not saying that she does not have a right to her opinion. However, like many far-right she does not let facts stand in the way of truth. If she made up the fact that DC has a senator, then what is to say she did not pull from her imagination the fact of the teacher supported by NPR or the workshop on how to emotionally manipulate students. Unless you attended the workshops there is no proof that they happened. Just make it up. It leaves the whole article in question.
Me
March 14th, 2011
8:16 am
What college does this person work for? Want to be sure none of my money goes there.
Attentive Parent
March 14th, 2011
8:28 am
I hate to break in here but I believe some of the commenters need to practice their reading comprehension skills. “A District of Columbia senator” discussed in the context of a NCSS conference is referring to an NCSS delegate from DC.
Notice that senator is not capitalized. Notice Grabar used the article “a”, not “the”.
HS Public Teacher-I have seen you use this argument before so I am going to address it. Education is funded from the public fisc. About half of local property taxes go for school funding and about half the Georgia state budget goes into education. We put so much of our national resources into education because the knowledge and skills of tomorrow’s adults impacts greatly this country’s future.
Are you really saying that given these facts, only someone with an ed degree has any right to have a say in what goes on in education?
Jeff
March 14th, 2011
8:46 am
Please attentive parent, I have prefectly fine reading comprehension skills. NCSS attendees are not refered to as senators. Maybe Graber’s comprehension skills should be questioned
Inman Park Boy
March 14th, 2011
8:56 am
Teachers engaging in this kind of politocal newspeak should be summarily fired. Period.
A Conservative Voice
March 14th, 2011
9:01 am
The display of mob rule in Wisconsin should therefore give us more reason to take back the power from these unionized teachers.
Hallelujah and Amen……
V for Vendetta
March 14th, 2011
9:18 am
Unions are evil. They are equivalent to thug rule, an example of why the majority is not automatically right. Teachers have no more right to their jobs, benefits, and pay than do employees in the private sector. Our country is hurting; we will ALL feel the effects.
All this thuggish behavior proves is why the public has such a low opinion of teachers.
jarvis
March 14th, 2011
9:29 am
It is illegal to collectively bargain with public funds on the Federal level. I don’t understand why it is acceptable on the state and local levels.
Every demand a pulic employee makes requires money from taxpayers. If it is going to be legal to bargain with public funds, let the taxpayers collecively bargain as the employers.
See how a union likes it when all of their demands end up on a ballot.
teacher&mom
March 14th, 2011
9:36 am
@V — I understand what you are saying in terms of pay, benefits, etc. However, what happens when the door closes on class sizes, curriculum, testing policies, etc? What happens when politicians determine/mandate our curriculum? What happens when legislators fail to uphold contracts (NBC teachers)? Who is there to safeguard against the thuggish behavior of politicians?
I’m a member of PAGE and here is a copy of the email our building rep sent out this morning:
Wisconsin Politics Come to Georgia
Since Georgia is a right-to-work state which has been historically inhospitable to unions, many Gold Dome watchers wondered why Rep. Bobby Franklin dropped a bill this session outlawing collective bargaining. HB 416 defines “labor unions” in very broad terms and encompasses non-union professional organizations like PAGE. At today’s committee meeting, Franklin told House members that he sponsored the bill because of events in Wisconsin and public employees who forget that they are public “servants” and who instead believe that the public serves them. Fortunately, committee members articulated dissatisfaction and potential legal problems with the bill, and the legislation was tabled. Though it is possible that HB 416 might resurface, movement on the legislation is unlikely in light of Wednesday’s looming Crossover Day. Day 30, Crossover Day, is that legislative day by which all legislation must pass one chamber to be eligible to become law.
www.honeyfern.org
March 14th, 2011
9:57 am
Ms. Grabar betrays her own political leanings, and, ironically, uses her piece as a bully pulpit of her own. Was she equally as fervent when the issues were Republican? Or is it just when the bleeding heart, politcially-correct teachers and their Satanic unions are involved?
I agree that the US is less civil, on the whole, but peaceful protest is part of the Constitution, and I’d rather see students out there doing it (in the same manner as Republicans and other groups) than not. Maybe it is uncivil – address that instead.
Springdale Park Elementary Parent
March 14th, 2011
10:05 am
Sorry, teachers–Ms. Grabar is 100% right. If I ever found out that one of you was trying to push ANY sort of social agenda in my kid’s classroom, I’d be in your grille so fast there would be an audible whooshing sound in your classroom.
You do NOT get to bring your politics into the classroom. You do NOT get to teach kids what to think, you get to help their parents teach them HOW to think.
You can’t complain nonstop (the way some of you do here) that you “can’t be the parents” of the kids who attend your school and then, when it suits you, try to usurp that very role.
I often say here that teachers are parents’ allies as we move together toward reforming public education, but some of you are so tone-deaf it’s hard to imagine a post-revolution partnership with you.
td
March 14th, 2011
10:50 am
What teachers should be pushing for is not unions but better civil service rights. Unions have become a totally owned subsidiary of one political party. They look out fore for that one party than they do for what is in the best interest of the members as a whole. I will give an example: I worked and was part of a strong union at Lockheed when Reagan ran for re-election. I went to a union meeting before the election and our president was telling everyone that we had to go out and vote for Mondale for president. Mondale had just said in a debate that he would drastically cut military spending if elected and Reagan had said he wanted to spend more on military spending. We built military aircraft and I asked why we would support someone that would cut the planes that we were building and was told that we had to vote for the Democrat because he would protect our rights to collectively bargain. My thought was collective bargaining gets me nothing when I do not have a job because we are no longer building my plane.
While Civil service protections would not give teachers collective bargaining rights it would give individual teachers the right to practice their trade with political interference. It would also get teachers out of the cross hairs and maybe away from the impression that they are all liberals and only support the democrats.
Cloudy vision
March 14th, 2011
10:51 am
Wait…I know this one. Michele Bachman, right? “If you don’t think like I do, you are a communist”.
Whew, what a relief
March 14th, 2011
10:53 am
Thanks, Springdale Elem parent. Now we can go back to teaching core subjects and drop values education, drug education, health education, and all that other material that implicitly or explicitly directs students to think and behave according to social mores.
HStchr
March 14th, 2011
10:57 am
Teachers have no more right to their jobs, benefits, and pay than do employees in the private sector. Our country is hurting; we will ALL feel the effects.
@V- considering that in total numbers on 36% of ALL public employees are represented by unions, you have little to worry about. And since we are a non-union state, you have nothing to worry about here. In Georgia we’re looking at about a 60% insurance premium increase for state employees (teachers included), frozen salaries, furlough days, and/or reductions in force. Somehow I don’t see that as being oh so much better than the private sector. I think we’re taking As many have said, come do the job and then judge.
I don’t know how I’m suppose to be indoctrinating them– is that in the GPS???
ID-10-T Error
March 14th, 2011
11:09 am
Mary Grabar = Moron.
Springdale Park Elementary Parent
March 14th, 2011
11:27 am
@ relief: if it’s in the curriculum, teach it. If it’s a political view, keep it to yourself. Is that really too hard a distinction for you to make?
If it’s in the curriculum, parents have implicitly approved it, albeit in an indirect manner. If we want to change it, we can. It’s our prerogative. Your role is what we say it is, not necessarily what you think it is. It continues to amaze me that teachers don’t understand who they work for. You work for parents, who are our childrens’ proxies.
But don’t sweat it. As we enter an era where parents, fed up with the poor performance of government-run schools, assert more direct control over our neighborhood schools, the employer-employee relationship will be made more clear to you.
HStchr
March 14th, 2011
11:51 am
Springdale Park- when you run out of “employees” to run over, what will you do for teachers? If you put the same responsibility on parents that we as teachers are expected to have, you’d see a miraculous swing in test scores. I wholeheartedly and willingly answer to parents now and have for all my years as a teacher. If only some of the parents would answer when I call them…
AJinCobb
March 14th, 2011
12:22 pm
@Springdale Park Elementary Parent,
“You do NOT get to bring your politics into the classroom. You do NOT get to teach kids what to think, you get to help their parents teach them HOW to think.”
I think you’re out of touch with reality. Teachers bring their whole selves to the classroom. Inevitably, some of their opinions leak out. Of course they get to teach kids what to think – there’s plenty of knowledge acquisition in K-12 education. Everyone (surely) expects teachers to teach students what to think when the “what” is math facts, Spanish verbs, Revolutionary and Civil War events and dates, etc.
In the course of being educated in Cobb County, my child has been exposed to plenty of right-wing opinions from teachers, that have come across mixed up with the course content, and with which I disagree. I suspect you wouldn’t mind the opinions that bother me – would probably think of them as just simple facts. I don’t complain when the teacher’s opinions don’t agree with mine; I just point out that our family thinks differently. Of course if I thought the propagandizing was egregious I’d complain to the teacher, but I’ve never yet deemed that necessary.
One of the main goals of public education is to mold children into good citizens, with the notion of “good” being aligned with mainstream thought, not necessarily with the parents’ opinions. Parents who can’t tolerate this can – and should – elect for private school or homeschooling, in my opinion. Of course, those options are mostly not available to the poor, however it’s really society’s intent to get hold of their kids and try to turn them out unlike their parents, i.e. turn the kids into self-supporting middle-class strivers.
teacher&mom
March 14th, 2011
12:36 pm
Diane Ravitch has an different take on this issue:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-ravitch/eight-civics-lessons-from_b_835201.html?ir=Education
Warrior Woman
March 14th, 2011
12:44 pm
I’m wiht Springdale Park Elementary Parent – Grabar is right on this one. There is a vast difference between teaching critical teaching skills and teaching students to be protestors, or even taking them to protests. Your personal politics don’t belong in the classroom. If you think they do, then you should reconsider whether you belong in the classroom.
The protestors in WI should have been removed from the buildings and arrested for trepassing or breaking and entering, as appropriate. Those teachers have done much to set back the union movement. The fleeing Dems are derelict in their duty to the people that elected them.