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August 11, 2020

Schoolteachers worrying about parents overhearing their brainwashing of students in online classes

By Thomas Lifson

The teachers' unions might want to re-think their opposition to re-opening schools, given the priority some of them place on ideological indoctrination that can't withstand the scrutiny of parents.  Hank Berrien of The Daily Wire spotted a Twitter thread (now taken down, of course) in which public school teachers fretted over the possibility of parents finding out how their own children were being proselytized into radical doctrines on race and sexuality.

School, AKA indoctrination center.

On Saturday, a teacher posted a thread on Twitter in which he bemoaned the possibility that parents who had access to watching their children's virtual classrooms would do damage to "honest conversations about gender/sexuality" that teachers would have with students.

The teacher, Matthew R. Kay, who was a founding teacher at Science Leadership Academy (SLA), a partnership high school between the School District of Philadelphia and The Franklin Institute, and authored the book,  Not Light, But Fire: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in t..., wrote:

So, this fall, virtual class discussions will have many potential spectators — parents, siblings, etc. — in the same room.  We'll never be quite sure who is overhearing the discourse.  What does this do for our equity/inclusion work?

How much have students depended on the (somewhat) secure barriers of our physical classrooms to encourage vulnerability?  How many of us have installed some version of "what happens here stays here" to help this?

While conversations about race are in my wheelhouse, and remain a concern in this no-walls environment — I am most intrigued by the damage that "helicopter/snowplow" parents can do in honest conversations about gender/sexuality …

And while "conservative" parents are my chief concern — I know that the damage can come from the left too.  If we are engaged in the messy work of destabilizing a kids racism or homophobia or transphobia — how much do we want their classmates' parents piling on?

A Twitter account titled "Low and Slow" captured and highlighted some of the tweets:

Low&Slow

@ClaudesBBQ

Why shouldn't parents hear your "discourse". @MattRKay is hiding comments, he will not be able to hide this one. Parents pay attention to what your kids are being taught.

12:41 PM · Aug 9, 2020

233

232 people are Tweeting about this

Hank's colleague Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire also mined the thread for revealing insights into the attitudes of teachers who see their job as changing the values of students away from their parents' preferences and toward the radical left, as well as those who are not on board with the brainwashing express:

It's important to note that while some teachers responded to Kay's comments with the appropriate level of horror and disgust, many others chimed in to share their own strategies for brainwashing during a pandemic. One teacher said she'd also been "thinking about" the problem Kay described, and had decided that she'd ask students about their preferred pronouns via survey — though she still worries that "caregivers" might see it and learn something about their children that they weren't supposed to know. 

Another teacher said that students last semester would sometimes "type secrets into the chat" whenever the discussion turned to "anti-racism and gender inclusive content." Another complained that a white parent— she made sure to specify "white" — in her district recorded a Zoom class and "filed a complaint against the teacher for an anti-racist read aloud (saying the teacher's commentary was inappropriate and biased)." This, the teacher says, "is going to be an issue."

A ninth grade teacher shared in the commiseration, saying that her class required students to "read and respond to a news article," but that participation in this exercise is stunted now because "outsiders" are "listening." The "outsiders," to be clear, are the children's parents. A teacher with pronouns listed in her Twitter handle said that she plans to use the chat function more than voice lectures because she wants children to share "information" with her in a "parentless way." A science teacher agreed with all of the sentiments expressed here and summarized it bluntly: "Parents are dangerous." 

And these are just the comments that were captured in screenshots before the tweets were all made private. Presumably, there is more where this came from. A lot more.

Teachers in government-run schools are public employees, obviously, and parents have a right to know how their children are being taught, using their tax dollars.  If the views of the teacher can't withstand parental scrutiny, then the teacher should either stop or be removed from the classroom.

I realize that some states forbid the recording of classroom activities, but I believe that this is mistaken.  In my book, all classroom dialogue ought to be placed online so that parents and other taxpayers can monitor how public employees are performing their public duties.  Covert indoctrination of children is an abomination.

Let the sun shine!

Photo via https://www.goodfreephotos.com.