Is it too soon to congratulate Virginia??

Did you see my list above of a teacher's job requirements? Now take all those tasks, the teacher's own family's needs and life. Now factor in 5 parent meetings a week to discuss their pet peeve of of the week (something they've no doubt seen on facebook, or heard from their pastor, or heard on the right-wing radio/tv station of their choice, and try as a teacher to set aside an EXTRA 3-5 hours per week to have those meetings, write them up, and then however many hours needed to mold the curriculum to their idiotic belief system.

It's a wonder we have any teachers at all. If this carries on, the teaching profession will lose the real professionals and the only ones who will go into it are the ones who don't mind being glorified baby sitters and/or have no other good options.

More gaslighting - we're "obtuse" and "insane" for refusing to bow to the whims of people's religious beliefs in public schools. Nope. Not buying it.

We're not the ones creating anger, frustration, and dissonance in the public schools. It's all the crazy parents. I'm not teaching lies to satisfy your religious beliefs. You can do that at home.

You started out by saying you were frustrated by your school's inability to be "transparent" about the impossibility of teaching all of world history completely in one year. You started out complaining about worksheets. But really it comes down to the fact that you want teachers to do the job you should be doing at home in reinforcing your personal moral code. And that is simply not going to happen. That's not being inflexible; that's protecting the integrity of our curriculum. If you don't like it, please take your child to religious school.

I'd rather lose my job entirely than be expected to teach things that aren't factually true, or omit things that are factually true, or spend hours altering my carefully constructed curriculum to appease a noisy parent. You admit it's ridiculous to expect us to take in and apply the opinions of 750 parents, but you seem to feel we should take in and apply *your* specific concerns or suggestions for curriculum in our individual classrooms. And no. Not going to happen.

BTW, how do you expect students to learn to think critically if they're never exposed to viewpoints other than the ones taught at home? 

It's what the GOP/religious right have wanted for decades. Just private schools, funded by the government.

www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-right-real-origins-107133/

YES, this!!
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Also posted on previous page
Conservatives, especially the Christian right, have long taken a dim view of raising kids who can think for themselves. Their view is children should be "trained" to be obedient and submissive. Under the guise of "parents' rights," the Christian right is mainstreaming their hostility to the very idea that children have a right to an education. In this case, the right of a child to have a proper education that teaches critical thinking and intellectual curiosity.

www.rawstory.com/school-board-meeting-2655504210/

So I'm first going to acknowledge a lot of issues being discussed here, as well as some of the underlying drivers. BUT, I am extremely concerned that concentrating on the fringe, or most extreme component is causing people to miss how well this "movement" is picking up steam and drawing in parents who are far from extreme or nutjobs.

I will again point out the stats in my county - Biden won 80% of the vote in the last election, Trump could only manage 14%. Only 12% of people identify as very religious, with almost 2/3rs considering themselves not religious at all. Some site lists our county as one of the least religious in the entire country. Our schools' incorporated gender neutral bathrooms without any controversy at all and the support for LBQT is vibrant and while probably not universal - extremely robust.

How in the world could someone talking about parent involvement and CRT get 40% of the vote in a school board election? In the last election, the Republicans couldn't even find someone to RUN for the state representative race. This is no hotbed of conservatism or religious right or any of the other drivers people want to point use to explain what's happening.

I KNOW how hard the last 2 years have been for teachers. 2 of my cousins are teachers, as well as 2 of my closest friends. I've watched them struggle through the pandemic. Personally I think so many of the issues had more to do with how our society values or not education than anything else. And many of the administrators and politicians were just freaking stupid on so many levels - but somehow instead of parents and teachers pulling together, they became enemies.

The rhetoric on both sides is BAD - really bad. And I'll also say - there are a TON of students who are also struggling terribly. And unfortunately I think it's caused some desperation in some parents. One of my cousins works with ESL and ELL students and they are still so far from getting the support they desperately need. Parents who've worked so hard to get IEP and 504s in place, but are completely unable to see them implemented.

There is absolutely a component of complete wackadoodles - probably in some places the concentration is extremely high - but there are also a lot of parents who are genuinely concerned about their children. And they really don't want to micromanage teachers or dictate curriculum - but the DO want to be heard- and feel like things are moving in the right direction post pandemic. And right now unfortunately the only people who seem to be listening are the extremist and that's a terrible combination.

As I said from the outset, I don't have easy answers - but I'm genuinely concerned that things are going to get a whole lot worse.

I work as a paraprofessional in an elementary school, 1/2 day in a kindergarten class and the other half in a first grade classroom. So many of the kids are struggling both socially and academically. Many of them missed out on in person preschool. Our school was in person all of last year, but there were so many restrictions because of covid. Kids were not allowed to share materials and missed out on a lot of the social interactions, both in school and after school. Many of the things we would normally expect the first graders to be able to do independently, they need assistance to complete. Simple things like lining up didn't happen last year. Specials and lunch were all in the classroom, they only left for PE and recess. They didn't eat in the cafeteria, so the first grade lunch is really chaotic. The precautions were important to keep the kids safe and I know how hard the teachers worked through covid. Despite the teachers best efforts, there will be repurcussions for a long time. I can see how parents are frustrated with schools because of remote learning, restrictions and delays with their kids.

Initially, when schools switched to remote there were all kinds of memes and instagram posts about the value of teachers. But, the longer that dragged on, parents became resentful. In my opinion, teachers are being blamed for many things that are out of their control.

On the other hand, at my school, I know some of the staff and teachers felt expendable. Some of us felt that our administration prioritized being in person over our health and safety.

I think there are hard feelings all around.

Parents are objecting to the divisiveness of HOW the students are being taught. They're also objecting to the steering away from critical thinking by HOW the students are being taught. The shaming when they actually employ critical thinking and don't come up with what amounts to the "approved conclusion".

And yes, it's being dismissed as "anybody objecting is just a racist".
By the same mentality that claims the only reason anyone disagrees with Obama's policies is because they're a racist" then do a back flip to say the only reason a black woman got elected is because "the people that elected her love white supremacy".

It's completely indisputably irrational. 

I think some of us are conflating two issues here. Having concerns about learning and social emotional loss from last year is not remotely the same thing as wanting to control which age-appropriate books are in the school library based on your religious views, or wanting schools to teach only a whitewashed version of history for the comfort of white kids (or, more accurately, their parents).

But yeah, many of us are feeling thrown under the bus by parents and the system in general. Regardless of what anyone may think, we’re the ones showing up every day and doing our best for kids. Now, after a year in which many of us were shamed into risking our lives and health for the sake of said kids, and/or required to teach through two modes last year to keep every parent happy, we’re also being told that if we include a book or lesson that features the lived experiences of marginalized groups, we’re “indoctrinating” kids or incompetent and need the oversight of the same parent groups who threw us under the bus and demanded these things in the first place.

I do not believe for a moment that these parent groups have the best interest of school kids at heart. They have their own political and religious desires foremost. The teachers who show up to do that job every day are the ones working for kids.

We as a society need to back up and take a hard look at what we’re expecting of public schools for the amount we’re willing to pay - if indeed we’re interested in improving schools. But the thing is that the political interests behind these groups have a stated goal to destroy public schools, not improve them. So you’ll have to excuse us if we’re not inclined to take marching orders from the parents, however well meaning, who have been roped into that ridiculously transparent effort.

My primary concern is making sure that ALL the kids I teach get the best I can give them, and that means making sure that the first grader with two dads sees herself represented in literature and the fifth grade boy realizing he’s gay doesn’t feel marginalized. It means making sure that all of my students, including my students of color - and they outnumber white students 2:1 at my school - feel understood, seen, and celebrated, to the extent I can do that in the time I have with them. It also means spending extra time on SEL this year, and spending extra time teaching kids how to be successful in school, and frankly, I don’t have time for additional concerns because I also have content to teach.

I can’t change what happened during the pandemic, but I can guarantee you that whatever years I have left in teaching will be spent working and fighting for kids. All kids. I am continually listening, reading, and reflecting on my practice to do better for kids. I have no confidence that the parents who demand to ransack school libraries and preview lessons are similarly invested in all kids. I have no confidence that most parents who make noise want to help teachers and improve schools. All that was broken last year.

If indeed there are parents who want to help who have gotten mixed in with the parents who want to destroy, they need to separate themselves from those politically motivated groups ASAP. We can’t be expected to sort the lifeboats from the bombs when we’re all drowning.

What evidence do you have that this is actually happening in schools?

The 2016 election was in part, a reaction and backlash to having a black president.  Anyone that insists it had nothing to do with race is just ignorant.  Some of the voters in Virginia that voted for a black lieutenant governor also elected Youngkin who stirred up fear, racism and bigotry.  The Republican party has embraced white supremacy and domestic terrorists like the Oath Breakers.  It's entirely possible to be racist and vote for a black lieutenant governor.  They're not mutually exclusive. I'm guessing that many who voted for her are uninformed and don't even know that she's black.  She has a R after her name, that's all that matters.

It’s not a guess that voters are uniformed or vote purely on party lines.

www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/social-media-disinformation-leads-election-security-concerns-poll-finds

www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2020/07/30/americans-who-mainly-get-their-news-on-social-media-are-less-engaged-less-knowledgeable/

www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/glenn-youngkin-wins-virginia-governor-race-rcna4316

The Youngkin campaign discovered that this contingent of angry, willfully ignorant white people was the key ingredient needed to elect a GOP governor in Virginia for the first time since 2009.


Furthermore, both candidates for lieutenant governor in Virginia are women of color.  So, the election of a woman of color does not in any way prove that Virginia voters were not motivated by racism.

apnews.com/article/religion-elections-united-states-campaigns-virginia-e770166758d1e321431bc20829b89a9f

Also, the McAuliffe campaign was not involved in the “hoax” as you claim.

www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/nov/01/facebook-posts/virginia-democratic-party-mcauliffe-campaign-not-i/

And you conveniently ignored my question about evidence that teachers are steering away from teaching children to think critically.

You SAID "I'm guessing that many who voted for her are uninformed and don't even know that she's black. She has a R after her name, that's all that matters."




It certainly doesn't prove that they are.




He actually tweeted that "it should disqualify Youngkin".




You conveniently ignored the evidence I already posted.

Find Just because I provided only proof of 2 out of thousands experiencing it, doesn't mean they don't exist. Clearly they do. More evidence is in the election and NOT voting in the guy who said parents shouldn't have a voice in their child's education. 




I did not say, that it was proof they weren't racist. I pushed back against the assertion that voting for her IS proves they are racist.
I didn't see any evidence, that election was based on race. I saw a lot of assertions that it was, that's not evidence.


I never claimed he was involved. I said "McAuliffe used a racist hoax against his opponent. IF he didn't set it up, he certainly did use it to try to "disqualify" Youngkin. And he lost." Not moving any goal posts. They remain in the original place.





Just because you don't like the evidence and it shows you something you don't want tp believe, doesn't mean I didn't provide any, or that those people don't exist in the thousands.

Evidence that the Virginia race was based in part on race, not just an assertion.

from the article linked

Call it a "racist dog whistle," as McAuliffe did; call it white grievance, but Democrats have to come up with a convincing way to answer the (often false) charges about how children are being taught about structural racism in schools.