Why do I have to deal with this garbage?

[#shooter]

Welcome to the wonderful world of public education. You pay taxes through the nose and get children who have been brainwashed with left wing socialist crap. Plus, they can barely read. Forget about math.

What have you paid for? Eleventy billion hours of sex education where your child has learned to wink at any and all sexual perversions.

(What in the is there to teach, for that length of time, about that subject, anyway?)

Public schooling is nothing more than government indoctrination. Socialists run the system and are determined to run your children.

Note the following:

Source: Congressional Record. January 10, 1963. Hon. A. S. Herlong, Jr. of
Florida, in the House of Representatives. Thursday, January 10, 1963. Mr. Herlong: "Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America. At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen: (Current Communist Goals)

(Note: he included some 50 specifics. I list only one.)

#17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

Watch out! Many socialist public schools also transmit communist brainwashing signals from the school radio and TV antennas. Hurry, we better stock up on aluminum foil before it’s too late.

 

[Robert Hairless]

Hmmmm. I think my approach would be considerably more low-key.

Rather than writing a letter to the principal, the school board, the public newspaper, and everyone else in sight -- I'd talk to the teacher.

When I talked to the teacher, I wouldn't even bother with stuff like 2nd Amendment, RKBA, all that. Instead, I would focus on my son. I would talk about how our family spends time at the range together, how it is a bonding and positive experience for him. I would talk about how excited he was by his new BB gun, how wonderful it is that he is learning to be safe and careful with it, and how taking him along to the range is helping me teach him to be a responsible person.

I would talk about how my son really loves spending time together with me, and about how we're looking forward to hunting together in the years to come. Or about how I'm looking forward to passing along the wonderful history of guns (and would hit this point especially hard if I had a family story like a grandfather who helped liberate Europe & has heritage guns to pass along).

And then I would mention how my poor son's little heart was just crushed to discover that his teacher thinks guns are always evil. I'd tell her that what she said really wasn't appropriate for the classroom (especially since she was handing out papers with pictures of guns!), and that it was driving a wedge between me and my son. That it was causing him to feel unhappy, torn, disloyal, and confused.

And then I'd shut up and look her in the eye and ask, "What are you going to do about this?" And I would keep my mouth shut and my eye on her while she answered. Silence is a very effective bargaining tool.

If the answer was unsatisfactory, then I'd mail that letter to the principal. But not until then.

pax

Your approach is much better than the one I suggested.

 

[colt.45]

she shouldnt get paid to brainwash kids into hating guns. he has no right to infringe on how parents want to teach their kids. man that burns me up

 

[PinnedAndRecessed]

Trolls.

(Rolls eyes.)

 

[akodo]

Huh?

Health care reform is a complex and politically loaded tpoic. It has no place in a grammar school curriculum. How can it possibly be "acceptable" for a grammar school teacher to be offering his/her opinion on such a topic to his/her students?

For that matter why is it acceptable for a teacher to offer that a Ford is better than a Chevy (or the opposite)? It's one thing if they make CLEAR that "I like Fords," but it's very different if they convey the impression that Fords are somehow "better than" Chevies.

those were examples of ones where the response need not be all that extreme. A simple phonecall would do the trick. Other issues are more important, and require more drastic invervention if they occur.

 

[Kager]

Stay calm and talk it over with the teacher first, Don't give her any reason to believe that she was right about gun owners being crazy.
It is all very well to talk about how teachers should be totally free of bias, but at the end of the day Teachers are real people just like us and its a fact of life that they will have their own biases and opinions. Just like us. Think about it for a second would you be happier for your child to be taught by some zombie/robot with no desires/ aspirations/ opinions/?

With that off my chest, I'll now say that I was home schooled from grade 2. And boy am I grateful to God and my parents for this. We used the ACE Curriculum through a private school. It has given me an excellent grounding. Every parent should seriously look at this option.

HS taught me not to "follow the crowd," and to stick up for what was right even if I was on my own.

Lastly a word of warning take good care of your kids NOW. YOU should be the the person they look back to, rely on, and have good memories of lessons learned. Not some pinko gun grabbing liberal teacher.

Have a nice day,

Josh

 

[Zundfolge]

Trolls.

(Rolls eyes.)

Care to elaberate?

 

[AStone]

skills a president should have

And then I'd shut up and look her in the eye and ask, "What are you going to do about this?" And I would keep my mouth shut and my eye on her while she answered. Silence is a very effective bargaining tool.

Again, I write: pax for pres, 20__.

President of what, you ask?

I don't know.

School board?
NRA?
University board of regents?
USA?

Choose one or more.

 

[scbair]

Pax is more eloquent and patient than I. I would meet face-to-face with the teacher, and explain that her comment to my son led to an excellent opportunity. I had seized that opportunity to explain to my son that anyone with a fear of an inanimate object (be it firearm, locomotive, or surfboard) suffers from a form of mental deficiency, and is to be pitied. Anything that person says must then be carefully analyzed to discern fact from delusion.

I would then sit quietly and await (and observe) the response.

 

[engineer151515]

I regret not sending my two children to private school. Although I thought the money just wasn't there at the time, I now believe I should have taken a third job just to make it happen. It is perhaps the biggest single thing I would change regarding their upbringing.

I started my children's schooling being the biggest parent supporter a school system could ask for. I've ended (youngest graduates high school this spring) refusing to have anything to do with public schools. I have nothing good to say for them (and my kids attended, what is regarded in this area, an "above average" or "good" school system).


Do your family a favor. Private school if it is at all possible.

 

[YellowLab]

Teachers have a simple job, regurgigate the same lesson plan you did last year.

Is it that booring that you need to make stuff up and put your personal life into your job? If I pay to get my car painted blue, and you paint it red (cause you believe that its a nicer color) does that in any way make it right?

I've been in public, military and college schools. Nothing in them was engaging, interesting or that difficult. I didn't do good at algebra but picked up Trig on my own (damn those triangles!). I tried to take a physics class but the teacher would not enroll me because I *might* fail. I said I didn't care and it sounded like a fun class. No joy.

Teachers are overrated, overpaid and over the top. They are not the gatekeepers of the next generation, they are glorified babysitters and need to act as one.

If you kid is a sloth, well, congratulations on the next head fry cook at McD's. Don't expect that teacher (who probibly graduated at the bottom of thier class) to motivate, inspire or encourage them... ITS NOT THIER JOB. ITS YOURS.

I tell my girldfriends kid all the time (she's 13). Nothing you learn in school will get you a job, what you do on your own iniative will. I've been an employee and employeer... NOTHING in school got me where I am today.

 

[asknight]

I tell my girldfriends kid all the time (she's 13). Nothing you learn in school will get you a job, what you do on your own iniative will. I've been an employee and employeer... NOTHING in school got me where I am today.

There is a lot of truth in what you said, but I must limit the statement to high school and college. I must assert that elementary school, where you learn to read, write, and basic arithmetic, is very important for all tasks in life. After you have those three tools, you have the power to learn on your own. One of the smartest men I know is an eighth grade dropout, and earns a very respectable yearly salary. I understand that he is likely an anomaly.

Not everyone has the ability to read something and then know and understand it from that lesson. More people have the ability than those who admit it. I assume it's a boredom issue, or naturally short attention spans at certain ages. Which brings me to another problem I have with current schools. What's the friggin deal with trying to diagnose every individual with ADD/ADHD and forcing them to be placed on terrible drugs? Everyone with a grain of common sense can remember that we all had short attention spans when we were prepubescent and into the early puberty stages of life.

I have had to be absolutely rude to two elementary school teachers who outright told me to put my children on Ritalin or they would be kicked out of class. My point at the meeting with school administrators was that I will not allow my children to be drugged into being compliant, subdued, and without character just to make the teacher's job easy. It goes without saying that both of these teachers were in their mid-twenties and recent graduates of the liberal university system. Too, I took offense to many of the posters on the walls such as "A good student is a quiet student", "To be successful, you must do what you are told."

Anyway, sorry for the long rant. I felt the need to vent a little steam, perhaps hoping that someone else out there is in the same situation and feels the same way about it.

 

[T. Bracker]

Teachers are overrated, overpaid and over the top. They are not the gatekeepers of the next generation, they are glorified babysitters and need to act as one.

I tell my girldfriends kid all the time (she's 13). Nothing you learn in school will get you a job, what you do on your own iniative will. I've been an employee and employeer... NOTHING in school got me where I am today.

Hmm,
Now, I am an instructor for medical students and you are saying that all their education ( and mine) doesn't have anything to do with getting and doing their job? Make sure you tell your own doctor, accountant, attorney, etc. that all their education is worthless. I am sure you will like the response.

As far as teachers being overrated, overpaid etc., do you really believe that? Teachers are like every other profession, there are always a few bad apples in every barrel. And I would be careful about stereotyping every teacher as "last in their class", I know some pretty smart teachers. Were they all perfect? No. Just as you or I are also not perfect. Just something to think about.

 

[Hellenistic Riot]

<>

I think they meant teachers of K-12.

 

[SeanSw]

I disagree entirely. Teachers are some of the most underpaid people in the country. They make FAR LESS than a babysitter would, especially if you factor in the amount of children they "sit" and the time they spend watching them.

I won't defend all teachers but I see nothing easy about the profession. The great teachers are forced to conform with lousy material and the lousy teachers slide by, just like they would in any other job they fell into.

 

[hot head]

I don't like your sons teacher

My nephews,9,10 and 11 all love to shoot my wepons. from my .22 to my sping 1911 .45 and they all have verry good gun safety. you should see my 9 year old shoot my rockriver ar15 ,223 .He hits my empty beer can at 50m and if I don't keep an eye on him he will shoot my full ones to .

 

[M.E.Eldridge]

The English teacher I had in high school as a freshman absolutely refused to tell us his political and religous beliefs. If a poltical argument or point came up he'd say everything he knew about both sides of the subject and leave it up to us to discuss/decide our opinions on the issue. Most passionate teacher I ever met.

I paid much more attention to him than anyone else simply because he was never trying to force his opinions on us. Some of the other teachers would alsways talk about what was wrong with the president, governor, mayor, school counsel, hunters,etc.

One even had the nerve to call me to see her after class under the guise of talking about an essay I had turned in.I assumed it would be over some grammer/spelling/compostion type problems. Nope. She called me in so she could tell me that she thought hunting was evil and all that crap. After school I promptly related this experience to the principal and he apologized earnestly and said that he would take care of it. She left me and the other kids I knew that hunted alone after that.

I think outrage is the appropriate reaction. If she had told your kids to cross out the picture of a black man because she didn't like blacks, then everyone would be up in arms and demanding a public retraction and/or apology for her opinions. Just because her sentiments against your way of life have nothing to do with your skin color or sexual preferance doesn't me you have no right to be outraged.

 

[Darth Ruger]

Lots of good replies here, thanks for the tips. Unfortunately I'm at Kinko's at the moment and I don't have time right now to read them all (I've been without a computer for a few months. Mine blew up. I'm hoping to have it replaced this week.) I want to read more of this thread (I was surprised to see so many replies after two days). But I'll definitely deal with the problem and update it here. Thanks again.

 

[cosine]

Edited. Remarks made in the heat of the moment removed.

 

[GunnySkox]

My history teacher in high school was a stand-up guy, too. He had a real passion for teaching history, and I think he did everything he could to give us the straight dope and the proper skills for interpreting information (as history is written by people, and isn't always just empirical data, it's important to be able to work out people's biases and be aware of them as you work around them). If anyone ever pressed him for a political or religious opinion, he'd flat out refuse to give it, excusing himself from the conversation with something along the lines of "That's not my job. If you want to come to me after school and talk about politics, then you can, but not in class."

The Defenestration of Prague is still my favorite historical event ever.

~GnSx
I need to write an email to him, speaking of which...

 

[OEF_VET]

Teachers have a simple job, regurgigate the same lesson plan you did last year.

Is it that booring that you need to make stuff up and put your personal life into your job? If I pay to get my car painted blue, and you paint it red (cause you believe that its a nicer color) does that in any way make it right?

I've been in public, military and college schools. Nothing in them was engaging, interesting or that difficult. I didn't do good at algebra but picked up Trig on my own (damn those triangles!). I tried to take a physics class but the teacher would not enroll me because I *might* fail. I said I didn't care and it sounded like a fun class. No joy.

Teachers are overrated, overpaid and over the top. They are not the gatekeepers of the next generation, they are glorified babysitters and need to act as one.

If you kid is a sloth, well, congratulations on the next head fry cook at McD's. Don't expect that teacher (who probibly graduated at the bottom of thier class) to motivate, inspire or encourage them... ITS NOT THIER JOB. ITS YOURS.

I tell my girldfriends kid all the time (she's 13). Nothing you learn in school will get you a job, what you do on your own iniative will. I've been an employee and employeer... NOTHING in school got me where I am today.

You, sir, need to spend some serious time with a teacher, as an observer. By that, I mean spend time watching them grade papers, write lesson plans, spend a LOT of their own money on supplies because the school can't afford the needed materials, writing progress reports, preparing for and conducting parent-teacher conferences, and taking continuing professional development courses.

I dare you to come tell my wife, who teaches fourth grade in a private, Christian school, that line of bull you typed.

Teachers are not overrated, overpaid, or over the top. If you can read this, thank a teacher. Because you darn sure didn't come out of the womb able to read it. Someone, somewhere, took the time to teach you how to read it. Chances are, they got paid a lot less than they had the potential to earn. My wife has a Bachelor's from Vanderbilt Unversity (Cum Laude) in Elementary Education and Psychology, with a minor in English, as well as a Master's in Education (with a 4.0 GPA in Grad school), also from Vanderbilt. She could reasonably find a job making a heck of a lot more than the $35,000 a year she makes teaching. However, she does it because she loves it. She feels that God put her on Earth to teach children.

Teachers are far from being glorified babysitters. Babysitters don't teach your kids to read, write, or do arithmetic, nor do they teach them about physical and social sciences, or about the fine arts. Of course, your kids will probably be home-schooled, since you have such little faith in teachers. That's probably a good thing, though. America's teachers have enough to deal with. They don't need another parent who thinks that he can do their job better than they can. Afterall, they're the ones with an education centered around teaching kids.

In short, teaching is not a simple job. It is chock full of demands. I've faced down the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, as well as the Serbian military in Kosovo, and I wouldn't want to teach elementary school. I've led men in combat, with all of the responsibility which that entails, and I would be afraid to be responsible for the formation of the minds of 20 or so children, five days a week, nine months a year, for 40 or more years. That's a daunting proposition.

Teaching a six year old how to read or do math is not as simple as teaching an 18-year old Private how to toss a grenade or call for and adjust artillery fire.

 

[RFM]

From antsi:
“Surely you have encountered the circumstance where if you said something to a little kid that turns out to be mistaken they will say "you lied!"
- Nope, I’ve never been wrong

From antsi:
“Again, it's concrete thinking that is normal for that stage of childhood.”
- I don’t know if I agree with that statement. I have a 6 year old cousin who’s always questioning authority and saying stuff like, that doesn’t make any sense. Of course, she might not be a normal child. My parents think she’s one of those Indigo or Crystal children. She’s very smart.

Hypothetical question:
What should a teacher do if they have a little racist Nazi in their classroom? What if it obvious that the parents are teaching their child to hate? Is it the teachers responsibility to intervene and undermine the authority of the crazy parents? What to do???