Activist teachers brainwashing children

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I can accept that we have different requirements for synthesizing information. With that in mind, at least one person identified themselves as a camp counselor (chaperone - for the benefit of your translator).

The presenter's selection and editing does not allow for much context outside of his narrative. In fact, even the teacher reading from a Martin Luther King book about his realization that he'd been arrested because the police (in the race segregated south) were racists is intended to support the idea that an honest reflection on the history of the United States has no place in elementary school. Seriously?

Even if you believe political affiliation should have something to do with the teacher licensing process or that children shouldn't be taught history - and I hope you don't - the selection of clips is hardly representative of all teachers.

But it represents part of them.
This is exactly what I highlighted in my last post.

Ignoring these people is harmful, no matter which faction they belong to.
Even if their political stance is close to mine - and that actually makes things even more harmful.
I've learned enough lessons from similar experiences.
Ignoring/conceal these people, even without taking into account the ammunition this provides for the opposition, we will lose the support of the centrists and even gain their hatred for it—which isnt conducive to the real realization of our claims.

If these people are not actually a high percentage, it means it is not "too late."
On the Chinese internet, which I am more familiar with, things are beyond redemption, which is why I left there.
"Don't shoot the messenger."no matter which faction he belong to.
Refusal to refer to this outside perspective will allow "us" to destroy ourselves.

Seems a strange matter to raise in a country that tries to indoctrinate all its schoolkids into patriotism, with a flag in every classroom and a compulsory pledge of allegiance every day. At least so I'm told. I've never seen the inside of an American school for myself. Still, I think it would be interesting to adopt a policy of encouraging kids to make up their own minds as far as possible. My own (UK) education was rather mixed in that respect, but apart from early scripture lessons, religious assembly and a few insinuations about morality they didn't push many matters of opinion, and towards the end they even stopped trying to force us to sing their hymns, we just had to open our hymn books and stand up and sit down at the required times.

If this describes American education. I just searched a little bit about it.
I was shocked by this.
I don't understand why anyone would accuse China of cultivating nationalism.
In China at least, if it's not a national day, a flag-raising ceremony, or to represent the country internationally, using flag elements or singing the national anthem can be embarrassing to many.

We almost agree on this. However, I would suggest that using the public education system to advance or attack a political ideology in any direction by means of exaggeration, misrepresentation of facts, and using that as a basis for restricting the ability of educators to teach is a blow to the optimum educational development of children.

"Radical" elementary teachers are rarely ignored in the United States - plenty of teachers lose their licenses. Teaching that Martin Luther King fought against racism, however, is not radical by any objective means. (My support of you as a non-binary person is, in certain contexts, far more radical.)

If you are unfamiliar with the school system here, I would invite you to exercise your critical thinking skills and consider, once again, the motives, credibility, and rationality of the presenters who compiled these representations of teachers in the United States.

I do not doubt what you have seen in your country.

I've since read that the loyalty pledge thing is technically optional in US schools, though few opt out. It needs a letter from parents.

I had a similar problem during my son's education when a teacher was trying to force him to sing hymns. He asked me to get them off his back, so I phoned the teacher who was unhelpful. The headmaster suddenly took over the call and was equally unhelpful at the time, and put the phone down on me, but after that they quietly stopped forcing him. I presume they knew of some law I might have invoked that said they couldn't force religion like that, but that they didn't want to openly admit they were backing off.

I was surprised how my friends reacted - my wife said she thought such "religious education" would be generally good for his morals (though she was secular AFAIK), and a secular, left-wing activist said she thought I shouldn't interfere. I got the impression that people are rather afraid of challenging authority, though it worked. So although we probably have the opt-out right, few parents dare to exercise it even when they don't believe the things their kids are being told to say. I don't know what happens legally when one parent wants to do the opt-out and the other doesn't.

Stop living in denial. Issues like LGBTQI+, BLM, Climate change are part a larger conspiracy. It involves getting control of education and media. Corrupting political parties. Pedophilia and Freemasonry are part of the control mechanism. Been planned for a long time. I don't have all the details and answers but to suggest that there is nothing going on around here defies your own eyes.

This is the only copy of this book I can find online. It was published a while ago. The site it's on entertains many conspiracy theories and other material I have not read. Don't dismiss this book by association. Obviously it's in early 90s html but focus on the content about public relations, manipulation and history.

BRAINWASH - Alan Gourley

This is the challenge at the start of the book.
CHALLENGE
Over the years of this work I have tried to make these books both readable and reliable. As this book is expected to be the keystone of the series it seems appropriate that I issue a personal challenge to readers.

The challenge: I offer $10,000 to the first person who can disprove (or show to be in serious error) my thesis that there is an elite of "Mafia style families", whose activities can be reasonably described as criminal, actively exploiting humanity and planning dictatorial world government.

You might also enjoy Black Lives Matter
Communism behind BLM and Extinction Rebellion

ps Plot twist: The supporters of LGBTQI+, BLM, Climate change and communism will be the first executed or imprisoned. This is because they will feel entitled to participate in the ruling class. And that is NOT part of the agenda.

Last edited by flamingshorts on 20 Apr 2022, 9:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It's quite difficult to teach unbiased views, though, particularly to young children - because a lot of what they are taught is also part of raising them to be young adults, who then may be capable of understanding the idea behind why they were raised the way they were.
I mean: you have to get children to bejave properly first - but what does "properly" mean? - to treat the teacher with respect? But isn't that already biased towards authoritarianism?
That's one dilemma. The other is that the very categories used to talk about stuff shape the way stuff can be talked about. I.e., a question of whether it is good or bad to be gay already frames it as an either-or moral situation. So the unbiased way would be to say "gay people exist" - but what about transgender people? Are there transgender people or are there metely people who think they are transgender? One frames being transgender as a fact in the world, the other frames it as a belief held by these people, but not shared by the speaker (otherwise the speaker would express this as a 'fact in the world').
If the way of talking about things already reveals and communicates a bias, and, as is the fear, perpetuates a bias, then the only neutral way would be to not talk about it at all.
Analyzing a thing like gender already breaks it and makes it impossible to unambiguously believe in it as this law of nature.
Just like it gets really hard to talk respectfully about other religions but insidting one's own religion is the only correct one - and one's membership somehow divine order, and not merely a contingent result of where one is born.

Interesting, however...
You are not an "Activist Teacher", based on what you have said.

Also, my beef is particularly with very young students being brainwashed by activist teachers.
Did you watch any of the videos I presented?

So there's a few hundred people, maybe a few thousand, running the world. Then what? Should we dethrone them and distribute their wealth among the people? Sounds pretty communist.

But the next paragraph somehow sounds like communism is bad?

The only reference for an ideology in which there was an evil Cabal controlling the world, but Communism, though in theory the total opposite, is somehow the same... The only ideology I know where that was similar is Naziism. Hitler somehow brought these together, too, and even wilder opposites: Jews were both somehow Vermin AND the elite at the same time. The world eas somehow controlled by a handfull of people AND communist (mind you, that was decades before the authoritarianism of Stalin and Mao)...

Has anyone said or suggested, in this thread, that this problem is "rampant"?
Just checking.

Has anyone in the thread suggested it is representative of all teachers?
Just checking.

Tell that to the hyperpartisans on either side of the political divide.

I agree with a lot of the above. For me, I don’t hide or disguise my own bias or preferences. But in teaching classical music, the temptation is to say that THIS is legit music and YOUR music is trash. Instead, I tell students that I teach Western Classical Music because it forms their own musical and cultural heritage. It is by nature Eurocentric. This does not mean something is wrong with rap music or country music. It just means that those kinds of music are beyond the scope of what we listen to in MY class. I do not ask them to like my music, though certainly they will like SOME of it. I only ask that they respect it.

Acceptable questions to ask: Is Penderecki’s Threnody and Cage’s 4’33” REALLY music?

Unacceptable question: Why do I have to take this class?

I don’t like the term “bias” in relation to politics and religion in the classroom. I think “preference” is more appropriate. And so I’d say if I’m expressing a preference, it’s ok if students disagree because a) I could be wrong about something, and b) they are going to have their own preferences. I don’t ask students to agree with me. I only expect them to respect me as a teacher in a position of trust and authority.

I do make one firm stand as a teacher though: I refuse to wade in the middle of identity politics. I don’t care if you’re gay or trans or white or if your people descended from the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Are you committed to becoming a superior musician? Are you committed to learning about music? Then let’s leave our entitlement and privilege at the door and spend all our time on achievement. Achievement transcends race, color, ethnicity, religion, orientation, and gender.

And while I understand identity issues are important to some people, I have noticed a common thread among those who are preoccupied by it: identity issues are distracting to the point kids seem to focus on that rather than putting time and energy into their abilities. I hate to say this, but I can smell trouble from miles away when a biologically male student is too worried about wearing skirts and cute shoes to focus on practicing lip slurs on “their” trumpet, or I can’t have a concert because I don’t know which name “they” want me to use on the program. To be honest, I’m not going to give those students my full attention because their lipstick color is more important to them than adding another octave to their scales. But those kids who are practicing their butts off—I’m assigning solos, putting their names on the clinic lists, following up on scholarship auditions, booking the jazz band for a civic club meeting, prepping for all-state, finding volunteers for the church orchestra, etc. I don’t hate the trans kid. But when identity stops you from achieving, it might be time to re-examine your values. Don’t be surprised when you don’t get picked for the competition ensemble. It has nothing to do with changing your preferred pronouns. It has to do with how little you practiced and how much you complained about your classmates who are actually good.

Part of my job is to give out awards at the end of the year. I had a senior and a junior color guard captain sharing the role. Mom called up demanding to know why I named a junior to that role. Well, it was because she showed initiative and began organizing the team before the end of the school year. She reached out to me, got the music, and started work on the routines. The senior showed no interest in it. They made a racial issue out of it because the senior is black. I said fine, we need a flag routine for this part of the show and it has to be learned in 3 weeks. Three weeks later I’m ready to put that part of the show on the field and the flags had nothing but drop spins. I pulled the girls aside and told her THIS is why I don’t trust you with the job!

Along the way were complaints, gossip, and drama. And the junior guard captain pulled me aside later on and said she was upset that I praised the senior girl when she didn’t do anything. This was after she got her act together, but the junior girl was still pulling more weight. So we had a conversation about it. About two weeks later she apologized for disrespecting me.

Marching season turned into concert season and awards day arrived. I didn’t forget about it, either. My senior color guard captain went back to clarinet section leader. Picking out awards for seniors sucked because, well, color guard drama was the LEAST of my worries. Students and parents ganging up on a band director isn’t fun. I don’t give a rat’s rear end because I’m leaving and I’ve already found them a replacement. What are they going to do, fire me? But I made the best choices I could, and senior color guard girl got NOTHING. I gave the color guard award to the junior. She deserved it. She did the work. She was respectful towards me and her team. And when she messed up, she apologized. The other girl? Excuses. Gossip. Arrogance. Playing the victim card.

She was complaining to others that she never won a band award the whole time she was in band. Gee, I wonder why?

Before you say I’m a horrible person because she should have gotten an award when she never once did anything to earn it because she’s black, she’s not the only black senior. I awarded most improved percussion to a senior who had only joined band halfway through the previous year, could barely read a note of music, and had to overcome severe anxiety and panic attacks to play marching bass drums and crash cymbals on percussion 2 in concert. No, she didn’t deserve a top award, just the recognition that she’d made impressive progress in the space of a year and a half. I couldn’t care any less how many BLM buttons she had on her backpack. She achieved something. And even if she didn’t have panic attacks I’d still have recognized her for her hard work.

I'm not sure it's necessary or desirable to teach or impart views at all. The teacher can always explain that the subject matter is just something that they want them to learn, that if they can demonstrate they've learned it then they'll be rewarded. Where would there be a need to get them to internalise an opinion? Even when teaching history, if the pupil refuses to believe it, fine, then they learn it as they'd learn a work of fiction for a literature exam. We were often tested on our knowledge of fiction, but the fact that we didn't believe the stories were true to fact made no difference.

There's no need to impart a sense of "proper behaviour," only to convince them of the truth that if they disrupt the lesson then they'll be in trouble for it. I think the idea that kids need to accept that these things are happening "quite rightly" is a mistake. There's no need to make them believe in authoritarianism, just to realise that if they rebel too aggressively, the teachers have got them over a barrel and that they'll use force to control them if there's nothing else for it. There's no harm in trying to convince them that it's all meant for their own good, as long as it's done by presenting rational argument and evidence rather than just dogmatically making assertions and forcing them to pretend they agree. They're entitled to disagree with the rules as much as they want, but breaking them has consequences. It's authoritarian, but there's no need to try to force the kids to become authoritarians themselves.

As for teaching about transgender people, the teachers just need to be honest and objective. If the teacher knows something for a fact then they can likely prove it or give them the evidence. If they merely think something is true, they can admit that they think it but that they don't absolutely know.

Some teachers are good at avoiding bias in their teaching, and they might even make no bones about the fact that just like anybody else, they're not completely above talking rubbish from time to time. One of my physics teachers would occasionally quite deliberately say something that was incorrect, in the hope that we'd notice and question it. When we didn't notice, he'd say "you didn't spot my lie. Can anybody tell us what it was?" He was thus encouraging us to think for ourselves rather than just swallowing and regurgitating whatever he told us. Good science teaching is like that, and I don't see why any subject can't be done in a similar way. Other teachers try to create a myth that they're somehow perfect and know everything.

Religion can also be taught objectively - I'm secular and I can argue the case for atheism quite strongly if the group has no objection to my doing that, but I don't try to convert anybody by propaganda or dishonest tricks. Nor do I think a confident religionist would try to do such a thing either. It gets difficult when a teacher's religion tells them to try to convert people, but I've known religionists who would never do such a thing uninvited. So a scripture teacher can simply describe the different beliefs that different kinds of religion hold, without trying to force the belief that any one of them is definitely correct or incorrect. A scripture teacher of mine, after calling me out for not knowing a Biblical quote, asked me "What do you think your Bible is for?" I answered, "to bring to scripture lessons." She was furious and insisted that I was a bad person for not saying something like "to allow God to teach me right from wrong." I'd failed to internalise the dogma. But her attempt to "correct" me only lowered my opinion of her and taught me that I might need to pretend to accept her opinions as my own.

Kids will tend to copy adults anyway, and I think it's rather silly of teachers (and parents) to imagine that they need to force children into their own image. I think it's more effective to lead by example than by spouting dogma or hammering them into a mould. If the teachers and parents are benevolent people, then I think it's very likely the child will become that too.

Yes. The OP when it was suggested that these teachers are outliers and, at the very least, the 3rd presenter.

I prefer facts and logic over fear mongering and conspiracy theories.

I do not accept challenges to prove the Boogeyman does not exist.

The strongest opinion I have shared in this thread is that critical thinking skills are important. You, of course, are free to disagree.