So I read a few “newspapers” online every morning, and I came across a piece in the NYDaily News (been reading it daily since I was in first grade, always the best sports section) that scared the crap out of me. It was written by the head of the Heritage Foundation (look them up) who are the chief promoters of Project 2025 (again look it up and look really deeply into it). This piece takes on teaching. I’m including the link to it at the end of this writing , when I looked it up to find it for inclusion, it came up in a number of other publications (thus this link)
Here is just the opening line: “Twenty years ago, when I was hiring teachers for the private K-12 school I founded, I knew better than to recruit certified teachers. That’s right — I didn’t want to hire certified teacher
It goes on to talk about how teacher’s unions are also operated like a “cartel” and how states should charter private concerns to certify which teachers should teach.
Let’s examine the use of the word “cartel” clearly chosen to present visions of El Chapo and the drug lords who rule by violence and force. Let’s also examine the promotion of the idea that private “organizations” should be put in place to oversee and set rules and regulations for a profession about which they know nothing. At no point does this piece suggest that such organizations be staffed by education professionals, people who know what the tasks are at hand, and continue to deal with them while castigated by Mr. Roberts and his ilk.
He closes with a backhanded slap to teachers everywhere: American teachers are almost as vital as parents in educating the next generation. Let’s stop facilitating anti-American activism and instead ensure we recognize those teachers who are best for America.
There is no explanation or attempt to clarify what he means by “best for America” yet that’s how it closes.
I had the incredible benefit of being in school during the 60’s and 70’s and taught by an amazing group of folks who promoted and encouraged thought, discussion and debate based upon facts. Just one example: my sophomore HS history teacher was, by his own admission, somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan, yet his opening line on day 1 (after talking about the NYTimes which only published “All The News That’s fit to TINT” (his play on their headline), was “Gentlemen, the only thing you will learn from history is that you learn nothing from history” (“gentlemen” was the usual greeting to a class as it was a co-institutional HS where the “men” were on one side of the building and the “women” on the other, never to interact till my junior year where we were allowed to take one class on the “other side” of the building). Throughout the year we were always given balanced information and encouraged and allowed to decide for ourselves what we would do with it (yes, he always included HIS opinions but also always made it clear they were HIS opinions). And yes, we also had teachers who were totally involved in the anti-war movement so we were blessed with visions of both sides.
History was not couched or clarified, even in english classes, discussion of Shakespeare’s works included the fact that all the parts were played by men since women were considered lesser beasts, honesty and facts where the rule of the day. No one was being “groomed” we were given information to do with as we chose. Even in the Religion classes (it was a catholic school) we were taught about other belief systems and again, discussion was encouraged. Far different from my last few years after 35 years in the public system, where I took a part time position in a local Catholic middle school where it was dogma only, and there was nary a mention of any other belief system, so much so that the year I left, had I stayed, I would have had to sign what amounted to a “loyalty oath”…No thank you…
Good teaching is both an art and a science, you must be well versed in your subject matter (or for the elementary magicians in just about everything), you must see where it came from and where it’s going, you must read the room each and every day, you must be willing and able to pivot at a moment’s notice, to know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, to evaluate it, to adjust given the results, to admit when you make a mistake and to use that mistake to learn more. Good teaching does not happen without good listening.
As to Mr. Roberts, be very aware that the first casualty of freedom is control of the information stream, and if that stream is one that is damned up and only part of it is allowed to flow, it will dumb down things to the detriment of all below the power brokers. If that’s the society that you want to live in, then this is your plan and Project 2025 is your handbook. I, for one, am sure that is the exact opposite of what our founding fathers (again, sadly, no women involved even in the phrasing) were setting down once upon a time in the East.
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