The Patriot Post® · Leftist Teacher Worries About Parents Listening in on Virtual Classes
Parents send their children to school with the aim of getting them educated, not indoctrinated. Too bad there are a few teachers out there who disagree.
In the not-too-distant past, the greatest concern expressed by school officials was ensuring that students were meeting muster on reading, writing, and arithmetic. Indeed, a good education has long been noted as a primary factor for a child’s future success as an adult. Thus, one of the biggest concerns during this pandemic is determining the best way to get children back into their schools.
Until then, many schools have adopted varying plans for virtual lessons, in which students will learn online from their homes. It’s clearly not the most ideal solution, but most of the objections stem from concerns over the efficacy of online learning versus participation in a classroom. Furthermore, working parents often have to accommodate their own schedules to ensure that their children are properly engaged in the new process.
However, one Philadelphia teacher recently expressed another objection to the virtual lessons — namely, that parents would have greater access and insight into what their children are being taught.
English teacher Matthew Kay broached the issue via social media when he asked, “So, this fall, virtual class discussion 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?”
Kay continued (errant punctuation is his), “While conversation [sic] 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 the host 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 kid’s racism or homophobia or transphobia — how much do we want their classmates’ parents piling on?”
As Matt Walsh cogently observed, “Public school teachers are afraid that you might be able to hear them brainwashing your kids.” Walsh further noted that other teachers commenting on Kay’s post referenced parents as “outsiders” that may cause students not to participate out of fear these “outsiders [are] listening and using their words against them.”
In truth, these teachers want a “safe space” far from the eyes and ears of parents so they can be free to indoctrinate students in their leftist Marxist ideology with as little interference from parents as possible. That attitude is the exact opposite of what any parent should want from a teacher.
One of the silver linings of the COVID shutdown is that more parents are being made aware of what their children are being taught in public schools. That could revolutionize education in a good way.