The Untaught Teacher
Recently a high school teacher posted the following on Facebook{1}:
Hmm……
These comments raise some prickly but pertinent questions. Questions that I don’t believe were put to this educator during his own time as a student. So, with apologies to 38 Special — “Teacher, teacher, can [I] teach [you]? Can [I] tell [you what you] need to know?”
1) In his first paragraph, this teacher refers to parents as having been “given so much authority.” Why does he assume it was society or the state that “gave” parents authority over their children? How does he know it isn’t a natural right endowed by a Creator and merely recognized by society?
2) He claims that “raising a child is the responsibility of the community, and that parents should not have the final say.” Well, then … who should? And when he implies a moral imperative by using the word “should,” where does he believe “shoulds” or “oughts” come from? What’s his source of authority for moral imperatives?
3) It’s great that this father has “learned a ton about what is best for Ethan from his teachers” — but how does learning from others equate to handing them authority? Moreover, by what source of moral authority does he discern whether/when Ethan’s teachers know what they’re talking about when it comes to values and morals?
4) How did he come to the conclusion that some parents’ views are “misguided” and “bigoted” — while his are reasonable and fair? How does he know his worldview is superior to others, such that it should hold sway when it comes to the tug-of-war between parents and schools?
5) Since he believes his worldview is superior to that of many other parents, how does he evade the logical conclusion that he’s at least as bigoted as he assumes them to be?
6) How does he avoid the equally natural conclusion that he’s actually more bigoted, since his worldview leads him to want to wrest control of kids’ education from their parents, when, ironically, they aren’t trying to control his kids’ education?
7) If, say, Christians or Muslims dominated public life, so that their worldview saturated the public-school curriculum — would he still dismiss “parental rights” in education? Doesn’t his current stance really just assume that the State’s Indoctrinators share his worldview?
8) How has he managed, despite being an educator, to overlook the affinity between his model and those of totalitarian regimes that have used schools as indoctrination centers for manufacturing state-worshiping automatons?
9) He claims to want to prepare kids to live in a diverse society — yet isn’t it really the case that he wants only one worldview to dominate schools? … On the other hand, if diversity is really what he’d prefer, then wouldn’t that be better served by dismantling the public system and replacing it with one that’s truly diverse in terms of worldviews and ideologies?
Or…
10) …at the end of the day, is this educator really just interested in “diverse” sexualities and groupthink…? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say he’d rather live in a homogeneous society — one controlled by the secular-humanism he’s obviously trying to inculcate in his students (and his own son)…?
“Education is a weapon the effect of which is determined by the hands which wield it [and] by who is to be struck down.” — Joseph Stalin{2}
“Education is the strongest weapon available for restricting the questions people ask, controlling what they think, and ensuring that they get their thoughts ‘from above’ . . . . Through education the State has the supreme power of defining its subjects’ view of the world, for ‘as a rule, people do not think farther than their teachers have thought’.” — John Carroll{3}
______________
{1} This Oct. 26 post has since been taken down, but a screen-capture may be viewed here: “Ready To Let The Government Raise Your Children?…,” The Golden Hammer (The Woodlands, TX: 14 Nov. 2019), https://thegoldenhammer.net/ready-to-let-the-government-raise-your-children-send-them-to-willis-high-school-as-english-teacher-lane-pronounces-predominance-over-parents/ (accessed 1 Dec. 2019).
See also the original report of the high school controversy that led to the viral Facebook post: Andy Li, “Conroe ISD trustee defends critiques of Willis High School drag queen event,” Community Impact Newspaper (29 Oct. 2019), https://communityimpact.com/houston/conroe-montgomery/education/2019/10/29/conroe-isd-trustee-defends-critiques-of-willis-high-school-drag-queen-event/ (accessed 1 Dec. 2019).
In addition: Nancy Flory, “Texas Teacher Defends Drag Queen Class,” The Stream (16 Nov. 2019), https://stream.org/texas-teacher-defends-drag-queen-class-parents-should-not-have-the-final-say-and-dont-know-whats-best-for-their-children/ (accessed 1 Dec. 2019).
{2} Joseph Stalin, “Stalin-Wells Talk: The Verbatim Report and A Discussion”, G. B. Shaw, J. M. Keynes, et al, The New Statesman and Nation (London, 1934), 5. Cited in “Education,” Wikiquote, https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Education (accessed 1 Dec. 2019).
{3} John Carroll, Break-out from the Crystal Palace (Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: Routledge, 2010 [orig. 1974]), 28.
