We are losing the fight to save our country and our society. While other organizations tend to sugarcoat reality to try to claim they are making an impact, the facts show that our nation is veering towards the far left. With their monopoly over the educational system, it will only get easier for them to grow. If we do not try to combat their control over what our children are learning, all other efforts to save our nation will fail. The only way to change the educational system, is to become part of the educational system.
The following is a list of the top six reasons why conservative teachers are the solution to the problems facing education. (Please note, every school and administration is different and teachers’ experiences will vary from one another.)
Reason #1: Individual Teachers Have the Most Direct Influence on Students
Taking back education begins with having conservative and moderate educators in the classroom. Regardless of any movements or curricula being adopted by school districts, the power of the teacher to control the messaging to students in the classroom will always reign supreme. Teachers help mold the minds of students through the essential understanding of their lessons, but even more impressionable than that is the conversations teachers have with their students. More often than not, students will ask a question before or after a lesson. Sometimes these questions are content-based and other times they are more personal. For example, after “college and career day” at school, a student may express their concern to a teacher they trust that they are afraid they will not be able to afford college. A conversation will ensue that will either lead that student into supporting socialist free college, or help that student realize the support available for college, and the endless opportunities he has in America. No administrator or union representative needs to be present, no curriculum needs to be adopted, all you need is a teacher to speak the talking points of the socialist left to scare students, and the recruitment is done.
Reason #2: Lesson Plans Are Unique to the Teacher’s Goals
Lesson plans have a myriad of details that make an impact on the minds of students. Just one question can make a difference in what students take away from the lesson. Every lesson that comes from a curriculum or a website that shares them is just like a recipe; teachers take what they want from it and add their own spin to make it their own design. More often than not, teachers will create their own lessons or piece together the parts they like of others they may find. Each school requires different features of a lesson plan to be included, and each teacher should be working towards improving their craft based on observation feedback. Even when a school has “adopted a curriculum,” teachers still control what is included, what is skipped, what is emphasized, what questions will be asked, and the discussions that will take place. Not everything said in the classroom appears in the lesson plan, nor is it the case that everything in a lesson plan will be covered, mostly due to time constraints. There are student misconceptions that must be addressed, student questions, and the teacher’s perception of how the lesson is progressing that can all contribute to a last-minute change during the lesson itself.
Reason #3: Questioning Guides Thoughts and Identity
Questioning is key; asking students the right questions can make or break a lesson just as it can make or break a political agenda. For example, asking students “How would free college improve the lives of Americans?” has a different meaning from “Should college be free in America?” The questions students explore are often new to them; they learn more about themselves when they are encouraged to take a stance on an issue than nearly any other experience.
Reason #4: The Teacher Chooses the Texts and/or How the Texts are Interpreted
Texts are a key pathway for radical ideology to enter the classroom. The texts provide the answers to students who need to read them in order to complete their work. Teachers carefully select their texts, and this is often where the bias is revealed. Most resources deemed “non-biased” are blatantly biased, but to a student exploring the issue in the classroom, and likely only in the classroom, they accept the readings the teacher gives them. Administrators love when the word “non-biased” is tacked on to all readings, even a CNN article sounds great when it is “non-biased.” The texts the teacher gives students is where they will find the evidence to support their answer, especially when the Internet is not accessible. Standards require students to find evidence in the text, but if there is no sufficient text evidence to support their claim, the student is at a loss. If there is one example of text evidence, but the teacher requires three to be found, the student has also just been tricked into performing poorly in this skill.
Reason #5: It is Not Practical to Expect Students to Sit Through Corrective Instruction After School
Any organization expecting students to go home and relearn what they should have learned from their teacher is making a futile effort. Many students have busy days, and many parents as well. They have their entire school day, with homework for nearly every subject, a project they are likely working on, and extra-curricular activities that may include music, sports, community service clubs, and so many others. It is helpful to have a conversation at the dinner table about how, for example, raising taxes on the rich is the wrong approach, but this is not a sure way to help your child figure things out. Teachers are strong role models with expertly designed lessons. They know what information students will retain and how to help them retain it. What students hear all day and every day during the week makes a strong impression; add on their friends’ points of views and it becomes even stronger.
Reason #6: The “Not my Kid” Attitude Results in a Radical Victory
In response to the radical left’s influence in education, many parents argue that it has no effect on their children because they are homeschooled. Some are even fooled into thinking it has no effect because their children are in private schools. While a homeschooled child will likely not have the radical left’s ideology in any of their education, over 90% of the population will. A homeschooled child may resist the radical left’s ideology, but they will grow up in a world of radical leftists who will become politicians, doctors, lawyers, etc. Being the one different mind in a sea of millions, the society they live in will demonize them as an outcast and call them every disparaging name they will learn in school.
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The Locke Society was created with the intention to finally make an impact in education, in addition to bringing awareness to this crucial issue facing our country. Unfortunately, if moderates and conservatives do not unite to fill these roles and resist the extreme left’s desire to destroy our nation from within, all other efforts to save our nation will be done in vain. Other steps can save your child from being turned into a radical leftist, but will not address the 90% of students attending public schools. The radical left has spent billions of dollars each year taking over the educational system over the last six decades. To take them on, we need to do the same. If we do not, America as we know it will cease to exist.
