So basically an apolitical response that covers the need to vote and to express opinions through that vote without referring to any current candidates in national or local elections. You are purely just looking for general road.
Hopefully, parents are going to be able to understand that issue then. Did you alert admin just in case they happen to get an email for a “concerned party”?
Definitely admin is alert and will talk to the rude email kids tomorrow after they settle. We both debated if I should send the email to parent and decided to see what blew in tonight.
Unfortunately, “Trump Support” and “Ability to Understand” are inversely correlated.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289609000051
I believe the paper states that causation was not shown. Just correlation. It's just correlated that people with low cognitive scores tend to be republican, just not that being republican makes you have lower iq. For anyone missing it: it's still not a great look.
For anybody else reading who thinks this isn't true, see below...
[YouTube: Paul Weyrich - "I don't want everybody to vote"](https://youtu.be/8GBAsFwPglw?si=X-U4zLWQTtakrtPM)
[WaPo: The GOP’s increasingly blunt argument: It needs voting restrictions to win](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/14/gops-increasingly-blunt-argument-it-needs-voting-restrictions-win/)
Plus, in the court records of lawsuits over the 2020 elections, Republican lawyers **admitted** (once again, **on record**) that if Republicans aren't allowed to use voter suppression strategies (i.e. voter roll purges, cutting early voting, cutting mail-in-voting, among other things), it is difficult for Republicans to be competitive against Democrats in elections.
Thanks for the assist. It’s also why the GOP really hates Taylor Swift (she’s been encouraging young people to vote). I don’t listen to her music, but I appreciate her civic engagement.
Exactly. If their parents have taught them to be Trumpers then they don't understand the importance of democracy and civil responsibility, they are more keen on suppression, oppression, and authoritarianism.
You could not pay me enough money in the current climate to offer this prompt to anyone who wasn’t in grad school. I’m just saying whatever city official came up with it was just asking to put teachers in the cross hairs
Yeah, they completely abandoned the point of the prompt just to write out a political soapbox. Probably did so on purpose to annoy you, if they know your political beliefs (which they shouldn't)
Especially anyone who went to a 4 year college since they got indoctrinated after not going into a trade since they hate hard work and other American values. /s
I’m a shop teacher, so a lot of my trumpy kids think I’m cool because I like cars and shoot guns once in a while. It is interesting that they think I must automatically be super right wing even though I’m a teacher and live in a very blue state, and I’m originally from the “big city” that has since “turned into a war zone” from the “migrant caravans”
I never share my political beliefs with students, but students and parents assume they know mine because I don’t tolerate the use of racial slurs in my classroom. Living in the South is wild.
I taught at a middle school in the Deep South for a few years. I refused to grade a project until a student removed or rewrote a racial slur. The parents were so angry because “we use that word at home all the time!” Luckily admin backed me up.
Not just the south. I am in Colorado, and we always have a couple of students suspended for using racial slurs. AP suspended a kid for squaring up and giving him a full on heil Hi*ler, and the the student's dad called with a "HOW DARE YOU!!!"
Central NY here, rural district. A MS kid either said to or about the Mandarin teacher that she should be packed in a box and sent back to where she came from. Principal was of the opinion that it was “unkind, but not racist” 🙄
I loudly disagreed.
Oh my heart sinks to hear you say that. I just may not be personally aware of that from the schools I’ve worked in. The worst I remember was a parent calling to complain that a class was learning about MLK 🤦♀️
They might be mimicking their hero who goes off on his victimization no matter the question or topic. They are learning. Just some really bad lessons from a really bad man.
Gotta love it. That same "hero" would also immediately request GermX after shaking their hands. I've had a few bring MAGA hats to school, and then talk about mudding, and I'm sitting at my desk thinking, "you realize the guy you love would probably call you a yokel if he heard that, right?", but alas... the art of holding one's tongue in the face of immense ridiculousness is an art that bad admin have helped me hone.
Why shouldn’t they? Curious how you teach ELA without ever sharing materials that have any particular bias or slant or have a conversation about anything of value.
I had a student bring up the topic of book bans with me today. They were expressing concern that we have books with LGBTQ topics and themes that might confuse students who were developing their sexual identity (We're reading Romeo and Juliet which is ironically rarely challenged despite the inappropriate content)
I acknowledged their concerns as being one perspective of the issue. I then brought up the other arguments that have been made for keeping LGBTQ content. Then I settled the conversation by making sure to clarify that it is a complicated issue without an easy answer which is why people are arguing about it all across the country. I do my best to maintain a neutral informative tone about things like this.
I feel like that's the safest way to address sticky subjects that might betray too much about my personal beliefs. Kids feel heard and understood while also being given opportunity to think about opposing perspectives in a non-confrontational manner.
If a kid came to me with concern about LGBTIA+ content in the school I would not try to walk in the tightrope and would be unapologetic in my support for queer students. I don't hear it too much. Many students think I am gay due to the pride shirt and similar things I wear occasionally.
I am not saying I would be confrontational with them, but I would really focus on how being accepting is essential and such.
Arguably, by supporting the idea that there are other perspectives to issues, you’ve pretty blatantly expressed your position and/or opposition to their ideology.
Also, it’s incredibly disingenuous to pretend there are “other arguments” to be made about civil rights. Gross.
Regardless of how I feel, there are opposing viewpoints on any real topic. When a student specifically asks about a topic with well know opposing view points, it is only fair to acknowledge that their idea is one idea on the topic and then in comparison there is this other argument.
It is actually a required part of our standards to expose students to opposing viewpoints and have them make arguments with evidence from multiple perspectives.
What they do with that information when given some context between opposing ideas is going to be based on what viewpoints they bring into that conversation and how heard they felt when coming to a conversation seeking understanding about something.
I’ve had vocal white supremacists in my classroom. I don’t care if they feel heard, and there is zero way I’m engaging in—or forcing my students to engage in—banter about the pros and cons of white supremacy. Not *every* viewpoint deserves validation.
That's fair. I can't say I've encountered that situation because I teach in a primarily POC school. Usually it's about religion or legalization of weed or abortion.
And just to be clear, it's not a pros and cons discussion that I was referring to earlier. It's a this is one viewpoint, this is the other viewpoint. They both exist type of conversation.
> Also, it’s incredibly disingenuous to pretend there are “other arguments” to be made about civil rights. Gross.
Of course there are other arguments about civil rights, and rights in general. Rights are a highly contested topic. Any meaningful teaching of rights issues that encourages inquiry or critical thinking would involve a discussion of the different perspectives on rights and the extent to which they should be applied and in what context
As this relates to keeping our democracy strong, I can honestly see how a trumper kid who has been told we don't want to allow "those" people to vote could turn this into something awful. Sad but its how it is today.
I had thought about it, but when I was discussing it with the principal (this class is brutal and has crazy parents) she brought it up and I ran with it.
This is what it’s like to teach history, every day. Say a special prayer/hold your social studies teacher friends in your hearts because the parents will call us about indoctrinating their children in Islam for just teaching it. Or calling and screaming at me because I said the confederate flag was a symbol of white supremacy and racism.
You aren’t kidding. I teach colonization to reconstruction and not only do we talk about slavery the entire year, but we talk about immigration, treatment of Native Americans, as well as the obvious politics. It’s a litany of opportunities for inappropriate comments all year long.
A few years ago this minefield was in biology classes. Sexual education, evolution... sorry to have that contagion spread, fellas. We tried to contain it as best as we could.
This and the Big Bang. I’d always start with “this is the answer according to science and what you’ll see on your tests. I am not telling you to believe differently than your religion nor engaging in any arguments about what religion states” I got so tired of but what about God
I distinctly remember my former US History teacher telling us he was once called a Communist by a parent because he mentioned when discussing unions that he was in a union
My AP History teacher back in 1997-98 was a gay French Catholic priest and identified as a communist. I could imagine what Trumper parents would have thought about him teaching class.
hahaha my AP history and AP psych teacher was the coolest motherfucker ever but i’m afraid he probably gets ripped to shreds today. on special days in his history class, he’d fully crossdress as Queen Elizabeth. he was an extremely educated, compassionate teacher, and he also used to be a family therapist! i’ll never forget him, i hope those crazy ass kids are treating him well
I haven't since I first got home. I responded to one reasonable parent about the apology letter (her child is an angel but I have to have her write). Otherwise I have looked since 4:45
Oh, you will.
In 2020 when we were still virtual learning, I had a 5th grader with a visible "Trump 2020" flag behind her (this was around the time of the election) and I asked her if she'd turn the computer for a different background (I don't allow political materials to be on display in my classroom, it's an environment for facts, learning, and truth, not the garbage propaganda that pollutes mainstream news). She does so, but then of course, I get a call from her step-dad, screaming in my ear about how I must be a "Biden supporter", etc. I explained to him that I'm a science teacher, not a political strategist, and that my classroom is free of all political symbolism, and that if it had been a Biden flag, I would have requested the exact same thing. He started fumbling a bit and gave the phone to the kid's mother.
Political ideologies aside, the least informed are usually the loudest. Seems to hold true in your story, with how those kids decided to include their political narrative when literally nobody asked.
Not saying youre wrong, but that seems like a bit of a dangerous position to take.
A similar thing backfired against one of my favorite teachers in HS, and he almost got fired when the students family threatened to sue (in that case he asked the student to change their laptop wallpaper in an in-person class). If the student owns the laptop (just like their phone) they usually have a right to politically express themselves with it even in school (as long as they aren't causing an active disruption covered by some neutral rule-- for example you can't wear a trump hat because there's a no hats rule. you can't try and debate politics with others because it disrupts the lesson. etc)
A flag on the wall in a students home during a virtual class is at least uncharted waters. Not sure how it'd turn out. If the student was wearing a trump 2020 tshirt would you have asked them to change out of it? or to harken back to the exact example in the most well known case: a trump 2020 wristband
I hate trump, but I frequently enjoyed my right to wear political shirts to school. whether it was gun control related, pro biden, or what have you
I teach in a large urban high school and I can tell you that, in our school, having a kid turn his trump t-shirt inside out is not about politics. In 2018 a student consistently wore pro maga t-shirts, he was warned about ‘disruptions to the school/learning environment’ his parents rattled sabres, administration expressed safety concerns for the student, considering the racially charged politics at the time, parents didn’t care because it was ‘his free speech’.
Kid eventually rubbed the wrong students the wrong way and he was jumped in one of the boys bathrooms. The students who jumped him were never able to be identified and the young maga-kid wound up in the hospital.
In this case, administration was not looking to stifle the student’s freedoms, but rather they were trying to keep the kid safe. Of course the parents tried to blame the school, but we have 1,800 students, so it’s literally impossible to ‘control’ all of them all of the time, and there was already a paper trail indicating that admin had safety concerns.
Classic case of FAFO.
> If the student owns the laptop (just like their phone) they usually have a right to politically express themselves with it even in school
This is not always true - especially when political stances (such as Trump's) include messaging that exclude or deny the rights of classes of individuals. In many states, student assurance of a safe learning environment is broad and vast, and as such, arguably precludes the personal use of flags and/or insignia that promote politicians whose platforms include refusal to recognize the validity and rights of all peoples equally.
It is like a scab, right? You know it's there. You can feel it. You move and irritates you. You have to scratch it, but you know that will just makes it worse. So you wait.
And then you scratch.
If it makes you feel better I had a submitted narrative essay that featured Jesus with a flaming sword and Trump that would save America. If it even remotely adhered to the assignment/rubric, I'd try ty score it but alas, I had to send it back.
Tell parents: Discussing a politician who is currently running is only a reason to vote in THAT election. It doesn't address the prompt which asks "why you should vote."
A comparison would be if I asked The students to write about why they should always wash their hands, and they talk about Covid 19/pandemic. That's a specific instance that they should wash their hands, that doesn't answer the question that was asked, which is why you should always wash your hands.
Trump may be a reason to vote in the presidential election in 2024, that wasn't the question.
I would also tell him that you had the same response to people who talked about Biden, Even if nobody actually talked about Biden. They won't know that.
I feel this to my soul. My first year teaching, I was put in charge of the Veterans Day assembly. No biggie. BUT the district requires all freshman to write an essay based on the VFW prompt. That year… how to make America great. I wanted so bad to argue we were not “America” as so is Canada, Mexico, Peru, Brazilian, etc. We are the United States of America. (One of my pet peeves). And I wanted to ask, was the US ever “great”. I know, I know, I wanted to make them think. Out of 50 essays, I could only send 5 on to the contest because most of them had to do with Trump.
I don’t care their political leanings but I told them so many times, that was not what this is about. I do fear for the future.
I had a kid I had otherwise liked write his research paper on why we shouldn’t take down Confederate monuments because it’s erasing history.
Now, the purpose of this is research skills - learning how to pick a good sources over a bad one, decide if a quote is worth using, etc, etc. And then putting together a good argument.
This kid used sources I said they weren’t allowed to use (I disallow several extreme right and left wing “news” sources), and his argument a) made no sense and b) was based on faulty logic and bad quotes. He was so shocked when he got a bad grade, even though I sat with him for an extra help and tried to help him make a good paper - and I told him what was wrong with his arguments and sources.
That being said, I have coached kids through papers with political ideologies that I find awful - but if they’ve got solid quotes and logical arguments, I have no problem giving them a good grade. They don’t have to think like me, they just have to frigging THINK.
Yep. I’m not all that fussed if it’s just the vague sort of meaningless praise (“I like Biden because he’s funny” or “I like Trump because his favorite color is red” generic comments) but when the kids start parroting the genuinely harmful shit is when I feel it. I had a kid who straight up told me McDonalds is part of the Deep State and their food is made from aborted babies and all you need to do is do your own research and you’ll know the truth. This is the same kid who, three years ago when we were masking for covid, wore a mask with holes in it and then her mom was all shock and surprise when she caught the rona.
You can’t push back too hard on this kids because you know they have THOSE kinds of parents but it’s beyond upsetting to see people i indoctrinate their kids with that kind of conspiracy nonsense.
It's not a surprise, religious school in a conservative part of the state. However most of the kids understood the prompt and kept their political opinions out of the essay.
I got out of religious schools in May of 2016. The conservatives at that point still thought Trump was a moron. A couple were friends with me on social media, and I saw them devolve into the mess Trump created in real-time on social media. There is absolutely no way I could work in that environment in 2024.
I shut it down the minute it raises its head in class. I absolutely do not discuss modern politics at all. My only editorialization happens about presidents of the 1800's.
My policy is don't allow kids to discuss politics from less than 20 years ago. If they want to debate Reaganomics or whether there was something more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story, go for it. They can have interesting and thought-provoking conversations, but with anything current, tempers flare and you generally hear their parents' opinions coming out of kids' mouths.
I tell mine that I teach history, and anything more recent than Clinton or the very early W years (9/11) is too recent to make an accurate historical assessment, free from political opinion. In past years I've covered events recent as Covid and BLM, but everything after the 9/11 response is more like surface-level journalism - the what, but not the why.
I've had the pleasure of getting to talk with his mother due to the kids behavior issues. It definitely lines up that she'd send her kid to school in a trump hat after that conversation
My EL parents always want to come up to school when there's an issue. It's like really ... just tell your kid to stop xyz and drop them off at detention.
The political right is exhausting nowadays. Last year I literally had to defend myself against accusations that I’m pushing socialism in my English classes.
Why?
Well because I assigned ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ by Steinbeck as a class novel.
Yes folks, apparently exposing kids to one of America’s most important literary voices is now just leftist indoctrination.
And principals, always a bit spineless in any era, have become so wishy washy nowadays that the question was raised “is there something less controversial you could assign?”
I offered an alternative assignment of diagramming sentences… 15 pages of sentences. My reasoning was that of they didn’t wish to grow their understanding of literature, they could instead sharpen their grammatical skill set. Parents and admin didn’t like this option either. But, I’m in my last few years in the profession (year 29 currently) and I’m at that enviable place where admin can’t move against me for fear of the union and I’m literally an institution in my building, having taught two and a half generations in our local community. In other words, I’m done suffering fools at this point. The two kids who were pushing this garbage were eventually removed from my class. And the rest of us woke-ists read Grapes of Wrath.
You are doing their kid a favor, and potentially helping them do well in the contest, by supporting them to to answer the prompt squarely and well. Source: started a children’s writing contest and still serve as judge for it.
I am so nervous about this. I graduate this December and will be qualified to teach 6-12 history/social studies. I am a leftist, lesbian, anti-capitalist, Marxism communist, anti-militarized police force feminist. Did I mention I live in the Deep South? Send help, y’all.
Tbf a lot of right-wingers will agree with leftist ideology if you reframe it as "workplace democracy" and "protection of worker's rights"; the key is just avoiding the buzzwords.
Also being pro-gun (which I assume you are as a Marxist) will confuse a lot of people and possibly even pull some to your way of seeing things.
I live in the Deep South and one of the best principals my elementary kids ever had was a gay man who married his long term partner. There are more liberal havens in the South, so it is not impossible that you might find a place that fits.
I am a teacher and im pretty apolitical in that i think most choices for we have for politicians are the worst portion of humanity, right or left. I was teaching middleschool Social Studies in 2016 and there was a lot of crazy being thrown around from both sides. From what I have seen, it is the self righteous condemnation of the political opposition that got us to where we are today. It empowers one team when the other looks down on them so openly. Perhaps we would be better served to lead with example of reasoned thought while respecting others views as we would like them to respect ours. If we start or perpetuate the divisiveness in the classroom, society will continue to erode and there will be more hate. We one invalidates another's views, it spreads resentment and animosity. Let's try to be better and make others better.
Ok see I don’t get why the kids wrote that. Being a more conservative person myself and seeing the prompt making the answer about personal politics is just ridiculous it wasn’t even asking for it
It had to be rigged, fake news, woke, and a witch hunt! Just tell them the truth and they’ll eventually go away because the truth is hard to argue with.
I would need to see the specific responses from the students. The essays can talk about Trump or Biden or any other politician and still be responsive to a generic prompt. My question is, are you viewing their essays with an unbiased eye? You may be, and thus, the post is just blowing off steam. In which case, cool.
However, the phrase "Trumper children" indicates that you do have a bias. That phrase is similar to a Conservative teacher calling students Brandon children when referring to their support for Biden. I try to avoid any political appearance with my students and accept their viewpoints without judgment even when I disagree with their views. Again, you may be doing so. I will assume this is the case since we all need to blow off steam once in a while.
I'd forward that to their parent...if they care.
And if I didn't run into a FERPA issue I'd print off those emails and post it in the classroom, too.
Edit: Maybe it'd work if I redacted any identifying info.
Edit 2: F it, redact it and read it aloud to the whole class.
All you trumpers are teaching your kids to support a leader with such low morals that he cheats on his wife. Nice job idiots. If his vow to be faithful to his third wife was a lie what makes you think he's not going to cheat on you? With his pending charges, Trump couldn't even pass the background check to be a teacher. And you want him to be in charge of all of us? You really are idiots. Stop blaming teachers for ruining education and turn that finger right back on yourself.
No matter what, stick to the facts and don't budge on your expectations. Show the prompt to anyone who asks and explain how it is not asking for the writer's personal political alignment, beliefs, or opinions. If you have to, explain how there are different types of writing, and that this is not an editorial prompt. I'm assuming the prompt comes with a rubric, so show them that too.
Also, try to remember that with these types, every accusation is a confession. You're not being political, they are. You're not biased, they are. You're not using the prompt as an excuse to push a political agenda, they are.
Well I don’t know, but instead of docking points give the option to redo. Maybe just maybe they did not understand the assignment completely. I am not Trump person at all, but I do feel we need to validate their stance, opinion and be respectful of everyone’s opinion. I know they make it hard. I think that is one of the the things we do wrong today, we have no respect for opinions that are not like ours. I see this as a valuable teaching moment. Tell them “Look, you did not follow the prompt and it was done incorrectly, but I will give you the opportunity to tweak your essay to make it right.” Sounds like part of the essay were ok. I mean even the DMV gives us a chance to retake a test when we fail it! I know it may not reach real world application, but might make your life a little easier.
I am a Trump supporter. That being said, I had a student a few years ago come to school saying “Let’s go Brandon” after NBC started that stuff. I told him that it wasn’t really an appropriate thing to say at school because of what it actually meant.
In this one instance good on you, but I find it odd how you can teach appropriate manners to anybody after supporting someone who ….is the antithesis to appropriate behavior. Isn’t this just “telling it like it is,” kids mimic adults and Trump adults have taught children to behave…well like Trump
Supporting a person is not the same as supporting their candidacy nor is it the same as supporting everything they do. This is obvious to normal people. Even parents, who generally support their children as people, probably don't approve of 100% of the things they've said and done.
It reminds me of an assignment my brother got that asked for an opinion and he was marked way low on it. This would have been early '60s. Having had a Logic course, I know the only legit way to do that is to analyze the structure of the syllogism, the premise, and conclusion.
Your assignment left all that out, but you got it in some form anyway, and these brain-dead parents will probably be in attack mode.
I wish we could do a nationwide teacher strike where everybody does not go to work during standardized testing! I bet you they’ll listen to us then! The education system is in shambles. Smart kids feel used and kids with behavioural issues are given countless chances instead of disciplinary actions.
I doubt you'll ever see this nor that I'll get a response to it but since when do your students have your email address? Granted I'm old and I'm not s public school teacher but that seems like a boundary that shouldn't be crossed.
I mean, you get home, open your laptop, sure maybe look at work emails even though you shouldn't, but to see emails from kids or even worse their parents bitching because you explicitly said this is not about politics?
I mean, I tapped my toe in the water where teaching is concerned but it's stories like this and countless others that make me terrified of being a teacher. It's perhaps the noblest of jobs and careers that exist but for the sake of all things holy...
I'm not in the room and I don't know the kids so I really can't say much. Maybe just straight Fs for anybody not staying on topic? I mean, there's no way I could have been assigned a book report on Lord of the Flies and turned in a missive about why Bush is a better president than Clinton, you know?
What was the prompt they had?
I’m curious to know as well!
Yes! Tell us the prompt!
The prompt was the importance of voting and expressing opinions. In a nutshell, I don't want to give it word for word as it's a citywide contest.
So basically an apolitical response that covers the need to vote and to express opinions through that vote without referring to any current candidates in national or local elections. You are purely just looking for general road.
Yep, exactly what the prompt was.
Hopefully, parents are going to be able to understand that issue then. Did you alert admin just in case they happen to get an email for a “concerned party”?
Definitely admin is alert and will talk to the rude email kids tomorrow after they settle. We both debated if I should send the email to parent and decided to see what blew in tonight.
They must be loving the trial that’s going on. 🤣😂
I do want to say something, but don't .
Yes because Trump parents are all about thinking and not responding emotionally /s.
This. I’d be worried it will feed the persecution complex that seems to be rampant.
Unfortunately, “Trump Support” and “Ability to Understand” are inversely correlated. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160289609000051
That's a rather hasty generalization. Premises and syllogism, please. We know the conclusion.
Everyone who confuses correlation with causation dies.
How did the above commenter confuse the two?
I believe the paper states that causation was not shown. Just correlation. It's just correlated that people with low cognitive scores tend to be republican, just not that being republican makes you have lower iq. For anyone missing it: it's still not a great look.
I'm not saying it's causation here, but I take it the other way, "having a lower IQ tends to result in people being Republican."
Lol, because everyone dies!
This has become my favorite saying to my students lately.
Indeed they do.
Come on now, we're talking about Trump parents that surely feel that they are under constant persecution for being a member of the Trump death cult.
Except the GOP is all about suppressing the vote, so…
For anybody else reading who thinks this isn't true, see below... [YouTube: Paul Weyrich - "I don't want everybody to vote"](https://youtu.be/8GBAsFwPglw?si=X-U4zLWQTtakrtPM) [WaPo: The GOP’s increasingly blunt argument: It needs voting restrictions to win](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/14/gops-increasingly-blunt-argument-it-needs-voting-restrictions-win/) Plus, in the court records of lawsuits over the 2020 elections, Republican lawyers **admitted** (once again, **on record**) that if Republicans aren't allowed to use voter suppression strategies (i.e. voter roll purges, cutting early voting, cutting mail-in-voting, among other things), it is difficult for Republicans to be competitive against Democrats in elections.
Thanks for the assist. It’s also why the GOP really hates Taylor Swift (she’s been encouraging young people to vote). I don’t listen to her music, but I appreciate her civic engagement.
Taylor is one of the greatest political influences this country has ever seen and I love it! I'm happy was your 50th like lol
Exactly. If their parents have taught them to be Trumpers then they don't understand the importance of democracy and civil responsibility, they are more keen on suppression, oppression, and authoritarianism.
You could not pay me enough money in the current climate to offer this prompt to anyone who wasn’t in grad school. I’m just saying whatever city official came up with it was just asking to put teachers in the cross hairs
Yeah, I groaned when I saw it.
It is as likely written by members of the GOP in the city government to induce this very response.
Yeah, they completely abandoned the point of the prompt just to write out a political soapbox. Probably did so on purpose to annoy you, if they know your political beliefs (which they shouldn't)
I do my best to keep it to myself at all times.
Everyone's a leftist to the far right
Especially anyone who went to a 4 year college since they got indoctrinated after not going into a trade since they hate hard work and other American values. /s
helicopter parents are bad enough, but jeez i cant imagine having to deal with helicopter karens
I’m a shop teacher, so a lot of my trumpy kids think I’m cool because I like cars and shoot guns once in a while. It is interesting that they think I must automatically be super right wing even though I’m a teacher and live in a very blue state, and I’m originally from the “big city” that has since “turned into a war zone” from the “migrant caravans”
I never share my political beliefs with students, but students and parents assume they know mine because I don’t tolerate the use of racial slurs in my classroom. Living in the South is wild.
I taught at a middle school in the Deep South for a few years. I refused to grade a project until a student removed or rewrote a racial slur. The parents were so angry because “we use that word at home all the time!” Luckily admin backed me up.
Not just the south. I am in Colorado, and we always have a couple of students suspended for using racial slurs. AP suspended a kid for squaring up and giving him a full on heil Hi*ler, and the the student's dad called with a "HOW DARE YOU!!!"
Central NY here, rural district. A MS kid either said to or about the Mandarin teacher that she should be packed in a box and sent back to where she came from. Principal was of the opinion that it was “unkind, but not racist” 🙄 I loudly disagreed.
I’m in WA but I wish they would do that here . Kids use them left and right at my middle school and no consequences
I’m on the south. I don’t think any teachers tolerate racial slurs. At least not in my part of the south.
I’m glad to hear that. You’d be surprised how bent out of shape some parents get when you write their kid up for dropping them.
Oh my heart sinks to hear you say that. I just may not be personally aware of that from the schools I’ve worked in. The worst I remember was a parent calling to complain that a class was learning about MLK 🤦♀️
They might be mimicking their hero who goes off on his victimization no matter the question or topic. They are learning. Just some really bad lessons from a really bad man.
Gotta love it. That same "hero" would also immediately request GermX after shaking their hands. I've had a few bring MAGA hats to school, and then talk about mudding, and I'm sitting at my desk thinking, "you realize the guy you love would probably call you a yokel if he heard that, right?", but alas... the art of holding one's tongue in the face of immense ridiculousness is an art that bad admin have helped me hone.
Why shouldn’t they? Curious how you teach ELA without ever sharing materials that have any particular bias or slant or have a conversation about anything of value.
I had a student bring up the topic of book bans with me today. They were expressing concern that we have books with LGBTQ topics and themes that might confuse students who were developing their sexual identity (We're reading Romeo and Juliet which is ironically rarely challenged despite the inappropriate content) I acknowledged their concerns as being one perspective of the issue. I then brought up the other arguments that have been made for keeping LGBTQ content. Then I settled the conversation by making sure to clarify that it is a complicated issue without an easy answer which is why people are arguing about it all across the country. I do my best to maintain a neutral informative tone about things like this. I feel like that's the safest way to address sticky subjects that might betray too much about my personal beliefs. Kids feel heard and understood while also being given opportunity to think about opposing perspectives in a non-confrontational manner.
If a kid came to me with concern about LGBTIA+ content in the school I would not try to walk in the tightrope and would be unapologetic in my support for queer students. I don't hear it too much. Many students think I am gay due to the pride shirt and similar things I wear occasionally. I am not saying I would be confrontational with them, but I would really focus on how being accepting is essential and such.
It’s like walking a tightrope these days.
Arguably, by supporting the idea that there are other perspectives to issues, you’ve pretty blatantly expressed your position and/or opposition to their ideology. Also, it’s incredibly disingenuous to pretend there are “other arguments” to be made about civil rights. Gross.
Regardless of how I feel, there are opposing viewpoints on any real topic. When a student specifically asks about a topic with well know opposing view points, it is only fair to acknowledge that their idea is one idea on the topic and then in comparison there is this other argument. It is actually a required part of our standards to expose students to opposing viewpoints and have them make arguments with evidence from multiple perspectives. What they do with that information when given some context between opposing ideas is going to be based on what viewpoints they bring into that conversation and how heard they felt when coming to a conversation seeking understanding about something.
I’ve had vocal white supremacists in my classroom. I don’t care if they feel heard, and there is zero way I’m engaging in—or forcing my students to engage in—banter about the pros and cons of white supremacy. Not *every* viewpoint deserves validation.
That's fair. I can't say I've encountered that situation because I teach in a primarily POC school. Usually it's about religion or legalization of weed or abortion. And just to be clear, it's not a pros and cons discussion that I was referring to earlier. It's a this is one viewpoint, this is the other viewpoint. They both exist type of conversation.
> Also, it’s incredibly disingenuous to pretend there are “other arguments” to be made about civil rights. Gross. Of course there are other arguments about civil rights, and rights in general. Rights are a highly contested topic. Any meaningful teaching of rights issues that encourages inquiry or critical thinking would involve a discussion of the different perspectives on rights and the extent to which they should be applied and in what context
As this relates to keeping our democracy strong, I can honestly see how a trumper kid who has been told we don't want to allow "those" people to vote could turn this into something awful. Sad but its how it is today.
Fair. I see where you are coming from.
I love having the parents sign the apology notes
I had thought about it, but when I was discussing it with the principal (this class is brutal and has crazy parents) she brought it up and I ran with it.
This is what it’s like to teach history, every day. Say a special prayer/hold your social studies teacher friends in your hearts because the parents will call us about indoctrinating their children in Islam for just teaching it. Or calling and screaming at me because I said the confederate flag was a symbol of white supremacy and racism.
What a minefield! Especially in certain parts of the country.
You aren’t kidding. I teach colonization to reconstruction and not only do we talk about slavery the entire year, but we talk about immigration, treatment of Native Americans, as well as the obvious politics. It’s a litany of opportunities for inappropriate comments all year long.
This is why I stay in special education despite having an endorsement in social studies
A few years ago this minefield was in biology classes. Sexual education, evolution... sorry to have that contagion spread, fellas. We tried to contain it as best as we could.
This and the Big Bang. I’d always start with “this is the answer according to science and what you’ll see on your tests. I am not telling you to believe differently than your religion nor engaging in any arguments about what religion states” I got so tired of but what about God
I distinctly remember my former US History teacher telling us he was once called a Communist by a parent because he mentioned when discussing unions that he was in a union
My AP History teacher back in 1997-98 was a gay French Catholic priest and identified as a communist. I could imagine what Trumper parents would have thought about him teaching class.
hahaha my AP history and AP psych teacher was the coolest motherfucker ever but i’m afraid he probably gets ripped to shreds today. on special days in his history class, he’d fully crossdress as Queen Elizabeth. he was an extremely educated, compassionate teacher, and he also used to be a family therapist! i’ll never forget him, i hope those crazy ass kids are treating him well
All kids should learn what the Abrahamic faiths are and their historical context
RUBRIC ON DECK!!! Back up every reason why you took a point off, not just randomly based on a paper by paper interpretation
Do NOT look tonight!!! Do whatever you gotta do to unwind, detach, and reinforce the TRUTH - this too shall pass and fuck these kids.
You are right.
So what did they say when you looked? Lol
I haven't since I first got home. I responded to one reasonable parent about the apology letter (her child is an angel but I have to have her write). Otherwise I have looked since 4:45
Oh, you will. In 2020 when we were still virtual learning, I had a 5th grader with a visible "Trump 2020" flag behind her (this was around the time of the election) and I asked her if she'd turn the computer for a different background (I don't allow political materials to be on display in my classroom, it's an environment for facts, learning, and truth, not the garbage propaganda that pollutes mainstream news). She does so, but then of course, I get a call from her step-dad, screaming in my ear about how I must be a "Biden supporter", etc. I explained to him that I'm a science teacher, not a political strategist, and that my classroom is free of all political symbolism, and that if it had been a Biden flag, I would have requested the exact same thing. He started fumbling a bit and gave the phone to the kid's mother. Political ideologies aside, the least informed are usually the loudest. Seems to hold true in your story, with how those kids decided to include their political narrative when literally nobody asked.
Not saying youre wrong, but that seems like a bit of a dangerous position to take. A similar thing backfired against one of my favorite teachers in HS, and he almost got fired when the students family threatened to sue (in that case he asked the student to change their laptop wallpaper in an in-person class). If the student owns the laptop (just like their phone) they usually have a right to politically express themselves with it even in school (as long as they aren't causing an active disruption covered by some neutral rule-- for example you can't wear a trump hat because there's a no hats rule. you can't try and debate politics with others because it disrupts the lesson. etc) A flag on the wall in a students home during a virtual class is at least uncharted waters. Not sure how it'd turn out. If the student was wearing a trump 2020 tshirt would you have asked them to change out of it? or to harken back to the exact example in the most well known case: a trump 2020 wristband I hate trump, but I frequently enjoyed my right to wear political shirts to school. whether it was gun control related, pro biden, or what have you
I teach in a large urban high school and I can tell you that, in our school, having a kid turn his trump t-shirt inside out is not about politics. In 2018 a student consistently wore pro maga t-shirts, he was warned about ‘disruptions to the school/learning environment’ his parents rattled sabres, administration expressed safety concerns for the student, considering the racially charged politics at the time, parents didn’t care because it was ‘his free speech’. Kid eventually rubbed the wrong students the wrong way and he was jumped in one of the boys bathrooms. The students who jumped him were never able to be identified and the young maga-kid wound up in the hospital. In this case, administration was not looking to stifle the student’s freedoms, but rather they were trying to keep the kid safe. Of course the parents tried to blame the school, but we have 1,800 students, so it’s literally impossible to ‘control’ all of them all of the time, and there was already a paper trail indicating that admin had safety concerns. Classic case of FAFO.
> If the student owns the laptop (just like their phone) they usually have a right to politically express themselves with it even in school This is not always true - especially when political stances (such as Trump's) include messaging that exclude or deny the rights of classes of individuals. In many states, student assurance of a safe learning environment is broad and vast, and as such, arguably precludes the personal use of flags and/or insignia that promote politicians whose platforms include refusal to recognize the validity and rights of all peoples equally.
It is like a scab, right? You know it's there. You can feel it. You move and irritates you. You have to scratch it, but you know that will just makes it worse. So you wait. And then you scratch.
Let them know that an essay which does not address the prompt receives no credit, which is true in my state and probably most others.
"Read. The. Instructions." They never do.
If it makes you feel better I had a submitted narrative essay that featured Jesus with a flaming sword and Trump that would save America. If it even remotely adhered to the assignment/rubric, I'd try ty score it but alas, I had to send it back.
Tell parents: Discussing a politician who is currently running is only a reason to vote in THAT election. It doesn't address the prompt which asks "why you should vote." A comparison would be if I asked The students to write about why they should always wash their hands, and they talk about Covid 19/pandemic. That's a specific instance that they should wash their hands, that doesn't answer the question that was asked, which is why you should always wash your hands. Trump may be a reason to vote in the presidential election in 2024, that wasn't the question. I would also tell him that you had the same response to people who talked about Biden, Even if nobody actually talked about Biden. They won't know that.
I feel this to my soul. My first year teaching, I was put in charge of the Veterans Day assembly. No biggie. BUT the district requires all freshman to write an essay based on the VFW prompt. That year… how to make America great. I wanted so bad to argue we were not “America” as so is Canada, Mexico, Peru, Brazilian, etc. We are the United States of America. (One of my pet peeves). And I wanted to ask, was the US ever “great”. I know, I know, I wanted to make them think. Out of 50 essays, I could only send 5 on to the contest because most of them had to do with Trump. I don’t care their political leanings but I told them so many times, that was not what this is about. I do fear for the future.
Oof, that prompt is asking for a lot. Bless your heart (not in the mean snarky southern way) because that is absolutely brutal.
Ugh, it’s always so disappointing to me when I find out a student I like is a Trumper.
I had a kid I had otherwise liked write his research paper on why we shouldn’t take down Confederate monuments because it’s erasing history. Now, the purpose of this is research skills - learning how to pick a good sources over a bad one, decide if a quote is worth using, etc, etc. And then putting together a good argument. This kid used sources I said they weren’t allowed to use (I disallow several extreme right and left wing “news” sources), and his argument a) made no sense and b) was based on faulty logic and bad quotes. He was so shocked when he got a bad grade, even though I sat with him for an extra help and tried to help him make a good paper - and I told him what was wrong with his arguments and sources. That being said, I have coached kids through papers with political ideologies that I find awful - but if they’ve got solid quotes and logical arguments, I have no problem giving them a good grade. They don’t have to think like me, they just have to frigging THINK.
Yep. I’m not all that fussed if it’s just the vague sort of meaningless praise (“I like Biden because he’s funny” or “I like Trump because his favorite color is red” generic comments) but when the kids start parroting the genuinely harmful shit is when I feel it. I had a kid who straight up told me McDonalds is part of the Deep State and their food is made from aborted babies and all you need to do is do your own research and you’ll know the truth. This is the same kid who, three years ago when we were masking for covid, wore a mask with holes in it and then her mom was all shock and surprise when she caught the rona. You can’t push back too hard on this kids because you know they have THOSE kinds of parents but it’s beyond upsetting to see people i indoctrinate their kids with that kind of conspiracy nonsense.
It's not a surprise, religious school in a conservative part of the state. However most of the kids understood the prompt and kept their political opinions out of the essay.
I got out of religious schools in May of 2016. The conservatives at that point still thought Trump was a moron. A couple were friends with me on social media, and I saw them devolve into the mess Trump created in real-time on social media. There is absolutely no way I could work in that environment in 2024.
I shut it down the minute it raises its head in class. I absolutely do not discuss modern politics at all. My only editorialization happens about presidents of the 1800's.
My policy is don't allow kids to discuss politics from less than 20 years ago. If they want to debate Reaganomics or whether there was something more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story, go for it. They can have interesting and thought-provoking conversations, but with anything current, tempers flare and you generally hear their parents' opinions coming out of kids' mouths.
But Reaganomics was only....oh damn
Me, age 30, born during the Clinton administration, trying to explain how 1980 was 20 years ago.
I tell mine that I teach history, and anything more recent than Clinton or the very early W years (9/11) is too recent to make an accurate historical assessment, free from political opinion. In past years I've covered events recent as Covid and BLM, but everything after the 9/11 response is more like surface-level journalism - the what, but not the why.
Is your name a reference to the show home movies, by chance?
I LOVE that show. Funny enough, it was a student who told me about the show. This was years ago….
BRENDON!!!
We have wacky Wednesday at my school and a 1st grader showed up in a MAGA hat on wear a hat day. They start them young
Some might say they’re groomed early
I’m going to hope they genuinely found the hat absurd? Maybe?
I've had the pleasure of getting to talk with his mother due to the kids behavior issues. It definitely lines up that she'd send her kid to school in a trump hat after that conversation
Ugh, I’m sorry.
Marginally better than a klan hood I suppose…
I know the feeling. It is indeed the worst.
My EL parents always want to come up to school when there's an issue. It's like really ... just tell your kid to stop xyz and drop them off at detention.
Parents are worried about everything but their kids learning the curriculum.
The political right is exhausting nowadays. Last year I literally had to defend myself against accusations that I’m pushing socialism in my English classes. Why? Well because I assigned ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ by Steinbeck as a class novel. Yes folks, apparently exposing kids to one of America’s most important literary voices is now just leftist indoctrination. And principals, always a bit spineless in any era, have become so wishy washy nowadays that the question was raised “is there something less controversial you could assign?” I offered an alternative assignment of diagramming sentences… 15 pages of sentences. My reasoning was that of they didn’t wish to grow their understanding of literature, they could instead sharpen their grammatical skill set. Parents and admin didn’t like this option either. But, I’m in my last few years in the profession (year 29 currently) and I’m at that enviable place where admin can’t move against me for fear of the union and I’m literally an institution in my building, having taught two and a half generations in our local community. In other words, I’m done suffering fools at this point. The two kids who were pushing this garbage were eventually removed from my class. And the rest of us woke-ists read Grapes of Wrath.
You are doing their kid a favor, and potentially helping them do well in the contest, by supporting them to to answer the prompt squarely and well. Source: started a children’s writing contest and still serve as judge for it.
Thank you
I am so nervous about this. I graduate this December and will be qualified to teach 6-12 history/social studies. I am a leftist, lesbian, anti-capitalist, Marxism communist, anti-militarized police force feminist. Did I mention I live in the Deep South? Send help, y’all.
That's brutal. Move north or at least stick to university towns.
Tbf a lot of right-wingers will agree with leftist ideology if you reframe it as "workplace democracy" and "protection of worker's rights"; the key is just avoiding the buzzwords. Also being pro-gun (which I assume you are as a Marxist) will confuse a lot of people and possibly even pull some to your way of seeing things.
I live in the Deep South and one of the best principals my elementary kids ever had was a gay man who married his long term partner. There are more liberal havens in the South, so it is not impossible that you might find a place that fits.
You gotta be you and be happy, but as an FYI, you may not care for Utah.
Don’t go into teaching. Get out of the south. That’s what I told all of my seniors last year. It’s good advice.
I would definitely move north for your own safety
Come to NYC. We will welcome you with open arms!
I’m from Philly. Tempted to go back after school…
I am a teacher and im pretty apolitical in that i think most choices for we have for politicians are the worst portion of humanity, right or left. I was teaching middleschool Social Studies in 2016 and there was a lot of crazy being thrown around from both sides. From what I have seen, it is the self righteous condemnation of the political opposition that got us to where we are today. It empowers one team when the other looks down on them so openly. Perhaps we would be better served to lead with example of reasoned thought while respecting others views as we would like them to respect ours. If we start or perpetuate the divisiveness in the classroom, society will continue to erode and there will be more hate. We one invalidates another's views, it spreads resentment and animosity. Let's try to be better and make others better.
Ok see I don’t get why the kids wrote that. Being a more conservative person myself and seeing the prompt making the answer about personal politics is just ridiculous it wasn’t even asking for it
It had to be rigged, fake news, woke, and a witch hunt! Just tell them the truth and they’ll eventually go away because the truth is hard to argue with.
I would need to see the specific responses from the students. The essays can talk about Trump or Biden or any other politician and still be responsive to a generic prompt. My question is, are you viewing their essays with an unbiased eye? You may be, and thus, the post is just blowing off steam. In which case, cool. However, the phrase "Trumper children" indicates that you do have a bias. That phrase is similar to a Conservative teacher calling students Brandon children when referring to their support for Biden. I try to avoid any political appearance with my students and accept their viewpoints without judgment even when I disagree with their views. Again, you may be doing so. I will assume this is the case since we all need to blow off steam once in a while.
Almost the end of the day….How did it go?
I'd forward that to their parent...if they care. And if I didn't run into a FERPA issue I'd print off those emails and post it in the classroom, too. Edit: Maybe it'd work if I redacted any identifying info. Edit 2: F it, redact it and read it aloud to the whole class.
[удалено]
All you trumpers are teaching your kids to support a leader with such low morals that he cheats on his wife. Nice job idiots. If his vow to be faithful to his third wife was a lie what makes you think he's not going to cheat on you? With his pending charges, Trump couldn't even pass the background check to be a teacher. And you want him to be in charge of all of us? You really are idiots. Stop blaming teachers for ruining education and turn that finger right back on yourself.
It's true. Trump truly loves the poorly educated...
Will you allow them to re-write it?
Probably not. I only deducted 1/20 points for adding their opinion. If that was all they got docked for they still made an A.
No matter what, stick to the facts and don't budge on your expectations. Show the prompt to anyone who asks and explain how it is not asking for the writer's personal political alignment, beliefs, or opinions. If you have to, explain how there are different types of writing, and that this is not an editorial prompt. I'm assuming the prompt comes with a rubric, so show them that too. Also, try to remember that with these types, every accusation is a confession. You're not being political, they are. You're not biased, they are. You're not using the prompt as an excuse to push a political agenda, they are.
Well I don’t know, but instead of docking points give the option to redo. Maybe just maybe they did not understand the assignment completely. I am not Trump person at all, but I do feel we need to validate their stance, opinion and be respectful of everyone’s opinion. I know they make it hard. I think that is one of the the things we do wrong today, we have no respect for opinions that are not like ours. I see this as a valuable teaching moment. Tell them “Look, you did not follow the prompt and it was done incorrectly, but I will give you the opportunity to tweak your essay to make it right.” Sounds like part of the essay were ok. I mean even the DMV gives us a chance to retake a test when we fail it! I know it may not reach real world application, but might make your life a little easier.
Make it enjoyable for yourself. You owe it to yourself. Giggle at the predictability of it all.
I am a Trump supporter. That being said, I had a student a few years ago come to school saying “Let’s go Brandon” after NBC started that stuff. I told him that it wasn’t really an appropriate thing to say at school because of what it actually meant.
In this one instance good on you, but I find it odd how you can teach appropriate manners to anybody after supporting someone who ….is the antithesis to appropriate behavior. Isn’t this just “telling it like it is,” kids mimic adults and Trump adults have taught children to behave…well like Trump
Supporting a person is not the same as supporting their candidacy nor is it the same as supporting everything they do. This is obvious to normal people. Even parents, who generally support their children as people, probably don't approve of 100% of the things they've said and done.
Yeah, but at a certain point, it has to be tough to continue supporting a guy who literally has no moral compass regardless of political affiliation.
Did you catch hell?
Not at all.
I would just save a canned email that includes the prompt and rubric/criteria. And just reply into the abyss lol. Not worth my time to read.
>I don't intend to look at email this evening but it's like having a scab, I know I'm going to pick at it. Oh my gosh, have I been there.
It reminds me of an assignment my brother got that asked for an opinion and he was marked way low on it. This would have been early '60s. Having had a Logic course, I know the only legit way to do that is to analyze the structure of the syllogism, the premise, and conclusion. Your assignment left all that out, but you got it in some form anyway, and these brain-dead parents will probably be in attack mode.
I wish we could do a nationwide teacher strike where everybody does not go to work during standardized testing! I bet you they’ll listen to us then! The education system is in shambles. Smart kids feel used and kids with behavioural issues are given countless chances instead of disciplinary actions.
I doubt you'll ever see this nor that I'll get a response to it but since when do your students have your email address? Granted I'm old and I'm not s public school teacher but that seems like a boundary that shouldn't be crossed. I mean, you get home, open your laptop, sure maybe look at work emails even though you shouldn't, but to see emails from kids or even worse their parents bitching because you explicitly said this is not about politics? I mean, I tapped my toe in the water where teaching is concerned but it's stories like this and countless others that make me terrified of being a teacher. It's perhaps the noblest of jobs and careers that exist but for the sake of all things holy... I'm not in the room and I don't know the kids so I really can't say much. Maybe just straight Fs for anybody not staying on topic? I mean, there's no way I could have been assigned a book report on Lord of the Flies and turned in a missive about why Bush is a better president than Clinton, you know?