A friend ends every email he sends with:
UNEXPECTEDLY: ADV. FREQUENTLY USED BY PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING, TO DESCRIBE UNPLEASANT EVENTS OR SITUATIONS THEY HAVE CREATED.
This definition kept coming to mind while I read this report on the dire situation the public school system is in. According to an article in the Washington Post with the headline, “Trust in teachers is plunging amid a culture war in education.” The more parents are aware of what is happening at public schools, the less likely they will be to support them.
New polling suggests that fierce debates over what educators should be allowed to do and say in classrooms, an ascendant parents’ rights movement seeking control of what children learn at school, recent criticism of teachers from conservative lawmakers and news outlets and the lingering aftershocks from the pandemic have all sapped public confidence in the teaching profession.
In January, a Gallup poll found that Americans’ belief in grade-school teachers’ honesty had dropped to an all-time low, with 64 percent of adults reporting they believe those instructors are truthful and have ethical standards, down from a high of 75 percent in 2020, during the tensest days of the pandemic. In July, another Gallup poll found that just 28 percent of Americans have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in public schools — the second-lowest this figure has been since Gallup began asking this question in 1973.
Only one-quarter of Americans were confident in public schools. Shockingly, they could not get a majority of approval from Democrat constituents.
Another concern is that most parents don’t want to see their children become teachers, and the profession could be at a low point.
Meanwhile, a historically small slice of U.S. adults — 37 percent — say they want their children to become teachers, according to the 54th annual PDK-Gallup poll, marking the slimmest recorded percentage since the poll launched in 1969. Albert Chen, acting CEO of PDK, a global association of education professionals, called the number “depressing.”
The content of the article resembles the kind of conversation that you would have with a serious addict or alcoholic. The focus is on everything that's wrong and the people who are screwing them. There's not any thought given to what the reason might be and admitting that they could be in the wrong.
Analysts trace the falling respect for teachers to several causes: First, parents were able to pay closer attention to what their children were learning during virtual schooling in the pandemic’s first year, when they could sit in on a class just by peering at their children’s screens over their shoulders. Many parents soon discovered they did not like what they saw, deeming the lessons overly focused on issues of race, racism, topics such as gender fluidity and gender identity, and the parts of U.S. history where the country failed to live up to its ideals, said Rick Hess, director of education policy studies for the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.
“For a large number of Americans, when they look at what schools are doing and the messages that are being sent by advocates of public education,” Hess said, “it sounds like these folks are pushing agendas and values that feel alien, feel destructive, and it winds up eroding their faith in the profession as a whole.”
Second, right-leaning politicians and pundits found it could be politically advantageous to blast teachers. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) swept into office by campaigning to eradicate certain ways of talking about race and American history from the state’s schools. One of his earliest acts as governor was to set up a tip line allowing parents to report teachers for inappropriate behavior. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has scored political points, and support for a presidential run, by passing a host of laws restricting how teachers can talk about race, racism, history and LGBTQ issues.
Is that correct?
Americans have lost faith in teachers.
I'm not sure why parents are worried about the information their child gets in school or feel that teachers aren't in their corner. I don't know why that could be the case.
This Twitter promotion says:
The stakes, experts said, are high. If Americans do not trust teachers, those with resources may pull their children into private schools, endangering public-school funding, which is tied to enrollment.
This is not the whole truth. A majority of school funding is linked to tax levies on properties and a small portion dependent on enrollment and attendance. Therefore, if a student is removed from public schools, the school does not actually lose funds. The school simply isn't compensated for services it doesn't provide.
There is no place in the report where concern is expressed about the kids they're failing, only the capacity that public schools have to take to your money. This isn't an accident.
The story concludes with this story in which I'm sure the reporter is using as a way of bringing home his message regarding educators being noble and the ignorant parents who are smug idiots standing against Education Utopia.
Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr., who is gay, was named 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year by his state education department after more than a decade teaching English and French to high-schoolers in Mount Sterling, Ky. Shortly after he won that honor, a small group of adults began showing up to board meetings to call him a “groomer” and suggest that the Gay-Straight Alliance club he headed was “some sort of sex cult,” Carver said. One of the adults, a woman, also began sharing screenshots from his private Facebook and trying to publish information about his former students, he said.
Dismayed, miserable and frightened, Carver quit his job in June.
“The impulse on the part of a very small group of people in rural places has always been to accuse teachers,” he said. “But they’ve been on the outskirts of normalcy and polite society for at least the last 20 years.”
Carver added: “Not anymore.”
Schools shouldn't be in charge of promoting sexual behavior among students. However, If you get pleasure from by hanging out with teens and chatting about gay sex, then you aren't entitled to be frightened when parents are angry or you’re described as a “groomer.” Maybe quitting and creating your own OnlyFans website is the most effective option for you and your students.
If you're looking to gain back the trust of parents, you should treat them parents with respect. Perhaps you should not discuss transgenderism in the fourth grade or even with twelfth graders. Don't offer sexual guidance to any child or teach them that they're superior or less than others because of their skin color (that's being racist). Always be aware that the student you're instructing isn't yours, so don't impart your personal beliefs and values. Keep to the curriculum and you'll be busy enough.
Over the past several decades, we've poured millions of dollars into public schools. Higher salaries and smaller classes have been rewarded with a decline in tests scores, with an emphasis on race and sex, excesses of school administrators, and an overwhelming feeling of entitlement from the educators and administrators who don't realize they're not the ones in charge of each child's education.
While I am of the opinion that the reporter is dealing with the wrong causes, however I believe the problem is real. The departure from public schools is already underway, and it won’t be easy to stop. Many states are adopting the simple “money follows the child” route instead of the traditional “let's dump all education money down a failing rathole” method we are currently using. Homeschooling and charter schooling will be the standard. The public school system will evolve into the last resort for schools that caters to children with discipline problems or with special needs and children with parents who do not have the time to search for alternatives. The buildings, the support staff, and the privileged teachers will remain for a time.
