[lbo-talk] Feeling Old.... Yeah!

John Thornton jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net
Fri Aug 24 13:51:17 PDT 2007


Mr. WD wrote:
> Frankly, if I were a teacher in a public high school in a community
> where 2/3 of the parents still love Ronald Reagan, I'd be pretty
> nervous about teaching shit like Tet and the Iran Contra scandal too.
> The point being, it's not the kids' fault -- it's not really their
> teachers' fault either -- it's the right-wing politicization of
> instruction.
>
> -WD
>

I live in such a place and although I make art for a living I frequently teach history at a community college. I'm not certain myself how this came to pass so don't ask. It is the teachers fault for lacking the courage to teach their students and telling the parents to go fuck themselves. If parents want to provide a counterpoint at home go ahead but not teaching important historical moments because it might upset the parents is a chickenshit thing to do. If you want a job that doesn't entail such risks become a garage mechanic, insurance salesperson or some other such profession. The idea that teaching is safe and noncontroversial is BS and leftists/progressives/whatever-you-wish-to-call-them should know better. It should be painfully obvious to anyone that teaching something even slightly counter to the feel-good consensus entails risk It most definitely is not the students fault and while there are real structural impediments that should not be ignored some of the blame lies with teachers who are more interested in personal security than teaching. Whoever told teachers that doing the right thing was easy and without risk lied to them.

John Thornton P.S. As you can imagine I'm hugely popular with the staff but truthfully I have had many more students thank me for treating them like thinking adults than I have had parents angry for trying to brainwash their children.



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