by Eric Herod
“You don’t have to be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism.” -Donald Trump Jr.
.@DonaldJTrumpJr's message to young conservatives: "Keep up that fight. Bring it to your schools. You don't have to be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism from birth." pic.twitter.com/IGzyK48Ilp
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 12, 2019
Ok, America, we need to talk.
For the past 18 years since No Child Left Behind started to leave everyone behind, we have failed to talk about education in a proper way. We have failed to demand more from our government officials in helping our educators create learning environments that foster successful citizens of the world. WE have failed.
The “socialism” contruct not fully developed by, but adopted and made famous by, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles was the idea that a society could divide up the wealth among the entire population thus refuting the need for the competitive, dog-eat-dog capitalistic perspective. This movement was constructed from watching a society’s continued failure to provide for all of its’ citizens. Despite its intentions to do good for all people, once it was combined with a totalitarianistic communist leader, anarchy and chaos ensued.
BTW, free public education is a socialistic-type idea. #nohedidn’t
Yes, yes I did.
If America was a truly capitalistic society, there would be no free public education for everyone. Schools would compete for students who come from the wealthiest backgrounds. The rich would pay top dollar for the best of everything, school buildings, teachers, textbooks, and grades. Hmmm…where did Don Jr. go to school?
Oh yeah, The Buckley School of NYC with a tuition of $47,500/year and The Hill School in Pottstown, PA at $59,050/year. But I digress.
We have over 3 million students going to free public education currently. There is a shortage of over 300,000 teachers to teach those students
Is it really the right time to bash teachers? Are teachers really to blame for anything besides working way too hard for a society that doesn’t really care about them?
I worked my butt off trying to do my best for students of all races, genders, and socioeconomic status for 15 years, not including the years I was the on-site coordinator for before and after school programs during my undergrad years, or the year I spent being a Kindergarten assistant for 90 minutes a day in high school. And every year, I was in debt, had to work a second or third job, and barely saved any money.
I’m a loser.
And so is every public education student in America.
We are all losing.
We are losing a battle and we have leaders who don’t care.
We have a Secretary of Education who believes that schools should be privatized. (Remember what would happen if we turned truly capitalistic and made all schools private?)
Now, we have the president’s son, who hasn’t spent a day in a public school, calling us “loser teachers.” You know what Don, YOU ARE RIGHT.
WE ARE LOSERS.
We want our schools to be properly funded for all students. We are losing.
We want our schools to provide opportunities for creativity, exploration, and entrepreneurship. We are losing.
We want our schools to provide nutritionally balanced meals for every student in America. We are losing.
We want our schools to have enough qualified teachers in the building to keep class sizes down for optimal learning environments. We are losing.
We want our schools to be safe from weapons, drugs, and sexual predators. We are losing.
We want our schools to have enough maintenance and support staff to keep the floors, walls, and bathrooms clean and safe for our students and staff to use daily. We are losing.
We want our schools to have the proper amount of support for students who need special assistance beyond the capabilities of the classroom teacher, because they would be denied from most, if not all, private schools. We are losing.
We want our schools to properly prepare our students for the careers of the future that may not even be in the public domain right now, but the skills will be so we are losing.
We want our schools to have teachers and educators who don’t have to go home worrying about living paycheck to paycheck, taking second, third, and fourth jobs, because their paycheck hasn’t afforded them the opportunity to pay off college loans, live, save, and invest. We are losing.
We want our schools to teach students how to be citizens of the global world, understanding that the future of America depends on our relationships with other citizens of the world. We are losing.
I didn’t teach socialism. I didn’t teach “hate America.” I didn’t teach America to hate. And I sorely resent implication that I did from the son of the President of the United States who spent all his childhood in a boarding school for boys.
Sometimes I wish we, as Americans, had the courage to stand up and say, “NO. You will not talk about my son’s/my daughter’s/my favorite teacher/my worst teacher that way.”
Every teacher deserves better. Every student deserves better.
It is not socialistic to say, “America, you deserve better.”
Just remember that the first and most important teacher of ANY child is their parent.
So, Donnie-boy is right. America, you are losers.
You are losing until we all decide to demand more support from our leaders for education.
Join us in supporting a Better Way for Education.