LGR: When I hear about teachers doing this garbage, it really bothers me. I am told over and over again in my classes that as teachers, we are NOT to let on to our students what our opinions are. A teacher’s job is to teach the students ALL sides of the arguments in such a way that the students learn how to form their own opinions, not copy those of their parents or their teachers!
Sherry Reding: It’s a joke
Sherry Reding: You know, the thing is……. What the schools are teaching these days have absolutely NOTHING to do with our HISTORY – Barrack is gonna ‘change’ the world. Why are so many young adults “liberals”??? What have they been TAUGHT? I’ve been an example for my kids – they make up their own minds, politically and thank GOD they have not allowed the public schools to corrupt their minds.
CR: This one is a Joke.. but how many others …are not>?
Sherry Reding: It goes both ways – in fact, I believe I heard that in Texas …. something about changing the textbooks to be more “current” with times…. So basically, our grandchildren will not be taught United States History unless their parents teach it to them.
Sherry Reding: and one final word ….. “the students learn how to form their own opinions, not copy those of their parents or their teachers!”
This is NOT a perfect world and that’s nice but not realistic.
Peter Opdahl: Sherry, the entire quote is “A teacher’s job is to teach the students ALL sides of the arguments in such a way that the students learn how to form their own opinions, not copy those of their parents or their teachers!”
You’re right in that it’s not a perfect world and children do copy what they see — That’s exactly why the statement above is so correct. When teachers don’t do this, we end up with a lot of little Hitlers, Mussolinis, Maos, Tojos, and McCarthys. It’s so very easy and natural to take the side in which you believe, so teachers are trained and hopefully practice the art of walking down the middle of the aisle. Unfortunately this often makes them hated by both ends of the spectrum.
To quote Abigail Adams, First Lady to perhaps the most important of our Founding Fathers: “I’ve always felt that a person’s intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.”
CP: Taxpayer Funded Socialist Indoctrination Centers over the last forty years primed the people to elect someone like Obama if it was not him it would have been another one like him.
DBNEL: Sherry… your profile picture is ewhhhwhhwhhwhwhw…. puke :) LOL
Sherry Reding: Exactly CP
LOL DBNEL, I’m changing it. It scares the crap outta me every time I log in to FB.
Peter Opdahl: Sigh. I can just see Mrs. Adams rolling over in her grave right now. Have at it ladies.
Sherry Reding: As I said before, it goes both ways. Have you not seen the videos of the children chanting “Barrack is going to change the world” and “Barrack Hussein Obama” to the tune of Jesus Loves the Little Children?? Indoctrination at it’s best. It’s happening irregardless of what people want to believe. I’m 100% against it, either way and I’m definitely not saying that it’s right. And yes, in a perfect world the children would learn how to form their own opinions, not copy those of their parents or their teachers – But…… realistically it is not happening nor will it ever happen. Sad but true.
Peter Opdahl: Good, then we agree that teachers should keep their opinions to themselves — I wasn’t sure the way you cropped the quote.
And no, until tonight I hadn’t seen the video of the children singing the “Barrack Obama is going to change the world” song. (Sorry, but in the greater global world it didn’t make the news.) I just watched it, however. It’s cheesy, ineffectual, and I would never do that to my own kid, but what does this have to do with schools and teachers? Kathy Sawada is indeed a teacher, but she is a teacher at a private school and this was done as a private citizen, not as a teacher. As a Libertarian, you must respect the rights of people to do what they wish in their own homes, correct? It looks like all the kids’ parents were there, so they were being taught by their parents, just as each one of us was and each one of us does to their own children. LIberty and freedom at its best.
I couldn’t find any link that had an Obama song to the tune of Jesus Loves the Little Children”, only the first one here ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtGrp5MbzAI ) so if you could point me at the other, I’d love to take a look. I’d be surprised if I am offended, though, unless it was taught to the kids by a public school teacher while at work at the public school. The combination of Obama (Or Barack Hussein Obama, for that matter…) and a Christian song certainly isn’t going to offend me, because it isn’t the song that makes something special — It’s the words. After all, the “Star Spangled Banner” is sung to the tune of an old drinking song and we really don’t seem to mind.
Note: For some reason the copy I have is garbled from this point on, but Sherry had provided three links to videos, one of which was another version of the video above. Another one I had already found myself that showed children in a NJ elementary school singing a song about President Obama (Similar link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOwXrI6v4uk). The third video was about the Presidential speech on education to children (Same or similar link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd3HITB2B-Y). I had already commented on another thread that that I thought that the teacher and school superintendent of the public school had made a huge mistake by bringing that much ideology — some of it with religious overtones — into the school. They made a huge judgment error, but I don’t see how that can be pulled back on the President. I certainly don’t think that he signs off on every school skit in the country.
For the video about the President’s speech on education to the nation’s children, I commented that I thought that the Department of Education had overstepped its bounds a bit, and I was glad that they had been forced to remove the more partisan portions of the supplemental teaching material that went along with the speech. In this case, the Department of Education also made a judgment error, and the public reacted correctly. It also is a lot closer to the Office of the President than was the NJ public school incident. My guess, however, is that it was the work of some overzealous lower level official. The speech itself was was inspirational, completely non-partisan, and I could find nothing in it that should offend anyone who believes that education is important. If you haven’t seen the speech, see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZZ6GrzWkw0.
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