Valerie Strauss

You may recall that President Trump held a border wall rally in El Paso on Monday and that his eldest child, Donald Trump Jr., made a speech that roused the crowd.

The president’s son drew cheers when he urged young conservatives to “bring it to your schools” (though he didn’t say exactly what “it” was) because “you don’t have to be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism from birth.”

Three teachers explain why Trump Jr.'s comment was more than simply mean.

Jelmer Evers of the Netherlands, Michael Soskil of the United States and Armand Doucet of Canada were featured authors in the 2018 book “Teaching in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Standing at the Precipice.”

Evers is also the author of “Flip the System: Changing Education From the Ground Up.” Soskil was the 2017-18 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year. Doucet was a recipient of Canada’s teachers award and is the author of “Teaching Life: Our Calling, Our Choices, Our Challenges.”

By Jelmer Evers, Michael Soskil and Armand Doucet.....

“You know what I love? I love seeing some young conservatives because I know it’s not easy. (Crowd applauds and shouts.) 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. You don’t have to do it. Because you can think for yourselves. They can’t.” (Crowd applauds and shouts again.) – Donald Trump Jr. in Texas on Feb. 11, 2019

For teachers around the globe, this was a chilling moment.

In a stadium filled with people chanting “USA, USA,” the son of the president of the United States called for hostility toward teachers because of their so-called political leanings. This is a message you would expect in an authoritarian regime, not at a rally for the U.S. president.

As teachers, we come from varied backgrounds and political leanings, but there is an undeniable core to who we are and what we stand for. Teachers nurture, care and protect students. Teachers champion the pursuit of knowledge.

By working daily with young people, teachers are the stewards of the future. Whether Democratic or Republican, liberal or conservative, right, left, center, blue or red — seeing and reinforcing the value of a teacher should be a national pillar that rises high above partisan politics and cheap applause.

Throughout history, schools and teachers have always been among the first to be targeted by authoritarian regimes and extremists. Independent thinking, creativity, compassion and curiosity are threats to dogmatic beliefs and rule.

Many of our colleagues in countries ravaged by war or in shackled societies teach in difficult circumstances. They are often ruthlessly persecuted and even k**led for providing a well-balanced education to children, which should be a basic human right.

Echoes of these authoritarian practices are increasingly being heard in democratic countries as well. In Germany, the radical right party Alternative for Germany has launched a website where students and parents can report “left-wing teachers.”

In the Netherlands, right-wing parliamentarians have called on students to out their socialist teachers because they were indoctrinating their students in “c*****e c****e propaganda.”

In Canada, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has accused student unions of “crazy Marxist nonsense” and has raised alarms by throwing out one of the most progressive sex education curriculums, which dealt with topics from consent, to g****r identity to “sexting” in the age of social media.

In Hungary, textbooks are censored to follow the government’s nationalistic agenda. After years of denouncing teachers and schools, President Jair Bolsonaro’s first education policy in Brazil is to go after the “Marxist” curriculums, which bars teachers talking about feminism and L***Q issues.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has fired thousands of teachers. In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte is attacking teacher unions.

Research by the United Nations has shown that the globe is spinning toward a dramatic teacher shortage, with analysts predicting a shortage of 69 million teachers by 2030. This is the crisis we should be talking about.

We’ve seen overcrowded classrooms, long working hours, lack of professional development, burn out, low salaries, terrible retention rates and teachers across the United States striking to demand better teaching and learning conditions.

How does Donald Trump Jr.’s description of teachers as “losers” and the encouragement of hostility toward us solve these problems? How does it ignite passion in a new generation to pursue the world’s most important profession?

If we can be accused of anything, it is that we are on the front line of democracy. Education reformer John Dewey famously said, “Democracy has to be born again each generation and education is its midwife.”

As members of a global profession, we reject the narrowing of the mind and we stand by our colleagues defending academic freedom. We call upon parents, teachers and politicians to stand with us. Our academic freedom is what allows our democracies to remain strong.

Kyle, I have to disagree with you. Children have been increasingly "running the classroom" since the early 1980s. I was a room mother for my son, and I remember being horrified in his 4th grade class when I came to school with treats for the Halloween party, and when I got to his class the kids were running wild and the teacher was sunk in the corner at her desk looking overwhelmed and stressed out. So I grabbed the loudest and most obnoxious boy to help pass out treats and told the class I'd be leaving if they didn't settle down. Of course I had the candy . But seriously, I have children ages 48 down to 34. With my oldest daughter, when you'd go to the school (I was a bluebird leader) during school hours it was quiet. With my son, from about third grade on (he's 42 now) you'd go to the school during school hours and 8 times out of 10 there was lots of noise coming from classrooms. Sounded quite raucus. Same with my 2 youngest daughters. I dont blame the children for this, cuz youre a product of your environment, but SOMETHING sure changed! One of the things teachers most often complain about is lack of respect. In some cases I've got to agree they have to deal with kids (And parents) who taught them little about civility and lots about entitlement.

I taught HS for about 15 yrs and have taught college PT for about 25. I am not offended by this at all and I'll tell you why. Because it is true; teachers try to impose some pretty radical political ideas on students in all disciplines. These teachers have essentially created the snowflake mentality of "melting down": at the drop of a hat when something is said that they have been told is offensive which, in most cases, is not. I don't like the term "loser" but heck, if the shoe fits. These teachers are big fish in little bitty ponds and I get absolutely s**k of having to put up with their crap and the attitudes they develop in students. And, I can tell you, it's becoming more and more prevalent.

Teachers need to admit that a criticism of some is not a criticism of all. How is it that I know and they don't. I'll tell you how, because I know I am teaching my subject and not trying to impose beliefs on my students. I don't get offended at the drop of a hat and I also know that I am comfortable with who I am.

The difference is in being taught how to think for yourself, and taught WHAT to think. Free thinking has ever been the salvation of democracy...............and the bane of autocratic ideologies.

What is interesting ( and terrifying ), is that the people who accuse schools of brainwashing children and promoting Marxist ideology, themselves want to censor what ideas children are exposed to, want to dictate behavior and punish those that do not conform.............................just like every Marxist society known to mankind.

I'm not particularly interested in what teachers in other countries think about Trump or the American education system. I am, however, very much concerned that the left has unquestionably conquered education and feeding our students full of Marxist Progressive ideology including the suppression of freedom of speech. There is no question that conservative students are ostracized on campus and conservative speakers are shouted down. When TV interviewers, man on the street type, go to a college campus and ask basic question such as who fought in the Civil War and students don't know, education, vis a vis educators, are not doing their job. More socialists leaning students graduate from our universities today than ever before. Many educators should be considered subversive to our nation. There is a huge gulf between academic freedom and forced indoctrination. Often we hear of conservative students forced to silence for fear of grade reduction by so called educators. No, Trump was correct. It's time to take back our schools and for students to openly confront and challenge the Progressive prejudice of faculty.

slatten49 wrote:
"You don’t have to be indoctrinated by these loser teachers that are trying to sell you on socialism from birth."


Interesting quote, Larry. Funny thing is, though...I don't/can't recall my posting such a statement. Since you represent it as mine, please direct me as to where you found it. Otherwise, please refrain from further misrepresenting, editing or altering my words.

P.S. I actually just found the quote you attributed to me. They are Gatsby's words, from his post near the bottom of page one of this thread. I shall assume it was an honest mistake.

Actually, it did happen in Florida. The sixth grader at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland was arrested and taken to a juvenile detention center, charged with disrupting a school function and resisting arrest without violence. He said that the f**g was offensive as well as the Pledge.... also mixed in was his assertion that they are offensive to all b****s. He did not help his situation by yelling at the teacher that she was a r****t.

https://abc7ny.com/11-year-old-arrested-after-not-reciting-pledge-of-allegiance/5143903/