Opening Day Message: Viciously Attack Conservatives

At the start of the school year, all the teachers in the district are usually invited to hear a speaker come in and talk to us about education. Last year, we brought in a very interesting teacher consultant from a major university, who told us that the best way to make students feel safe in our classrooms is to viciously attack anyone who express a strong opinion, belief, or ideal, particularly if they are libertarian or conservative.

As it was explained to us in our opening day celebration of learning, the reason that we as teachers need to attack people expressing support for traditional marriage, or for being anti-drug, or for believing in creationism, is that these ideas and beliefs make other students feel uncomfortable. For example, let's say there is a student in the classroom who is having sex before marriage, and someone says that is immoral- well, now that student feels bad, and so the teacher needs to step in and attack that other student for making that person feel bad.

Let's say that the teacher is giving a lecture on man-made global warming, and a student says that he doesn't believe in it- that student may encourage other students to also doubt the teacher, and thus they are subversive, and need to be viciously attacked. Or let's say that another student thinks that it is wrong for the school to remove crosses and install footbaths, like they did at University of Michigan last year- well, that student will make Muslim's feel uncomfortable, and that's a no-no, so they should be silenced.

As this sermon went on, I grew more and more disgusted that this professor was actually encouraging us as teachers to attack conservatives and libertarians simply because their beliefs may make liberals and progressives feel bad or guilty. But shockingly, when I looked around the room at the faces of the other teachers, many were nodding along. As my ideas and ideals were viciously attacked by this visiting professor, I felt more and more uncomfortable and upset.

Afterwards, I talked to another teacher about how I made to feel guilty and bad by this guy, and she told me "now you know how liberals and progressives feel all the time." I guess in a way she was correct- when I talk about being a good person, doing good things, not bothering other people, letting them live their own lives, giving to charity, going to church, keeping my own property, and other things like that, I guess I am making liberals feel guilty and bad.

Somehow though, I don't think using schools to make conservatives and libertarians feel bad as some sort of perverted retribution is supposed to be their function.