Elementary Students Turned Into Pawns by Liberal Teacher?

Elementary Students Forced to Write Advocacy Letters to Governor Criticizing Education Cuts, via Michigan Capitol Confidential:

Third through fifth graders at an elementary school in the Walled Lake Consolidated School District were assigned by at least one teacher this week to write letters to Gov. Rick Snyder saying how unhappy they were with his budget cuts, the school district confirmed Thursday.

The students were told the best letters would be forwarded to the governor. One parent said the teachers prepped the students with what the budget cuts entailed because some weren’t aware. Students also were asked to speak in front of their classmates about why they didn’t like the budget cuts.

Walled Lake parent Ernie Hughes said he didn’t think the assignment was appropriate. “Don’t bring politics into the school and use the kids as pawns,” Hughes said.

District Spokesman Judy Evola said in an e-mail it wasn’t appropriate for the elementary age students to write the letters. “The District neither supports this writing assignment or believes it was age appropriate for elementary students," she said.

This news does not shock or surprise me. In my post Liberal Teachers I wrote:

Whole generations of students are being brainwashed by this liberal thinking. And I do mean they are being brain-washed. Teachers are systematically trying to force the students in their classes to think in a certain way. They are forced to only hear one viewpoint on issues, they are forced to only provide answers that the teacher considers right, and they are forced on penalty of shame to admit to and agree to the liberal agenda. True, many students rebel against this system, usually be shutting down mentally or saying they hate school, but most students are worn down bit by bit, and eventually agree that 2+2 does equal 5, and the liberal agenda in this nation is advanced that much further.

There is considerable evidence to me that this is so- textbooks, state curriculum, lesson plans, standardized tests, student comments, and my own observations. On big issues and little issues, the liberal agenda is pushed down students minds, and the cumulative effect of decades of this is beginning to show in our current political environment.

Although Walled Lake district spokesman Judy Evola admitted that the students should not have written the letters and does not support this effort, there were no reports of any disciplinary actions taken and no reports of reviews of the teacher's past activities and projects. Although it is possible that this was the first and only time that this teacher let their liberal views show through in the class and forced innocent children to be pawns in their political games, it is more likely this teacher has systematically attempted to slant her teaching towards liberal values and beliefs and every day to make her students into progressive activists of change along the lines of Saul Alinsky (whom the NEA suggests all teachers read). She probably is like another teacher who I had the chance to substitute teach for once and used her classroom as a forum to spread her liberal values and views (see my post I Knew I Was Different From Liberal Teachers When...).

One can only hope that the district has taken the appropriate steps with this teacher and that in the future this teacher will only lean liberal and will make conscious attempts to be more moderate and will not ever use students to promote their agenda ever again. I do not expect teachers to always be 100% perfect or always be nonpartisan or apolitical- that would make education dry and dull- but there needs to be balance and students never must be made pawns of a teachers views. I'm a conservative teacher and of course my conservative beliefs show (especially after having students for a whole year)- but I play devil's advocate from both sides, come down hard on Republicans and conservatives at times, occasionally parrot out the Democrat and liberal talking points, never force my students to be part of any sort of conservative agenda, and always try my hardest to teacher critical thinking skills and have the students make their own educated and ration decisions about issues and concepts. That's all we should ask of any teacher- and we should be asking it of all the teachers in Walled Lake Consolidated School District.