Education oppression

We hear a lot about an oppressive and overpowering education system. It creates a lot of opinions and concerns. Above is what former State Senator Carol Martin thinks of it… This is just obscene! And I’m not even going to touch the grammar (educational?!?!). How childish to compare fellow professionals to children?! You are not now, nor will you ever be seen as our mother. Nor do we, or will we ever see our relationship with the Legislature as anything even resembling anything paternal or maternal. I would argue such a self-inflated and narrow-minded worldview should disallow a person from critical decision making. Unfortunately, you are not alone in this warped worldview. And every now and then you say something so sophomoric, insulting, or embarrassing (in this case it’s all three) we all have to stop and have a discussion about how wrong you are. So here it goes again…. For a more detailed history and explanation see here, here, and here.

As a teacher, and the son, nephew, and grandson of teachers I take offense to many of the criticisms and insults hurled each day at me and my family and fellow professionals. I’m also not so blind and naive to not see my profession has its fair amount of issues and we definitely need to consistently take account of who and where we are, and what exactly we are doing. It hurts to come to the realization your "side" could be wrong.

There are definitely segments of our population that have valid complaints against an oppressive public or government education system? They, by in large, are not white and most definitely, not Christian. The false equivalency of oppression and persecution is laughable and painful. It demeans real suffering, misprioritizes responsibility, totally alters the conversation, and proves once again the unavoidable position of privilege so many ignorantly occupy. In a country with44 consecutive professed Christian leaders, literally hundreds of denominations and houses of worship in every city throughout this country, there are many who would still argue their religious liberties are somehow oppressed.

There are many segments of our population that have legitimate complaints with how they have been treated by government education. You can read about them here, here, here, here, andhere. Minority communities in this country, especially in this state, have every reason to be hesitant of “the government coming to help them.” When I hear the White community complains about it, it just sounds hollow. The main complaint with public education, or as they call them, “government schools”, from what I can gather, is they don’t get to tell everyone how to live, behave, believe, and think. I get not being able to be yourself is awful (look what the government did to the Indian children). Forcing people to deny that which they were taught at home, and adopt a “new worldview” is absolutely wrong. They seem to have a misunderstanding of whats going on in schools, as reported here, and here.

This brings us to where we are today. Ultimately we have precious little resources with which to fight, and everything in the world to lose. In our fight to ensure every child has equal access to an education, we should ensure communities, cultures, and people are treated as communities, cultures and people, not “problems needing fixed” or “”issues needing our attention”. I don’t believe that is too much to ask, and I believe that is what we should be fighting for.

In a number of ways, what I just typed could’ve been said much simpler… Just because the facts do not fit your personal narrative, it doesn't change them. And you can't change them to fit without being remarkably dishonest or just plain stupid. But it isn’t me, if it isn’t unpacked…