Part II: Public Schools are a Lost Cause

Dateline:  October 1, in the Year of Our Lord 2022

The following story was compiled from a series of real events, some from press reports locally in my Red State town, others from personal knowledge.

After the back-and-forth between our Red State public school superintendent and the school board-member concluded (see Part I), the school board meeting was adjourned.  The two made their way to their cars and went their separate ways.  By happenstance, the two met up again at the town's most popular pub a few hours later…

Superintendent:  You want a beer after that?  

Board Member:  Or two.

Superintendent:  Don't you have kids?

Board Member:  Yea, two.  6th and 10th grade.  

Superintendent:  What are you going to do for school with them?

Board Member:  Well, I thought we'd fix the system and keep them in it.  Tonight, you convinced me that's not in our hands.  I've met my kids’ teachers.  They seem ok.  Ms. French seems to be on the up- and-up in the 6th grade.  She did have a "Diversity is Our Strength" board, but didn't seem to defend it too much.

Superintendent:  You mean Jenny French?  She's a good example of what we're up against.

Board Member:  You mean she's woke too?  

Superintendent:  No, she has learned to just go along.  Call it moral indignation, call it peer pressure, whatever. Most of the teachers are either new, young, and impressionable — or they've been invested in the system for a while and have a lot to lose by speaking out.  Either way, the zeitgeist around the school is pretty consistent.  Back in 2020 when all this was blowing up, the teacher's lounge filled with indignation and virtue signaling.  Some of our staff were "uprooting" white privilege wherever they thought they found it.  I know about French because she and another teacher had been going through a book at lunch in the school cafeteria — I think it was a classic — Jane Austin or something. Anyway, a couple of teachers went to the principal and said they felt threatened by white privilege, patriarchal literature being read on school property.  The principal asked French to take her lunch off site, so she did.  But that wasn't the end of it.

Board Member:  What happened?

Superintendent:  I got involved when a parent filed a complaint.  Ms. French “refused to respect” her child's chosen gender, creating a “hostile environment,” because she occasionally called her biological daughter "her" instead of "him" as was requested.  Really, I think French was just occasionally forgetful – or maybe she had a moment of clarity – but in any event, when the complaint happened and French admitted to slipping up on occasion, the principal really didn't think it was a big deal.  But, it only takes one parent to get this stuff in the press or call in the rainbow activist organizations.  So, the principal called in the district's DEI designated trainer.  It's just better to take a pass on this stuff and turn it over to the "professionals."

Board Member:  We're paying for a “DEI Trainer”?  We should be able to get rid of that funding, right?  

Superintendent:  Not unless we return millions in funds from the American Rescue Plan.  But, that's another story and  the board meeting's over.  Back to Ms. French.  Ms. French was told by the trainer she needed to make efforts to make her classroom more inclusive.  She was taken to another teacher's room to be shown an example.  Rainbow flags, a bulletin board on inclusive pronouns, and the right books on the shelf kept that teacher above reproach in the eyes of activist parents.  So, Ms. French tried to create the same environment, but she wasn't as good at it.  Her "diversity" board is what you must have seen that day you visited.

Board Member:  But aren't there a lot of parents who don't want the rainbow unicorns?  

Superintendent:  There used to be.  Maybe there still are.  But they've been conditioned to keep quiet.  You know, according to the DEI dogma, if you complain about DEI, you're part of the problem — a racist, a homophobe, a whatever.  That message gets through pronto.  If you insist on complaining about DEI as a parent, the “virtuous” thing for administration is not to compromise, it's to publicly condemn you.  After all, a failure to condemn a “racist” makes you a racist.  The response must be swift, decisive, and in strong language or the administrator gets targeted as being complicit in racism by DEI NGOs.  And, the DEI folks mobilize the victim card pretty quickly. 

 You weren't at that school board meeting last year were you?  The one where 6 parents brought in their trans-teens who were in tears because they were bullied and felt threatened by "hate speech" every day at the school?  The "hate speech" they were talking about was from parents who complained about the inclusive bulletin boards.  “Bullying” is when a student calls them by the wrong pronoun.  But, the board saw trans-kids in tears and had to do something.

Board Member:  I know.  The drag show they agreed to is how I got elected a few months later.  So what are you saying? Ms. French is the best you have?

Superintendent:  No, we have a few teachers who passively resist — but it's getting to be fewer and fewer.  Even in this suburban district, the pressure comes from everywhere.  Left-leaning parents feel a "moral" duty to speak out and demand "change" in defense of their kid’s chosen identity.  They're supported by media, government, activist groups, and a vocal group of teachers. Parents who want schools to stay out of politics are viewed as extremists. Anything they say is met with a gasp and people walk away.  It's like old-puritan shame in reverse. No one, especially a young teacher, wants to be singled out and ostracized.   

Board Member:  I guess I'll just have to deprogram my kids at home. That's what my dad did with me when I attended a blue-state high school back in the 80s.

Superintendent:  If only we were back in the 80s.  I was a young teacher then.  Things were definitely political.  Some people hated Reagan, others loved him.  On balance, the teacher lounge was more blue than red, but that made for some interesting conversations.  That's not the way it is now.  Now, it's nearly impossible to debate.  You're programmed to react.  And, so are the kids.

Board Member:  What do you mean?  I can still counter this stuff at home, can't I?

Superintendent: 

When you were in high school, your dad told you the truth when you got home.  How are you going to change the way your daughter feels when she gets home?  If she says the wrong thing at school, or says it in the wrong way, the new ethic is to cancel her. There is no talking or reasoning or debate—it’s a straight line to the heart.  It’s not just the teachers, it’s the other students.  This will make her feel like a pariah. 

Or, she can show approval for the trans-friend who now claims to be a boy, and be seen as virtuous. Kids see cancellation on TV, and in their churches, and on social media — there are some things you just don't say.  

For example, if she suggests that anti-racism is actually racism, no one will debate with her — even the teacher.  They will just label her as an example:  "See, that's proof.  You're talking with your white privilege."  A teacher doesn't have to show her a video in a class. One of her friends will whip out a phone and show a video of a white privilege lineup. 

Board Member:  What's that?

Superintendent:  Oh, there are millions of these videos. They show kids starting out in a line, and then they step forward or back based on questions about their parent's college attendance, wealth, house, neighborhood, etc.  Predictably some kids are further ahead than others.  Or, sometimes they have some pop-star doing a selfie on how her privilege got in the way of her enjoying life.  The point is to show that “privilege” is real.  The underlying assumptions from a Marxist ethic is that this must be remedied by government in order to have social justice.  It's in every class and on every media outlet.  The right thing to do if there is inequity anywhere is to have the government pull down and lift up people based on privilege.  So, all they have to do is show cases of inequity, and it's a forgone conclusion:  You must think and behave this way, or you're a monster.  Try and get your daughter not to feel like a monster in this environment.

Board Member:  It sounds like you've been dealing with this for a while.  How long has this been going on?

Superintendent:  That’s just it.  Everyone thinks it just started a few years ago because they saw it on the virtual classrooms during covid.  It’s been the zeitgeist of our schools for at least a couple of decades.  Where do you think all those 20-something rock-throwing activists and looters came from? And the framework to support them?

Board Member:  Well, my daughter's pretty smart.  I don't think she'll be taken in by that.

Superintendent:  Maybe not fully.  She'll learn to say one thing at home, but behave at school as she's expected to.  Mao’s cultural revolution proved that – change how people act and you’ll eventually change what they believe, at least to some degree.   It's not about smart — there are smart people on both sides.  She may even reject the worst of it for now.  But, what about after she leaves home?  She probably won't realize that she's immersed in a cultural Marxist ethical system, and you won’t be there to talk to her about it.  She may disagree about privilege, but she'll just absorb, without realizing it, that what defines her is material wealth, or color, or her "straightness."  

Way back when, the schools taught that we could be honorable — that we were defined by the content of our character.  Now, kids feel like their character is inherited – genetically or through privilege – and their "goodness or badness" is about accepting certain things and rejecting others.  It's the same type of ethical system we grew up with, it just has a whole new set of ethics.  Imagine going back in the 80s and announcing you were gay in a classroom — then it would have been scandalous.  Now, it’s celebrated.  The ethical environment of shame and acceptance is the same in both times, and in all times, it's just what we celebrate and what we hate that is different.

Board Member:  I don't hate.  I just want… (pause)

Superintendent:  Perhaps that's the problem.  We don't hate evil enough to pull our kids out of it.  Oh, now you've done it, that’s the beer talking, I'd better get home before I get in real trouble.

In Part III, we’ll rejoin the Red State School Board meeting as they consider a new plan– Charter Schools!