Conspiracy Theories and Public Education
June 30, 2008
I lurk at a wide variety of education-related forums dealing with everything from elementary education to education policy to homeschooling, and one disturbing trend I find is this: a sizable minority of the population on these forums believes some pretty ugly conspiracy theories about public education in the United States. Perhaps you’ve heard these assertions before:
- The educational system wants to turn out unthinking robots who will work as corporate slaves
- Teachers want to inculcate a morally relativistic outlook into the next generation
- All public schools care about is getting attendance numbers up so they get more tax money
…and so on.
But then, as I see similarly wild conspiracy theories about the U.S. government (Did you know we never really landed on the moon, and they’re covering up evidence of alien visits to Earth?), I’ve come to realize that people, in general, don’t trust large organizations. (WalMart is evil! Google is trying to hijack your health information!)
That’s where we as individual teachers come in. More than ever, our job includes helping families understand that their child will be taught by us — Ms. Mercer, Mr. Pullen, Mr. Fisch — not some mysterious entity that can’t be trusted. On top of that, we need to encourage parents to come in and be a part of the school community as well, through volunteering, open houses, information nights, and by generally maintaining an open-door policy toward guests.
Nowadays, it seems we can’t just assume that everyone will know that we are real people who genuinely care about each and every student.
Entry Filed under: Education, Elementary Education, Fifth Grade, Fourth Grade, Homeschool, Learning, Public Schools, Second Grade, Secondary Education, Students, Teaching, Third Grade, homeschooling, school. .
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1.
Liza Lee Miller | June 30, 2008 at 3:48 pm
It’s one of the reasons that I love teaching in the same small town I live in — there is a FACE to education that parents can’t ignore. Still, I’ve heard parents rant about the school and education in general and then turn to me and say, “But you’re different.” I assured them that I am not different, that I’ve yet to meet a teacher who didn’t care as passionately about their children as I do, that I would be happy to have my own children in ANY one of my colleagues’ classrooms. They smile and go back to their ranting. It’s not easy to head off conspiracies.
2.
deldobuss | July 1, 2008 at 11:31 am
I think that the overwhelming majority of teachers, especially in small towns, are well-intentioned and uplifting to a child’s education. However, it is those few that are not, and the liberal left’s slant on education that scares many parents. You also have to take into account the experience with all the people at a school, not just teachers. Principals, student-aides, students can all factor into the school environment. It is the general direction our education system is going (and has been for some time) that worries a lot of people and causes them to come up with extravagant conspiracy theories. I really enjoyed reading your article, and I am glad to know you are dedicated to your students!
3.
16yearTeacher | July 2, 2008 at 3:58 am
Most parents in my experience don’t believe in conspiracies in education and are actually quite shocked at the idea of even a ‘hidden curriculum.’
The fact, however is that something happens in the schools where, by junior high, students HATE going to school. The schools are responsible for this. Also, most teachers in a quiet moment with colleagues in the staffroom blame parents for the shortcomings and failures of students while accepting all the praise for the wonderful achievements of many children and young adults.
Regardless of the efficacy of the ’school system,’ a child’s year is made or broken on the character of the individual teacher. If the teacher likes to do yoga with the class and a child’s family is opposed to the idea of Indian spiritualism in the classroom, well then the parents are branded as narrow-minded. If a well-intentioned teacher would like to broaden the perspective of her students with open-minded discussions about lifestyle choices and a child’s family politely requests that they opt out, the teacher is more often then not shocked at the bigoted parents.
Listen, every teacher should read at least one of John Taylor Gatto’s books; start with Dumbing Us Down.
4.
vlorbik | July 2, 2008 at 11:11 am
naw. the underground history.
that said: “consipiracy theory” is just code
for “i’m not listening”. or do you want us to
believe that powerful people *don’t* act in
their own interests? or that they’ll just *tell* us
when they’re planning to mess with us,
out of the goodness of their hearts? or what?
5.
mpullen | July 2, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Liza — EXACTLY what I’m talking about.
vlorbik — thanks for the link to exactly the type of conspiracy theory I’m talking about. “Education is all about creating little consumers!” cries your link. The people who believe that need to take a deep breath and reevaluate. I teach children how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. To write using complete sentences and paragraphs. To read and (hopefully) comprehend what they’re reading. I’m not trying to create consumerist thinking. Neither are any of my colleagues. Or our school board. Or the principal. When you put actual faces to the conspiracy theory, it breaks down. Do YOU try to create consumers in your classroom?
6.
16yearTeacher | July 2, 2008 at 5:11 pm
From John Taylor Gatto:
…Government schooling is the most radical adventure in history. It kills the family by monopolizing the best times of childhood and by teaching disrespect for home and parents…
and
…We don’t need state-certified teachers to make education happen—that probably guarantees it won’t…
and
…Even reformers can’t imagine school much different…
So I don’t think that Madison Avenue, George W. Bush, MTV, Cable in the Classroom, and Pizza Hut in the cafeteria are the problem….School is the problem. The very institution itself is the problem. We all give each other high fives for the great job we’re doing teaching math, reading, and writing, completely oblivious to the conformity that we demand from the students. Underground History and Dumbing Us Down are challenging reads for anyone in the school system.
7.
A. Mercer | July 4, 2008 at 9:14 am
I’d love to comment, but I’m trying to figure out the context of that link back to my blog. Was it in reference to a specific post? I don’t want to assume something.
My school explicitly has reached out to the community, but the context there is, most of those parents do not have much power in the system to determine their child’s education. They are immigrants, or for other reasons, or plain lack of initiative, do not vote in school board elections. The board was based on at-large seats, so their neighborhood was not “represented” on the board (that’s changing this year. We have regular monthly parent meetings, including meetings based on affinity, we have coffee every Monday morning before school, I had them into the lab during one parent meeting, and plan to do it more. Unfortunately, most parents end up visiting our classrooms when there is a problem (we need you to sit with your son if he is to stay in school for the rest of the day), rather than to tutor, which is unfortunate.
The truth is, it’s not just parents I have to convince. It’s leaders, it’s the broader community, sometimes, it’s my fellow educators. That, in part, is why I blog, I talk about where I teach to others, and I take a position.
8.
Lemarr Treadwell | July 4, 2008 at 4:37 pm
I believe in every conspiracy theory there is some infinitesimal bit of truth. Knowledge and time are the tools needed to excavate truth from theory. Some consider the achievement gap a conspiracy theory. For this blog; let’s define the achievement gap as “the difference in academic performance on standardized tests among identified groups.” The achievement gap has received national attention and political clout yet we continue to go “One step forward and two steps backwards.” The National Education Association (NEA), of which there are 3.2 million members, raised $352 million in 2007. Seems like there are not enough people who believe that in this free democratic society the gap between minority and non-minority children is unconscionable morally and economically. “Preach …. A crusade against ignorance; establish and improve the law for the educating of the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils [of monarchial government]. ~Thomas Jefferson to George Wyth, 1786. The public schools in America have been, and will continue to be, shaped by the political, social and economic conditions of the day.
9.
16yearTeacher | July 6, 2008 at 12:25 am
Re: A. Mercer’s Comments
….plain lack of initiative….
-> you see, parents have deferred their children’s education to us, the teachers. They drop off their kids on the first day of kindergarten and pick them up at the commencement ceremony thirteen years later. So when we as teachers criticize parents for not taking the initiative, the parents don’t comprehend our criticism…they’re all like, “Well its your job to teach them, and correct them, and put up with little Johnny’s behavior.” And I believe that the school system prefers parents who do not interfere in the way in which the system operates. Teachers prefer to not have parents meddle in their business too much.
10.
The Isolated Oblivion Fam&hellip | February 8, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Thank you for this privilege in allowing me to write about our truthful account involving our dreadful experience with our public school district. As painful as it is to write about our story and as exaggerated as it might appear, the truth needs to surface. As new out-of-state residents, we entered the public school system without bias and were extremely hopeful, offering our proactive support to both our children, of course, and public school officials. We did everything in our power to disclose our children’s special needs to our public school officials (they demand we disclose our children’s emotional health histories on their mandated state document). We offered our assistance to teachers in an effort to remain supportive to our children and their teachers. As a volunteer, I even brought in coffee and donuts to staff as a sign of goodwill. We tried to educate public school officials about our children’s special needs disorders in PPT’s and teacher/parent conferences (their school dictum is Educating Everyone Takes Everyone). After two years of ongoing horrific experiences, involving discovery that one of our children was interrogated on a weekly basis by her O.T. and shaped with leading questions such as, “Are your mommy and daddy sick?” and “Are your mommy and daddy nice?”, we opted to finally disenroll our children from school to home school them in the safety of our care. In actuality, we were pushed out, no different than an employee being constructively discharged (when the workplace is deliberately made unpleasant to the point of his or her leaving under dire conditions). In addition to school officials’ willful withholding of our children’s clinical behavioral information that would have corroborated our children’s difficulties in school, our parental decision making with respect to our children’s health-related and educational futures was jeopardized. We were horrified to learn that we were deliberately being kept out of their loop and our trust breached. Within weeks, we along with 22 other families, of which we are aware, were the targets of DCF witch hunts that were unsubstantiated. Still, the damage is done. The interminable scars that we and others like us are forced to endure are beyond comprehension. Our account seems exaggerated, but it is true. We have hidden in our home until we can relocate from this dangerous locality. We have been cast into what we describe as isolated oblivion and are unable to live without constant fear of coercion and retaliation. We are unable to cope or trust the public school system at this point in time. Our only recourse is our truth and benevolent intentions on behalf of our precious children. This we place into God’s hands. We, too, were hopeful and once gullible. If this can happen to our good family, then it can happen to anyone. We will let you be the judge as to whether or not conspiracies exist within our U.S. Public Schools. Thank you for your time in this matter and God watch over our and other families who are enduring these inexcusable consequences.