Joe Getty (4:01)
Of course you do, you sick. Repulsive. Repulsive. Repulsive. Yeah, it is absolutely repulsive. That is a dedicated neo Marxist because they want to erase all of the binaries. It gets into political theory, but that's somebody who wants to sexualize children early and then convince them that they are an oppressed gender or sexuality. Because Workers of the world unite turned into. We actually got an email saying, joe, what do you mean by neo Marxist? I've explained this many times, but I'm delighted to explain it many more times if that's what it takes. Workers of the world unite. And Greg Lukianoff actually referred to this last hour didn't work because the workers of the world are like, you know, I'm getting paid okay, and I'm up for shop foreman next month. And you know, honestly I'm starting a side business, so thanks. I'm not gonna throw off my chains and embrace communism. My life isn't that bad. So when that failed in the 20th century, the dedicated Marxists thought, okay, what do we do now? And some of those French guys we were mentioning last hour came up with every minority of the world unite. Racial minorities weren't quite enough, so they started to invent sexual minorities. And two spirit and all sorts of queer theory and gender theory and all this trying to convince everybody that they're an oppressed minority. That's that is the was the plan of neo Marxism that came out of the French intellectual salons in the 20th century. Like the 60s, I think was the real hot time of it. And the 70s, these guys were celebrated as great thinkers, including by the left in the US Anyway, so that's what I'm talking about. We, we got a hell of a lot of reaction from educators to our discussion of the Atlantic piece and, and some of the miserable, miserable stats going on in American education right now. The lead of the Atlantic pieces the past decade may rank as one of the worst in the history of American education. It marks a stark reversal from what was once a hopeful story. And if the Atlantic is saying that babe, things are bad. So onto the reaction. I'm going to keep everybody anonymous here, but Aileen Anonymous is from a fairly small town in Idaho who says I'm an avid listener, thank you very much. And wanted to share my experience of teaching in a small town, very red north Idaho. You are correct in saying that education is liberal everywhere. What I said was I don't care if your state or your town is ruby red. There is a sapphire blue patch. It is your local schools. Anyway, she goes on, the kids in my school are allowed to wear tails and ears. They identify as animals. Teachers openly discuss their contempt for conservative values in traditional families. They mock parents who have chosen to pull their children from schools to home school. They find it ridiculous that parents are allowed to see the curriculum at all and to see all the curriculum that we use. When we moved here six years ago, I naively thought I would be entering a place where we would encounter like minded educators. I was sorely mistaken. I will say that the indoctrination is more subtle and the parents are watching for it. But even in a county that went 76% for Trump, it is alive and well in the schools. Keep that in mind. It's because the critical theory stuff I've been talking about caught hold first in the colleges of education in the United States. That's where the infection established itself before it spread. I won't bore you with the history of it, but trust me when I say that it's true. Long note from Al Anonymous here we'll see how much we can get to, but it's absolutely fantastic. And Al, we thank you for it. It's spring break, so I'm listening in real time. Everything you two are saying about education is 100% accurate and you may even be underplaying it a bit AKA under egging the pudding. Appreciate the sense of humor. I'm closing in on 25 years in the classroom and I have seen the decline happen in real time. Most of us could see it coming as policies were being implemented but were powerless as the unions, government and education schools have created an unholy alliance of far left training grounds in our public charter and in some cases private schools. Yeah, we're aware of that. Some of those high dollar schools in Manhattan are as insane as anybody. These polic were implemented behind the buzzwords equity, inclusion, belonging we are all aware of that have acted as a trojan horse into the mainstream of public education. I can even nail down two points in time when the changes started. Older teachers may have conflicting timelines, but the first was in 2007 when our superintendent at the time decreed that there would be no more Fs as grades and no more suspensions from school. That was prime Obama philosophy time. That's when that philosophy that he espoused started to take hold in schools before he was pushing it aut anyway. The next major change was spring of 2016 when our professional development began focusing on pronouns and seeing everything through the lens of race rather than teaching practices. That's Fanon and Foucault and Critical theory. Because the way you wake up, quote unquote as a Marxist would say the races to unite and throw off the chains of capitalism in Western civilization is you've got to convince them they're oppressed even if they have good lives. Hence seeing everything through the lens. All right, back to the email. All of this was set up around the goal of no dropouts and 100% graduation rate. As you two have pointed out many times, once a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. These two major shifts and resulting goals have acted under as umbrellas under which a myriad of changes have occurred. I'm throwing this together off the cuff, but I could literally write a book about this topic. Yeah, well, any as he points out, no dropouts and 100% graduation. Sounds wonderful. Unless you throw away all of your standards to get there right Back to the email. What happened next was a slow burn, but to no one's surprise, once students figured out there were no consequences for anything, behavior gradually became worse and grades plummeted. Once the grades plummeted, administrators began pressuring teachers to inflate grades. Not just Fs to Ds, but Fs to at least Cs are better. If you pushed back, life could get real uncomfortable very quickly. If you really dig your heels in, a counselor or admin will just change the grade. And now you're seen as a troublemaker. If building principle went against these policies, they were either moved or nudged toward retirement. District administrators were subject to gatekeeping regarding their beliefs, meaning decision makers who matter were all soon on the same page. That's the dei. DEI doesn't mean diversity, equity and inclusion. All it means is more neo Marxists. And do you notice how it's never a black conservative, for instance, who is included in the Eye of inclusion? Never. Never, never. Some of my colleagues enthusiastically jumped on board while others went along just to get along. Some of us complained under our breath, but decided to try our best to still teach our butts off every day and do what's best for students. It worked for a while, but it's caught up to us now. All the veteran teachers I know with more than 20 years of experience are tired, beaten down and miserable. Those close enough to retirement are lucky, but many, like myself, are too far away from the end to take solace in knowing we'll just have to make it another year or two. It's like swimming across a river when you're too far away from shore to get to the other side and too far away to go. Turn back here's what I'm seeing every day that most people don't understand. I teach AP classes with upper grades of high school. These are kids who are applying to and in often cases, getting into good universities. Most of my students are nice, polite kids who mean well. In some cases they are eager to learn, but they haven't been conditioned how to be students in the sense that their attention spans are very short and they don't process information well. Some people may take issue with the term conditioning, but there are parameters of behaviors and skills people are expected to work within in any given situation. Some may call it professionalism in the workplace as no job allows you to be, behave like you, do like you, and only do the tasks you feel like doing. Okay, we don't even do that in our own homes. Feeding ourselves and doing laundry are required. Students are allowed to show up to whatever class whenever, say whatever, and do whatever they please. The students with self discipline stand out. While most students don't complete assignments and have no idea what it looks like to study, they fall apart if subjects get difficult and it's almost impossible to approach a nuanced discussion around a controversial topic. Students know emotion and feeling, but that's about it. Education has never been perfect. I didn't get the greatest high school education, but kids are getting screwed now. Between low skill level and an increasing inability to think, we are dooming these young people to a difficult future. We got here via many of the policies you two have talked about on your show. Equitable grading practices requiring a 50% grade for a missing assignment rather than a zero. Every exam and assignment is allowed to be taken over and over again. Restorative practices and conversations. When students break the rules, there is a very good chance your child is sitting in a classroom with another student who everyone knows has committed a violent crime at school and they still get to be in school. Kids will sometimes take take honors or advanced classes way above their skill level so they can be in a safe environment. Funding is going to administration rather than into the classroom where more staff and materials are needed. Teachers often have to spend a ton of time cobbling together material and curriculum to survive the disciplinary tasks. Writing referrals and calling home to an unanswered phone. Those things take a back seat. This is just scratching the surface of issues. Like I said, I could write a book. Public education is salvage felt salvageable. But it's going to take an army of dedicated parents, teachers, legislators and community members and it's going to be a fight requiring years of patience and hard work. First and most immediate for parents. Help us out with the phones. No kid in elementary school needs a smartphone. I may even suggest no kid under the age of 16 needs one. It's only necessary now because we've allowed it. And then he says, I get it. I understand why people have them. But we've got to stop. Second, pay attention to who is on your school board. This is the most important elected position in your life right now. The activist groups are pouring truckloads of money into school board races because they are vital and no one pays attention. Go to meetings. Listen to what they say. Your school board member impacts your way of life more than Trump or aoc. It's not politically sexy, but make it that way. Pay attention to who is getting the admin jobs. Never vote for a school board candidate who is an activist. Never vote for a candidate who is a union member teacher in another district district. Never vote for someone who has crazy crap in their social media. Never vote for a candidate who uses any of the DEI buzzwords even if they don't know what they mean. If there is only one candidate on the ballot and they fit one of these categories, run against them yourself and make them publicly take a stand on grading behavior and where the money should go. Also, feel free to stay away from crazy people on the right as well. And he lists some. Same goes for your city council, but the school board thing is incredibly important. It goes on for several more paragraphs. It's beautifully written. Mr. Anonymous, thank you so much for the time. We're going to check in with Jack. Any reaction to that? Drop us a note. Mailbagarmstrongandgetti.com Armstrong and Getty.
