Destroying teacher confidence, one policy at a time

By Douglas Marolla 

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. View more opinion on ScoonTV. 

The federal government has been working on undermining teacher effectiveness, autonomy, and confidence for decades. One of the biggest undermining efforts took place over ten years ago during the Obama administration. Here in the USA, the federal government bribed the states with millions of dollars for a new program for teaching schools. This “race to the top” money was for something, and the federal government wouldn’t tell the states what it was for, but they would get it if they took the cash. 

Naturally, the government officials of many states took the money. It wasn’t difficult to see that one. 

What the states agreed to was what we now call “Common Core.” Common Core has successfully cemented a testing regime that I call the Testing Industrial Complex. Common Core has also implemented a confusing and convoluted mathematics program for grade-school students. Go to YouTube and look at videos that show the Common Core method for anything from basic addition to long division to witness it yourself.  

The methods they use are slow and confusing as well. To add to the intellectual carnage, the students are rigorously tested on a bizarre way to solve basic math problems. This not only misdirects students, but it also separates them from their parents as their parents don’t understand the “new math.” Children can’t go to their parents for help because the parents are unaware of how convoluted and byzantine the math processes are. This separation was intentional. The English program isn’t much better. 

Any parent or guardian would be baffled by Common Core – it’s intended to make a nation of intellectually ineffective people. You should know that the only mathematics educator and the only language arts educator on the Common Core project both quit. They realized early on that it wasn’t educationally sound, and their respective subjects were being bastardized. They both toured the country for a few years afterwards telling everyone what was going on. 

Naturally, our pliant corporate press lambasted the states that didn’t accept Common Core by accusing them of being “opposed to education.”  

The effect on teachers has been terrible, too. They’re now simply conduits for preparing students for a confusing exam. 

In its desire to beat the United States in the race to the bottom, the United Kingdom has further disemboweled teacher confidence and authority. The Daily Express reports that a Christian teacher was banned from teaching after misgendering a student after saying “well done girls” to “a group of pupils that included a transgender boy who was born a girl.” Afterwards, they reported that the “Teaching Regulation Authority (TRA) ruled that Joshua Sutcliffe, 33, failed to treat a pupil with ‘dignity and respect’ when he did not protect the pupil’s wellbeing by not using the preferred pronouns of a girl who identified as a boy. He admitted he did not use the pupil’s preferred pronouns when he praised a group of pupils during a lesson by saying ‘well done girls.’ He asserted that it was unintentional, and he apologized straight away.” 

First of all, I would tell this guy never to apologize. All that does is let your enemy know that you’re afraid.  

Now that this case has gone through, think about the aftereffects. How many students, simply to gain the upper hand over an adult, will suddenly re-gender themselves, then lord it over some hapless teacher? Any teacher with skill, confidence, independence, and pride will either retire or quit. Who wants some 9-year-old pushing them around and threatening their job? 

What many don’t realize is that the people doing this are only able to destroy institutions. For them, this is a religious movement intended to create a glorious and brave new world – with them in charge, of course.  

These people believe that gender is not biologically determined, but sexuality is. They think that rich people are evil, but transnational corporations are looking out for their best interests, particularly when it comes to vaccines. They’ve also spent years telling young people that “lived experience” was more valuable than any scientific facts. “That’s not my truth” was the rallying cry for years – right up until they began yelling “follow the science!”. 

What parents must realize is that the schooling and educational institutions have been usurped. They’re completely run by people who would have been cast out of the tribe in the old days. Educational institutions and their current leaders have no interest in the truth, education, or the intellectual pursuits of young people. They’re interested in power, and stupid people are much easier to control. A mass of humanity obsessed with misgendering via personal pronouns is not only doomed to fail, but it will also be subservient to those who are based in reality. 

This case in the UK will have a destructive ripple effect, as solid professionals run for the exits. Look at other schools and educational alternatives, before it’s too late.