by Andrew Palmer
I maintain two search terms on Twitter, and I check them constantly. One of them is “conservative teacher,” and the other is “liberal teacher.” I have noticed some trends on them, and I would thought it would be interesting to share them with you.
First, conservative students (both high school and college) and parents often lack courage in defending their values. I see this on a regular basis. It usually goes something like “my teacher is such a liberal I almost…” Well, that’s real tough, isn’t it? Once in a while I will engage the young person with some form of positive encouragement asking them to respectfully challenge the teacher. The responses are sometimes even more discouraging. They often rationalize their actions as not wanting to affect their grade, or it’s just too much trouble to worry about.
I dealt with the same problems in college, but I never once backed down from a liberal teacher or professor. I still remember the battles in my freshman civics class and many of my classes with liberal college professors. I survived, and I passed everyone of their classes.
If you think grades really matter that much, you know little about the job market. Any employer worth their salt cares little about a high school or college GPA. I do understand the concern about failing. The reality is if you are meeting the expectations of the course, and you can prove you were given a failing grade because of political ideology, I think you might have some legitimate grounds for legal action.
Anytime a conservative student is in a classroom with a liberal teacher that threatens or insults their values, that teacher has to be challenged. The challenge must be respectful. Parents should be involved in their child’s education and encourage this challenge.
Throwing a fit about liberal indoctrination, then acting without courage when provided the opportunity to actually do something about it, makes you part of the problem. Remember, all educators are supposed to operate inside of a professional code of conduct. If they violate that code of conduct, they all have supervisors who should be immediately contacted. These teachers should be made to fear for their financial livelihood. Either act professionally, or get out of the classroom. At the K-12 level all teachers and principals answer to a school board, and that school board answers to a voter. It is time for us on the right side of the political spectrum to stand up and expect more out of teachers.
Second, conservative youth must start acting with more respect. I am often surprised at how disrespectful some on the right can be. I figured when I first set up these searches that I would see more vile tweets from the left. Don’t get me wrong, they are there, but the reality is it is about equal. Name calling is not necessary, and it makes you look foolish. I get the frustration, but this doesn’t solve the problem. Knock it off!
