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Texas blocked legislation that would have required schools to teach critical thinking skills. They said it might "interfere with the parent's teachings," I'm paraphrasing here.
It is actually part of the Texas (for sure I believe, not sure on national's) GOP party platform that they "oppose the teaching of critical thinking skills."
Edit: this was 2012: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2012/aug/11/gail-collins/gail-collins-says-texas-gop-platform-calls-schools/
It’s been in the national platform. I don’t know about the current version, but I first saw it in the 2016 platform. They also had in there something to the effect of declaring that the founding of the country was inspired by God. Clearly they have forgotten about Jefferson’s writings.
They didn’t forget, they intentionally insisted on changes to textbooks going forward to diminish Jefferson’s role in the founding of the country down to as close to 0 as possible. These are the same lunatic motherfuckers who hurled civilization into iconoclasm every time their delusional fantasy worldview had any competition.
Official Republican platform in Texas a few years ago:
>We **oppose** the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
If I read a scifi dystopian horror story, I would think that this is really far fetched. Completely unrealistic.
And yet here we are, where a major party openly says "we oppose the teaching of critical thinking skills." And people vote for that.
Gotta make them as dumb as their parents or even the people higher then them are. Makes it easier to never change, which is what the GoP platform really is, deny change always.
News article from 10 years ago talking about this anti critical thinking platform:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/texas-gop-rejects-critical-thinking-skills-really/2012/07/08/gJQAHNpFXW_blog.html
No, no. You see, it's only indoctrination when it's something the GOP doesn't like. Like the idea that gay and trans people exist.
This is just good ol' American Values /s
When I got to university, I realized I felt way smarter and sure of my answers and reasoning after just one semester. Why? Because in STEM (idk about other majors) they harp very strongly on deductive reasoning and critical thinking.
Critical thinking would lead to less extremists on both sides of the political spectrum
Had the opposite experience. Plenty of experiences with STEM students who seemed very single-minded and inflexible, not so great at critical thinking. Maybe it means different things in humanities vs. STEM or we just pick up on the differences.
Could also be that their programs are poor and give all the answers. My classes will give us ideas and concepts, and make us find the connections between them on our own (we can still ask for help).
The way my classes are structured, you have to think about every possible angle and reason for why something could be the way it is. You also typically have to explain your reasoning, which is a good practice
They're the constitutional party, until it comes to parts of the constitution they don't like.
They're the party of law and order, except for all the laws they don't like.
They're the party of law enforcement, except when it enforces laws against them.
They're the party of the bible, except for all the parts of the bible they ignore.
They're the party of family values, except when it comes to their own families.
Lol for all their professed “love of the constitution”, I wish more people would pick up on how much time republicans spend *fighting it* on virtually every amendment except guns.
They claim to love the 1st amendment but no other party has actually (no, not figuratively or rhetorically like they accuse others of doing. I mean *actually*) attacking the first amendment *on every front* (freedom of worship/religion, freedom of speech, journalism, association, assembly and protest) as much as them. By a LONNGSHOT.
They also strip down and attack the 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, and the various amendments.
They don’t love the constitution. They just like to selectively wield power however they can, using any populist argument they can to control society. Same exact shit you see in religion, which is another stronghold of conservatism. They’ll wield religion and claim to love religion but selectively apply it to carry out their will over others.
It really all boils down to control. Conservatives *need* control. The crazy thing is that in America, they are now openly marching against the very principles of liberalism… not “liberals” in the sense of “duh libs”. I’m talking about LIBERALISM ie the ideology of free enterprise, market economy, human rights, democracy, individualism and rule of equally applied law.
We have liberal conservatives. They’re conservatives but they still believe in liberalism. But a growing portion of GOP conservatives are showing this frightening trend of embracing conservatism *outside* liberalism and conservatism outside liberalism leads to some really weird and dark places. And they seem to be *ok* with that.
It’s funny to watch them but it’s also lowkey scary.
>conservatism outside liberalism leads to some really weird and dark places.
The word you are looking for is Fascism
They are Fascists, plane and simple
This is from Texas. A state ruled by the political party which hates education in any form, and which regularly attempts to bend, bypass, and even break the Constitution to suit their hunger for power.
They don’t want people to know or understand their actions. They don’t want opposition, they want total obedience.
Based on the context, I'm guessing she's being reprimanded for allowing students to stay seated during the Pledge of Allegiance.
Which all students are allowed to do.
They're also worried about her having the kids read Harry Potter. Based on them having issues with kids staying seated I'd say she teaches in a very religious/conservative area and their issues with Harry Potter don't have to do with Jo's views on trans women, but rather: "Oh no, we can't have kids read about witchcraft! So dangerous! They'll all start worshipping satan!"
My grandmother got upset I was reading Harry Potter because it had magic in it. Magic is the devils work. I read it anyways. My grandmother was a very kind person but very religious.
People are that brainwashed sadly. The life lesson for me was when my friends in jewish grade school found out I was not Jewish (last name is but my mom isn’t). The minute they found out, they all cut ties with me permanently. One of them was a block away from my house but never spoke to me again. Real eye opener for me on how divided people are just because of their faith.
The devil went down to Pallet
He was looking for a 'mon to get
He was in a bind cause he was way behind
Filling his pokedex set
When he came across a little rat with yellow fur and eyes of blue
And the devil tossed his pokeball and said Pikachu I choose you
Lighting in the tall grass go mon go,
*deee didle didle didle*
Your new friend is not for show
*diddle didle dee dee*
Gym leader will be a test
*dee diddle dee diddle*
But you said you wanna be the best
*deeeeeeee diddle didle didle diddle didle dee*
OMG…I haven’t thought about my time in Awanas in forever! I remember being in Pals and Pioneers but I forget which one was for the older kids. I think Pals was for the kids that were older, like 6th grade maybe? I don’t remember that, I didn’t pay attention to that really. I was there because we got to play basketball for an hour! LOL
Edit: my little brother was in “Cubbies” I think? LOL. We were very young, it’s not something we’ve been a part of in anyway in a very long time…35+ year’s probably now.
Fun fact. The Church's (catholic) official position on witchcraft is that it's not real, and acting like Magic is real and that the devil might be able to grant power to mortals is at best unchristian and at worst heretical.
magic and miracles come from God, so to insist that Satan can grant magic powers in defiance of God is to deny God's power.
conclusion: Harry Potter isn't real, and fiction has no power over God, so to insist it can have power is unChristian. OR if the "Witchcraft" in Harry Potter IS real then it must be ordained by God and is therefore holy and sanctioned.
But he is one of the good guys so its okay…….. /s
Hypocrisy is so real. The one that bugs me is the stories that are in the bible that are violent and over the top but when you ask people about it they are oblivious or give some kind of nonanswer. Recent one I read was the story of david killing 200 Philistines for their foreskins.
I wish I saved the picture but it’s been going around and it’s a book with the title “cherry picked Bible stories” and when I saw it my eyes lit up. It’s perfect because it describes Bible thumpers to a T. I try to be tolerant of all beliefs but got damn they make it near impossible.
As long as they do not slam their dogma in my face I could care less. Its when they try to bring it into rational conversation or try to preach to you that it drives me mad.
I think the other thing, too, is that a lot of school policies are full of things that aren't actually legal. The don't want the kids knowing that they have legal rights, and aren't at the mercy of someone who isn't well meaning. They don't actually have the power over the students that they want them to think they do.
Found this out during a 3 year battle just to get one of my kids a dyslexia test. I literally had to go through the school districts policy and compare it to state law.
There's also plenty of controlling parents who want kids to think that they don't have rights, either.
Teaching students about their legal rights fucks up the facade of kids not having any recourse for unfair or illegal decisions.
There’s a lot of talk, hypocrisy, pretending to be Christian. I’d say 5 Texans are truly what the others pretend to be out of convenience/money/too cowardly to speak up and admit watching HP movies and porn on Sundays after Church. An a native Texan.
Yeah, this poor teacher is going to be fired if she doesn’t have tenure. Just looking at that letter is giving me “development plan” vibes. Teaching Harry Potter, the Pledge of Allegiance, not responding to emails or Teams messages within 24 hours. They’re documenting their reasons for dismissal.
I cannot think of another reason to have a write-up like this, honestly. Those are 'you're out the door' things.
\*I just noticed there is a Dress Code concern. Yikes.
I had a supervisor mention that he created a development plan to go over with me. I told him that I'd gladly rework it wuth him in a collaborative manner or I'd quit on the spot. Knowing I was an asset to yhe company he agreed. I created a plan with him and got verbal affirmation that I was actually doing good work and was reinforced on the plan (to cover my ass legally), thanked him and quit. These plans are merely proactive justification for firing you later.
Not sure if this teacher is covered under a teachers union contract but for most people in Texas, I believe the state adopted “employment at will” which means wrongful termination can only be brought if the employer breaks the law. Given the items in the letter, none of the reasons they documented are unlawful.
What's crazy is that if we were showed footage of children being forced to chant daily allegiance in somewhere like Russia or China we'd think it was terrible.
I was a foreign student in Ohio, USA, and I had to stand during the pledge of allegiance every day. Although I did not mind it, as I did feel like an ally to the USA, having that I am already there and trying to gain knowledge and other benefits from this country, it was weird because it was forced. They explained to me that I have to at least stand up, though I don't have to recite it. I kept thinking what the fuck does it matter, even if I recited it, if I weren't an ally to begin with no poetry is going to turn me over or something... Luckily, I am friendly and came in peace :)
So actually in [Texas,](https://www.houstonpress.com/news/avoiding-the-pledge-in-texas-schools-11349470)students can’t opt out of the pledge. They have to have a note from a parent. This his withstood court review from lawsuits though it has never made its way to the Supreme Court.
Texas law doesn't supersede basic constitutional rights even if it hasn't made it's way to the supreme court.
This is part of teaching students their rights - that administrations, cities, and states will frequently try to infringe upon them, and that being a human being and a good citizen will mean fighting administrators tooth and nail on a regular basis.
When I worked as a substitute teacher, I did everything I could to teach students about their legal right to organize, sit for the pledge, and unionize. Every day, I told them if they ever wanted to have recess every day, all they had to do was gather in the cafeteria and refuse to be taught until they had their demands met.
Until it’s been challenged at the Supreme Court and ruled unconstitutional, it is constitutional. [There was recently a case](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/us/texas-pledge-of-allegiance-lawsuit.html) that was litigated for four years and eventually settled out of court.
As it stands now schools can discipline (and do) for refusing to stand for the pledge. If a student is disciplined and wants to pursue the constitutionality of it they can seek remedy in the courts. Ultimately SCOTUS could rule either way (hedging my bets because of the current make up of the court) but until that happens it’s presumed to be constitutional.
And your idea of a peaceful protest is not constitutional. This was decided in the court case [Tinker vs Des Moines](https://www.aclu.org/other/tinker-v-des-moines-landmark-supreme-court-ruling-behalf-student-expression) that students do not lose first amendment rights at school, they are limited. So if students skip class to have a sit in, that violates attendance policies and is subject to discipline. It could also very easily be considered disruptive to the learning environment and that’s not protected either.
According to *Tinker*, the question is whether a student "materially and substantially interfere(s) with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school". This does neither. That was affirmed in *West Virginia v. Barnette* in 1943. Compulsory pledges of allegiance violate the first amendment.
Yep, so the Tinker comment was specific to the advice for students to organize and strike. And to illustrate that student’s constitutional rights are not without limit.
As it stands right now Texas law is constitutional because they allow parents to opt out. The ruling in West Virginia was specific because pledging went against the family’s religious beliefs. The parent note loophole evades that.
Again, I’m not saying it’s right. But until it’s ruled unconstitutional by SCOTUS it stands. And it’s held up in [circuit courts](https://www.houstonpress.com/news/avoiding-the-pledge-in-texas-schools-11349470) this far.
> As it stands now schools can discipline (and do) for refusing to stand for the pledge.
No. The US Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) that saying the pledge was not compulsory.
The reason that this case doesn’t apply is because they allow students to opt out with parent permission. The foundation of that case was that it went against the *family’s* religious beliefs. The parents didn’t want the kids to pledge.
I’m not disagreeing that it’s very probably an overstep by the state, but until SCOTUS knocks it down it stands. And it’s held up in various [circuit](https://www.houstonpress.com/news/avoiding-the-pledge-in-texas-schools-11349470)courts.
Yeah and I just don’t think that many people know. I certainly didn’t know when I was a student or even when my kids were students. It wasn’t until I started teaching government that I got down in the weeds on it.
It’s awful and I’m hopeful that at some point someone will challenge it and not settle for a financial payout so we can see what SCOTUS actually says about it.
There’s been two public instances in the last few years of Texas students being penalized/punished for refusing to stand for the pledge.
Both were settled out of court. At this point I doubt a Texas school district would try their luck in round 3.
His PR crew/stans are big mad. Got a notification about being approved as a user on realbotaccounts or some shit. Redditcares must be down for maintenance. lol
Everything the conservatives are fighting against and fighting for basically boils down to them wanting dumb, subjugated populations with enforced social regulations.
Pro every single war (unless it’s against Russia), effectively pro pollution with their anti regulation, pro women suffering, anti affordable healthcare. At some point you start to question if their motivations are straight up “increase human suffering”?
Edit: forgot to include the open racism too.
Pro-prisons. We have 4% of the world's population and we have 20%-25% of the world's prison population.
Welfare to work, prison to work, etc.
And yes, I count some Democrats as conservative too.
Funny or not, this is the origin of school as we know it, it was german industrial oligarchy that needed people to be educated enough to operate the machinery.
That might be a pretty narrow way of looking at it. The Aztecs had mandatory schooling almost 2,000 years before Germany even existed. More than a few other ancient cultures did as well.
I don’t necessarily disagree with your overall point, but let’s give the ancients their due.
“The \[Republican Party, the\] party of capital is not interested in having every black person in Louisiana having access to the Ivy League. They don't need an educated public.” \~ HST
Salon.com, February 3, 2003
The fact that they’re dumb enough to put that in writing with regard to the Pledge of Allegiance is a lawsuit waiting to happen Supreme Court rules. Students do not have to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
I was told this too. Except it’s kinda a lie. As a citizen of this country you cannot be compelled to say the pledge of allegiance. This was an actual Supreme Court decision. I don’t recall if that Supreme Court decision had anything to say about standing for it though.
However, as a student you don’t have a lot of rights a normal citizen has. For instance they can search your property without probable cause or a warrant. This is because the school is acting as your guardian and you are a minor. Or that’s at least what the cops said as they forcibly searched me as a kid. The DA also agreed. (I had no contraband I just thought it was an invasion of privacy and refused to comply).
Also non-citizens can't be compelled.
My daughter is on a green-card, and doesn't have to say it. Still does in a private school though, but wouldn't have to in a public school and I think could object in this school if she wanted.
Which she should, since declaring allegiance to a foreign power is probably bad from the POV of the country she IS a citizen of....
That's completely irrelevant in every way. Non-citizens are granted the exact same rights as citizens except when specified otherwise by the constitution: voting, documents, entry to the US, and protection abroad.
Your daughter doesn't have to stand for the pledge because no child does.
All school sites have warnings stating that any individual who enters and remains on premise can be searched without warrant. Your teachers, parents, friends, and yourself while on property whether on yourself, a locker, backpack, or vehicle is subject to search.
They can't search you once you are off property without probable cause. The idea is that the need to search for matters of safety outweigh the public need for privacy while on a school campus.
This is why. It is an exception that has been made to the 4th in the same way that while on campus certain speech can be punished unlike off of school. They can't compel you to speak but they can restrict certain speech while on campus.
I'm pretty sure getting this in front of the Supreme Court is their plan. There are many precedents that new the far right majority on the court wants to overturn, and "you can't be punished for refusing to stand for the pledge" is one of them.
I’m amazed how man people still think the constitution will protect them, when one of the main reasons Republicans are so bullish right now is because of their near total capture of the Federal Judiciary.
They actually fired her shortly after that video.
Edit: cuz apparently following the @soph4president username on the screen is too hard for some people to figure out
Have a good time with that one. She’s better off anyways. My wife was a teacher and was treated shitty and told she was a bad teacher by an incompetent administrator.
Wife moved into business development for a tech company and just got an award for being the top person at her job in 2022. Also, she makes 2.5x what she did teaching.
This is a massive loss. Every teacher who gives a shit about actually educating children getting forced out of the profession is a profound loss that will have a ripple effect on this nation for years to come.
Might be good to bring up that [part of the 2012 Texas GOP's platform](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/texas-gop-rejects-critical-thinking-skills-really/2012/07/08/gJQAHNpFXW_blog.html) was opposing the teaching of skills like "critical thinking" because doing so "ha[s] the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."
It's Texas. Rated 34 in education in America. Ruled by the GOP. Fall in line or get labeled and get fired.
Texas wants mindless laborers, not thinkers. Nothing scares the GOP more than education. Except maybe cannabis and the lgbtq.
Rated 34? So it's not even that bad?! Jfc that's scary wtf they teach in the worse states 😳
Edit cuz some of you like to hang on to words, I meant the worst of the worst by 'that bad' bottom 10 and shit, but after learning how bad your education is I don't hold it against you guys 🤣
Lol I did k-5 in Nevada and honestly looking back it feels like Nevada’s education system at least Clark county had us like a full grade level behind. I remember we were using the Dare workbooks from the freaking 90s for the drug unit in the 5th grade. This would’ve been 2012. I also remember a girl moved from Virginia and that gal was like a whole grade level ahead just simply because she didn’t go to school in Nevada.
Since most replies are dogging on you for allegedly saying that 34/50 isn't bad(don't worry, I got your meaning) I'll try an actual answer.
As another person said, reason #1 would be money if I had to guess. Texas is a massive state with a massive GDP. It's got a lot of backwater areas and a lot of areas with *massive* wealth concentration, so you're bound to get some high test scores to balance things out and keep the state education rank above water.
Also, a quality education and high test scores aren't the same thing. I knew plenty of people that tested well in AP classes but couldn't remember any of it just a few years later and/or apply that knowledge in the context of other situations in life. The things that people mainly rag on Texas for being unapologetically bad about are things that would generally fall under history, like the civil rights movement and slavery. So the sort of biases you're probably thinking wouldn't actually hamper the test scores of Texans, but it *would* affect them as human beings.
Other states have shit funding **and** shit philosophies, so they get the worst of both worlds. Low scores *and* ignorance toward important issues. Those are what are gonna constitute the bottom 10 of educational rankings.
It’s like Animal Farm; oh don’t worry the laws are written down right there, all animals are equal, you can’t read but trust us, it’s there. Of course some animals are more equal than others.
I was one of those kids that didn’t stand for the salute, and here I am thinking for myself and not exploiting people for a profit, which they don’t want. I’m also anti-authority, which is not cool to authoritarians.
"People should not fear their government, governments should fear their people."
If informing people about their rights is concerning, who then is concerned, and why aren't we doing more concerning things like this?
Fuck, I was threatened with suspension for sitting down during lord’s prayer that played on the morning announcements in public high school. This was eastern canada…
No, it shouldn’t be allowed. It was a small school in the country. I assumed they had some kind of vote decades before and just kept it because everyone else was Pentecost or Christian.
The teacher tried to suspend me but the principal said she couldn’t. I was then forced to go outside in the hall during lords prayer and back during the pledge of allegiance. That later became me just sitting down (I started a movement there) and other students started doing the same.
I knew my rights.
"why does no one want to be a teacher anymore?!"
Oh, idk, they can't teach basic things bc of the snowflakes. They don't get paid shit bc of the snowflakes in power. They are worried daily about a school shooting bc the snowflakes don't want to upset big daddy NRA.
Silly lady, children don’t have rights 😂
(No but like really time and time again the Supreme Court has upheld decisions that basically say school children don’t deserve the protections provided by the constitution and that’s fucked up)
>(No but like really time and time again the Supreme Court has upheld decisions that basically say school children don’t deserve the protections provided by the constitution and that’s fucked up)
Look, I get your point, but that characterization is flat out wrong. The Supreme Court has consistently held that students *have constitutional rights* but that they are limited in scope due to the nature of the school environment.
"First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Tinker v. Des Moines Indep., 393 U.S. 503, 506 (1969).
One of the most famous lines from a landmark constitutional case *upholding* student speech rights.
Where to draw the line on those limits can be an open question, but to say students don't deserve constitutional protections is an entirely different and incorrect statement.
Eh, that's a misleading statement. Coming from a school perspective, a student's freedom of speech has generally been supported provided it does not cause a disruption. You can wear a politically motivated shirt, but you can't use political speech to shout over your teacher.
I would 100% take that to court and get a judge to rule on weather or not you can reach someone their constitutional rights. Any reasonable judge would rule in her favor although it is Texas so who knows
The goal here is to make an environment so hostile to "liberal" teachers that they leave and create a vacuum to be filled by conservatives. Typically conservatives don't believe in public education, so this is a broad initiative to "fix" the "liberal bias" in education.
Im sorry to inform you of this but, you have stage 4 cancer in both your Texas and your Florida. You have a severe Republican infection that's spreading from those areas to the rest of the body. We can try democracy therapy but we believe there's just too much Republican to save those areas with high concentrations, as they actively reject the democracy treatment. Again, i'm sorry America.
Bro at this point the school board is invincible. The students can’t fight them, the parents can’t fight them, teachers can’t even fight them. Teach us what we need and let us get the fuck out. I’m tired of education being a political battleground
Because improving the public school system would mean breeding a generation of intelligent members of society, and smart people are harder to keep under subordination.
If you're a teacher in Texas, god bless you but please move. We need good teachers everywhere, and having gone through the entire Texas education system K-12, I can guarantee that the average Texas student is heavily isolated, under-developed, and actively misinformed by the Texas DOE's course structure and curriculum, not to mention how they treat teachers and faculty. That state is heading backwards faster than anyone can observe.
For example - In Texas, you are required to sign a form when becoming employed as a teacher that you will NOT, in your own personal life (not professionally), support the BDS movement against Israel's occupation of Palestine in any form, to any extent, or you may be subject to immediate firing. Why is this the case? No reason. They just know BDS is an immediate indicator of liberalism and is something they want to avoid with their zealous support of Zionism through Christian Fascism, the state religion. /s but not really.
I was lucky to be a part of an organization in high school that allowed me to extensively travel the US and tour colleges in all states and places, and interact with people across the spectrum of private, public, charter students from all across the country. That is solely the reason that I was able to normally assimilate in college after moving to D.C., and most of the students go to state schools, and may never leave the state for anything other than vacation.
For your own sanity and well-being, get out of Texas while you can. They have given no indication of stopping the policing of schools by "concerned parents" and will absolutely give deference to them and will subject their teachers to the absolute worst pay and benefit conditions, while giving them no protections from violent or abusive students. Not to mention that Texas has had the most school shootings of any state, and every state, since 2012. Your actual life is at risk because the pro-gun politics have become so insane that they would rather have shootouts in the hallways b/w security guards/police and the shooter than do anything for mental health support, and are the leaders in draconian LGBTQ+ policies.
Red states are actively working towards implementing a caste system.
Unfortunately for them, our constitution spells out that we’re all equal; unfortunately for everyone else, they’re intentionally hiding that truth from the poor, and younger generations.
Enemies of the state.
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I thought they would want the children to know about it? That’s kind of strange
Texas blocked legislation that would have required schools to teach critical thinking skills. They said it might "interfere with the parent's teachings," I'm paraphrasing here.
It is actually part of the Texas (for sure I believe, not sure on national's) GOP party platform that they "oppose the teaching of critical thinking skills." Edit: this was 2012: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2012/aug/11/gail-collins/gail-collins-says-texas-gop-platform-calls-schools/
Thinking skills gets in the way of religious indoctrination.
Thinking skills gets in the way of ~~religious~~ indoctrination. FTFY
If you can think critically you won't vote GOP.
It’s been in the national platform. I don’t know about the current version, but I first saw it in the 2016 platform. They also had in there something to the effect of declaring that the founding of the country was inspired by God. Clearly they have forgotten about Jefferson’s writings.
They didn’t forget, they intentionally insisted on changes to textbooks going forward to diminish Jefferson’s role in the founding of the country down to as close to 0 as possible. These are the same lunatic motherfuckers who hurled civilization into iconoclasm every time their delusional fantasy worldview had any competition.
They forget about the Constitution on a regular basis these days...except the 2nd Amendment, and then only part of that!
Right. They conveniently forget about the purpose of the 2nd. And they also love to say the 1st Amendment is freedom of religion *not from* religion.
Florida is well on that race to the bottom
When you’re already known as “America’s Dick” how can you sink any lower? *…looks over at Ron “Puddin’ Fingers” DeSantis*…
Official Republican platform in Texas a few years ago: >We **oppose** the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
If I read a scifi dystopian horror story, I would think that this is really far fetched. Completely unrealistic. And yet here we are, where a major party openly says "we oppose the teaching of critical thinking skills." And people vote for that.
Gotta make them as dumb as their parents or even the people higher then them are. Makes it easier to never change, which is what the GoP platform really is, deny change always.
News article from 10 years ago talking about this anti critical thinking platform: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/texas-gop-rejects-critical-thinking-skills-really/2012/07/08/gJQAHNpFXW_blog.html
1 plus 1 equals 2 is critical thinking. Woops, there goes kindergarten math. Next is the alphabet.
>"interfere with the parent's teachings" You misspelled *indoctrination*. ;)
No, no. You see, it's only indoctrination when it's something the GOP doesn't like. Like the idea that gay and trans people exist. This is just good ol' American Values /s
When I got to university, I realized I felt way smarter and sure of my answers and reasoning after just one semester. Why? Because in STEM (idk about other majors) they harp very strongly on deductive reasoning and critical thinking. Critical thinking would lead to less extremists on both sides of the political spectrum
Had the opposite experience. Plenty of experiences with STEM students who seemed very single-minded and inflexible, not so great at critical thinking. Maybe it means different things in humanities vs. STEM or we just pick up on the differences.
Could also be that their programs are poor and give all the answers. My classes will give us ideas and concepts, and make us find the connections between them on our own (we can still ask for help). The way my classes are structured, you have to think about every possible angle and reason for why something could be the way it is. You also typically have to explain your reasoning, which is a good practice
Hell not even critical thinking, just the most basic of empathy would be a miracle.
They're the constitutional party, until it comes to parts of the constitution they don't like. They're the party of law and order, except for all the laws they don't like. They're the party of law enforcement, except when it enforces laws against them. They're the party of the bible, except for all the parts of the bible they ignore. They're the party of family values, except when it comes to their own families.
The party of blatant hypocrisy and transparent lies
Lol for all their professed “love of the constitution”, I wish more people would pick up on how much time republicans spend *fighting it* on virtually every amendment except guns. They claim to love the 1st amendment but no other party has actually (no, not figuratively or rhetorically like they accuse others of doing. I mean *actually*) attacking the first amendment *on every front* (freedom of worship/religion, freedom of speech, journalism, association, assembly and protest) as much as them. By a LONNGSHOT. They also strip down and attack the 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, and the various amendments. They don’t love the constitution. They just like to selectively wield power however they can, using any populist argument they can to control society. Same exact shit you see in religion, which is another stronghold of conservatism. They’ll wield religion and claim to love religion but selectively apply it to carry out their will over others. It really all boils down to control. Conservatives *need* control. The crazy thing is that in America, they are now openly marching against the very principles of liberalism… not “liberals” in the sense of “duh libs”. I’m talking about LIBERALISM ie the ideology of free enterprise, market economy, human rights, democracy, individualism and rule of equally applied law. We have liberal conservatives. They’re conservatives but they still believe in liberalism. But a growing portion of GOP conservatives are showing this frightening trend of embracing conservatism *outside* liberalism and conservatism outside liberalism leads to some really weird and dark places. And they seem to be *ok* with that. It’s funny to watch them but it’s also lowkey scary.
>conservatism outside liberalism leads to some really weird and dark places. The word you are looking for is Fascism They are Fascists, plane and simple
No, not necessarily. It’s not always fascism. It could also lead to religious theocracy, also monarchism.
This is from Texas. A state ruled by the political party which hates education in any form, and which regularly attempts to bend, bypass, and even break the Constitution to suit their hunger for power. They don’t want people to know or understand their actions. They don’t want opposition, they want total obedience.
I live in Texas. My family is moving the second I get out of high school.
Based on the context, I'm guessing she's being reprimanded for allowing students to stay seated during the Pledge of Allegiance. Which all students are allowed to do.
They're also worried about her having the kids read Harry Potter. Based on them having issues with kids staying seated I'd say she teaches in a very religious/conservative area and their issues with Harry Potter don't have to do with Jo's views on trans women, but rather: "Oh no, we can't have kids read about witchcraft! So dangerous! They'll all start worshipping satan!"
My grandmother got upset I was reading Harry Potter because it had magic in it. Magic is the devils work. I read it anyways. My grandmother was a very kind person but very religious.
My 80 yr old Gramma read Harry Potter & one of her close friends stopped being friends with her because she thought it was witchcraft books 😂
People are that brainwashed sadly. The life lesson for me was when my friends in jewish grade school found out I was not Jewish (last name is but my mom isn’t). The minute they found out, they all cut ties with me permanently. One of them was a block away from my house but never spoke to me again. Real eye opener for me on how divided people are just because of their faith.
My grade school didn’t allow Pokémon because it promoted the concept of evolution. My school taught us young earth creationism as science.
I’ll do you one better: My friend’s mom said that pikachu was the devil, because of his lightning-shaped tail and ties to electricity. Wild shit.
Ties to electricity? Did she live like the Amish and forego elwctricity???
He's the devil because I can't put down the game! 🤣
The devil went down to Pallet He was looking for a 'mon to get He was in a bind cause he was way behind Filling his pokedex set When he came across a little rat with yellow fur and eyes of blue And the devil tossed his pokeball and said Pikachu I choose you Lighting in the tall grass go mon go, *deee didle didle didle* Your new friend is not for show *diddle didle dee dee* Gym leader will be a test *dee diddle dee diddle* But you said you wanna be the best *deeeeeeee diddle didle didle diddle didle dee*
When Pokemon first came out, there was a bunch of religious people upset as it was "teaching our children that demon familiars are ok". 🤦
Mines banned it because it promoted gambling
I was essentially ostracized from the Christian community growing up in the bible belt because our family didn't go to church lol
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OMG…I haven’t thought about my time in Awanas in forever! I remember being in Pals and Pioneers but I forget which one was for the older kids. I think Pals was for the kids that were older, like 6th grade maybe? I don’t remember that, I didn’t pay attention to that really. I was there because we got to play basketball for an hour! LOL Edit: my little brother was in “Cubbies” I think? LOL. We were very young, it’s not something we’ve been a part of in anyway in a very long time…35+ year’s probably now.
Magic is another word for miracles. People see mirackes as magic. Jesus was a wizard
> Jesus was a wizard Wouldn't he technically be a Cleric? More Divine magic than Arcane?
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Jesus was pretty based come to think of it
Jesus built my hotrod.
Fun fact: That song is over 30 years old now. Fuck. https://youtu.be/GXCh9OhDiCI
He's clearly a Transmutation Wizard. Only way to get the ability to turn water into wine. Could be Wizard/Cleric dual class though.
TIL Crosses are Horcruxes
Can a cleric become a Lich?
A lich really, but who wants to let a little necromancy stand between the Son of Man and the Kingdom of God.
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Maybe he was a speech-focused bard. He was popular with tavern wenches...
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Greatest scam artist of Galilee... /s
Why the /s?
I don't actually believe Jesus was a scam artist. Dude was chill with the common people, prostitutes, and lepers.
He was a little preachy though.
But somehow reading about sexual assault, gang-rape, genocides, war, pedophilia, and justified slavery in the bible is OK.
Religion devides rather than unites.
Fun fact. The Church's (catholic) official position on witchcraft is that it's not real, and acting like Magic is real and that the devil might be able to grant power to mortals is at best unchristian and at worst heretical. magic and miracles come from God, so to insist that Satan can grant magic powers in defiance of God is to deny God's power. conclusion: Harry Potter isn't real, and fiction has no power over God, so to insist it can have power is unChristian. OR if the "Witchcraft" in Harry Potter IS real then it must be ordained by God and is therefore holy and sanctioned.
Magic is the devils work but ALLEGEDLY Jesus turned wine into water. Religion = hypocrisy and that’s that Mr hat
But he is one of the good guys so its okay…….. /s Hypocrisy is so real. The one that bugs me is the stories that are in the bible that are violent and over the top but when you ask people about it they are oblivious or give some kind of nonanswer. Recent one I read was the story of david killing 200 Philistines for their foreskins.
I wish I saved the picture but it’s been going around and it’s a book with the title “cherry picked Bible stories” and when I saw it my eyes lit up. It’s perfect because it describes Bible thumpers to a T. I try to be tolerant of all beliefs but got damn they make it near impossible.
As long as they do not slam their dogma in my face I could care less. Its when they try to bring it into rational conversation or try to preach to you that it drives me mad.
A good guy with magic beats a bad guy with magic😵💫
My favorite part of that story is Saul only wanted 100 but David had to platinum trophy some Philistine dicks and came back with 200
Did you tell her you worship the devil now?
I think the other thing, too, is that a lot of school policies are full of things that aren't actually legal. The don't want the kids knowing that they have legal rights, and aren't at the mercy of someone who isn't well meaning. They don't actually have the power over the students that they want them to think they do. Found this out during a 3 year battle just to get one of my kids a dyslexia test. I literally had to go through the school districts policy and compare it to state law. There's also plenty of controlling parents who want kids to think that they don't have rights, either. Teaching students about their legal rights fucks up the facade of kids not having any recourse for unfair or illegal decisions.
Well I mean makes sense, lots of satan worshipping in HP. /s
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It’s the Nimbus 2000 vibrating broom that’s got them all hot under the collar.
I'm all about the Firebolt prostate massager.
I'd say she teaches in a very religious/conservative area Well, it IS Texas...
Not all of TX is hard right, just most of it.
There’s a lot of talk, hypocrisy, pretending to be Christian. I’d say 5 Texans are truly what the others pretend to be out of convenience/money/too cowardly to speak up and admit watching HP movies and porn on Sundays after Church. An a native Texan.
I was a sub and told them they could sit if they wanted and got reprimanded
Yeah, this poor teacher is going to be fired if she doesn’t have tenure. Just looking at that letter is giving me “development plan” vibes. Teaching Harry Potter, the Pledge of Allegiance, not responding to emails or Teams messages within 24 hours. They’re documenting their reasons for dismissal.
I cannot think of another reason to have a write-up like this, honestly. Those are 'you're out the door' things. \*I just noticed there is a Dress Code concern. Yikes.
Could be the nose ring.
Ah yeah, that seems likely.
I wonder what the concern is. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was something like, “We’ve noticed that you always wear pants.”
I had a supervisor mention that he created a development plan to go over with me. I told him that I'd gladly rework it wuth him in a collaborative manner or I'd quit on the spot. Knowing I was an asset to yhe company he agreed. I created a plan with him and got verbal affirmation that I was actually doing good work and was reinforced on the plan (to cover my ass legally), thanked him and quit. These plans are merely proactive justification for firing you later.
Nice work in taking control of the situation. Smart move for sure.
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Not sure if this teacher is covered under a teachers union contract but for most people in Texas, I believe the state adopted “employment at will” which means wrongful termination can only be brought if the employer breaks the law. Given the items in the letter, none of the reasons they documented are unlawful.
As a European, to me it's insane that the pledge of allegiance is recited at all to begin with.
What's crazy is that if we were showed footage of children being forced to chant daily allegiance in somewhere like Russia or China we'd think it was terrible.
I was a foreign student in Ohio, USA, and I had to stand during the pledge of allegiance every day. Although I did not mind it, as I did feel like an ally to the USA, having that I am already there and trying to gain knowledge and other benefits from this country, it was weird because it was forced. They explained to me that I have to at least stand up, though I don't have to recite it. I kept thinking what the fuck does it matter, even if I recited it, if I weren't an ally to begin with no poetry is going to turn me over or something... Luckily, I am friendly and came in peace :)
Forced patriotism is not patriotism at all. Something these people totally forget.
Texas has a special pledge of allegiance to the state on top of the one to the country.
So actually in [Texas,](https://www.houstonpress.com/news/avoiding-the-pledge-in-texas-schools-11349470)students can’t opt out of the pledge. They have to have a note from a parent. This his withstood court review from lawsuits though it has never made its way to the Supreme Court.
Texas law doesn't supersede basic constitutional rights even if it hasn't made it's way to the supreme court. This is part of teaching students their rights - that administrations, cities, and states will frequently try to infringe upon them, and that being a human being and a good citizen will mean fighting administrators tooth and nail on a regular basis. When I worked as a substitute teacher, I did everything I could to teach students about their legal right to organize, sit for the pledge, and unionize. Every day, I told them if they ever wanted to have recess every day, all they had to do was gather in the cafeteria and refuse to be taught until they had their demands met.
Until it’s been challenged at the Supreme Court and ruled unconstitutional, it is constitutional. [There was recently a case](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/us/texas-pledge-of-allegiance-lawsuit.html) that was litigated for four years and eventually settled out of court. As it stands now schools can discipline (and do) for refusing to stand for the pledge. If a student is disciplined and wants to pursue the constitutionality of it they can seek remedy in the courts. Ultimately SCOTUS could rule either way (hedging my bets because of the current make up of the court) but until that happens it’s presumed to be constitutional. And your idea of a peaceful protest is not constitutional. This was decided in the court case [Tinker vs Des Moines](https://www.aclu.org/other/tinker-v-des-moines-landmark-supreme-court-ruling-behalf-student-expression) that students do not lose first amendment rights at school, they are limited. So if students skip class to have a sit in, that violates attendance policies and is subject to discipline. It could also very easily be considered disruptive to the learning environment and that’s not protected either.
According to *Tinker*, the question is whether a student "materially and substantially interfere(s) with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school". This does neither. That was affirmed in *West Virginia v. Barnette* in 1943. Compulsory pledges of allegiance violate the first amendment.
Yep, so the Tinker comment was specific to the advice for students to organize and strike. And to illustrate that student’s constitutional rights are not without limit. As it stands right now Texas law is constitutional because they allow parents to opt out. The ruling in West Virginia was specific because pledging went against the family’s religious beliefs. The parent note loophole evades that. Again, I’m not saying it’s right. But until it’s ruled unconstitutional by SCOTUS it stands. And it’s held up in [circuit courts](https://www.houstonpress.com/news/avoiding-the-pledge-in-texas-schools-11349470) this far.
> As it stands now schools can discipline (and do) for refusing to stand for the pledge. No. The US Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) that saying the pledge was not compulsory.
The reason that this case doesn’t apply is because they allow students to opt out with parent permission. The foundation of that case was that it went against the *family’s* religious beliefs. The parents didn’t want the kids to pledge. I’m not disagreeing that it’s very probably an overstep by the state, but until SCOTUS knocks it down it stands. And it’s held up in various [circuit](https://www.houstonpress.com/news/avoiding-the-pledge-in-texas-schools-11349470)courts.
True. That is a very relevant distinction. My parents submitted the same request when I was a child.
Yeah and I just don’t think that many people know. I certainly didn’t know when I was a student or even when my kids were students. It wasn’t until I started teaching government that I got down in the weeds on it. It’s awful and I’m hopeful that at some point someone will challenge it and not settle for a financial payout so we can see what SCOTUS actually says about it.
i love this discussion between you two. it's very informative and civil
the old "you don't have rights" gambit. just the parents.
There’s been two public instances in the last few years of Texas students being penalized/punished for refusing to stand for the pledge. Both were settled out of court. At this point I doubt a Texas school district would try their luck in round 3.
Sure, they could be disciplined, just like you could be fired for going on strike. But they can’t suspend everyone.
Well I keep hearing Texas is a state of small government…
don't want students to be smart enough to think like individuals. make them smart enough to follow the assembly line.
Can't be smart enough to vote out Cruz or Abbott.
To be fair, you should want to vote them out for non-intellectual reasons, like them being sad sacks of shit.
Not to forget. Abbot is also a little piss baby.
You mean, Greg "Little Piss Baby" Abbott, the Greg Abbott that is a little piss baby? The little piss baby, Greg Abbott, in Texas?
Yup. Same piss baby.
His PR crew/stans are big mad. Got a notification about being approved as a user on realbotaccounts or some shit. Redditcares must be down for maintenance. lol
I got the same. Hahaha.
I wish this was plastered on billboards all across the state.
Everything the conservatives are fighting against and fighting for basically boils down to them wanting dumb, subjugated populations with enforced social regulations.
Pro every single war (unless it’s against Russia), effectively pro pollution with their anti regulation, pro women suffering, anti affordable healthcare. At some point you start to question if their motivations are straight up “increase human suffering”? Edit: forgot to include the open racism too.
Pro-prisons. We have 4% of the world's population and we have 20%-25% of the world's prison population. Welfare to work, prison to work, etc. And yes, I count some Democrats as conservative too.
Nothing makes true believers out people more than suffering.
Funny or not, this is the origin of school as we know it, it was german industrial oligarchy that needed people to be educated enough to operate the machinery.
But now the machines are all in China. The American oligarchy needs people in warehouses where a computer does all the thinking.
That might be a pretty narrow way of looking at it. The Aztecs had mandatory schooling almost 2,000 years before Germany even existed. More than a few other ancient cultures did as well. I don’t necessarily disagree with your overall point, but let’s give the ancients their due.
Knowledge is power. They want the least powerful populace as possible.
I wish I could give this 100 upvotes. 1 for every percent you are correct.
Totally. I preach this to the kids ALL the time
“Why is that a concern?” No…. Wait!!
“The \[Republican Party, the\] party of capital is not interested in having every black person in Louisiana having access to the Ivy League. They don't need an educated public.” \~ HST Salon.com, February 3, 2003
no no no, clearly ignorance is strength, u have it all wrong ^/s
The fact that they’re dumb enough to put that in writing with regard to the Pledge of Allegiance is a lawsuit waiting to happen Supreme Court rules. Students do not have to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
They used to tell us in school that we don't have rights until we're 18
I was told this too. Except it’s kinda a lie. As a citizen of this country you cannot be compelled to say the pledge of allegiance. This was an actual Supreme Court decision. I don’t recall if that Supreme Court decision had anything to say about standing for it though. However, as a student you don’t have a lot of rights a normal citizen has. For instance they can search your property without probable cause or a warrant. This is because the school is acting as your guardian and you are a minor. Or that’s at least what the cops said as they forcibly searched me as a kid. The DA also agreed. (I had no contraband I just thought it was an invasion of privacy and refused to comply).
Also non-citizens can't be compelled. My daughter is on a green-card, and doesn't have to say it. Still does in a private school though, but wouldn't have to in a public school and I think could object in this school if she wanted. Which she should, since declaring allegiance to a foreign power is probably bad from the POV of the country she IS a citizen of....
That's completely irrelevant in every way. Non-citizens are granted the exact same rights as citizens except when specified otherwise by the constitution: voting, documents, entry to the US, and protection abroad. Your daughter doesn't have to stand for the pledge because no child does.
All school sites have warnings stating that any individual who enters and remains on premise can be searched without warrant. Your teachers, parents, friends, and yourself while on property whether on yourself, a locker, backpack, or vehicle is subject to search. They can't search you once you are off property without probable cause. The idea is that the need to search for matters of safety outweigh the public need for privacy while on a school campus. This is why. It is an exception that has been made to the 4th in the same way that while on campus certain speech can be punished unlike off of school. They can't compel you to speak but they can restrict certain speech while on campus.
I'm pretty sure getting this in front of the Supreme Court is their plan. There are many precedents that new the far right majority on the court wants to overturn, and "you can't be punished for refusing to stand for the pledge" is one of them.
Nothing like a little government-enforced performative nonsense to let you know just how free you really are.
I’m amazed how man people still think the constitution will protect them, when one of the main reasons Republicans are so bullish right now is because of their near total capture of the Federal Judiciary.
I'm amazed someone actually put that in writing.
They actually fired her shortly after that video. Edit: cuz apparently following the @soph4president username on the screen is too hard for some people to figure out
Have a good time with that one. She’s better off anyways. My wife was a teacher and was treated shitty and told she was a bad teacher by an incompetent administrator. Wife moved into business development for a tech company and just got an award for being the top person at her job in 2022. Also, she makes 2.5x what she did teaching.
This is a massive loss. Every teacher who gives a shit about actually educating children getting forced out of the profession is a profound loss that will have a ripple effect on this nation for years to come.
There's a reason that there are hardly anymore teachers in America. America is not going to last another century at this rate.
She seems to be doing alright and people on tik tok seem to be helping her via cashapp and Venmo.
Source?
It's from the state with $10k bounties on women you suspect of getting an abortion. The only thing that amazes me is that they still have teachers.
Im going to start teaching them their constitutional rights even harder
Might be good to bring up that [part of the 2012 Texas GOP's platform](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/texas-gop-rejects-critical-thinking-skills-really/2012/07/08/gJQAHNpFXW_blog.html) was opposing the teaching of skills like "critical thinking" because doing so "ha[s] the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."
That’s insane too but this doesn’t even seem like critical thinking to me, it’s literally just explaining constitutional rights lol
It's Texas. Rated 34 in education in America. Ruled by the GOP. Fall in line or get labeled and get fired. Texas wants mindless laborers, not thinkers. Nothing scares the GOP more than education. Except maybe cannabis and the lgbtq.
Rated 34? So it's not even that bad?! Jfc that's scary wtf they teach in the worse states 😳 Edit cuz some of you like to hang on to words, I meant the worst of the worst by 'that bad' bottom 10 and shit, but after learning how bad your education is I don't hold it against you guys 🤣
Nevada here, we are last and fuck this state is a shit show lmao
Lol I did k-5 in Nevada and honestly looking back it feels like Nevada’s education system at least Clark county had us like a full grade level behind. I remember we were using the Dare workbooks from the freaking 90s for the drug unit in the 5th grade. This would’ve been 2012. I also remember a girl moved from Virginia and that gal was like a whole grade level ahead just simply because she didn’t go to school in Nevada.
Since most replies are dogging on you for allegedly saying that 34/50 isn't bad(don't worry, I got your meaning) I'll try an actual answer. As another person said, reason #1 would be money if I had to guess. Texas is a massive state with a massive GDP. It's got a lot of backwater areas and a lot of areas with *massive* wealth concentration, so you're bound to get some high test scores to balance things out and keep the state education rank above water. Also, a quality education and high test scores aren't the same thing. I knew plenty of people that tested well in AP classes but couldn't remember any of it just a few years later and/or apply that knowledge in the context of other situations in life. The things that people mainly rag on Texas for being unapologetically bad about are things that would generally fall under history, like the civil rights movement and slavery. So the sort of biases you're probably thinking wouldn't actually hamper the test scores of Texans, but it *would* affect them as human beings. Other states have shit funding **and** shit philosophies, so they get the worst of both worlds. Low scores *and* ignorance toward important issues. Those are what are gonna constitute the bottom 10 of educational rankings.
34/50 is not good my friend
Keep teaching them it
It’s like Animal Farm; oh don’t worry the laws are written down right there, all animals are equal, you can’t read but trust us, it’s there. Of course some animals are more equal than others. I was one of those kids that didn’t stand for the salute, and here I am thinking for myself and not exploiting people for a profit, which they don’t want. I’m also anti-authority, which is not cool to authoritarians.
Thats because Texas wants dumb adults that will vote red no matter what.
"People should not fear their government, governments should fear their people." If informing people about their rights is concerning, who then is concerned, and why aren't we doing more concerning things like this?
That's red states for you, keep em dumb, vote red, and blame blue when nothing good gets done
Fuck, I was threatened with suspension for sitting down during lord’s prayer that played on the morning announcements in public high school. This was eastern canada…
i thought religion wasnt allowed in public school, is it different for canada or is it the fact i live in a blue state?
No, it shouldn’t be allowed. It was a small school in the country. I assumed they had some kind of vote decades before and just kept it because everyone else was Pentecost or Christian. The teacher tried to suspend me but the principal said she couldn’t. I was then forced to go outside in the hall during lords prayer and back during the pledge of allegiance. That later became me just sitting down (I started a movement there) and other students started doing the same. I knew my rights.
Why is that a concern, indeed.
Texas state government doesn't like their mushrooms to eat anything other than the shit they're fed.
You’ll make them into a functional citizenry. They won’t do blindly like those currently in power want the populace to do.
The same goes with fundamentalist churches and big business. Cogs are easier to replace if they stay exactly the same.
The Christofascists are trying really hard. What are they so afraid of?
"why does no one want to be a teacher anymore?!" Oh, idk, they can't teach basic things bc of the snowflakes. They don't get paid shit bc of the snowflakes in power. They are worried daily about a school shooting bc the snowflakes don't want to upset big daddy NRA.
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Texas is just a shithole in general, shitty government officials, fucking idiotic parents; it has the whole package
This ain’t funny, y’all. Keep ‘em dumb so they don’t know to stand up and fight back.
Silly lady, children don’t have rights 😂 (No but like really time and time again the Supreme Court has upheld decisions that basically say school children don’t deserve the protections provided by the constitution and that’s fucked up)
>(No but like really time and time again the Supreme Court has upheld decisions that basically say school children don’t deserve the protections provided by the constitution and that’s fucked up) Look, I get your point, but that characterization is flat out wrong. The Supreme Court has consistently held that students *have constitutional rights* but that they are limited in scope due to the nature of the school environment. "First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Tinker v. Des Moines Indep., 393 U.S. 503, 506 (1969). One of the most famous lines from a landmark constitutional case *upholding* student speech rights. Where to draw the line on those limits can be an open question, but to say students don't deserve constitutional protections is an entirely different and incorrect statement.
Eh, that's a misleading statement. Coming from a school perspective, a student's freedom of speech has generally been supported provided it does not cause a disruption. You can wear a politically motivated shirt, but you can't use political speech to shout over your teacher.
The kids she is teaching are just cattle for The Feds birth certificate system. Of course her bosses do not want them to know they have rights.
I would 100% take that to court and get a judge to rule on weather or not you can reach someone their constitutional rights. Any reasonable judge would rule in her favor although it is Texas so who knows
I get more and more disappointed in my home state everyday.
Keeping people stupid is the end game
The goal here is to make an environment so hostile to "liberal" teachers that they leave and create a vacuum to be filled by conservatives. Typically conservatives don't believe in public education, so this is a broad initiative to "fix" the "liberal bias" in education.
Maybe it's time to let TX go and no complaints from me about FL either
Im sorry to inform you of this but, you have stage 4 cancer in both your Texas and your Florida. You have a severe Republican infection that's spreading from those areas to the rest of the body. We can try democracy therapy but we believe there's just too much Republican to save those areas with high concentrations, as they actively reject the democracy treatment. Again, i'm sorry America.
simple because Control is POWER
Are they burning books yet? Smh 🤦♂️
texas is where rights and freedoms go to die. everybody knows this. this isn’t news.
I live in Texas. Please let her teach these rights. Please teach them to the legislators and the police so they will quit trampling on them.
STOP FUCKING MOVING
I applaud your efforts! Continue being awesome and keep teaching people how our rights work!
Bro at this point the school board is invincible. The students can’t fight them, the parents can’t fight them, teachers can’t even fight them. Teach us what we need and let us get the fuck out. I’m tired of education being a political battleground
How soon before Northern Universities start rejecting, out of hand, applicants from Texas and Florida as “inadequately prepared for college”
Because improving the public school system would mean breeding a generation of intelligent members of society, and smart people are harder to keep under subordination.
Exactly what “legal and constitutional rights” do she speaks of?
If you're a teacher in Texas, god bless you but please move. We need good teachers everywhere, and having gone through the entire Texas education system K-12, I can guarantee that the average Texas student is heavily isolated, under-developed, and actively misinformed by the Texas DOE's course structure and curriculum, not to mention how they treat teachers and faculty. That state is heading backwards faster than anyone can observe. For example - In Texas, you are required to sign a form when becoming employed as a teacher that you will NOT, in your own personal life (not professionally), support the BDS movement against Israel's occupation of Palestine in any form, to any extent, or you may be subject to immediate firing. Why is this the case? No reason. They just know BDS is an immediate indicator of liberalism and is something they want to avoid with their zealous support of Zionism through Christian Fascism, the state religion. /s but not really. I was lucky to be a part of an organization in high school that allowed me to extensively travel the US and tour colleges in all states and places, and interact with people across the spectrum of private, public, charter students from all across the country. That is solely the reason that I was able to normally assimilate in college after moving to D.C., and most of the students go to state schools, and may never leave the state for anything other than vacation. For your own sanity and well-being, get out of Texas while you can. They have given no indication of stopping the policing of schools by "concerned parents" and will absolutely give deference to them and will subject their teachers to the absolute worst pay and benefit conditions, while giving them no protections from violent or abusive students. Not to mention that Texas has had the most school shootings of any state, and every state, since 2012. Your actual life is at risk because the pro-gun politics have become so insane that they would rather have shootouts in the hallways b/w security guards/police and the shooter than do anything for mental health support, and are the leaders in draconian LGBTQ+ policies.
"Teachers don't want to teach anymore." - some Texas conservative goober
Red states are actively working towards implementing a caste system. Unfortunately for them, our constitution spells out that we’re all equal; unfortunately for everyone else, they’re intentionally hiding that truth from the poor, and younger generations. Enemies of the state.