Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6
"The response to the global pandemic has led to many schools in America offering or requiring students to “school at home” with
online instruction, including video teaching from the students’ usual teacher(s). Well, according to some teachers on a Twitter thread that has since been hidden, the ability of parents and others to overhear the teacher’s instruction could be “damage[ing].”
Reportedly, Matthew Kay, an educator and author of a book on the topic of “how to lead meaningful race conversations in the classroom,” recently tweeted,
with a radical worldview that opposes the Bible, are the ones who can properly guide, nurture, instruct, and, really, brainwash these children in the way they should go.
“Parents are dangerous.” Increasingly those who hold to a secular worldview see children as wards of the state—to be indoctrinated with secular ideology and shielded from negative influences of parents and, particularly, parents’ personal beliefs.
In this view, parents are the enemy, and secular teachers, armed with a radical worldview that opposes the Bible, are the ones who can properly guide, nurture, instruct, and, really, brainwash these children in the way they should go.
Children are not wards of the state—they have been entrusted by God to parents to train and instruct in the way they should actually go, following God and his Word."
AIG/KenHam
Proverbs 22:6
"The response to the global pandemic has led to many schools in America offering or requiring students to “school at home” with
Reportedly, Matthew Kay, an educator and author of a book on the topic of “how to lead meaningful race conversations in the classroom,” recently tweeted,
So, this fall, virtual class discussion will have many potential spectators—parents, siblings, etc.—in the same room. We’ll never be quite sure who is overhearing the discourse. What does this do for our equity/inclusion work?Apparently, many other teachers chimed in on the post, some disgusted with Kay’s comments, others supporting them and offering ideas on how teachers can cope with parents listening in on instruction:
How much have students depended on the (somewhat) secure barriers of our physical classrooms to encourage vulnerability? How many of us have installed some version of “what happens here stays here” to help this?
While conversation about race are in my wheelhouse, and remain a concern in this no-walls environment—I am most intrigued by the damage that “helicopter/snowplow” parents can do in the host conversations about gender/sexuality. And while “conservative” parents are my chief concern—I know that the damage can come from the left too. If we are engaged in the messy work of destabilizing a kid’s racism or homophobia or transphobia—how much do we want their classmates’ parents piling on?
- One teacher said she’d also been “thinking about” the problem Kay described, and had decided that she’d ask students about their preferred pronouns via survey—though she still worries that “caregivers” might see it and learn something about their children that they weren’t supposed to know.
- Another teacher said that students last semester would sometimes “type secrets into the chat” whenever the discussion turned to “anti-racism and gender inclusive content.”
- A ninth-grade teacher shared in the commiseration, saying that her class required students to “read and respond to a news article,” but that participation in this exercise is stunted now because “outsiders” [i.e., parents] are “listening.”
- A teacher with pronouns listed in her Twitter handle said that she plans to use the chat function more than voice lectures because she wants children to share “information” with her in a “parentless way.”
- A science teacher agreed with all of the sentiments expressed here and summarized it bluntly: “Parents are dangerous.”
“Parents are dangerous.” Increasingly those who hold to a secular worldview see children as wards of the state—to be indoctrinated with secular ideology and shielded from negative influences of parents and, particularly, parents’ personal beliefs.
In this view, parents are the enemy, and secular teachers, armed with a radical worldview that opposes the Bible, are the ones who can properly guide, nurture, instruct, and, really, brainwash these children in the way they should go.
Children are not wards of the state—they have been entrusted by God to parents to train and instruct in the way they should actually go, following God and his Word."
AIG/KenHam