A few of my friends and acquaintances within the public teaching community think my assessment of their colleagues is too pessimistic. Others agree with my observations.
This post is a response to my friends and acquaintances who believe that my opinion is too critical.
I will express my memories of school teachers from my past, as well as concerns about contemporary school teachers.
By the way, my opinions of today’s educators are affected by current school teachers and conversations with them, particularly Christian educators.
As I reminisce about my K-12 school years primarily in the seventies, I remember few negative encounters with teachers and many positive ones.
One teacher, in particular, comes to mind.
Virginia (Ginny) Rhodes spoke on the topic of the theory of evolution in our anatomy/physiology class.
She prefaced her lecture with an explanation that she was a Christian and did not believe in the theory of evolution. She explained her faith in the biblical doctrine of creation before launching into the lecture.
I was not a biblical Christian at that time. I was certainly not an atheist, though. As Charles Spurgeon said, “Atheism is a strange thing. Even the devil never fell into that vice, for the devils believe and tremble (James 2:19).”
I did not know Mrs. Rhodes outside the context of the classroom. I do not know the depth of her faith, either. Her boldness in expressing her faith was appreciated, though.
I will mention a few other positive teachers from my school years.
Patricia’s face radiated happiness and joy. She had a penchant for outdoor cooking with her family and demonstrated some simple recipes to her students in extracurricular classes.
Steve, a newly-graduated history teacher, led the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). I was neither a biblical Christian nor an athlete, but I was aware of his involvement with the group.
Don taught his students how to play chess and showed his faith through charitable community activities.
Other teachers may have expressed faith, but I don’t remember them specifically.
I am appreciative of their contributions to our community.
Teachers from my past are not my main concern, though. Most of them were based. Their worldviews reflected an essentially Christian consensus, whether they were Christians or not.
The key word in the aforementioned remarks is based. Based people have beliefs that are grounded in reality.
Imagine a man that has broken through the ice in the middle of the lake. Rescuers are trained in techniques and have equipment to save the man. They have equipment and knowledge to perform this task.
Maintaining connection with the shore is one of the principles of ice rescue.
Maintaining connection with reality is essential to teaching others, too.
Christ said that the blind will lead the blind, and both will fall into the ditch, experiencing horrible consequences as a result of their false beliefs (Matthew 15:14).
The woke, while claiming to be enlightened (like every other member of every other cult) are blind leaders of the blind.
Their essential worldview is not grounded in reality. False worldviews have horrible consequences.
This is true whether the woke person is a public (government) school teacher or a woke minister wearing a diversity stole at the local place of worship.
By the way, if your minister, pastor, or priest wears a diversity stole and promotes LGBT beliefs and practices, you should leave the congregation and find a biblical church. He is a wolf in sheeps’ clothing that misrepresents the Word of God (Matthew 7:15).
Sadly, many mainline denominations (UMC, ELCA, PCUSA, TEC, UCC, MC-USA, COB, and several others) have left their founders’ orthodox Christian teachings. Their denominations have discarded biblical Christianity and have adopted the secular religion of wokeness, which, ironically, they describe as progress.
Many education professionals cannot be trusted to instruct students and to respect parental wishes in reference to politics and sexuality because their worldview is not based. It does not correspond with reality, the order of the world God created.
Most teachers aren’t deceived by the woke worldview. Often, they lack the courage to confront the system, though. The cost of non-compliance can mean the loss of their employment and loss of prestige in the education community.
Others are woke and consider themselves to be the enlightened ones in society.
Parents are viewed as the uneducated masses, incompetent to guide their children on matters of faith, morality and sexuality, similar to the Native American parents of the late 1800s.
Woke teachers flatter themselves with descriptions like “progressive”, viewing parents as Neanderthals who need to be enlightened.
Their superiority complex leads them to participate in the indoctrination of children into their race and sex ideologies, and to conceal the so-called social gender transition of children in the public school system.
These teachers have been exposed to Neo-Marxist theories like critical theory, intersectionality, and gender ideology through their academic training.
The Neo-Marxist worldview is the foundation of the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that are actively supported by education professionals, institutions and associations related to public (government) education.
I hope the woke revolution has been struck a fatal blow through the counter-revolution of the Trump administration.
I don’t think so, though. A lot more effort will be required to weed out this insidious worldview pervading the public (government) school system.
Personally, I am not a fan of public (government) education anymore due to the strong possibility of the government to use the system to create a docile, subdued population that is easily controlled.
Additionally, the secular religion of wokeness is the default religion of our country due to education professionals responding to the demands of Democrat leadership within the institutions associated with public education.
Teacher unions are the most blatant examples of this. The two largest teacher unions, National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT), donate heavily to Democrat political campaigns and liberal organizations, with virtually no contributions to Republican political campaigns and conservative organizations.
The Democrat party platform, including its views on wokeness and gender ideology, will be reflected in public school policies as a general rule. The influence may be camouflaged with academic language to hide the practical implications from parents and the community, but the influence is still there.
I believe school choice is the answer, and parochial schools should be funded with taxpayer dollars.
Taxpayer dollars should follow the child, whose parents select an education option aligning with their worldview, especially with respect to faith, morality, and sexuality.
Robert Sparkman
RELATED CONTENT
Author Joe Rigney, Fellow of Theology at New Saint Andrews College, discusses his recent book titled The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits with Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary of Louisville, Kentucky.
Joe’s book is available on Amazon.
Toxic empathy as described in his book impacts the public school systems and many other arenas of life. Well-meaning teachers tend to be subject to their emotions rather than reason when viewing matters related to wokeness and gender ideology.
Toxic empathy of teachers leads to great harm as woke teachers validate the delusions of their students in regards to gender ideology and perceived racial and sexual injustices. Using the ice rescuer analogy, the woke educator led by their deceptive and misinformed emotions jumps into the freezing water with the victim and perishes alongside them.
Allie Beth Stuckey, an insightful Christian commentator, authored a book on toxic empathy as well. It is titled Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion.
Allie Beth Stuckey’s book is available on Amazon.
She discusses toxic empathy and its dangers in this episode.
Voddie Baucham is one of the most articulate individuals in the Christian church when it comes to wokeness and education.
He and his wife have several children and have educated them through home schooling.
Ultimately, I do not believe public education is the best situation for the Christian child. He is known in Christian circles for this quote: ‘We cannot continue to send our children to Caesar for their education and be surprised when they come home as Romans.’
This is a letter to the editor I submitted to the local newspaper. It is a more condensed version of this blog post.
Concerning the Related Content section, I encourage everyone to evaluate the content carefully.
Some sources of information may reflect a libertarian and/or atheistic perspective. I may not agree with all of their opinions, but they offer some worthwhile comments on the topic under discussion.
Additionally, language used in the videos may be coarse and do not reflect my personal standards, particularly in regards to leftist protesters and rioters.
Feel free to offer your comments below. Respectful comments without expletives and personal attacks will be posted and I will respond to them.