I am a bit masochistic. I cannot help but read the comments whenever local news publishes something political on social networks – especially when it is linked to public education.
I have spent most of my life building a career as a public educator who categorically embraces and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion, and I live in Florida, where public education is very in class and our goblin poute and petulant of a governor made the class the front line of his cultural war.
In recent years, whenever I read the comments section of these stories, there are dozens of people from Maga Hurlant in chorus on the evil liberal teachers who endocal children with transgender vegan socialism.
“Their teaching (sic) is (sic) Kids CRT (critical theory of the race)!” insists on a commentator. “They want white children to feel guilty of their race!” Cry another. They go again and again – affirming, commissioning and broadcasting their harmful grievances.
And almost nothing that they claim is true.
Although I have been in public higher education now, I was a public high school teacher for more than a decade. I worked in three radically different schools in three radically different counties. Most of my social circle is made up of teachers. If the indoctrination occurred on a large scale, I would know it.
It just doesn't happen.
Almost all the teachers I have ever met (and this number is in the hundreds raised at this stage) is extremely careful not to discuss politics or religion at school-even with other adults, even in the relative intimacy of the pause room, even in head-to-head in their own classrooms during lunch or planning. It is a simple question of self-preservation-if only one student heard you say: “God, I hate Governor Ron Desantis”, they told their friends, these friends would transmit it, and at the end of the day, you would be in the director of the director explaining that no, you do not, in fact, have a tattoo of “fuck of étantis” on your theater.
There are exceptions, of course. During the 13 years that I spent teaching high school, a handful of teachers were openly political. I helped an end of college teacher to install his class in 2014 when he asked me: “Can you believe that they let these Muslim children carry their habits (sic) in class?” It was within 15 minutes of meeting for the first time.
“I suppose that the dress code does not apply to them. I do not know why we look at the rules,” he continued. He didn't know if I was a Muslim. He also did not know if I was an immigrant – even if I am obviously Hispanic – before he reached a diatribe on “The Esol Kids”, aka students in an English program for other languages, which was “probably illegal”.
Another teacher with whom I worked at least had the patience to make his way to vocal fanaticism. He started slowly, speaking of children with “crazy hair colors”, and later, “The Alphabet Kids”, his way of labeling students who identified as LGBTQ +. In a few weeks, he had started to complain about the pronouns “how much”. “They can be called as they want,” he said, “don't expect what I also play the alleged.”
These two cases are essentially the extent of educators expressing their personal beliefs at work that I have ever encountered. Most teachers simply do not want to risk termination by speaking of potentially controversial subjects at work. To date, apart from the teachers with whom I got friends and with whom I spoke outside of work, I do not know the political or religious affiliation of almost all my former colleagues. Teachers are also opposed to the potentially end of career conflict.
Of course, it is my experience with teachers who interact with other teachers. But what about the class? I couldn't know what's going on in all the other courses while I am busy teaching mine, right?
Fake.
Students speak a lot About what their teachers do and say – and they particularly like to focus on bad things. Do some rumors, hearsay or even deliberate lies? Of course. But when you hear the same things about the same teachers week after week, year after year, different students – including trust -free students – you learn to separate the facts from fiction.
The students spoke to me exactly two cases of deliberate indoctrination in class. The greatest recidivist was an unpretentious social studies teacher. Socially, it was reserved but kind, infallibly courteous and completely non -conflict. However, in her class, she concentrated intensely on the war of northern aggression and the idea that it was based on “rights of states”, but specifically not slavery. Another offender – the one I mentioned earlier – systematically ridiculed the idea of pronouns and gender identity in class, refusing to recognize the gender identity of students. He finally lost his position because of this behavior.
Despite the way it may seem, I do not honestly pretend that the dozens of conservative teachers indoct our students in class. During my 13 years of personal observation and dozens of discussions (apart from work) with teaching friends, these are the only two cases that I met personally. The fact that these two teachers are held on the right seems purely fortuitous. The biggest point to remember is that, like electoral fraud in person, political indoctrination in public schools is incredibly rare.
And there is a good reason why it is so rare … and that could honestly shock you. This is because almost all teachers spend each ounce of their energy and patience by trying to bring their students to read a single paragraph without looking at their phones. They are too busy trying to bring students to finish a single mathematics problem without saying: “It's too difficult.” To write a single trial without using Chatgpt. To transform a single assignment in time. And it was at this point that they did not revise their course plans to align themselves with the new standards based on data based on state evidence which are guaranteed to promote control and cultivate a state of growth this time. (Note: these will be considered outdated and obsolete in the two to four years, and replaced by equal standards, which will be functionally indistinguishable.) These revisions, of course, must be scheduled around their discussions on student data, individualized education program meetings, professional learning communities, parents' conferences, morning service services, service, which are still used).
Of course, rational people know that there is no class indoctrination in class, but “the Liberal Teacher Endoctrine your Children ”has been a favorite right -wing coil for at least as long as I have been alive – part of a fight of several decades against public education that so many people have learned the alarm – and now I fear that it is too late.
Too many voters believed that schools cut the genitals of children during recess. Too many voters thought schools litter liter for children who identify themselves like cats. Too many voters thought that teachers promote feelings about the facts.
The most gullible of us voted for Donald Trump (he is a businessman, after all!), And now the Ministry of Education is dead, graduate schools can no longer afford to bring the next generation of scientists, doctors, engineers, lawyers and journalists, medium and middle -class people and their local funds that have been slipped, public schools and public funds Publics and the packages of education take place of madness and state and state and state, public funds are work schools on the packages of madness and the state. “Schools” business charter.
The generation of children and young adults whose education was already strongly disrupted by the pandemic is now found with post -secondary options much less, much less worse than any generation before them in the modern era. And this is outside the increase in unemployment, the increase in inflation and a housing market which is scandalously unaffordable.
But hey, at least the eggs are cheap now.
Oh, wait …
Marco Vannerra is the pseudonym of a professional educator and defender of public schools. He specializes in the creation of relevant mathematics and accessible to poorly served communities in Florida.
This article originally appeared on Huffpost in April 2025.
