[A Conservative Teacher] A Conservative Teacher is Refreshing to Students

[A Conservative Teacher]

Last week was parent-teacher conferences at my school and it occurred to me that the reason why other teachers, so many of whom are liberal, dread parent-teacher conferences is because it really has to be tough on them.

If a liberal parent approaches and talks with a liberal teacher, all they can have is a very short and shallow session where they thank the teacher for using their classroom to promote the same worldview that they promote at home- for using their classroom to push for no value system in children's personal lives and yet an all-powerful government controlling all their economic decisions. I'm sure these sorts of discussions about the evil rich or why it is important to talk about thinking about doing something for some disadvantaged group are light and easy enough.

But if a conservative parent approaches and talks with a liberal teacher, it has to be really hard on the teacher- I mean, how do you respond to a parent accusing you of polluting their child's mind with their false values or teaching your children wrong and incorrect information? I'm sure that these parents come in ready to tear into the teacher for doing a bad job at their job, and these liberal teachers know that they have been misusing their position- which is to teach children- to promote their worldviews, and so they have to play angry guilty defense. It's gotta be rough on them.

As a conservative teacher, conferences are rather easy for me. Both liberal and conservative parents appreciate the fact that I teach students critical thinking, writing skills, facts, data, have balanced and fair discussions, give every side equal time, and generally help prepare their children to be successful citizens in America. Parents usually feel me out in conferences, unsure whether or not I am just a liberal who is bad at pushing values at students and uncommonly good at teaching them, or some sort of rare and secretive conservative teacher.

Eventually, parents simply tell me how 'refreshing' it is for their students to take my class. That's the word I hear over and over at conferences- 'refreshing'. I wonder why they tell me this? Refreshing means to reinvigorate someone or to stimulate them because it is new or different. That's an odd way to describe my class, don't you think?

The reason why parents tell me that my class is refreshing is that because after years of their students struggling with the judgement and criticism and values pushed on them by liberal teachers, it is new or different or reinvigorating for them to simply be in a class which doesn't do these things. Students spend their time in my classroom engaged in fair and balanced discussion, lectures and video's designed to elaborate and expand on what they read in the textbook, themes which challenge them from the right and left and up and down, random and wild bias on my part that keeps them guessing and challenged with their own views, essay writing and reflection on their essays, and question and answer periods that enlighten and inform.

For at least my class at least, students can take a break from the constant and purposeful assault that liberal and leftist teachers engage on their value system and beliefs, and they can simply focus on learning. It has to be refreshing to them, I imagine, being in a safe intellectual space after the bullying that they have to undergo for twelve years of public school dominated by communist and fascist leftist teachers.

Conferences are therefore easy for me and for any conservative teacher, because parents simply want to tell us how refreshing our class is and how much their child is learning, and it doesn't matter if they are conservative or liberal. But for liberals, it has to be tough.

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Posted By A Conservative Teacher to A Conservative Teacher at 5/06/2013 02:04:00 PM