SCRIPTURE: Not many [of you] should become teachers [serving in an official teaching capacity], my brothers and sisters, for you know that we [who are teachers] will be judged by a higher standard [because we have assumed greater accountability and more condemnation if we teach incorrectly]. James 3:1 AMP
QUOTE: “At the very least, teachers ought to demonstrate they are good at their jobs before deserving disproportionate praise (or any praise). Is there anything more pernicious than a bad teacher? How about a public school system filled with bad teachers? We ought to examine empirical data and draw conclusions about the performance of the teaching industry over the last few decades. We might discover that the way we have lionized teachers bears no proportion to the amount of praise the industry deserves. If the teaching industry is not to blame for how our children have been educated, then what is? – B.L. Hahn, The Federalist, July 10, 2023 read entire post
“Education in the Third Reich served to indoctrinate students with the National Socialist world view. …After 1933, the Nazi regime purged the public school system of teachers deemed to be Jews or to be “politically unreliable.” Most educators, however, remained in their posts and joined the National Socialist Teachers League. 97% of all public school teachers, some 300,000 persons, had joined the League by 1936. In fact, teachers joined the Nazi Party in greater numbers than any other profession. … Schools played an important role in spreading Nazi ideas to German youth. While censors removed some books from the classroom, German educators introduced new textbooks that taught students love for Hitler, obedience to state authority, militarism, racism, and antisemitism.”
From the American Holocaust Museum website, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/question/what-conditions-and-ideas-made-the-holocaust-possible
THOUGHT: As I write this, I am preparing to teach a women’s Bible study on the life of Joseph. So I don’t write lightly (and almost never do) or critically, as if I can point a finger. I have been a part of what has happened to the education sector in this country. I saw evidence of its corruption when my daughters were in middle and high school, but I kept quiet. What I saw made me fearful. I’d like to undo that, but I can’t. What I can do, and what you can do, is wade into the morass and begin to teach what is good and right and true and pure. The men and women of our churches need it, our children need it, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren need it.
I am grateful for those who’ve held those values all along, but here are a few comments about those who have not. In a direct correlation between school shutdowns and damage to children during Covid, the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal updated their original commentary on June 23. It was titled, “The Main Covid Lockdown Casualties: Children. Suicide and homicide rates for young people hit a 20-year high.” It was based on data from the CDC, whose own website reports that in 2021, “Suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-14 and 20-34.” I don’t know about the rest of the CDC stats because that organization makes them too hard to find — but that’s why my post is so late this morning, because I tried.
The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2011-2021, stated, “In 2021, 42% of high school students felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row that they stopped doing their usual activities. Female students were more likely than male students to experience persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Hispanic and multiracial students were more likely than Asian, Black, and White students to experience persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. LGBQ+ students and students who had any same-sex partners were more likely than their peers to experience persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.”
In short, the system desperately wants to blame problems among youth on something besides their own systems and policies. Consider for a moment, what was “normal” about 2020 or 2021 for the youth of our country? And if the powers that be see the outcomes of lock downs and other educational policies on minorities, why are they so quick to blame it on systemic racism, rather than acknowledge the brokenness in our educational system? Finally, why do they persist in fueling the very activity that causes damage to young people — why is normalization of abnormal behavior their platform when it is clearly hurting kids? Worth thinking about.
On June 21, 2023, the Editorial Board of the New York Post wrote this, “In its final release of results from last year’s exams, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), aka ‘the Nation’s Report Card,’ reveals that 13-year-olds’ understanding of math dropped to levels unseen since the 1990s, while their reading comprehension plummeted to 1971 levels. That is, today’s adolescents are doing worse than their parents in math and worse than their grandparents in reading.”
But what does the American Federation of Teachers have to say? Well, mostly ‘thank you’ for the $60 billion they got from the 2020 CARES Act and the $122 billion from the American Rescue Plan. Oh, and their president, Randi Weingarten, who relentlessly pushed for school closures, just got named to the Department of Homeland Security’s School Safety Advisory Committee.
What else is there to say? If you’re a teacher, go teach. Teach your children at home. Stand against those who would ask you to harm your students with toxic content or policy. Is a job really worth the value of your soul or the souls of your children? Trust Scripture that, “we [who are teachers] will be judged by a higher standard [because we have assumed greater accountability and more condemnation if we teach incorrectly].
SONG: I Shall Not Want https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12NMGC5YjYY
PRAYER: Oh God, deliver us from evil… “from the love of my own comfort / from a fear of having nothing / from a life of worldly passion, deliver me oh God.” (see song above).
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