Agreed. It's even worse than that, though. Most of the teachers I know are conservative leaning but are not politically active, paying only cursory attention to politics, like most people. The problem comes in with textbooks that promote, usually in a subtle way, a leftist version of history, etc., even finding it's way into word problems in math texts. I was going to ask you what state you live in, as it would not be surprising to see teachers actively pushing a leftist agenda in a blue state. The textbooks, however, are different; you'll find that the texts are generally left-leaning even in red states. To me, this is really where the danger lies. Best wishes to you and your daughter.

Margie: "But he did not generalize them. He said most demonstrators, with the exception of a few like this guy, were acting in a decent way and simply trying to get their views across." You're talking about the reporter for FOX; I was talking about Hengler. I apologize if I had not made that clear enough. I thought the FOX reporter was more than fair. As for comparing the U.S. to other countries, from what I've seen, many other countries start tracking their students early on. Students who don't perform well academically don't attend a university, don't go the same high schools as those who do perform well academically, etc. The benefit here is that at any time, if you put in the effort, you can change the course you are on. ...

Ress, normally I would, but the left accuses us of being against public school teachers in general; why give them any ammunition? Hengler was either overzealous, sloppy, or actually does view all public school teachers the same way. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that it's not the latter, but I feel it's still worth calling him out on. In my opinion, pundits on the right have gotten into a bad habit of taking the actions of the far left and generalizing them.

Mr. Hengler, you're better than this. Yes the man repeatedly shouting "Fox lies!" over and over like some sort of rabid metronome is an idiot of epic proportions, but this line is just wrong: "Remember, if your kids attend a public school, this man teachers [sic] your kids! But I'm sure he has no agenda and tolerates all points of view from his students." By saying this, you intimate that this guy is every teacher. Our side need not resort to such tactics; this guy does a phenomenal job of making his own side look bad. Most students have decent teachers that their parents are happy with. I do feel bad for the parents who have kids in this man's class; hopefully he teaches something fairly benign, like woodshop. In any event,...

http://scottthong.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/judges-11-debunking-the-myth-that-jephthah-burns-his-daughter-as-a-human-sacrifice-to-god/ http://ecclesia.org/truth/child.html

Great quote!

Ad Hominem.

Bush got his B.A. at Yale and his M.B.A. at Harvard.

Appeal to Ridicule

Ad Hominem