Despite Democrats’ push for remote learning this fall, some public school teachers have concerns. Not because they’re worried about the quality of education children will receive, but because they don’t want parents to find out about the radical progressive agenda they’ve been pushing for years.
In a series of tweets on Saturday, a Philadelphia teacher, author, and columnist named Matthew R. Kay expressed anxiety about teachers’ ability to effectively accomplish their “equality/inclusion work” over Zoom calls when they can’t be sure who is overhearing them. The thread has since been hidden but was captured by Corey DeAngelis, director of school choice at the Reason Foundation.
“How much have students depended on the (somewhat) secure barriers of our physical classrooms to encourage vulnerability?” Kay asks. “How many of us have installed some version of ‘what happens here stay here’ to help this?”
Kay continues to outline his concerns about the “damage” that parents can do in “honest conversations about gender/sexuality.” While Kay says he is mainly concerned about conservative parents, he adds that those on the left can be harmful as well.
“If we are engaged in the messy work of destabilizing a kids [sic] racism or homophobia or transphobia - how much do we want their classmates' parents piling on?” he wonders.
Here is the full thread pic.twitter.com/88vEFTTZ6K
— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) August 9, 2020
One teacher replying to Kay concurred, calling parents "dangerous."
— MechÆViking Does Apocalypse (@CybernetxViking) August 9, 2020
But many more took to Twitter to express outrage over the comments.
Here, Matthew shares his fear that virtual learning may mean conservative parents hinder teachers from indoctrinating their kids with values they don’t agree with. He admits that teachers would prefer to do so without parents knowing. PSA: Other people’s kids don’t belong to you. https://t.co/BEXjIHfLjB
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) August 9, 2020
Translation: We can’t brainwash your kids with adults watching. https://t.co/LoWSBXTgDY
— AZSuburbVoter (@noprezzie2012) August 9, 2020
No teacher should be installing a “what happens here stays here” policy. I think we can ALL agree on that. https://t.co/xhFm8c9I1y
— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) August 9, 2020
Conservatives have been sounding the alarm about public school indoctrination for years. Kay’s unwitting admission not only shows that these concerns are warranted but demonstrates just how entitled many teachers have become to indoctrinating other people’s children.
Ironically, Kay’s sentiments come even as teachers across the country protest a return to in-person instruction, citing COVID-19 concerns. In Arizona, a teachers’ union has planned a "death march" complete with gravestone-shaped signs bearing epitaphs blaming the governor for sacrificing them to the pandemic. After New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that schools would reopen in the fall, teachers pushed back, calling for remote classes and asking the governor how many teachers was planning to “kill.” And in Washington, D.C., public school teachers piled "body bags" outside administrative offices to protest returning to work.
But in light of Kay’s Twitter thread, closed public schools might not be such a loss after all. As DeAngelis points out, the rant highlights the need for school choice more than ever. Parents — not government employees — have the right and duty to educate their children in accordance with their values, whether that's through private school, parochial school, charter school, or homeschool.
Kay said the quiet part out loud. That should be all parents need to know to break the left’s education monopoly once and for all.