The push to go along with the Officially-Supported Group Think has long been a problem in schools. Unlike the schools of my childhood, today's schools demonize one side, and not-so-subtly nudge students toward not-always-voluntary support of the Leftist causes.
Kids are vulnerable to being coerced to going along with 'the group'. At every age, their desire to make friends and fit in is usually greater than their willingness to stand up against pressure. It doesn't have to use actual force, or threats.
Just the knowledge that they will be socially isolated is enough to get almost all the kids to buckle under, and voice support they may not believe. At the very least, they are almost sure to be silent.
And, as Saint Thomas More is reported to have said, "Silence gives consent."
In my career, I've known few kids to be willing to stand up to group pressure to conform. One of them, a Junior, was in an Honors Chemistry class in 2016. He put stickers on his school-issued laptop supporting Trump (most kids decorated their laptops; that made it easy to distinguish yours from all the others). He was vocal, and eloquent, about his reasons for supporting him.
The kids were dismissive; they KNEW that HRC was going to Crush Trump.
Until the day after the election, when they sat, stunned at the loss.
The kid was nice about it. He didn't gloat at their defeat. He just enjoyed the sweet smell of victory.
But, he was a rare one. Kids who will stand against the crowd are few. Funnily, it's the children of the Elite who are less likely to buck the crowd; the Deplorables have nothing to lose by holding to their principles.
The Left is likely using this time, before school starts, to furiously compose their little modules and resource materials, to supplement the existing curriculum in schools.
I found this site, that gets specific about the tactics used by the street fighters in Minneapolis in the last week, that allowed them to be successful in taking over the police station. The leaders of this revolution are trained, experienced, and ready for the job. All they needed was the shock troops, which the Black community was kind enough to provide them with.
People, particularly the more thoughtful ones, are beginning to see that the situation is not just another "riot in the ghetto while the sun shines" same-as-usual outbreak. This is war. This is revolution.
And, unless the local governments get off their butts, the Leftist may well succeed, at least in the cities.
Most Jews in my shul are Democrats. Gag me. Most of the kids are too. Mine are different.
ReplyDeleteMy older one "got into it" with someone in a discussion about politics, defending Trump. My younger one has said "I'm so scared Trump is going to lose". Part of this is my use, daily, of driving them to school to innoculate them with lessons from me, so that they don't get blindsided by things they hear at school.
E.g., transgenderism. I've talked about men and women who have mental problems and take shots (NOOOOO, not SHOTS!) to change themselves, who have surgery to cut things up "down there" so they look like they've switched. And so on. They both think this is disgusting now.
I've discussed Socialism and how it MURDERED over 100 million people. How Socialists "starved 1/3 of mommy's people - the Kazakhs - to death".
And so on.
Gonna be interesting when I get a call from the school that the older one shouted out in class "climate change is a fake"! :D
"Unlike the schools of my childhood, today's schools demonize one side, and not-so-subtly nudge students toward not-always-voluntary support of the Leftist causes."
ReplyDeleteIf you read John Taylor Gatto's "Underground History of American Education" you will find that indoctrination and control have ALWAYS been the true reasons state schooling exists. You're a Catholic, right? Parochial schools came into existence because Catholics in the 19th century were having none of that - they wanted to escape that indoctrination.
And over at City Journal:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.city-journal.org/rise-of-woke-schools
If there's a silver lining to this, a lot of "sleeping giant" parents are getting a crude and alarming wake-up call to what's happening in the schools.
Thanks for all the feedback, and the link.
ReplyDelete