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Critical Thinking And Protecting Children – Two Very Different Perspectives

This morning I read an opinion piece in a local internet news media outlet, The Voice, called, “As reality stars take center stage in Trump cabinet, Oklahomans will have to think critically“.

It was written by Dr. John Thompson, a writer/researcher, education activist and former classroom teacher from Oklahoma whom I met during the Common Core debacle back in the 20-teens. Thompson and I heartily agreed on the problems with Common Core and we still agree on the pitfalls of standardized testing, but his opinion piece highlighted our differences in a pretty striking way.

Thompson’s thesis is that because Trump was once a reality TV star and his picks of Linda McMahon (Department of Education), Dr. Mehmet Oz (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), Sean Duffy (Secretary of Transportation), and Pete Hegseth (Defense Secretary), all have had some kind of media profile (mainly FOX news), everyone had better be very careful and suss out everything these people say for truthfulness and accuracy because media influencers are so influential to people – especially young people.

Okay. First; the world would be a much better – and saner – place if people would look at policies instead of personalities as a rule. So yeah, everyone should ALWAYS think critically about what people say to them, what they see in the media, or what a celebrity or social media influencer puts out on their ‘channels’. I’ll even argue that those with some kind of power over our lives – like elected and appointed members of government (no matter their party affiliation) – should be even more highly scrutinized on a regular basis.

But here’s where Thompson and I diverge.

I don’t remember reading cries for “critical thinking needed” by Thompson – or any Democrats for that matter (other than maybe Tulsi Gabbard) – during the COVID years, or over January 6th. Where was this critical thinking notion when people with opinions different than those of the ‘media’ were literally shut out of all discussion in any forum on these topics while being called names like “COVID deniers”, “misinformation spreaders” or, lest we forget, “insurrectionists”? In fact, Thompson himself – after lecturing us about the evils of parroting – actually parrots PBS on Oz in his piece. Though not actively using the pejorative “COVID denier”, he totally quoted a section relating to his medical treatment protocol preference for the disease – the one not preferred by the media. Was that decision critically thought out?

But then, where is any kind of reasonable discussion or critical thinking surrounding the “facts” of climate change? There are definitely two sides in this discussion, but only one which is widely fed to kids on their cell phones and through the media on a constant basis and also through curricula and testing, yet those of us with differing scientific viewpoints are called names like “climate deniers”? At what point do I find the critical thinking part of the influencing part here?

Does no one remember the endless commercials run in the media endorsing Kamala Harris run by EVERY Avenger, or the group of Hollywood B-listers and old guys who called themselves “White Guys For Harris” (as though if anyone on the ‘other side’ of the isle would get away with saying something like that)? What about the Kamala Harris endorsement by EVERYONE’S favorite “influencer” Taylor Swift – gosh, I’ll bet that didn’t influence one young person at all. I wonder how many classrooms had teachers leading their students through a critical thinking critique of her announcement, or any of the others?

But, since Thompson was specific in his comments toward Trump cabinet picks, let’s turn our attention to a few of Biden’s.

What about Biden pick Deanne Criswell (head of FEMA) who spent days in front of Congress trying to assure them that not ALL her hires were denying Trump supporters of FEMA assistance during times of crises? Many of the displaced were families with children, but I’m sure it’s okay to leave ‘Trump children’ cold, starving and covered in mud, right? They don’t deserve protecting?

And what about Rachel Lavine – the transgendered person second in command of Biden’s HHS who is being sued by a medical watchdog group for pressuring an international organization into lowering the age at which children could have gender reassignment surgery. So how does this protect children again, knowing that many adults eventually seek to be regendered?

Or what about Sam Brinton (a Biden-appointed Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition) who had no real experience for the role, and spent a lot of time as a social media influencer wearing beautiful dresses only to be arrested for stealing some of those designer dresses from a suitcase at an airport – only to be arrested twice more for the same offense. What’s the critical thinking strategy there? But then I’m sure there were no children being influenced by Sam Brinton on social media.

Clearly, there’s a big difference in the way Dr. Thompson and I see the world.

In fact, Thompson’s article adjuring us to be more mindful of developing critical thinking in young people as Trump takes office, doesn’t apparently concern the changes President Biden made to Title 9 legislation that effect Oklahoma children.

Allowing boys to use girl’s bathrooms at school has caused at least one girl to be injured in Edmond and countless other girls to feel unsafe doing the one thing they physically can’t wait to do at home. Girls (those who have XX chromosomes) being forced to compete against boys (those who have XY chromosomes) who think they are girls, have crushed the dreams of countless high school girls. How does any of that protect young people – especially young women? But what about the #metoo movement? What about ‘girl power’? Aren’t we supposed to be protecting kids – girls – women’s rights? How am I missing the critical thinking part here?

People are as different as their opinions. Either we’re going to be okay with that or we’re not, but whatever standard we choose has to apply to everyone, or no one. Students can’t develop critical thinking until BOTH sides of an issue are heard, yet Dr. Thompson seems to believe that only one side really merits critical thinking police.

I’m very classically liberal in my views on speech – people should be able to say what they think, in any forum they want to say it, whether I like it or not.

You may not like Trump, but those who believe in censorship, those who believe that critical thinking only applies to someone else’s candidate or issue, are those who need to be thanked for his election. When the other side is shut out of the discussion, you’ll find that the polls will swell with those who are sick of being silenced. This is why balance – especially in media – is important. The only thing many of us have are our opinions and once those don’t count, all bets are off.

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Guest Post: Dove Charter Schools Manipulate Test Scores And More, While Ryan Walters Practices Political Pandering

Guest Post by Becky Pelham, PhD

Dear Jenni and Michael,

Thank you for rerunning my October 2 podcast episode (11.27.24). Since our initial discussion, I’ve gained additional insights that I believe are critical for your audience to understand the depth of the challenges in Oklahoma’s education system.

Following the podcast, I was provided with extensive evidence tying Dove Schools in Oklahoma to the Gulen movement, a network with troubling ties to questionable financial practices and allegations of supporting terrorism. While I had previously noticed smaller concerns, such as H-1B visa abuse and inadequate instruction, the broader picture is far more alarming:

  • H-1B Visa Exploitation: Dove Schools heavily rely on foreign hires rather than qualified local teachers, mirroring practices seen in other Gulen-affiliated schools. These teachers are often expected to “donate” portions of their salary back to the foundation, with reports indicating up to 40% of their paychecks being funneled back.
  • Cosmos Foundation Connections: Financial ties to this Gulenist organization suggest that Oklahoma taxpayer dollars are being redirected to entities with global political motives.
  • Curricular and Cultural Alignments: Participation in events like the Turkish Olympiads and field trips to Raindrop Turkish House, both Gulen-affiliated activities, further demonstrate misplaced priorities that detract from meaningful education for students.

Despite raising these concerns with Brian Shellem and the Oklahoma Charter School Board, their focus remains primarily on the St. Isidore Catholic Charter School initiative. While the intersection of church and state warrants scrutiny, this singular focus has allowed significant issues in other areas to persist unchecked.

The approval of private school vouchers last year already opened the door for families to choose religious education on their own terms. If proponents of St. Isidore wish to create an online school teaching Catholic doctrine, the solution is straightforward: establish it as a private school. There are many schools operating successfully under that model, free to teach as they wish without taxpayer entanglement.

Yet here we are, with the Charter School Board using taxpayer dollars to fight a legal battle that has already failed in Oklahoma’s courts. The push for a federal Supreme Court ruling appears motivated by the current Court’s sympathy toward religious institutions, but this comes at a cost. Resources and energy are being wasted, while the failures of virtual charter schools remain unaddressed.

Take DOVE Schools, for example—a network openly funneling taxpayer dollars meant for education into a global organization tied to terrorism and foreign political agendas. Their ties to the Gulen movement—including misuse of H-1B visas, financial connections to the Cosmos Foundation, and participation in Gulenist cultural events—are well-documented and deeply troubling. The state school boards know, Ryan Walters knows, Kevin Stitt knows, and a majority of the Senate and House know. These schools operate under the guise of education while delivering substandard instruction and contributing to a larger global agenda.

And what is Ryan Walters doing? Instead of addressing these glaring issues, he panders to political bases with symbolic gestures like distributing Bibles in schools, ignoring the fact that 3 out of 4 Oklahoma students cannot read proficiently. He continues to turn a blind eye to DOVE Schools’ questionable practices, perhaps because their success helps pave the way for his self-serving agenda with St. Isidore. This mismanagement of priorities erodes Oklahoma’s already fragile education system and betrays the trust of both taxpayers and students.

Which is sad, because he continually trumpets that Trump was given a mandate, while ignoring the fact that Ryan Walters was given a mandate by the people of Oklahoma to fix our schools. Instead of addressing the glaring issues plaguing our education system—such as literacy rates, teacher shortages, and classroom resources—he’s chosen to focus on superficial initiatives like distributing Bibles to classrooms and touting his stance on cultural and political flashpoints. Meanwhile, he’s manipulating test scores by adjusting benchmarks and lowering standards, ensuring they’ll look artificially improved next year. This will allow him to present a façade of progress as he likely pivots toward higher political ambitions. These tactics do nothing to help the students who are falling behind, the teachers who are leaving the profession in droves, or the schools struggling to provide quality education. It’s deeply disappointing to see that, in terms of improving academic success, he has actually done worse than Joy Hofmeister.

Thank you again for the opportunity to share these updates. The work you’re doing at ROPE is invaluable in exposing these systemic failures and pushing for meaningful change.

Sincerely,
Rebecca Pellam, Ed.D.

Editor’s note: While on the podcast (links in the opening sentence above), Becky showed how Dove Charter Academy was manipulating test scores by refusing to give state tests to certain individuals in order to improve their scores.

Additionally, while Dr. Pellam provided no research to back up her claims about Dove Charter Academy and the Gulen movement, all one has to do is internet search the terms “Gulen charter schools” to find NUMEROUS pieces of information. Below are a few places to start.

Gulen Schools: One of America’s Largest and Most Controversial CMOs

Turkish Gülen Schools in America: Interactive Map and More

U.S. charter schools tied to powerful Turkish imam

What is the Gulen Movement and why is it dangerous for America?

120 American Charter Schools and One Secretive Turkish Cleric

Gulen Schools

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Oklahoma Must Have A Pass The Trash Law To Protect Public School Students

Thursday, November 21st, Michael and I had V1SUT Vantage author, Mary, on with us again, this time to talk about Dr. Aaron Espolt, the Superintendent of Shawnee Public Schools (SPS).

The same Shawnee Public Schools where coach Ron Arthur was sentenced to 5 years in prison for molesting a student his senior year of high school, though allegations indicated that there were multiple victims over multiple years and districts.

Mary took us through her latest V1SUT Vantage substack article about Dr. Espolt – the current superintendent of SPS and how he has a record of alleged sexual misconduct during his time at Little Axe PS and Boone-Apache PS and that he has been employed with 7 districts in Oklahoma during his career so far.

In the video below, Mary talks about “pass the trash laws” – laws that prevent school districts from hiring employees at any level – who have had a history of sexual misconduct allegations at a previous employer. Oklahoma does not have a pass the trash law.

In the video below, Mary talks about Shawnee Public Schools and the odd circumstances under which Dr. Espolt came to Shawnee and some of the circumstances surrounding his employment.

The full live video, which you can find on our YouTube and Rumble channels has much more information! Check that out when you have time! Also, like share and subscribe to our channels! The more these videos are shared, the greater the chances that something will be done about these issues! Pass them on to your legislator as well!

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Homeschoolers Want End To Educational Tax Credit

Long-time homeschoolers Jana Belcher of Oklahoma Constitutional Home Educators Alliance and homeschool dad, Robert Scott, joined Michael and I to talk about homeschooling in Oklahoma.

In the clip below, our guests tell us what homeschooling is and why it’s important for children and families.

As we said numerous times during the podcast – what the government funds, the government will control and that alone is why many homeschooling families want lawmakers to remove homeschoolers from the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit passed this last session.

In the clip below, Jana and Robert talk about why this tax credit is so harmful to the freedom homeschooling families in Oklahoma enjoy now and have enjoyed since statehood – a greater level of freedom, in fact, than most, if not all states.

For those of you interested in helping Oklahoma homeschoolers get out of the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit, if you would like to sign a petition that will be taken and presented to lawmakers next session, please reach out to Andrea Scott on Facebook. The petition has to be signed in person, so she – or another volunteer – will have to meet you to sign it.

You can also visit the Oklahoma Coalition To Protect Constitutional Homeschooling on Facebook as well. There, you can get more information on this effort and get plugged into the community of homeschoolers who want to protect Oklahoma’s history of ZERO regulation for Oklahoma homeschoolers.

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Trump’s Is A Win AGAINST Authoritarian Government, But Only “If can keep it”

What a decisive victory for Trump, for the United States and for those of us who detest authoritarian government – as in Marxism, Communism or any other -ism. I’m extremely happy. I was at the point of believing that either America had become what the -isms have tried to make it since President Obama, or that Americans had just given up and jumped ahead into the acceptance stage of grief. Fortunately, it’s not over ’till it’s over and it’s apparently not over for now.

However, let me play your mom for just a bit:

1. Let’s go over the MOST IMPORTANT aspect of the election again. Americans DO NOT WANT COMMUNISM, MARXISM, or any other -ISM to replace INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY. THAT IS YUGE. They may not have gone into the voting booth knowing exactly what was causing their pain, but they knew enough to know that it was somehow coming from the Democrats. They may not even have thought of ‘personal liberty’ as an issue, but they knew they were becoming less and less free and that they had felt less confined under the 45th President.

2. Americans absolutely got what happened with the last election and were vigilant to SEEK OUT AND STOP voter manipulation to the best of their ability. There were MILLIONS of eyes trained on this election all the way through, across nearly every county in every state. This, again, is YUGE. Unfortunately, we’ve still got election laws that need to be changed in Oklahoma – as well as other states – and we can’t neglect continuously lobbying our legislature for those. More than anything, our country must go back to the Constitutional ONE DAY of voting, period, with absentee ballots used ONLY for those voters overseas, incapacitated and the military. That HAS to happen before 2028 is even a glimmer in Vance’s Presidential campaign.

NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS

3. Oklahoma voters didn’t turn out ONE SINGLE DISTRICT JUDGE. This means to me that while Oklahomans showed up to vote for Trump, they were not educated enough about the importance of our judiciary to study up on the District Judges – and this election, there was plenty of info out there to share. It either didn’t get shared widely enough, or people didn’t care enough to become educated. District judges who rule on ideology and don’t follow the Constitution make decisions that make a difference in the lives of every day Oklahomans for the worst. Yes, Trump may be in the White House, but if you have to go to court and a District Judge doesn’t provide justice in your case according to the law, you’re not going to be happy.

Why do I use the word ignorant? Because our public schools DO NOT TEACH THE CONSTITUTION OR CIVICS by and large. The only reason I know any civics or Constitution is because I TAUGHT MYSELF. What 18-year-old is going to think, “I don’t know how our government works. I think I’ll teach myself!”? I’ve homeschooled numerous of these and mine have been a tough sell!

4. Same exact thing for the Supreme Court justices. Advertising for and against was probably half and half – maybe more toward retention I’ll have to crunch the numbers – and people (accidentally, I think) voted out the oldest judge of the three by a margin of a few thousand votes. Again, this indicates to me that people weren’t informed, they were simply listening to the ads that resonated with them the most, not really casting an educated vote.

5. Oklahoma County was almost exactly half and half for and against Trump and several of our county Republican candidates just barely squeaked by with wins, well-indicating that the largest center of population in Oklahoma ISN’T RED. Let that sink in a minute. Where is all policy for the state made? Where is the largest power center in the state?

SO WHAT’S THE TAKEAWAY HERE?

I was very active during the 2010 Red Wave. For those who don’t remember, President Obama, elected in 2008, began signing Executive Orders like – well there wasn’t much of a previous comparison – but certainly the way his Marxist handlers wanted him to. He pushed ObamaCare, he pushed Education Reform (including Common Core), he increased taxes and more. People were mainly incensed about the country having socialized medicine and went to the polls during the mid-term to vote like their hair was on fire, for anyone with an ‘R’ behind their name who promised to stop Obamacare.

What happened?

Nothing. Not. A. Thing. The Republicans – including our then-Congresswoman Mary Fallin – all got elected, went up to the nation’s capitol, bloviated a lot about how they’d stop Obamacare AND DIDN’T! They totally let the American people down on their promises which jaded American voters for at least a decade.

So please, you simply CAN’T believe that Republicans – including Trump – have the keys to proper Constitutional governance. It’s WE THE PEOPLE that hold those keys and when we neglect to use them by demanding accountability from our elected representation for our voices or we’ll vote them out, we get what we’ve had in the recent past.

So, instead of going to bed tonight and sleeping like a rock thinking that Trump’s gonna “fix” the last 50 years of disastrous government overgrowth, make THIS the election the one that causes you to become involved in your LOCAL government and schools. Make THIS the election that you educate yourself about Federal and Local GOVERNMENT and how they are SUPPOSED. Get out and meet your elected officials, keep up with organizations keeping up with legislation and lobby them on important bills on your own behalf. I guarantee you paid lobbyists, the Chamber of Commerce and large corporations/companies are doing that and those folks ARE NOT FOR THE PEOPLE, they’re for the BOTTOM LINE! Take back your rightful place as citizen lobbyist as soon as the legislature opens in February.

Pay attention to organizations out there like ROPE2.org who are telling it like it’s actually happening – even when the Republicans are doing it!

And remember – our public K-12 schools and our colleges and universities are producing little leftists as fast as they can. REALIZE: IF YOU DON’T CHANGE THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS – or if you don’t remove your children from the system and homeschool with an emphasis on American National Government as provided by the Founders of this country – we will continue to be subjected to the nonsense and political upheaval we’ve had in America for the last 20 years.

You must get active in your school district; go to meetings, talk to your board members – or become one – and MAKE the schools account for their money, their programming and the time they have your kids. We won’t win another election if you don’t.

Yes, conservatives/Republicans have a presidential victory this November 2024, but as Ben Franklin said about our Republic after the Continental Congress passed the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787 – “if you can keep it”.

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Norman elementary school assigns books sympathetic to illegal immigration

As much as I support Ryan Walters’ attempts to root out leftist ideology from our classrooms, it appears that the most damaging instances are flying completely under the radar, and finding their way into the classroom without anyone noticing.

A recent example of how students are being exposed to left-wing ideas is two books that have been assigned to fifth grade students at McKinley Elementary in their advanced reading course: “The Path to Paper Son”, by Grant Din, and “Louis Share Kim”, by Barbara D. Krasner. Both books can be listened to in their entirety in the YouTube link provided.

The books are fictionalized accounts of how Chinese immigrants in the 19th century tricked American immigration officials into allowing illegal Chinese immigrants to gain US citizenship by falsely claiming that Chinese nationals were a part of their family. The books paint a sympathetic portrait of this dishonest tactic, justifying it on the grounds that living in China was too dangerous for these Chinese citizens, and so they must immigrate to the US by any means necessary on humanitarian grounds.

The books are a part of the MyView Literacy program that is used as the primary curriculum at Norman Public Schools, and I believe the primary pipeline through which this political ideology is infiltrating our schools and reaching our students’ minds.

Are these books appropriate for impressionable elementary students? How will these books alter the worldview of young American children, particularly how it relates to our modern immigration crisis? We are experiencing the greatest crisis of illegal immigration that this country has experienced in decades, and justifications for allowing it to continue are identical with the justifications for the Chinese immigration described in these books.

The MyView curriculum appears designed to foster an emotional judgment of immigration long before the true facts of the negative effects of invasion-level immigration reaches our children, and long before they’ve developed the capacity and maturity to understand them. As we know, a deeply-held emotional prejudice will easily overpower facts learned later.

The implicit moral of these two books is that it is okay to allow illegal immigration, even if it means breaking the law, if doing so allows foreign illegals to escape homeland for a better life.

Is this really a lesson that we want our kids learning in school? This is virtually identical to the justifications used today by our leftist-dominated political and humanitarian institutions, that have allowed millions of unvetted and undocumented migrants to flow unimpeded into our country, with tens of thousands of Venezuelans, Haitians, and other nationals given automatic parole and flown in to the US to be settled in unsuspecting communities, bringing cultures, habits, and even crime, that are incompatible with the American communities that are forced to contend with these newcomers.

Books like this smuggle a pro-immigration worldview into our classrooms right under our noses, molding the worldview of our children to automatically support the waves of immigration, and opposing any attempts to stop the flood.

I would urge Ryan Walters to, instead of pushing bibles and chaplains in our schools, instead thoroughly scour the current reading curriculum, primarily MyView Literacy, for political activism disguised as ordinary reading material. This is the overriding manner in which leftist orthodoxy is finding its way into our schools, and it must be rooted out.

The same goes for the Second Step Social-Emotional Learning curricula. SEL has smuggled in leftist ideology far more successfully than any other curriculum, and yet there has been no state-wide effort to sift through this curriculum with a fine-tooth comb and ban it outright.

With our state reading levels sitting at embarrassing levels, why should SEL and other forms of stealth political activism be given priority? Why is there not a concerted effort to focus like a laser on real literacy and math proficiency, or, God forbid, typing proficiency? In our computer age, typing proficiency is vital, and yet a typing class has not been offered to my children in either elementary or middle school.

Our priorities are totally out of whack, and as a result we’re condemning our children to a diminished future.

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Wetumka Teacher/Coach Arrested – Victims Speak Out

Wednesday, October 16th, was the hardest podcast I’ve had to do in the roughly two years we’ve been broadcasting. Our friend Mary with V1SUT Substack joined us on the third Wednesday as usual, but this time she brought her own guests.

With Mary were Justin Cotes and Casey Yochum – two men who have bravely come forward to tell the stories of their abuse at the hands of, teacher, coach and athletic director, Brent McGee.

The stories the two men have shared with Mary are simply heartbreaking, but they want to encourage other survivors of Brent’s employment at either Noble Public Schools, or Wetumka Public Schools, to come forward and they believe telling their stories can help.

In the clip below, Casey shares how he was able to record Brent McGee’s confession.

Yes, you heard that correctly. Casey recorded McGee’s confession, took it to an attorney who agreed that the confession was good, only to find out that he had just aged out of the Statute of Limitations for sexual assault while a minor.

This begs the question; why is there a Statute of Limitations on ANY crime? Doesn’t that handcuff the victims?

Sexual abuse can be buried in the subconscious – as it was in Casey’s case – for many years. Does this mean that abuse couldn’t have happened if a victim doesn’t remember it? Clearly not, but Oklahoma’s current law puts victims in that nonsensical predicament!

Obviously, next legislative session, a brave legislator needs to come forward and remove the Statute of Limitations on crimes committed against children!

Before we signed out of the podcast, Mary goes over the warning signs of sexual abuse happening WITHIN THE SCHOOL and how to spot predatory behaviors by adults toward children.

To recap; be particularly observant about behaviors of coaches around young men (and, as we know from Ashley Roland’s story – young women too!). Watch for teachers overstepping their bounds and taking on parental roles, as well as violating school policy.

Mary reminds us about Representative Sherrie Conley’s bill to protect students from one-on-one communication with a school-employed adult – communication that can be allowing, or furthering, inappropriate relationships among students and school employees.

In fact, schools were supposed to train personnel in the law at the beginning of the year in order to help close this avenue of connection between students and school employees.

Please, speak with your Oklahoma legislator NOW about stepping up to write a bill that would remove the Statute of Limitations on child predation next session. In the meantime, watch the full podcast on our YouTube and Rumble channels and share this information with all those you know whose children are enrolled in ANY school outside their own home.

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A Teacher’s Story – Why I Quit Teaching In Oklahoma Public Schools

Becky Pellam, PhD, spoke to Michael and Jenni on Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024, about her teaching experiences in Oklahoma.

Dr. Pellam came from Texas, where she taught in the Dumas district. She loved it there, but she met a man from the Oklahoma panhandle and settled in on a ranch they bought there together. Hungry to teach again, she applied to Guymon PS and was hired as a Teaching Coach.

Before she started, she had great feelings about her time there and what she could do to help the kids – the majority of whom had ACT scores in the single digits. After she began, her experience changed drastically.

During her year of employment in Guymon, she was bullied by the other teachers, many of whom told her she was a ‘plant’ from the central office sent to spy on the other teachers and refused to submit their benchmarks to her. She talked to her superintendent about the situation but she seemed to get nowhere.

She talked to the school board president, who listened intently and believed her report, but asked her to contact the Board’s vice-president. When she did, the long-time, active OSSBA (Oklahoma State School Board Association) member told her that he had heard she was a trouble maker and knew she was the problem, not anyone else.

Needless to say, after she was told by the Superintendent to falsify benchmark data to the school board, she had it in her mind to quit, but then the school essentially fired her anyway.

Here’s Becky’s story about her employment with Guymon in her own words:

After being forced to leave Guymon public schools, she was hired at DOVE Virtual Acadmy (DVA) – an Oklahoma online public charter school.

Dr. Pellam talks about how – just like her experience with Guymon PS – everything started fine, but quickly turned sour.

The Principal almost immediately had Dr. Pellam teaching THE ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL class of nearly 100 kids to the tune of 12 and 13 classes per week. For those who aren’t teachers, that’s 3 TIMES a ‘normal’ amount of coursework. For each class, there is a certain amount of ‘prep’ that has to happen to develop the course and to assist/grade/monitor the students. This level of coursework would exhaust anyone, but Becky also was helping to run a ranch and raise their daughter at the same time.

In the end, she found that DVA was ALSO cheating the accountability system by enrolling ‘ghost students’ to get their enrollment up (in Oklahoma, schools are appropriated funds via the number of ‘butts in seats’), but then unenrolled over 40% of their students – the ones on the lower end of the academic spectrum – when it came time for state testing.

Here is Dr. Pellam telling the story about her employment with Dove Virtual Academy:

Toward the end of the LIVE 2 hour+ broadcast, Jenni and Dr. Pellam began to talk about what education actually is.

Few people – including teachers and administrators today – know what it means to EDUCATE a child. It’s certainly NOT what we’re doing in Oklahoma right now. Right now, we’re training kids for jobs, not educating them in order to be the people best able to decide what they want to do.

There is method to this madhouse approach of education, however. Uneducated people are compliant people because they don’t know how to think for themselves. They do what they’re told because they’re conditioned to do that. They can’t think for themselves because they’re not educated, they’re conditioned.

Becky and Jenni took several minutes to flesh out this fact so that people could hopefully understand what it is that Oklahoma is doing wrong in public education. And that’s after we spoke about the horrible public school culture – the teacher/administration bullying that goes on against those who want to come in and actually teach and do the right thing.

Here are Becky and Jenni discussing the idea of what REAL EDUCATION looks like:

Dr. Pellam is VERY BRAVE for coming forward in this way.

Jenni had the very same kind of experiences while she was teaching in Oklahoma public schools 25 years ago, so this is not a new thing – THIS IS TEACHER/ADMINISTRATION CULTURE IN MOST OKLAHOMA SCHOOLS. Good Oklahoma teachers simply leave rather than try to do anything because they know nothing they will say will be heard or addressed.

See, no one listens to them because the fixes necessary REQUIRE HARD WORK, not just THROWING DOLLARS AT THE PROBLEMS and no one from public school administration, to our legislature, to our Governor really want to do the work that is required to solve the deeply entrenched problems with public school culture in Oklahoma.

Oklahoman’s shouldn’t BE FORCED TO PROVIDE THEIR TAX DOLLARS FOR THESE UNFUNCTIONAL SCHOOLS. If we really care about kids – and do we really? – we would FIX the broken public school administrative culture, instead of forcing taxpayers to provide private school tuition dollars to people who can already afford a private school education for their kid/s!

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Oklahoma Watch Requests – And Receives – Anonymous Tip Information To Write Story In Favor Of Edmond Teacher Regan Killacky

Once the concept of anonymous isn’t anymore, trust is gone and transparency is dead.

Look, I read the Oklahoma Watch. Sometimes they’re the only online media source from which I can get any kind of real information about our Republican elected officials. But there you go. I’ve personally found their stories to be biased to the left – which, as I said, works for me sometimes because their interest in taking out Republicans at least results in some kind of transparency for one side of the isle.

But right, or left, NO media source should request information that is meant to be anonymous and Oklahoma Watch did.

September 13th, reporter Jennifer Palmer posted a story to the online paper entitled, “State Seeks to Decertify Teacher Over 5-Year-Old Instagram Family Photo“. Palmer contends that Edmond Public School teacher Regan Killacky – who took a picture of himself and his son threatening a Donald Trump mask with plastic swords during an outing to a Halloween store in 2019 – should not be fired for the post.

Here is a legitimate sentence from Palmer’s piece: “But in Killackey’s case, Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters prioritized punishing a teacher over political speech he disagreed with in order to score political points”. Is anyone going to try and argue that this statement is somehow objective ‘journalism’? That it ISN’T completely biased? I hope not. You simply can’t make that argument. You’d look like a dope.

At any rate, Palmer’s desire to “get the story” and apparently prop up Killacky, resulted in her open records requesting (ORR) from the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) information on who filed the (supposedly) anonymous tip about Killacky’s Instagram post to the state’s AWARITY reporting system.

Now, granted, there’s PLENTY of blame to go around here. Yes, Palmer requested information that was supposed to be anonymous, but the OSDE GAVE IT TO HER. What the absolute HECK? What would be the purpose of something so reckless?

Watch the short video below to get the full story, but suffice it to say, either tips are anonymous or they’re not. If they’re not anonymous and the public is told they’re anonymous, even the most ardent Walters supporters will lose faith in the system after getting doxed the first time by Oklahoma’s poor excuse for objective journalists.

Oklahoma Watch (Jennifer Palmer) AND OSDE – both of you had better do better ASAP.

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