Search

ROPE Report

Open Search
Tag

public school

Ashley Rolen; Fighting To Have Her Abusers Removed From Oklahoma Public Schools

Ashley Rolen submitted statements to the Little Axe school district in 2002, describing the sexual abuse that had been perpetrated on her by several coaches employed by the district.

Nothing was done either done to help Ashley, or remove the coaches. Ashley moved on with her life.

But as Ashley tells us in the full podcast (YouTube Rumble), the day she heard about Olympic physician, Larry Nassar, and the stories of the brave gymnasts who told of their sexual abuse while under his care, she knew she had to make it right – for herself and for the other girls to whom this had happened and ones to whom it might be happening now.

As an adult, Ashley filed a complaint with the Oklahoma State Department of Education under Joy Hoffmeister. She was told that they had no investigators for her case and that she’d have to do her own investigation – which she did – and returned it to the OSDE under Ryan Walters.

Still – a full year later – and nothing has been done about the coaches who abused her, nearly all of whom are still employed by the State of Oklahoma in a public school.

In the video below, Ashley talks about what needs to happen for these reports to be taken seriously by school administration and the OSDE – which she doesn’t believe is really happening now.

In the video below, V1SUT Vantage blogger, Mary, Ashley, Michael Grande and I discuss how schools are getting around mandatory sex abuse reporting laws, allowing public school employees who have abused students to just disappear from the school and wind up at another without ever being made to pay for their crimes. The level of protectionism among school staff makes it nearly impossible for reporting to occur outside the school and even then, if a school resource officer shows up to talk to the complaining parties (the student and his/her parents or guardians) with school administration, it appears that school administration feels as though that kind of scenario IS the reporting.

If Ashley’s story teaches us anything, it’s that if we’re to save Oklahoma children from sexual predators operating inside Oklahoma public schools, we have to force schools to properly INVESTIGATE and REPORT and for the OSDE to put actually put parents and students first, by having any claims investigated by the OSDE promptly and teaching certificates removed so that the perpetrators can no longer harm CHILDREN.

7

Public Schools Have Zero Accountability To Taxpayers – Just Look At What Happens When They Are Sued!

I remember a song from the ’60’s whose chorus says, “I fought the law and the law won” (here is a version by the Clash for you younger folks LOL). It reminds me so much of public education in Oklahoma – and probably across the nation, actually. Here’s why.

April 12th, 2022, Brice Chaffin – a taxpayer in the district of Stillwater Public Schools – attended a school board meeting to discuss his concern about allowing boys to use the girl’s bathrooms.

Addressing the Board from the podium, Chaffin began his remarks by discussing the forms of law – natural law, physical law, spiritual law. What happened after that really requires viewing, so check out the original video below. It’s only a bit over 3 minutes.

You may view the entire Stillwater Board meeting for April 12, 2022 here.

If you haven’t watched the video by this point in the piece, you really have to. It’s the only way to understand the derision with which Brice was treated by nearly every single member of the Board. As he’s being told he has to actually leave the building, the Board is laughing and carrying on as though Chaffin (not with a long A, but a short ‘a’ as is the correct sound for a vowel before two consonants – but this is a school board, what would they know about English rules?) a piece of gum stuck to their shoe. It’s simply gross.

After this egregious act of silencing a district taxpayer before he had even completed speaking for the time allowed by the Board, ROPE and Maria Seidler of Legal Overwatch for Parent’s Rights, filed a suit against each member of the Stillwater School Board citing the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act in May.

Press statements and the filed lawsuit can be found here.

Please note; all that Brice and ROPE were asking, was for the SPS Board to apologize to Chaffin for the way he was treated. THAT’S ALL. No monetary damages, no compensation for time, no payment of our attorney fees. We asked only for an APOLOGY.

The Judge appointed to the case was Payne County Associate District Judge, Steven Kistler, appointed by Brad Henry (D) to the position in 2008.

The lawyers for Stillwater Public Schools, Rosenstein, Fist and Ringold (RFR), are well-versed in education law – it’s one full subset of their entire practice. Of course, they asked the court to dismiss the suit.

In July, Judge Kistler ruled against RFR’s request for dismissal and scheduled a pre-trial hearing for November, that was moved to October.

Unfortunately, Kistler denied Seidler’s motion, but after hearing the arguments of both side’s attorneys, refused to rule from the bench, saying instead that he was going to review the video again and, following, supply a written ruling to the parties through the court.

In April of 2023, Maria Seidler was a guest on our podcast, ROPE Report Live, where she updated us on the case. You can find that video on our Rumble and YouTube channels.

Essentially, Judge Kistler ruled against us and Brice and for SPS, literally providing no support for his decision. It was simply something to the effect of, “I’m ruling for Stillwater Public Schools”, period. If we wanted to have any notion about his thinking as to why, we weren’t going to get it. (You can find that specific information at 33 minutes almost exactly on the live video)

Following Kistler’s (bizarre) decision, SPS’ attorneys then file a lawsuit against Chaffin and ROPE for court costs and attorney’s fees. Because we filed our suit under the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act, this was a real surprise. The Act does not allow for court costs or attorney’s fees to be collected UNLESS the suit is won and the attorney’s fees and court costs are to be paid by the governmental entity that was found at fault. The private citizen or organization suing the governmental entity is not to pay court costs or attorney’s fees for the other party, even if they lose.

Here are the costs submitted to Stillwater Public Schools by Rosenstein, Fist an Ringold TO KEEP FROM APOLOGIZING TO A COMMUNITY MEMBER!

Yet and again, however, ROPE and Chaffin were back in court with the intrepid Maria by our side, trying to defend ourselves – when we shouldn’t have had to – from paying nearly 45 THOUSAND dollars in attorney’s fees and court costs.

Fortunately, the judge actually HAD read the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act and ruled against Rosenstein, Fist and Ringold (and SPS) and for Chaffin and ROPE, but it was at that court proceeding that Seidler and Chaffin learned something interesting.

The two were approached by several attorneys who told them they were sorry about the first ruling and that they believed we had a case. In fact, the attorneys identified Judge Kistler as an ‘activist’ judge who would have never ruled with us because of the subject matter and defendants. This information, led Maria to expound strenuously against ‘activist’ judges in this ROPE Report Short from that April’s interview.

We went on to file an appeal in Payne County, but our appeal was lost. Though we thought about filing an appeal to the Supreme Court, the costs are prohibitive and made little sense to any of us (from an AI answer to a search for Oklahoma Supreme Court costs: The total estimated cost of appealing to the Oklahoma Supreme Court can range from $2,750 to $14,000 or more, depending on the complexity of the case and the number of briefs filed.)

So here are your takeaways:

Listen to what Brice says here; Stillwater Public Schools LIED to pastors and other members of the community about the policy of allowing boys in girl’s bathrooms by telling them nothing was going on. They only found out for certain, when a woman went to her pastor and told him what she had personally seen!

If a public school offends your Constitutional – or other – rights, and you decide to sue them, you will pay for YOUR attorneys AND THE SCHOOLS ATTORNEYS because your tax dollars go to the school and the school is PAYING A FIRM OF ATTORNEYS TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO KEEP FROM HAVING TO APOLOGIZE TO A COMMUNITY MEMBER. We discuss that in this segment:

But it only gets worse. What happens if we had sued SPS for tens of thousands – or millions of dollars? Does the school have to pay that? What about the employees that caused the issues?

A Kingfisher Public Schools family sued Kingfisher Public Schools for some horrible hazing incidents that happened under the watchful eye of the KPS coach. The court awarded the family a 5 MILLION dollar settlement for the case. Will the Coach pay that? What about the school board that hired the Coach and allowed him to continue on in his position after numerous complaints from the community? What about the Superintendent? Nope.

A Daily Oklahoman article sums it up just in the title alone: “Angry taxpayers to confront Kingfisher school board about $5 million settlement of hazing case”. Why are Kingfisher taxpayers angry about a lawsuit that didn’t involve them? “Property owners in the Kingfisher school district are mad because they’re being told their taxes will go up for three years to pay $3.75 million of the settlement. Estimates are the increase could be as much as 12%.” You read it right! Yup.

Kingfisher school district taxpayers will pay the cost of the lawsuit settlement against the district.

Now tell me. Where in the world is the accountability for any public school TO the taxpayers whose money they take – either in property taxes or in appropriations by the legislature?

So let’s discuss that as well. Oklahoma’s academic scores are in the toilet. Across Oklahoma, less than half of ALL students are proficient in English and math, yet the Oklahoma legislature – again this year, after what they termed an HISTORIC INVESTMENT of tens of millions of dollars in education in 2023 – have done it again.

This is the website that contains the budget for Oklahoma for 2024. A total of $13.2 BILLION dollars. Education? Yeah, that’s a NEW appropriation of $45 MILLION dollars to a total $7.9 BILLION dollar budget. Who says public education is underfunded? Why would we fund them at all? We have ZERO control over them and the people we elect to take the reigns of control over them, simply throw money at the problem and move on.

Share this far and wide – every single Oklahoma taxpayer should know exactly where there money is going and what they are, or are NOT getting for it.

0

This Social Media Exchange Helps Explain How DEI Gets Into Public Classrooms

I recently came across this post on social media and stopped. I agreed with the notion and started to look down through the comments to see what was being said about it.

Quickly, I came across this comment:

This comment made me feel the need to respond because of the use of her language, “bringing students into the conversation”, “using diverse methods”, “approaching students” – all which are progressive education buzzphrases – so I responded:

She replied:

I continued, hoping that she would understand what I was trying to say. She wasn’t ugly, she was – probably like me – trying to reach a point of understanding between us.

I wish I hadn’t been so terse in my response, but it’s somewhat shocking – even now – to see someone who so clearly wants to be helpful and so clearly believes she is doing the right thing, when in fact nearly her entire outlook is based on a completely flawed premise – that somehow teachers can overcome family and other outside influences (Tik Tok anyone?) by treating their students differently based on a concept that doesn’t exist in reality (equity). She responded one last time:

As did I:

Looking back on this conversation reminds me of one of the reasons I quit teaching; I saw these ideals bubbling up through continuing education courses and I knew I was never going to be able to assimilate them into my classroom. I couldn’t.

I have ALWAYS believed in the power of the INDIVIDUAL to succeed – or fail – depending upon how much effort that INDIVIDUAL put in. Now, is every kid primed to take up the gauntlet of self-individuation and put their head down with a plan? No. Too many other factors – especially a bad home environment – can put a chip on the shoulder of a kid that may never come off. That doesn’t mean that teachers in public school classrooms are to deal with that chip – even if a kid isn’t learning. Teachers can only do what they can do WHILE INSTRUCTING KIDS IN THE NECESSARY TOOLS OF LEARNING; reading, writing and math.

The particular theory this young teacher espouses asserts that teachers should become the parents of the children – because, obviously, the parents are not doing their jobs if kids are coming to school scared and weak and timid. Sadly, it’s true for many children today. Many parents use school as a babysitter and could care less what their kids are doing in a day to actually recieve an education, but that doesn’t mean it’s THE JOB OF THE TEACHER TO RECTIFY THE POOR UPBRINGING OF THEIR STUDENTS. In fact, most of the time, it’s either a psychologist, or the school of hard knocks that changes students with downward trajectories – if they do – some, sadly, go to prison or wind up dead. Still and all, the lifetrack of a child is not the responsibility of the teacher. The education of that student is – alone – the job of the teacher.

Teachers are not to become the parents of poorly-performing students, they are to work harder to bring parents into the equation (or remove the child from school if the child is disrupting others and the parents won’t help control the child) to help the child, not take on the troubles of the child themselves. In fact, it’s this kind of progressive ‘theology’ that leads to classrooms where feelings and psychological concepts take center stage, NOT INSTRUCTION IN READING, WRITING and MATH. I believe it’s easy to see how wrong-headed this model of ‘education’ is and how it’s RUINING children just by looking at Oklahoma’s test scores. And if you don’t believe me, check out this video for an enormous wake-up call.

0

Ryan Walters’ Video Shows Parents The Truth About The Education Establishment, Which Makes Them Mad – And That Makes Us Happy

To be clear, ROPE has not agreed with Ryan Walters on the concept of “School Choice” at all in any way – and this is a big thing because it limits the power of parents to care for and educate their children. HOWEVER, we agree with him on just about everything else he’s waded into in a big way. Especially his absolute fearlessness in calling out LEFTY teachers/administration/unions wherever they are.

For years, as ROPE attempted to STOP Common Core, or help create non-Common Core educational standards or complained about teacher walkouts – we’ve been absolutely ASSAULTED and DEMONIZED on social media by the Leftist teaching cabal in Oklahoma which is alive and well and going by the hashtag #oklaed. This hashtag encompasses many groups, but a few are Oklahoma Edvocates, Oklahomans for Public Education, Oklahoma State School Boards Association, OEA and Pastors For Oklahoma Kids. I’m not giving any links here, but all you need to do is get on Twitter and follow that hashtag to see the people who run education in Oklahoma and what they’re all about. They don’t suffer fools – and that category encompasses ANY Republican (other than Democrats in Republican suits), ROPE and Ryan Walters specifically.

#oklaed are not for parents, they are for schools. They are not for transparency, they are for money. They are not for equality, they are for power. They are everything we need to extricate from Oklahoma educational facilities – partisan, tone-deaf, angry, name-calling, social justice warriors who hide behind the “but it’s for children” mantra as a way to push their lefty agendas.

In fact, Jami Cole – the Duncan 5th grade teacher who runs the Oklahoma Edvocates organization – has blocked our ROPE account on Twitter. Why? Who knows for sure, but I re-tweeted an ‘incendiary’ tweet in which she says that people who push vouchers are Christian Nationalists. Okay, well, ROPE hates vouchers, but we ARE a group of Christian men and women and leftists have coined the term “Christian Nationalist” as a way to shush Christians – much like they coined the term “insurrectionist” to shut down Trump supporters – so I see that as a problem.

But it’s not just that. Cole goes on to tell voters to switch parties in order to vote for Hoffmeister and Nelson for Governor and State Superintendent. Fascinating. Why she didn’t want me to retweet the idea she clearly seems proud of – who knows?

Jump to yesterday, May 25th. The Oklahoman – in an article which lists no author – published, “Ryan Walters launches ‘incendiary’ video denouncing teachers unions“. Inside the article – which is only available for subscribers – is the video they label ‘incendiary’. It’s on the front page of the OSDE website too – though the Oklahoman article says it was uploaded to YouTube and then taken down – implying someone didn’t want it up.

The video uploaded with the Oklahoman story includes interviews with both Jami Cole (wearing her Oklahoma Edvocates shirt) and Erika Wright (founder of another Oklahoma left-of-center organization called the Rural Schools Coalition). Erika Wright is apparently familiar with the definition of ‘incendiary’ as her quote for the story was that the video would, “get teachers killed” and that Walters “needs to be impeached”.

Teacher’s unions are not for kids – they’re for teachers and social change. If you use a search engine OTHER than Google, you could simply search “NEA” and find out stuff that would make the eyes of most parents bleed.

THAT’S why #oklaed is so angry about this video – IT SHOWS HOW OUT OF TOUCH WITH AMERICAN PARENTS, TEACHER’S UNIONS and their supporters – ARE.

It shows that there ARE pornographic books being pushed into public schools, it shows that teachers DO want to subvert parental rights when it comes to gender issues – in fact it shows unequivocally the obvious agenda to push gender issues on KIDS, period. That’s why the Oklahoman published it without ANY OTHER VOICES beyond those they wanted to hear commenting about the video.

George Keiser-supported Oklahoma Watch did the same thing with the Jennifer Palmer-penned “Superintendent Ryan Walters’ Video Escalates Attacks on Teacher Unions”

So here’s the deal – QUIT PAYING ATTENTION TO THE NEWS MEDIA. Watch the video for yourself. If you don’t believe what’s on the video, research the topics for yourself. Ryan is right here. Teacher’s unions are not the friend of parents or kids and in fact, I believe they actually seek to harm children in the long run because that’s what Marxists do – ruin families.

Also, while we’re at it, research your kid’s teachers. Find out who they are and what they could be telling your children when you are not around. Many are simply good people trying to do a job today that is ridiculously tough by any standard, many think they are doing the right thing by being their student’s friends and removing parents from the parental equation, some are simply predators and we know this from the constant news stories about teachers who have sexually preyed on their charges.

We do not live in your parents world. Wake up. Do your research. And for God sakes pray for our State Superintendent. He wears a heavy yoke standing against this dark agenda and for parents and kids.

0

Dystopia Reached: Oklahoma Republicans Continue Their March Toward Socialism By Redistributing Wealth Through EDUCATION

Not that Oklahoma – and Governor Stitt in particular – haven’t begun to truly love giving our tax dollars away and calling it an “investment“, but here’s yet another. A BIG one!

An “HISTORIC” 700 MILLION dollar “investment” in Oklahoma education. Here are some lines from the Senate press release praising this “historic” vote:

Here’s what’s in HB1935. To see the other “historic” “investments”, click on the link to the press release. There’s plenty there to read:

The Oklahoma State Senate today gave passage to its historic $700 million education package. 

Senators voted overwhelmingly on both measures 40 – to – 7 on House Bill 1935 and 46 – to – 2 on House Bill 2775, approving the single largest appropriations increase to education in state history, sending it back to the House of Representatives. 

Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, said the Senate did its job and delivered for teachers, children and parents. 

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/OKSENATE/bulletins/35206ac

Here’s what the press release says about HB1935:

HB 1935 will give parents additional options and control over their children’s education by providing a $100 million investment in school choice. This bill provides a $7,500 tax credit per eligible student each tax year if the eligible student attends a private school and the family has an income of less than $250,000. The bill also provides for a $1,000 tax credit per family, for certain qualified expenditures, each tax year if one or more eligible students is homeschooled. Valid receipts must be provided to OTC to receive the $1,000 tax credit.

NOT ONE OKLAHOMA REPUBLICAN SENATOR STOOD UP TO THIS. Not one.

Please, make sure you stop everything you’re doing and kiss your backside good-bye. Oklahoma is now a socialist state – and proud to be one. We just decided to take money from businesses and private citizens to educate the children of people making less than 250k at a private school.

Our family makes less than 250k. My husband and I both have Master’s degrees. We chose that I would stay home and educate our kids. We have never bought new cars, for years we couldn’t afford vacations, and we NEVER SPENT $7500 a year A PIECE on ANY of their educations – for FOUR kids.

Now, I get to be happy that, though we scrimped and sacrificed to provide our children with an education outside that provided by the government, others in our tax bracket can educate their kids at a private school ON MY DIME without that messy inconvenience of having to scrimp and sacrifice.

So let’s break down some issues with this “historic” investment :

1. The Oklahoma state government will take my property if I refuse to pay my property taxes and/or put me in jail if I don’t pay my income taxes and if I don’t pay my business taxes, they will divest me of the business I run which allows them to take my taxes.

2. The government cannot “invest” my tax dollars. They can’t take funds and apply ANY market ‘risk’ to the funds they steal from us by force. So the idea of an “historic” INVESTMENT is a complete crock.

2. The property taxes my husband and I pay for our schools are less than 2000. A tax credit – ideally – would be me not having to spend the money that comes out of my household that supports the public schools I DON’T USE. Can you imagine how fast the ‘public’ school would clean up when it became funded by a USE tax? If you can’t imagine, I’ll tell you: FAST, because THAT would be market competition – not this BS the legislature is selling calling it SCHOOL CHOICE.

3. Who pays the 750 million dollar price tag? Oklahoma citizens.

4. What happens if there isn’t a surplus, or we have a downturn in the economy? Where does the money come from then? If the ‘credit’ can’t be funded, where do all the kids go from private school who can’t afford it anymore? How much more will the legislature decide to ratchet up fees (they can’t call them taxes or a majority of the legislature has to agree which is why we haven’t had a tax increase in a long time – they learned they can tax us and call it a “fee” the legislature doesn’t have to agree to) when Oklahomans who have been hooked on the teat of FREE MONEY for PRIVATE SCHOOL have an absolute fit and demand ‘their’ money to finish educating their kids in private school? This ‘historic investment’ will become MEDICAIRE!!!

5. How many private schools are there to take all these new kids? Are there enough now? No, actually.

6. Does it make sense that enterprising Oklahoma legislators would go into the business of building private schools so they could make money on tuition?

7. What happens when a Satanist private school is built and accepts kids? The Supreme Court ruled recently that tax dollars can go to religious schools. What happens when my tax dollars fund a Satanist school? Wasn’t that one of the arguments against abortion? People were sick of their tax dollars funding abortions? Well I don’t want my tax dollars funding Satanic schools.

8. How many legislators/people complained it was socialism for Biden to pay for the student loans of flailing college students? ISN’T GIVING PARENTS 7500/KID TO GO TO PRIVATE SCHOOL THE SAME THING? What happens to those of us who schooled our kids on our own WITHOUT government help? Oh, that’s right. Tough luck – just like with business tax credits – the government will pick winners and losers and those of us with personal responsibility are the big losers.

9. The funding of public education is in Oklahoma’s constitution. The Oklahoma legislature is tasked with running these schools – hell, they make countless laws to make public schools kowtow to every year! IT’S THE LEGISLATURES JOB TO FIX OKLAHOMA PUBLIC SCHOOLS THAT AREN’T EDUCATING KIDS.

The legislature’s job isn’t to SHIRK their job and put that job off on parents and call it PARENTAL EMPOWERMENT.

10. How empowering is it to parents to have their taxes go up year after year to pay for public schools that don’t work and countless government programs so that they don’t have the money to educate their own children?

11. And the bottom line: how is it the GOVERNMENTS JOB TO PRIVATELY EDUCATE KIDS? The more government grows, the more our liberty shrinks, the more our liberty shrinks, the more socialist we become.

For God sakes! I feel so sorry for the people who have emigrated to Oklahoma from the left coast thinking they were going to get ‘freedom’ here. Here’s the bottom line, as Reagan said many times, “We’re only one generation away” from losing America.

Sadly, the subsequent generations from that quote were educated in government schools that took away their history, dumbed down their math, botched their reading so the majority of kids can’t read at grade level and hooked them on porn. AND WE HAD THE PLEASURE OF PAYING FOR THAT. Government is now king – personal responsibility is done for. Bye-bye America. Bye-bye Oklahoma. RIP.

0

Do Parent Involvement Policies Align with the Parents’ Bill of Rights?

By Dayna Mooney, Chapter Chair, Moms for Liberty Canadian County

Oklahoma’s Parents’ Bill of Rights defines a “parent” as the natural or adoptive parent or legal guardian of a minor child who makes decisions in the best interest of that child. (Source: https://law.justia.com/codes/oklahoma/2014/title-25/section-25-2002/)

 It goes on to say “All parental rights are reserved to a parent of a minor child without obstruction or interference from this state, any political subdivision of this state, any other governmental entity or any other institution, including, but not limited to, the following rights:

1. The right to direct the education of the minor child;

2. All rights of parents identified in Title 70 of the Oklahoma Statutes, including the right to access and review all school records relating to the minor child;

3. The right to direct the upbringing of the minor child;

4. The right to direct the moral or religious training of the minor child;….”

The Parents’ Bill of Rights does not give any school district or school personnel the right to direct the education of any minor child. The Bill of Rights directs that the parents are involved.

The Parents’ Bill of Rights is important because on Monday, February 13th @ 6pm, the Mustang Public Schools Board of Education will decide whether or not to approve two new policies.

  1. Policy # 2146 – Parent and Family Engagement (Note: At the time of this article the policy was not available for review on the website. An email has been sent to the Board and the Superintendent requesting the policy for review. Neither have responded.)
  2. Policy # 2147 – Site Parent and Family Engagement Policy (i.e. School Visitors in the Policy Handbook) https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1668702225/mustangpsorg/kyehs4gpb5yugsgvlhhb/MPSPoliciesandProcedures.pdf This policy is available on page 167.

Policy #2147- Site Parent and Family Engagement Policy (i.e. School Visitors in the Policy Handbook), a section from this policy states:

“The superintendent or principal of any school shall have the authority to order any person out of the school building and off the school property when it appears that the presence of such person is a threat to the peaceful conduct of school business, school activities, and/or school classes. This authority shall extend to the removal of any individual attending an official school activity or field trip where students are present, including an activity or field trip not on school property, when the superintendent or principal determines that a threat to the peaceful conduct of students exists. Any person who refuses to leave the school building or grounds after being ordered to do so by the superintendent or principal, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not more than $500.00 or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than 90 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment…Any person who is requested to leave the premises shall be considered for a six-month removal period.”

Could a parent be deemed a threat to the peaceful conduct of school business, activities and/or classes for asking questions that the school and/or district chooses not to disclose or speaking out against the school’s mission and values? Why are the superintendent and/or principal the only decision makers on who is considered a threat? The Superintendent stated during the November 14, 2022 Board of Education meeting “this one cleans up wording of a previous policy and makes it easier to follow”.

After researching #2146 and #2147, the search led to Policy # 2145 – Parent Involvement Policy on page 165, which is already in place. The policy discusses district expectations and parent expectations. While the district expectations are only eight bullets long, the parent expectations are nearly double. A couple of parent expectations that stand out are 1) “participating in the development of the school parent involvement plan and the review and evaluation of the plan” and 2) “valuing diversity and the need for equity in each child’s learning”.  To address the first expectation, parents haven’t been given sufficient time to review or become involved in the creation and evaluation of the plan. In addition, the Board of Education hasn’t educated parents about their rights. As for the requirement that parents need to adopt DEI to be involved, through who’s lens is Diversity and Equity being taught? What is being taught? Does it align with your family’s values? If it doesn’t, does that mean you are unable to be involved with your child’s education?

Along the same lines as “parent involvement”, the Board of Education and the Mustang Public Schools Administration does not appear to value family because they insert their own opinions about the curriculum to be taught. One such curriculum is the 7 Mindsets which is a Social Emotional Learning program (SEL). SEL programs teach our children that the morals, values and traditions in our families are wrong. Per the 7 Mindsets book, when we tell our children “Money doesn’t grow on trees” we are causing emotional scarring to our children. (Source: The 7 Mindsets To Live Your Ultimate Life)

There is so much happening in our school district that parents are not aware of until it is too late.

We are calling all parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings, and community members to jump into action and be proactive. Get involved in your child’s school, find a local advocacy group to work with and ask questions when your gut tells you something is off. Don’t take the school administration’s word for it, do your own independent research. YOU MUST TAKE ACTION TO SAVE OUR CHILDREN’S EDUCATION! You are your child’s advocate.

Takeaway: District Parent Involvement Plans/Policies DO NOT align with the Parents’ Bill of Rights!

1

Five Reasons Republicans Should Not Support Vouchers

Though few may pay it the attention it’s due, the Republican Party has a Platform snapshotting a picture of the basic things Party members generally believe. Oklahoma has its own Platform created through a process that eventually ends in a vote of acceptance at their biennial convention. The Oklahoma County GOP has a very good one page summary of the OKGOP Platform here.

According to this OKGOP Platform, these are five reasons Republicans should NOT support ‘School Choice’ vouchers (please see “An Analysis Of Three Oklahoma Voucher Bills” for more information on what the bills say):

  1. Republicans believe in “limited government“. In fact, that is where the term “conservative” arises. We wish to ‘conserve’ the rights to the people by limiting government to the smallest footprint possible. Every universal voucher bill filed in the senate creates 6 to 7 sections of NEW LAW. In fact, they expand the Oklahoma Treasurer’s office by providing it not less than 20 new duties.
  2. Republicans believe in “personal, moral responsibility“. Taxpayers are forced to pay taxes to governments. If their taxes are not paid, the government will either take our property or our liberty (by throwing us in jail). Once the money leaves our hands, it’s not ours anymore. It is placed into one giant pot over which we have minimal control – through our legislators (taxation with representation) – as to how it’s spent. We can’t use government as a bank – our money isn’t earmarked as ours once it goes into the pot – all we can do is use the services our lawmakers choose to provide us for the money we must provide them from our budgets.
    • It is our personal, moral responsibility to raise and educate our children the way we believe is best.
    • It is the personal, moral responsibility of our elected lawmakers to do what is necessary to make government – including public schools – produce results and be accountable to the taxpayer whose dollars they appropriate.
    • It is the personal, moral responsibility of parents to move their lawmakers to force educational results (accountability) on our public schools, but it is also our personal, moral responsibility not to go to our lawmakers and demand more of our neighbor’s money so that we can put our children in schools we couldn’t otherwise afford without help. That is called welfare and/or socialism – definitely NOT a Republican ideal.
  3. Republicans believe in “individual liberty“. If the government gives a private school taxpayer dollars from the public coffers, taxpayers have the right to demand accountability for those dollars. This accountability can put boundaries on “individual liberty”. The Class Wallet debacle shows this to be true in spades.
    • In 2020, Oklahoma government officials – including now State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters – contracted with a PRIVATE organization called “Class Wallet” to disseminate over 17 million dollars in GEER funds (Governor’s Emergency Educational Relief). Parents who privately schooled their children were gifted $6500 for tuition to the tune of 10 million dollars total through the “Stay In School” program. Public school parents who needed help schooling their children online were gifted up to $1500 through the “Bridge The Gap” program.
    • Today, federal and state auditors are investigating over one half million dollars in GEER funds that were spent on things other than education, essentially defrauding the taxpayer. This same thing also happened in Arizona, through their private voucher program.
    • According to The Frontier, the Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) is sending emails to identified users of the programs – for apparent accountability measures – asking, “What was the particular purpose surrounding your purchases during the pandemic?” And “were you homeschooling your children, or were they still in school?” ROPE has expressed continuous concern that homeschooling families taking government money would be assimilated by the government. The government gave away the money without guardrails – what good could it do to determine if families schooled at home or not?
    • Once the government begins to separate homeschooling families from private school families and online public school families from homeschooling families, Oklahoma’s previously undefined, but Constitutionally protected use of education “by other means” is in jeopardy of becoming regulated by the state, thus subverting the “individual liberty” of parents to school their children without state interference.
  4. Republicans believe in “state sovereignty“. Unfortunately, the Oklahoma legislature and public schools LOVE to get federal funding. In fact, according to this article from 2022, Oklahoma is 15th in the amount of federal funding we receive.
  5. Republicans believe in the “free market“. Public/private partnerships are not “free market”. Once the government – at any level – injects money into a private company/organization/school, the business to which the funds were given, now has an edge over the wholly-privately-owned businesses that weren’t able to, or didn’t, capitalize on on government handouts.
    • Nowhere is this better seen than the distribution of CARES Act monies. According to Forbes, private equity firms used federal funds to boost profits, crushing their competitors, the ‘little guys’ who weren’t able to capitalize on federal loans.
    • The “free market” describes a system of business free from government intervention, where businesses compete with each other so that the best companies prevail. Injecting public funds into a private school will create an imbalance in the private school system in which those taking state funding will grow and those that don’t, won’t. Sadly, the ones NOT taking public funds will do so to retain their autonomy, yet parents will slowly be denied access to an autonomous private school as the public-fund-sucking schools overpower their marketshare – leaving parents – AGAIN – with less choice than they had BEFORE government intervention.

Vouchers, like the Republican-pushed Common Core before it, are not based on Republican ideals and they will not work for Oklahoma families just like they haven’t in states like Arizona that have tried them.

As we’ve pointed out again and again, Oklahoma HAS SCHOOL CHOICE! We have a voucher program – the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship for children with disabilities. We have the Opportunity Scholarship Fund which uses donations to “help[s] low-income families bridge the financial gap between what they can afford and what is best suited for their student for specialized PreK-12 education”. According to the Oklahoma section of the “National School Choice Week” website, Oklahoma has approximately 60 charter schools, several magnate schools, over 200 private schools, six fully online public schools, Constitutionally protected homeschool, and “learning pods”. The idea that ‘vouchers’ are required to somehow provide parents with school choice, should make one wonder then – what exactly do the people pushing “school choice” legislation really want?

2

GUEST POST: Dear Dr. Grunewald, Conscious Discipline = SEL and SEL = CRT, So Don’t Tell Us EPS Is NOT Teaching CRT

This article was written by Emily Wright, an Edmond Public Schools parent.

Conscious Discipline – Social and Emotional Learning
“Conscious Discipline believes that trauma-responsive social and emotional learning (SEL) is a lens through which transformational change in the areas of racial equality, equity and inclusion is not only possible, but essential.”

Conscious Discipline is the elementary Social Emotional Learning Curriculum, used in Edmond Public schools. Click on the name and try not to vomit as you explore the site. Let not your heart be troubled and drop those Tums! 

Edmond Public School superintendent, Dr. Angela Grunewald, insisted once again that EPS does not teach Critical Race Theory during a 25 minute phone conversation with me on November 12. 

Why did I get a phone call?: I sent her an email you can read here, in response to her rebuttal of the speaker comments made at the November 1 school board meeting. 

Dr. Grunewald’s response to the Social Justice/CRT platitudes galore littering the Conscious Discipline (CD) site was that in the wake of the 2020 death of George Floyd, many companies put out these kind of messages on their websites. 

I then asked her what CD edition EPS is using and are teachers/counselors just omitting any subject matter deemed to violate HB1775. She gave the same response: EPS does not teach CRT. She then invited me to come look at the curriculum, and/or sit in on a lesson and attend a parent meeting regarding CD. (I will be attending a parent meeting in January)

Dr. Grunewald then REPEATED that EPS is not teaching CRT.

Read the letter below written by Conscious Discipline creator, Dr. Becky Bailey, that I’ve included in its entirety. You will see that CRT is embedded in Conscious Discipline’s curricula and teacher/counselor training and come to the conclusion that our tax payer dollars are funding the brainwashing of our children! 

Posted on July 29,2020 by creator Dr. Becky Bailey:

Recently we shared a public statement about racism, injustice and inequity and outlined our organizational commitment. This follow-up message is the first of many public updates we will provide as we strive to be both transparent and accountable in this critical area.

I firmly believe systemic racism must be dismantled, and I will be part of the solution both personally and professionally. As the voices of the Black Lives Matter movement call for increased equity and social justice, Conscious Discipline will answer with unequivocal support and actionable change.

Conscious Discipline’s methodology is based on and steeped in inclusion. Inclusion and unity are inseparable from our philosophy. Having said that, we are acutely aware that our company profile— particularly that of the independent contractors who make up our Certified and Master Instructor program— does not sufficiently represent the diverse cultures of many of the schools we support. Although our methodology is inherently culturally sustaining and inclusive, we believe increasing our team’s diversity will strengthen our resource offerings, our organization and ourselves, and is essential in supporting racial justice. With the urgency and importance of current events laying many of these issues raw, I feel it is important to convey some of the efforts we’ve taken over the past few years and our current commitments toward lasting change.

CERTIFIED INSTRUCTORS (INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS)

Conscious Discipline Certified Instructors and Master Instructors are independent contractors who are licensed to teach Conscious Discipline. The first 15 years of our Instructor Certification program relied on candidates seeking us out in order to become consultants. This yielded some phenomenal Instructors, but also resulted in many who came from similar life experiences— most were white, female, 35+ years old, suburban and middle class. Our pool of Instructors did not reflect the rich diversity of our nation.

In 2015, we paused in accepting applications for Certified Instructors in order to undertake a dramatic reorganization. In 2017, we launched additional organizational shifts to increase equity, address the lack of diversity, and provide additional training and coaching in our onboarding process. Most significantly, we reorganized into “family” units to provide better mentorship, and we changed from an application model to a recruitment model in order to focus on engaging people of color, especially Black Americans. This intentional shift helps us to actively identify, support, remove obstacles and fast-track promising candidates who are more diverse. It also helps us to better support our growing Instructor family. This worthwhile shift has required a significant investment of time and financial resources. Even with these focused efforts, this is a long-term endeavor as many of our Instructors implement Conscious Discipline for 5+ years before becoming Certified.

We will continue to build diversity and equity in our Certified Instructor program in the following ways:
We will evaluate our Instructor Certification process to accelerate the multi-year requirements around the study, implementation and coaching needed for Certification in order to meet an initial goal of a minimum of 30% people of color, with an emphasis on Black Americans.

We will provide diversity training to all Instructors via our family structure in order to encourage individual growth and assist Instructors in creating events that are culturally informed, inclusive and equitable.

We will enlist a racial equity consultant and a committee from within our organization to work together to formulate the steps for these processes and assist in implementation. Establishing the committee, the specific steps and a timeline are all in-process, and we will periodically post progress updates.

ADVANCED INSTITUTE

The Conscious Discipline Advanced Institute (CD2) is an intense training limited to only 48 attendees and an essential step needed for Certification. In 2017, we shifted CD2 from open registration to an invitation-based event. We reserved 50% of CD2 invitations for people of color, with a definite focus on recruiting Black attendees. We then gifted scholarships to those for whom finances were a barrier. These endeavors have not yet yielded the diversity we seek, so we are examining additional ways to recruit more effectively. We will continue this initiative indefinitely as a specific, actionable step toward increasing equity within the Conscious Discipline community and within the educational system at large.

TRAINING

Over the past decade, I have intentionally sought out research and amended trainings to include information about intergenerational, cultural and generational trauma specifically as it relates to Black Americans and Native Americans. I will continue this internal educational process for myself and our Instructors in efforts to address cultural responsiveness, microaggression, unconscious/implicit bias and the general historical perspective that is neglected in our educational system at large. We will also continue to increase the prevalence of Black and brown teachers, administrators and mental health professionals featured in videos and images during our trainings.

Additionally in our trainings, we will be more intentional and direct about sharing the way Conscious Discipline is designed to function in relation to one’s personal experiences. Conscious Discipline utilizes skills, powers and structures, but no prescriptive curriculum. Our approach supports mindset shifts, a compassionate cultural climate (the School Family), and skills of interaction that promote resilience and healthy relationships for all stakeholders (children, adults, schools, communities, etc.). We ask adults to digest and internalize Conscious Discipline into their mental models of their world, culture, jobs, relationships and children in their care— especially regarding misbehavior. We ask each adult to utilize what they deem helpful and set aside anything that doesn’t resonate, essentially making each person’s experience with Conscious Discipline uniquely their own. One outcome of this personalization is the ability for Conscious Discipline to be culturally sustaining, accessible and applicable to all communities, including communities of color. In efforts to further ensure access to training and resources, Conscious Discipline has invested $1.5 million dollars into under-resourced areas to support their goals with Conscious Discipline in the past three years.

STAFFING

Since 2018, we have engaged a reputable external partner to guide our hiring processes. Our directive is to elevate the best possible candidates for each position, with a priority on increasing diversity in our offices. We currently have two leadership positions and one staff position open. Our goal is to fill these positions once we recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19. Promoting diversity will be a lead factor in filling these and future positions.

OFFICE EDUCATION

Moving forward, Conscious Discipline will provide ongoing education and growth opportunities for our office leadership and staff in the areas of unconscious bias and racial equity. We will engage independent experts to help assess and train employees in regard to our antiracism goals, beginning with our most critical leadership and public-facing job positions. This effort will start immediately using Insperity HR Services, and will expand as we identify additional partners.

SOCIAL MEDIA

In early June, we began to prioritize using social media to share antiracist and race education content from respected thought leaders, including Ibram X Kendi’s Raising Antiracist Kids event, CASEL’s SEL as a Lever for Equity series and the APA’s Uplifting Youth Through Healthy Communication About Raceresources. We will continue to share antiracist content as an ongoing component of our messaging on all of our social media platforms. Our intent is to amplify leading voices and resource providers that encourage safe, productive conversations about racial equality, and to present educators, students, families and communities with opportunities for growth.

LEADING BY EXAMPLE

Like the world we live in, I am in a perpetual state of change and growth. Mistakes and missteps are essential to this process, and I have made many in my lifetime. A foundational concept in Conscious Discipline is to expand the pause between stimulus and reaction to create room for a conscious response. I am a teacher of this process, yet I am still learning this process. I believe the path to systemic and systematic change begins within each individual, and I am leading the way the best I know how— through continuous devotion to learning and improvement.

Over the past two years, these books and online courses have deepened my understanding of race issues and social justice, and helped to uncover my own unconscious bias:How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Ph.D., Cultural Somatics online course by Resmaa Menakem, Spare the Kids: Why Whupping Children Won’t Save Black America by Stacey Patton, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond.

I am currently reading My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem and it is profound. I will continue to seek out powerful resources to shape my personal growth as well as the content and organizational policies of Conscious Discipline.

PRODUCT CONTENT

Conscious Discipline has consistently sought to prioritize cultural sensitivity and accessibility in our products and materials, including inviting input and making related improvements. For example:
We have historically instructed our directors and managers to ensure cultural diversity in the content and images featured in our products and support materials. This will continue in a more strategic way, including increased staff training and enlisting guidance from independent experts.

In 2019, an outside firm reviewed the Conscious Discipline e-Course to reveal implicit bias in the content. My team corrected the content that could be changed, and I used the insights as an opportunity for improvement and growth.

We have made multiple adjustments to the fabric of the Feeling Buddies in order to address color variances in certain manufacturing runs. (The desired form for the Buddies is a unisex, racially ambiguous “gingerbread” appearance.)

Moving forward, we will more closely review all new products through the lens of diversity, cultural sensitivity and inclusiveness. Our internal diversity committee and independent experts will work together to develop a Diversity Assessment Framework that will help guide new product development, training, and the marketing of our products and resources.

IN CLOSING

These are initial steps that lay the foundation for much larger shifts to come. I am eager to actively seek ways to create equity and dismantle systemic racism through awareness, compassion, connection and action— starting within myself and Conscious Discipline, and extending outward to those we serve.

Our next step toward these commitments is to develop a specific and measurable plan that will include key milestones, metrics and timelines, and will grow as our knowledge expands. As new opportunities and concerns surface, we will responsively adjust this plan. We will strive for transparency by periodically sharing updates, benchmarks and celebrations on our website and through social media.

We will be listening throughout this process, and are eager to hear from you about addressing racism, our progress or related matters.

Please email drbeckybailey@consciousdiscipline.com with your input.

As Maya Angelou famously said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” I am committed to learning more and doing better. My personal commitment to act in support of equity and social justice begins with myself and extends to my office staff, our Instructors and the Conscious Discipline family. We are all in this together, and we will continue the lifelong process of uncovering our false beliefs and unconscious biases; acquiring new skills; ensuring our policies and actions reflect our core principles of love, unity and equity; and actively living these values embedded in Conscious Discipline.

Thank you for your willingness to join us on this journey.
Wishing you well,

Dr. Becky A BaileyFounder & Chief Knowledge Officer,
Conscious Discipline

Curriculum is designed to teach set objectives. SEL is the latest fad in education and hundreds of curriculum companies have sprung up to cash in on the federal government’s and academia’s push of this garbage. 

Curriculum is approved by local school boards of education and must align with the state’s department of education standards that must align with federal standards to access any federal and/or state funds/grants. Therefore state, federal and local education entities are working in tandem to turn kids into social justice/CRT warriors meanwhile SEL/CRT curriculum companies are getting rich off our tax dollars. Federal, state and local governments are complicit in this money laundering, socially indoctrinating scheme.

Progressive SEL foundations/organizations provide funding via grants or awards too. In fact, an Edmond elementary counselor, Janessa Bointy, received the National University System-Sanford Teacher Award for Oklahoma in 2020. She was awarded $10,000 for indoctrinating school children by “demonstrating high levels of inspirational teaching practices by engaging students, building student confidence, motivating students to succeed, giving students a voice and creating an inclusive environment.” “She has been a pioneer in using the Sanford Harmony social and emotional learning program to promote strong peer relations, self-regulation, tolerance, and understanding among students.”

During my conversation with Dr. Grunewald I brought up this counselor and her use of the Sanford Harmony Curriculum and she knew nothing about its use in our district or about this honor that was bestowed upon Ms. Bointy. In my letter to Dr. Grunewald I provided this link: Sunset Counselor Wins Award and $10,000 Prize – Edmond Public Schools (edmondschools.net) I also provided CRT-laced evidence from the Harmony website. Obviously, she failed to read my letter completely, as well as answer all my questions in concerns in a professional, truthful manner. If you or Dr. Grunewald would like to know more about the Sanford Harmony program here is a link from Ms. Bointy’s above mentioned blurb:

Sanford Harmony is a PreK-6 research-based social-emotional learning program that cultivates strong classroom relationships between all students. Sanford Harmony has been recognized by the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) as a quality program. http://sanfordprograms.org/

Back to the phone call. 

I bemoaned the fact that my tax payer dollars are being used to ultimately rewire my kid’s thoughts, values and beliefs. I also expressed my opinion that more SEL does not address Covid learning loss and more instruction of core subjects is the solution. 

Upon expressing my disdain for EPS’s molding and shaping my child’s identity Dr. Grunewald said since my kids come from stable home with involved parents, they will be able to cope and think for themselves, but SEL is necessary because there are students that come from unstable homes and everybody benefits; some more than others based on individual needs. She said mental health is a district priority now more than ever in light of the Covid pandemic and SEL is great tool to address it. We also discussed the definition of SEL and the link she provided in her response from the OK State Department of Education to explain further why SEL is taught.

CASEL is the author of the definition and framework of SEL that school districts across the country use. I am guessing that CASEL provided this document to the state department and OK State Department just inserted their tag on it. CASEL is a clearing house for all these SEL curriculum companies. 

The information provided under the heading Teacher and Parents and subtitle SEL Resources for Parents, Educators and School Communities Related to Covid-19 will lead you to another vomit-inducing link. 

Under the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion subheading you’ll find, “Speaking Up Against Racism Around The Coronavirus – The coronavirus became racialized, so it’s critical that educators understand the historical context and confront racist tropes and xenophobia from students and colleagues”, from an organization called, “Learning For Justice”, which is a project of the “Southern Poverty Law Center“.

I also was able to find, ​COVID19 Resources From America’s Promise Alliance Partner Organizations a Google Document containing this link ​​​Talking About COVID-19: A Call for Racial, Economic, and Health Equity | The Opportunity Agenda.

From the Opportunity Agenda:

“We also need to step up our allyship with communities of color. As Race Forward stated: “Implicit and explicit racism has often historically driven government responses to urgent health situations…The Trump administration has used this crisis to stem travel from unaffected regions, including halting asylum seekers at the Southern border. Hate-filled and racist rhetoric has stigmatized people of color as “infected,” threats to public safety, and burdens to the health care system.”

“Being an ally for communities of color starts in our language and messaging. We must avoid slipping into the mindset of “othering” when talking about this pandemic or any other public health crisis.
America is currently grappling with its long legacy of racism and othering. This comes through in our messaging around COVID by allowing implicit and explicit bias to influence our thinking and language, whether it be the example of blaming specific races for the virus and its spread or referring to the virus using derogatory terms.

Instead, we should work together to actively dispel xenophobic myths and racist misinformation – and hold our elected officials and the media to doing the same. Addressing implicit bias and racism is not always easy, but it is imperative, which is why The Opportunity Agenda developed a messaging tool to help advance these conversations.”

Oklahoma has a law banning this type of curriculum/instruction, yet the OK State Department of Education has a resource sheet with clearly unvetted links to CRT political action organizations and CRT disguised as SEL curriculum resources? 

Dr. Grunwald’s response to this was: “Well you know when you start clinking on links you could end up on a porn site.”

Parents, educators, patriots please understand that SEL is a conduit of CRT. IT IS A 12 YEAR PROGRAM THAT SOCAILLY ENGINEERS YOUR CHILD by transforming your child’s core values, attitudes and beliefs. SEL lessons focus on diversity, equity and inclusion to promote “kindness” and create a “safe” learning environment for all. These lessons already occur naturally in our homes, families, communities and classrooms. It is not the school’s job to focus on feelings. Their job is to impart objective truth.

YES, Dr. Grunewald CRT is being taught in our schools!

2

Why Would We NOT Want Schools To Teach ‘Grit’, ‘Tenacity’ and ‘Perseverance’?

True Grit is one of my absolute favorite movies of all time (both versions!). I LOVED the plucky spunk – grit – of Mattie Ross who stood against unbelievable odds and won the respect of a drunk old cowboy named “Rooster” – to find the killer of her father. 

Note: No one in that movie taught Mattie Ross how to be ‘gritty’ – she didn’t learn it in her one-room school house – no teacher explained to her how exactly to behave.  Mattie was apparently born a gritty young woman, but throughout the movie, we see her tenacity only increase as her mettle was tested again and again through uncertain and tough circumstances.

So why have we somehow decided that schools should teach ‘grit’, ‘tenacity’ and ‘perseverance’?

ROPE asked this question during the common core years over and over and over again.

Here’s the deal – no matter what any educrat says – THESE ARE NOT TEACHABLE CONCEPTS. 

There is no curriculum that can do it. There is no teacher in the world that can instill them. They are personality traits and one cannot ‘teach’ an intangible concept, the extent of which varies from individual to individual, and the creation of which depends upon exposure to infinitely many and different tough sets of circumstances.

The idea that we can character concepts to children is inspired entirely upon the concept of collectivism – like everything else in ‘formal education’ given us by democratic socialists Horace Mann and John Dewey – who believed that somehow, collectively, once students are all in a room together, intangible personality traits can be cultivated by exposure to a teacher/counselor/guide imparting the right ‘skill set’ rather than exposure to difficult and/or trying circumstances.

Grit, tenacity and perseverance can only be developed in a classroom when students are taught age-appropriate/developmentally-appropriate content in their subjects (reading, math, history, English, science) and then expected to meet difficult, but reasonable, reachable goals set for them on a consistent basis and adhered to without exception. These circumstances PRODUCE grit, tenacity and perseverance in students, not some magical word potion from a teacher.

We don’t provide that circumstantial framework today, however. We don’t teach age-appropriate/developmentally-appropriate curriculum anymore – it’s been diluted by years of parent complaints that material is ‘too hard’ or there’s ‘too much’ homework, and by ever-changing guidelines established by ever-changing education fads created by authoritarian educrats who develop vapid, moronic and damaging curricula such as COMMON CORE, SEL, OUTCOMES-BASED EDUCATION, WHOLE CHILD, ect., while gazing out the windows of their ivory towers dreaming of molding the ‘perfect society’.

It’s no wonder we have kids who’d rather stay home from work when the government waves a check under their nose – they’ve never been expected to produce anything that takes even a modicum of effort during any of the formative years. They’ve never experienced the INFECTIOUS JOY of meeting a goal they once thought insurmountable, or even extraordinarily difficult.

Excepting possibly through sports – and the classrooms of the few good teachers left – students are not only not getting challenged, but they’re not being taught much that’s actually useful for either their own edification and personal growth, or for finding and sustaining gainful employment. 

Still and all, we throw hard-earned tax dollar after tax dollar at the system as though THAT will somehow overcome the fact that public education wasn’t even founded for the right purpose – exposure to the concepts of truth and beauty for the edification and personal growth of individual children – not instruction in skill sets deemed necessary by a government to sustain an economy.

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑