About the discourse between public schools and parents, consider this scene from the Brit series Midsomer Murders (it's supped to be copied to the pertinent scene so you don't have to watch the whole episode - up through about the 1:22:51 spot):
Because what was that NPR piece other than manipulation? Power of suggestion. Note that there is nothing in it that screams 'propaganda piece for the Left!' Nonetheless, you can't miss that the piece is nothing but that. And you know, in your gut, exactly what you are supposed to think about the situation once you're finished reading the piece.
It can be spotted, however, for several reasons if you think on it. First we have context and know what it's all about. We get the fact that parents, in 2020, were suddenly confronted with what their children were really learning or not learning in schools. Then concerns brought to educators and school boards were met with pushback rather than dialogue in more than one instance. Sometimes flagrant and condescending pushback. Teachers, acting as if the Internet isn't a thing, were found on Zoom or other platforms calling hellfire down on conservatives or explaining why parents don't have the right to know what their kids are learning.
All of which prompted parents to begin confronting the school boards when the opportunity presented itself. No doubt some parents behaved as inappropriately as some of the teachers and school boards. Note, however, the focus in the NPR piece.
The piece also does the usual, emphasizing vast conservative funding networks, something almost never mentioned when the press discusses liberal activism. Likewise, it suggests that the 'silent majority' is really on the side of the teachers and school boards who want this to go away. The reporter knows this because it's the silent majority.
Perhaps the giveaway part, however, is this little bit on down in the piece, quoting an anonymous principal who identifies as a Republican in a predominantly conservative district:
"You can't [use newspapers] anymore. You can't use CNN because the parents will go nuts on you. You can't use Fox because it's so out there. It's hard to teach kids about what's going on in any kind of context, because there is no context anymore."
Note that. You can't use CNN - because of those rascally parents going nuts on you.. Not that CNN is a problem. The problem is those nutty parents. You can't use FOX either. Why? Says the Republican in the conservative district - because FOX is "so out there". The problem in this case being Fox, not the nutty parents.
And I'm supposed to believe this is some conservative Republican principal who sees no problem with CNN but considers FOX out there? This is as if to say 'see, Republican Conservative says FOX is a problem, but otherwise it's the parents when they question CNN'. The power of suggestion. A big thing in our modern institutions and our modern media. But if you step back and don't let distraction or misdirection fool you, and think things through, you'll be able to spot the illusion almost every time.
I have been critically reading/watching the news since the 90's. My parents pointed things out even then. It's maddening to be so aware sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI think many people are trying to be good parents and want to give their kids a good education, but they also need the schools as childcare so they can both work. So people make excuses that their schools "aren't so bad" or their kids "can handle it", or the more religious ones try to walk that line having one foot in the world and one in their faith values. (Because worldly "education" is a bit of an idol, even for religious people.) So far, the world has won nearly every time with those kids. If it doesn't happen in high school, then it happens in college where the priming they got in high school goes into full bloom away from home. Because the conditioning and characterization is pretty thorough, and no young adult wants to appear as the idiots portrayed in such news stories. Plus, they have no means to discern the difference in portrayals as it's always presented as "self-evident" so pointing out the contradictory just puts a social target on their back. And if there's anything schools are good at teaching these days it's social discrimination and intimidation.
The schools as child care became obvious during the lockdowns and Covid. In one of those little twists that we all saw but weren't allowed to speak to, one of the injustices was that when we were told to lockdown or we'll all die - that included everyone except daycare workers. Daycares had to keep going, sometimes because it was explicitly stated that the children's parents were both doctors or in the medical field. Not parents who had to work to pay the bills, but parents who wanted to work those jobs because they wanted to work those jobs, make bank, and figured things were taken care of. But because we needed every well paid doctor on the front lines, the low paid daycare workers were thrown under the bus. If we lived in a more humble and honest age, we might actually look at some of the negatives that have arisen due to our modern activism and agendas. But I won't hold my breath.
DeleteBetween the article and Bernadette's comment, you've already highlighted much. I will say this: From my early teens onward (later 80s), I heard of the need for news to be "content neutral" and the virtue of Ed Murrow. I also heard about the need for "tolerance".
ReplyDeleteAs I aged though, I had serious reservations develop. Being "content neutral" frequently meant "subtle opposition" to principles inspired by faith, including during Murrow's era. Further, "tolerance" seemed mostly a matter of saying nothing, especially for morally repulsive subjects....And yet we still kept hearing the narrative about "never again".
I don't doubt that school administrators have noticed increased opposition to their efforts. In truth, such parental concern...too often strikes me as being 20-30 years overdue.
...Schools providing "daycare" has contributed considerably. Even as few willingly oppose the notion of working mothers, ...I have rarely seen families for whom both parents in the workforce has truthfully been good for the family or society.
Looking back, it's easier to see when they said tolerant, they meant for their agendas. They had no desire to be tolerant of opposition. Just like 'don't judge' was often hoisted as a moral mandate - by people who no problem judging. And I, too, remember the 'media must be content neutral', being hammered into us at a time when the media was becoming anything but that. Not that journalism has ever been 'neutral', but it at least had to put on appearances. By the 80s, it wasn't hard to see where the up and coming media names and outlets - The NYT, Washington Post, CNN, Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts, Dan Rather, Peter Jennings - stood on a host of issues and agendas, even as they screamed all the louder 'objectivity!'
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ReplyDeleteAs De Tocqueville observed two centuries ago, we are a conformist society and the public schools have always been good at reinforcing that conformism (both in official and student culture). Catholics have complained about that since the time of Horace Mann. Conservatives who complain about what goes on now probably would have approved or ignored the more "right-wing" sort of pressures in the 1950s, and the fact that the values reinforced then were morally healthier (broadly speaking) than "wokism" does not change the fact that conformism is both an evil and inimical to liberty. Truth is the standard, not "what the neighbors will think" nor what the social media monitors approve. If parents really want to fight this (and not simply replace one conformist mentality with another), it requires thought and soul-searching.
Truth is the standard, but I think we were flimflammed by the modern progressive movement when it insisted a nation can't impose values or legislate morality or try to convert people and such. That was big in my day, and in hindsight there was no truth to it. Those saying 'we have no right to fly some truth flag up the pole and demand everyone salute' were in the process of preparing to hoist their own truth flag. We just missed the obvious.
Deletequoting an anonymous principal who identifies as a Republican in a predominantly conservative district:
ReplyDeleteI've come to suspect that a great many anonymous quotations are attributed to people who do not exist outside the imagination of the reporter. And I'll wager this chap does not exist.
Yep. I've concluded that as well, right along with the belief that if the news media isn't covering something, it must be true.
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