Does Your Child's Teacher Brainwash Them?

a reply to: Aazadan
Your post reminded me of another incident with our daughter, although this one was ongoing for over a year and I never could pin down where this was coming from. In the fifth grade she started to come home with a lot of anti-gun rhetoric. Now we are pro-second amendment and pro-hunting in this house. We would explain our stance when she would bring it up and we would do our best to just present our perspective, while being clear that the choice on where she landed on this was hers. It was an constant and ongoing conversation with her for months.

I will say that that year I made sure that my husband and I both got our hunting licenses and where we live we can, and do, literally stand in our back yard and get our deer for the year from our back pasture. That was the first year she saw me shoot a deer and gut them out (my husband couldn't ((or so he says)) because of a bad back.) She had to help me haul my deer onto the trailer behind the four wheeler and take it back, and help me to hang him. She was part and parcel to the whole process and for some reason, after that she started to slowly swing away from the anti-gun rhetoric. We didn't have to say much more after that.

I'm not sure exactly why that worked, maybe there is something about hunting that reinforces those generational cultural beliefs... And we ate them and she really likes deer meat. So maybe that. So we indoctrinated her into our belief system, but that is the right and obligation of parents, not state mandated, funded and determined institutions, which is what schools have become.

originally posted by: AngryCymraeg


I'm sorry, but what you're saying is that you went from a highly conservative, right-wing and reactionary school to a place that wasn't - and you're surprised that the teachers were different?

No. I'm not saying I'm surprised. Nothing liberals do surprises me in 2015.

My wife is a teacher and she has taught in both the USA and the UK.

I'm not surprised.

The government and society are intertangled. The teachers do not even know a lot of times that they are conditioning the students. Teachers are trained to teach, their teachers were trained to teach, their teachers teachers were trained to teach. So the whole system of education being a conditioning program is not comprehendable to some people, even teachers.

Much of the conditioning in school is good for our society. Now if you go to another country their conditioning is different so their whole perspective is different. This conditioning needs to evolve with societies evolution, the problem now is society is evolving too quickly and because of this the bugs are not worked out. By the time the kids get out of school, things have changed. Things they were taught are found to have been wrong.

Take for instance the negative effect that we are causing with climate change. Twenty five years ago most people would have laughed at you if you mentioned this. Now that all the changes of earth's altered chemistry are coming to lite and many creatures are dying, people are starting to believe it, because they are actually able to provide evidence.

I remember when I was a kid, people used to think the earth could fix anything. Already at that time they had almost killed two of the great lakes and were starting to try to fix it. It needed us to fix it, the earth could not do it if we didn't stop what we were doing. This is just an example of how people's beliefs are wrong and they need to be adjusted. So I have to say that conditioning kids is necessary in society, and the government makes sure that this conditioning included in the social aspect of schools is in place. The teacher does not need to know they are conditioning the kids. That is irrelevant. This social conditioning is going on and it always will be. People need to learn to get along, they are now trying to put a thumb on the bullying that is going on. This is important, but still people must be taught that these bullies are out there and learn to deal with them. If they don't learn in school, they will learn about them outside of school. Sooner or later, maybe there won't be any bullies, but then where do we get our congressmen and CEOs from?

originally posted by: rickymouse
The government and society are intertangled. The teachers do not even know a lot of times that they are conditioning the students. Teachers are trained to teach, their teachers were trained to teach, their teachers teachers were trained to teach. So the whole system of education being a conditioning program is not comprehendable to some people, even teachers.

Much of the conditioning in school is good for our society.

We are in agreement. We are a society. Not being or knowing how to be a part of that society is detrimental. However, we are also independent beings. It's important to be able to separate the two.

One of the hardest things I ever learned was: your own strong personal integrity - - - does not necessarily work well in your job. Someone is paying you to do something. Your responsibility is to provide them with what they are paying for. If your feelings are so strong you can't do that, then you need to find another job. Do not give your boss a lecture on integrity (no I didn't). Try having a boss with both a wife and a mistress. That both show up at work unannounced. You know that comedy of errors where you have to hide the mistress in the closet because the wife showed up. Yeah, that actually happened. None of my business.

Anyway, the biggest complaint I get from other parents is: "Why can't the school do their job?" This is in reference to kids bringing school work home. The parents are complaining about having to do homework with their kids. They say: "I work all day, then I come home and have to do the teachers job". Really?

Other parents think I'm crazy because I only let my grandson have a playdate on "half day Wednesday". Other days I go online and download comparable worksheets and learn with him as we do extra credit. He's only 7, but I have him learning to type, learning computer code, and he likes animation. Homeschooling in addition to public school.

We also talk about ideas. We Google everything we don't know. Funny, he doesn't ask: Why? He asks: Why does it exist?

This time doesn't come again.

Do I make the most of it or do I uselessly complain about what someone else does or doesn't do?

Yes, i agree with that teacher is very important person for child's life. so, if your child's teacher will teach him good things, ther learn it an apply in his/her life.

a reply to: Annee

Homework is good. No one ever likes doing homework, but it's important. I went to a private HS and at the time was considered a genius. I never took homework home, it would be assigned 5 minutes before class ended and I would have it done before that class was over. Anything I missed I caught up on my lunch break. In college, for the first couple programs I finished I never studied, I simply did the work based off of memory of the lecture. Now I've finally worked my way into a hard program. I sit at school for 6 hours a day in class, then go home and do another 10 hours of homework. On the weekends I catch up or try to work on side projects.

There's a big age difference between me and your grandson but homework is important. It teaches you how to answer questions on your own. Many times in life when you're working on a problem you can't simply ask a nearby person for a solution. You need to improvise your own, and that's what homework is all about. Students who skip it, or have parents that supply them with all the answers are missing the most important part of school.

a reply to: Aazadan

Thanks. Appreciate the insight.

I come from a family of what I call "useless geniuses". Brilliant minds that can't apply it to everyday mundane. When everything comes too easy, then something requires a bit of effort, its too boring to apply the effort, just move on to something else.

I'm trying to set an early pattern of learning and doing more then what is expected, plus working independently for personal gain/knowledge.

I've often wondered if it might be better in elementary school if the teacher evolved with the class. Having the same teacher for 5/6 years in elementary school.

But, that doesn't reflect real life. In real life most people encounter multiple people/personalities as they evolve.

If a teacher expresses an opinion, I prefer the mind be open to, at least, accept that people vary in their opinions. I'd say it depends on the degree that opinion is expressed to a student.

My mom believed in "many roads". You can show your child "your road", but its their life to find their own.