Getting Tired Of It

[AngryOldDem]

So my fifth-grader is in the car with Dad, and says that an interesting thing happened to him on the playground Tuesday. Kids were going around asking everyone who their parents were voting for. If a kid said "Bush," he got applause. If the kid said "Kerry," he got name-called.

Sounds harmless, but is it? In this climate, just how DO we know whether this is just kids being kids, or possibly the start of something more? What they hear at home they parrot at school, and God only knows what Mom and Dad are saying about Kerry and whoever supports him. Don't mean to sound paranoid, but it's pretty damned sad when even and elementary school appears to be polarized.

Then I have my eighth-grader coming home everyday in am extremely foul mood because all she hears is political talk all day long among her classmates. One teacher, who decided to bring the issue into her classroom, has Bush biographies all over place, and began calling my kid "Kerry" when she said she was not a Bush supporter. My daughter put a stop to that, though. But it sounds like even the middle school (at least this class) is divided as well.

I told my son that if this happened again, he is to let me know and I will have a talk with the principal about the importance of teaching his students 1) respect for others (a BIG topic at the school, if you overlook that it's only lip service); 2) and how the electoral process works. 'Cause L'il Brownshirts can grow up to be Big Brownshirts, and this country already has enough trouble as it is.

And what did * say? "I'm a uniter, not a divider"????

[rhino47]

1. I would be on that phone and not wait for the second t ime

That is just plain old bullying.A teacher engaging in that is totally wrong.I would be raising hell.

[Sugarbleus]

2. Wow, AOD are these your kids or g.kids or someone else's?

I will add my comments after you reply....

[AngryOldDem]

8. They're Mine....

...but my youngest (3) has been mistaken for a grandchild when he's out with my husband :D . (But not with me, so I guess I don't look as old. :D. )

I have one at the elementary school, one at the middle school, and one in the 2-year kindergarten program. My youngest is in preschool.

[Ruffhowse]

3. Geez, where do you live? Schools around here (State of Washington) have

strict rules against that sort of partisanship, especially from a teacher. Kids are taught to respect others viewpoints amongst each other. I'd jump on the phone to the school if I heard a teacher treat my kid like that.

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

4. Call the principal immediately...

...and remind him/her that the school district cannot afford a harrassment lawsuit. What the eighth grade teacher is doing is way the hell over the line professionally and ethically.

[murielm99]

5. I would go to school and talk to those teachers privately.

In fact, I have done that in the past.

If teachers were biased, and showed their repuke bias, I called them on it, in a nice way. My kids were all excellent students, too.

This is not new behavior by any means. I fought it years ago, and my kids are in their twenties now.

I told them to be proud of who they were, and to stand up for themselves. We would help them, if necessary.

My husband and I went to see one music teacher who is a dittohead. I told him nicely that I thought his behavior was unprofessional. He respected us and our kids. He was stung by what I said, and he did stop. My daughter is now a professional musician, and she played a concerto with an orchestra he guest conducts in the summer. They get along very well.

I spoke to a social studies teacher once, too. I did it in a very nice way, and he did think about what he was doing. Later, I worked with him, and we had a good professional relationship.

Talk to the teacher directly. Tell them that they have to present both sides, in the interest of fairness. Do not go over his or her head unless it becomes necessary. You may be pleasantly surprised.

[DebJ]

6. This is harrassment, and bullying, and the schools have a

duty to protect your child from that.

[AngryOldDem]

7. Response to Everyone -- Thanks!

Thanks for the all the support and advice! It sounds like I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but again, how do I know?

You are all right -- I should not sit on this. And I won't. I guess I've just been momentarily stunned into inaction because of the brazenness of these kids. I was at the school doing Kids Voting-related stuff in 2000, and I don't recall any of this type of stuff going on. You had campaign posters for * and Gore, which are fine, but nothing like this.

The elementary school has a new principal this year who has already rubbed me the wrong way on other things. But screw it -- I've been involved at this school for eight years, this is my last year there for a while, so I don't care what he thinks.

I will take the time today to draft a letter -- I want proof that I spoke up. Some good can come of this, if people over there care.

[mongo]

9. You are definitely NOT making a mountain out of a molehill

I am surprised that any progressive person can keep their kid in public school anymore.

At my daughter's middle school, they had religious assemblies where a Christian preacher gave a sermon - twice a year.

She did not want me to do anything about it - she had just come to live with me and was the new kid in a small town where everyone else has known each other all their lives.

After Columbine, the teachers held a witch hunt where they basically bated the kids "have YOU heard anyone say anything about guns?" Of course, the misfits in the school were targeted by the other kids. Over a dozen kids were suspended and had CRIMINAL CHARGES brought against them. My daughter was the only kid that didn't get put on probation because we were the only family that could afford a lawyer.

We home schooled after that. I guess we were lucky we could afford to do that at the time.

[shade]

10. I've seen this before.

I went to high school with a guy who is a Republican lunatic -- the type who doesn't think and takes everything that the Rethug leadership says as Holy Writ.

Until he decided to go back to law school (and I hear he's too wingnut for even the Campus Republicans at UToledo!) he was the history teacher at my high school for a few years... no doubt, he was trying to indoctrinate the students as much as he could. He didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with pressuring people who didn't agree with his views. :puke:

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

11. Heh..Centerville Schools, right? I've always wondered about this.

...I always wondered how much of this areas bad attitude comes from schools and teahcers...and yr 8th graders expereince with her teacher pretty much confirms it...seems like the teachers are pushing conformity and a certain political line in class.....

I know when I went to school in Kentucky we had teachers that where left & right, but they where fair and encouraged discussion, but also respect and tolerance...this was Louisville & suburbs in the 1970s...so I wondered what school was like around here.

Now I think I know.

[AngryOldDem]

12. Not So Much The Schools....

...it's the backgrounds of these kids, I think. You get a really peculiar -- and to my mind -- volatile -- mix of kids in Centerville. You have the really rich, the middle class (like my family), and lower-income. My son's school has a mix of all three because it's bordered by high-end neighborhoods on the west, apartments with a lot of transient (meaning: here one year, gone the next due to job or circumstance changes) on the east, and people like us in the middle. And kids tend to reflect the values they're taught at home.

An update: Husband (gemdem) wants to hold off on involving the principal unless this type of playground crap becomes regular. I;'m not so sure that's the best course to take, but whatever. But what I did today -- I called the League of Women Voters and got the number for the Kids Voting office in Dayton. Centerville Schools does participate in this program, and I intend to be at school a lot between now and the Election. When I'm there, I'm going to make it a point to drive home to the principal how important Kids Voting is, and how it is an excellent addition to the curriculum, and why kids need to know and understand how a democracy works.