The original story column from these emails in the Federalist is here and the FOX & Friends interview with an Newton parent here.
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The Federalist piece is not a “story” in the sense of a news report – it’s an essay. If you actually read the emails themselves, start to finish, you realize that the essay cherry picks phrases and sentences to draw conclusions that the writers of the emails were not making. And the author of the essay? “Ilya Feoktistov is a member of the board of directors of Americans for Peace and Tolerance.” Shocking!
@Tricia: Good point. “Story” has been changed to “column.” And yes no surprise about the origins of this.
Ed Urquiola, who do these teachers think they are, not objectively teaching that it’s OK to grab a woman by her genitals, that it’s OK to mock people with disabilities, that it’s OK to make fun of servicemen and women who are prisoners of war, etc. I mean, these are all rational perspectives to which students need to be exposed in the name of objectivity, right?
This isn’t just Newton. Someday it will dawn on my friends on the right just how deeply most Americans loath Trump and most of those who serve under him with the notable exception of General Mattis.
David Bedar and Jon Bassett are both talented, outstanding educators and I’m grateful my kids had the opportunity to be in their classes. I read the full email exchange and completely agree this is cherry picking at its worst. Then again, given the author of the piece in The Federalist, this is purely par for the course.
Newton political people dislike Trump. However, many Americans throughout the United States believe in policies quite different than here in Massachusetts. Trump simply represents views popular in other regions.
How can Newtonites show some tolerance to young people?
Maybe they can not. However, our public schools must attempt
to provide some political balance of thought for students who want to learn about the truth or at least 2 sides of the issues.
This is only fair.
Colleen, maybe I’d see where you were coming from if we were in the Bush era. This goes beyond having different ideologies when you have a president whose entire platform is based on bigotry.
Good for the teachers showing basic human decency.
I think there is a way to teach in the age of trump. For example, go over the 1st amendment and then ask students to debate whether or not trump’s self-described religious travel ban violates it. Or discuss the 8th Amendment and have students debate whether caging & trafficking toddlers & deleting their family records violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel & unusual punishment.
@Colleen, locally and all over the world we are witnessing never seen before droughts, heat waves, wildfires, etc. Some people, among them sober-minded scientists, think it’s time to start panicking. I believe you know what Trump’s record on environment is. An up-to-date list of how President Trump is changing environmental policy is kept here: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/how-trump-is-changing-science-environment. His actions (very much motivated by his vile desire to destroy Obama’s legacy) put the lives of future generations at risk. Do you really have a nerve “to provide some political balance of thought for students” on that? No, I think your mother’s instinct should guide you to tell them: vote him out as soon as you can just on this single issue, if nothing else.
Colleen, we’re talking about Fascism. Stop normalizing it.
What Adam said.
I cannot believe the amount of comments defending bias teaching. History, which we are now living through, is made of up facts, good or bad. A teacher has to present all the facts and try to stimulate critical thinking in young minds. Not push political bias. Changing history is something terrible governments do when trying to control the masses. Are these teachers afraid that if given unbiased history that these children might not agree with their political beliefs?
Some people hate Trump, I live near Amherst in a very Liberal Anti-Trump area. But this is liberal Massachusetts and not representative of much of middle America where Trump is supported. Stop coddling our children and teach them without bias and let them grow in their critical thinking.
Teaching our children should rise above political bias on both sides or we will reap what we sow.
Mikele, there are “good” facts and “bad” facts? Can you explain what you mean by that?
Adam,
If you truly believe this is fascism, then just under HALF OF ALL AMERICANS are supportive of fascism, racism, sexism.
Could this really be true? Or are we living in a liberal bubble? This huge percentage of Americans are this stupid and dumb?
The Nazis under Hitler garnered substantial popular support. That doesn’t make Hitler any less fascist.
Trump supporters that know but overlook him bragging about perpetrating sexual abuse or the allegations that he raped his spouse or a teenager with Jeffrey Epstein are indeed sexist. People who know but deny he lied about Mexico paying for his asinine wall & now hold US taxpayers hostage to pay, or promised to release his taxes are liars themselves. People who don’t think separating, caging & trafficking toddlers is cruel and unusual are sociopathic.
But I think many of the supporters just don’t believe he said or did the things the evidence shows because Fox tells them its not true and they believe it.
Nathan,
So you are saying just under half the usa population are dumb enough to be manipulated by a single man and a cable tv channel one must subscribe to.
Seriously?
Nathan,
I will say one thing, their support also stems from their economic situation. The past democratic and Republican admins screwed them over economically while we all stood by.
We are all guilty of creating this mess and letting our fellow Americans down. We did nothing while their jobs were shipped out without training or access to other skills. We live in a bubble and simply didn’t care because we stereotype them as stupid.
If democrats focus less on illegal immigration and helping out middle america, i have no doubt the support for trump would wane.. but unfortunately…
That, Mikele, was the point of the teacher’s email exchange: How do you teach history in a way that allows for a respectful exchange of perspectives while maintaining a safe environment for all students? The Charlottesville rally/protest is a case in point. We can agree this may be an event you would describe a “bad” fact. In the classroom, the facts are presented: a white supremacist organized a rally that led to violence and the murder of a innocent protester. It’s safe to say that this incident caused extreme anxiety amongst the HS students of color and a teacher facilitating a discussion about it must be mindful to maintain a safe environment for them.
To complicate matters, high school students frequently assume new personna, new ideas, and language that may not reflect who they eventually become in the future. High school teachers know this and live it everyday. I see no condemnation of groups of students of any demographic in these emails. The focus was on how to maintain a safe environment for all students when unacceptable language is used during a discussion.
When a student uses language that creates an unsafe environment for a segment of the class (racist, anti-semitic, or homophobic language for example), the teacher needs to step in, provide context, and explain the reasons why the language makes other students in the class feel unsafe. This is necessary to restore the safe environment for students who may be traumatized (and I don’t use that word lightly) by hearing inappropriate language about their race, religion, or sexual identity in their class/school – the space where they must live for seven hours a day, five days a week.
This is nothing new. I can vouch that teachers have been dealing with similar situations for decades. What has changed in the last three years is the frequency of such incidents in the classroom and school as a result of the increase of racist, anti-semitic, homophobic, derogatory language related to economic circumstances, disabilities, etc. on the news and from national leaders.
When a change in the classroom/school environment takes place that causes concern (an increase in physical violence, coarse language, disregard of school rules for example), teachers/staff address the issue at faculty meetings. In addition, issues are often discussed on a First Class (NPS email) folder that includes the approved names of a specific group of teachers or staff for whom it has been created. For instance, I have access to the ELL email folder but do not have access to folders for other any other department. Up to this point, these folders have provided a space for the exchange of ideas that often result in a change in protocols or policy that address the issue causing concern.
@Mikele,
We are not “defending bias [sic] teaching”; if you actually take the time to read the entire exchange of emails you will see that these educators are struggling with how to present current events. But as you are from Amherst, thanks for your interest and concern in what the outstanding teaching staff at the Newton Public Schools are struggling with when faced with such events as white supremacist “free speech” rallies and the deaths and injuries that flow from them.
Bugek writes:
Yes, or tolerant of it. Nazi Germany analogies apply.
Your words, not mine. Education is the key to fixing this. Presumably it’s a smaller percentage than in 2016, when that figure included those who were duped into voting for a grifter, or those who were filled with hatred, disadvantaged and thought it would be helpful to “shake things up” and convinced that “our institutions would save us” from any consequences.
Colleen says students should learn about the truth or at least two sides of the issue. The truth is the truth whether everyone agrees or not.
Reading the original emails it’s easy to see that these teachers were just discussing how to approach issues that may have two sides of belief among our population when sometimes one side’s belief is based on lies fed to them by our president and outlets like Sinclair Media and Fox News. It must be really tough.
Teaching critical thinking is one key to be a good teacher and there are plenty of ways to do that using facts alone.
This debate goes well beyond these teachers, they are struggling with a lot of the same issues as the rest of us. Sen. Moynihan is quoted as saying “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” But in today’s rhetorical environment facts have lost meaning. People regularly conflate fact, opinion and interpretation.
But even when something is presented as “fact” you need to better understand the source material as to contextualize it. Sometimes this is simple, other times it’s a complex thing to do and it happens both nationally and locally. There are people who will simply not accept facts printed in the New York Times as true. They see the paper as biased and therefore suspect. If you believe the Times has credibility, then so does the factual nature of its reporting.
Take the recent survey by the Newtonville Area Council. You can look at the results as fact, but in order to understand them you also need to examine how the questions were asked and who responded to the survey. This isn’t about being right or wrong, it’s not a black and white issue, but it’s about understanding what you’re reading.
These particular teachers, rightfully, are trying to help our children (of whom, my son was one) how to get beyond simply accepting what is there as “fact” and really ask what’s behind it. If one side builds and argument on facts and data while another builds its underlying argument on emotion and fear, then it’s difficult to line those up and declare they’re equal.
Bedar argues that Nativism is wrong. Nativism is built on fear, not on facts. It’s a simplistic view of saying “outsiders are bad.” It’s not a policy built by understanding the economic impacts of immigrants from different nations and then helping find ways to grow our economy, it’s just about getting people with little or no understanding to find a simple solution to their complex problem. History teaches us what happens next.
We need more teachers like these, we need to support them and build them, not try to take them down with poorly-executed essays in publications that give themselves high-sounding names so they can appear intellectual.
I don’t think this “huge percentage of Americans are this stupid or dumb.” When children are taught to believe certain things from a young age, they stick – at least until experiences start to open their minds to other perspectives. Some stay within the same group and never see any reason to change their beliefs.
Some people believe that immigrants are taking their jobs so this administration has played on that belief. Others believed that this administration would bring back manufacturing jobs lost to China. These things aren’t happening and people are beginning to see that they were duped.
Different special interest groups, evangelical christrians, conservative christians, uber conservatives, the NRA, anti-government groups, white supremists and others will support the White House as long as their needs are being met.
Marti,
With such a large population being brought up to believe these things, who is to say your version of reality is any truer than theirs. Especially since were talking about just under half the population.
The divide is so great in this country, we really need a 3rd party to separate out the extremes from both parties…
Who funds the Federalist? It is literally not imaginable that they are making their ends meet based only on web advertising revenues. It is like a dark money recipient from the Koch Bros, the Mercers, Shelden Adelson or some other disgusting billionaire. They are the ones who want to poison us against our teachers asking exactly the sorts of questions they should be as teachers working in this historical moment.
@jordan it looks like someone on Quora went digging through some SEC Forms. It doesn’t say specifically who funds it, but it lays out a possibility.
https://www.quora.com/Who-funds-The-Federalist
Thankfully, many students who’ve been coddled, protected and sheltered in high school by closed-minded teachers, parents and left-leaning automatrons of all types, have discovered Jordon B. Peterson. His main achievement is getting kids to think for themselves.
Don’t know who he is? You’re college-age kids do. Try listening to them for once.
@Jose Rubenstein,
Actually – I do listen to my 3 college students – a lot. I’ve learned a ton from them, including the fact that they challenge and disagree with me on a host of issues regularly and freely. Haven’t discussed Dr. Peterson with them (at least not thus far), though we’ve had some awesome discussions about the work of leading cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Itiel Dror on the issue of cognitive bias.
Coddled, protected and sheltered? I suppose that depends upon your perspective and how each individual approaches parenting. I don’t exactly view my kids and their friends as coddled, sheltered or pampered. I see vibrant young adults doing challenging things (oh, like planning a hike from Newton to New York to film a “walk-umentary” , volunteering on an archeological dig then winging it through several countries in Europe with nothing but a backpack and a cell phone and living in Australia for six months on a shoe string with no family or friends to call upon, and making award winning films.) But then again, they’re only the product of the “mediocre” Newton Public Schools.
Cheers.
First, I love the fact that the teachers care enough to talk about this issue on their own time and try to learn from one another.
Second, I would think that teaching without using the presidents name would be key. For instance, talk about the presidency without mentioning what his name’s name. I’m sure this has been tried, but it was my initial thought.
@Lisap
Humble brag.
Terrific. That’s great that Newton students can “plan” a hike from Newton to New York. Keep us posted if they actually do it. And let us know if any of these filmmakers get real work – work that doesn’t rely on grants from the largess of taxpayers.
Lisap
your post reminds me of why Newton has a reputation of being insufferable, out of touch and living in bubble. The other 99% of kids are probably working at mcdonalds, odd jobs to save for college, or perhaps doing cooking, cleaning at home to help their parents and grand parents because they are busy working to provide for the family.
nothing you described is actually normal outside the affluent liberal bubble.
don’t get me wrong, those activities are great for kids and all parents should be proud but to speak of it as if it was not privilege is in bad taste.
@bugek I think you may be suffering more from “Newton-ese” than @lisap.
Planet Money has done a few stories on teenage work recently and they’re finding that teens just aren’t working in jobs (summer or part-time) like the used to. The reporting tends to lay that at the feet of colleges, which value internships, grades and sports above jobs.
So what she is describing is actually closer to the national trend. This isn’t to say that there are many kids (many of whom are likely low-income) who need to earn money and support their families, but it’s not the national trend.
It is true that the working class and the millennial generation have suffered increasingly under growing income inequality over the last couple of decades of administrations – yes, democratic too, many of whom are still captured by corporate money – but trump’s win in 2016 was also driven by white identity politics and is sustained today by corporate elites who ostensibly oppose or distance themselves from trump while supporting him behind the scenes. Trump represents the elite – he said so himself. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/04/18/1718155115
Bugek, now you’re just being a troll. Finding something to judge unworthy in every post that doesn’t fit your liking. It’s hard to tell what you actually think on any issue.
For instance after my comment on perspective, you counter with “With such a large population being brought up to believe these things, who is to say your version of reality is any truer than theirs.“ I answered that very thing in my comment. If beliefs have no factual basis, they can still be beliefs but that doesn’t make them true. I listed groups who have hateful beliefs about other people – just because they do doesn’t make them right. These things are not about a “different version of reality,” they are either based on facts or lies.
You also never comment on your viewpoints; just tear down others who express theirs.
Now I support the law as written and common sense regulations. I support regulating pot like alcohol.
“Buyers remorse” may be true of some “yes” voters but I think most Newtonites who don’t want pot stores here also don’t want pot stores anywhere.
I also couldn’t care less about the use of pot being socially acceptable.
Wrong place for my last comment. Commenting in between doctors is difficult.
@Jose Rubenstein,
Thanks for having a keen eye; yes, they actually they did complete the “hike” – filmed and all and not on the public dime. Financed by their work in – prepare for the shock – the local film industry, not Mum & Dad.
@Bugek,
Funny how you interpret my response that kids can and do come out of the Newton schools as independent, capable young people (as opposed to sheltered, coddled, and swaddled) as being in bad taste. The “affluent liberal bubble” didn’t supply my kids with the summer jobs they started working at the age of 15, and it didn’t persuade them to save their earnings so they could have great experiences when they became old enough and mature enough to travel on their own. It has nothing whatsoever to do with “liberalism”, “conservatism”, “elitism”, “Newtonism” or any other “ism” you want to attach. It does have something to do with learning the value of hard work (being 15 and working full-time will do that), and learning the value of a hard earned buck. Last I checked, those were all values that pre-dated the “affluent liberal bubble” in Newton.
McIntyre is listed as “director” of FDRLST Media, publisher of The Federalist in one of the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.The two publications share a suite in the same building at the same Chicago street address, 6160 N. Cicero Ave., Suite 410.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1716513/000171651317000003/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml