Why I Stopped Teaching | 5 Minute Video — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02question why would a teacher who loves
2. 0:04teaching quit her job
3. 0:06answer when her job is no longer about
4. 0:08teaching
5. 0:09for 15 years i taught esl english as a
6. 0:12second language to middle and high
7. 0:14school students
8. 0:15the last five years were at public
9. 0:17schools in salinas california salinas
10. 0:20has suffered for a long time with a gang
11. 0:22problem students are just as likely to
12. 0:25fall victim to the temptations of gang
13. 0:27life as they are to graduate from high
14. 0:29school
15. 0:30if that sounds like a challenge it was
16. 0:32exactly the challenge i was looking for
17. 0:34it's why i became an educator to help
18. 0:37put kids especially teenagers on a good
19. 0:40path in life
20. 0:41and that's what i tried to do
21. 0:43i taught my students that if they worked
22. 0:45hard and accepted responsibility for
23. 0:47their actions they would succeed that
24. 0:49their race didn't define them that they
25. 0:52should respect the police that there are
26. 0:54only two sexes that communism leads to
27. 0:59misery but in the last few years they
28. 1:01were hearing something different in
29. 1:02their other classes that their race was
30. 1:05their destiny that the police were out
31. 1:07to get them that their sexual identity
32. 1:10is a personal choice that socialism is
33. 1:13compassionate communism isn't so bad and
34. 1:16capitalism is cruel
35. 1:18many of my students especially the ones
36. 1:20who had recently come to america
37. 1:22rejected these depressing lessons
38. 1:25they knew what they had fled they wanted
39. 1:27to embrace their new country and its
40. 1:29values
41. 1:30but other students completely bought
42. 1:32into it
43. 1:33i needed to know why
44. 1:35so i dove into the school's ethnic
45. 1:37studies curriculum the source of so many
46. 1:40toxic ideas i found classroom activities
47. 1:43such as a privilege quiz where students
48. 1:45would compare and contrast their gender
49. 1:48race class and sexual orientation with
50. 1:51those of their classmates i found
51. 1:53another exercise which involved
52. 1:54conducting a mock trial to charge
53. 1:56various persons implicated in genocide
54. 1:59against native californians in order to
55. 2:01create a social justice
56. 2:03counter-narrative
57. 2:04none of this should be surprising
58. 2:06because the guiding principle of the
59. 2:08curriculum was to critique white
60. 2:10supremacy racism
61. 2:12anti-blackness patriarchy capitalism and
62. 2:16other forms of power and oppression
63. 2:19and in case you think this is just one
64. 2:21school
65. 2:22passing an ethnic studies class will
66. 2:24soon be mandatory for high school
67. 2:26graduation throughout the state of
68. 2:27california and it doesn't stop at
69. 2:29students teachers who reject these
70. 2:31radical ideas especially teachers with
71. 2:34the wrong skin color risk being labeled
72. 2:36racist or white supremacist putting
73. 2:39their jobs and careers on the line
74. 2:42in june 2020 i addressed the salinas
75. 2:45school board i told them that allowing
76. 2:47critical race theory and black lives
77. 2:48matter indoctrination in the classroom
78. 2:51is unbalanced too political and will
79. 2:53only do harm
80. 2:55in response the board president a
81. 2:57professor of ethnic studies at a local
82. 2:59college called me anti-people of color i
83. 3:02am people of color i'm half jamaican
84. 3:05in fact before the board meeting the
85. 3:07district had sent me a gift just for
86. 3:09being black
87. 3:10a mask bearing the message black
88. 3:12educators matter and i love being black
89. 3:15sticker and an african greeting that
90. 3:18acknowledged the god in me
91. 3:20an obsession with race and gender has
92. 3:22taken root in our educational system
93. 3:24it's the weed that's rapidly overtaking
94. 3:27the garden
95. 3:28what can we do to get rid of it first
96. 3:30advocate for academic transparency
97. 3:33demand that your school district's
98. 3:35lessons and materials be made accessible
99. 3:37online so you can see what your child is
100. 3:40being taught
101. 3:41that may not protect you from an
102. 3:43individual woke teacher principal or
103. 3:45school board but it will make them all
104. 3:47think twice before adding radical
105. 3:49material into the curriculum
106. 3:51second be vocal express your concerns
107. 3:55pay attention if you come across lessons
108. 3:57you don't like make your dissatisfaction
109. 4:00known let the teacher know let the
110. 4:02principal know and if necessary let the
111. 4:05school board know
112. 4:06speaking of school boards consider
113. 4:08getting on one yourself this is the time
114. 4:10for action
115. 4:12third take an active role in your
116. 4:14child's education
117. 4:16don't send your kids to public school
118. 4:17and expect everything to turn out fine
119. 4:20supplement their studies with lessons
120. 4:22that counter the indoctrination they
121. 4:23might be getting in school look into
122. 4:25other options such as private or charter
123. 4:28schools that share your values
124. 4:30or if you can do it home school it's
125. 4:33easier than you think
126. 4:35i will always be an educator i don't
127. 4:37think there's a more important job
128. 4:39my goals as a teacher are the same as
129. 4:42they were 15 years ago it's the goals of
130. 4:45the public educational system that have
131. 4:47changed that's why i can no longer be a
132. 4:50part of it i'm cali fontania founder of
133. 4:53exodus institute for prager university
134. 4:56thank you for watching this video to
135. 4:58keep prageru videos free please consider
136. 5:01making a tax deductible donation