Commentary and Opinion by Samuel Strait

I think that if most modern teachers were the least bit aware of the
world around them, and not buried in the vacuum chamber of leftist,
progressive, and liberal philosophy, it may just make them much better
at their job, educating our youth.  Memories of my upbringing and
initiation into the world of education came to me at the tender age of
four years when tagging along with my older sister and mother, the local
kindergarten teacher, of myself, my sister and eight other youthful
victims.  At my advanced age I have only fleeting memories of school in
the former officers mess at an old WWII military base repurposed for a
school house to educate Mount Edgcumbe’s handful of local children. 
 From then on I was constantly teased about flunking kindergarten, as I
had to repeat the experience the next year in the basement of the
Methodist Church in College, Alaska.  For the next three years, moving
from one cinder block classroom to the one next door, I and 43 three
other local children experienced the first three grade levels of public
school in the Territory of Alaska.  Alaska did not become a State until
1959, and this was a few years before that celebration.

I am somewhat amused by the recent experience of hearing about the
local expense of constructing a gymnasium in Smith River to the tune of
$3.4 million.  A school that has a multi purpose room already, that is
also a cafeteria.  Our “gymnasium” at Mount Edgecumbe was a series of
large puddles on the road in front of the officer’s club, in College, it
was the parking lot of the church.  Our “cafeteria” was our desk where
we ate from a lunch box.  Mine was decorated with Roy Rogers pictures.

In spite of the rather unsophisticated and less than spectacular school
facilities, I do not recall it being much of a concern while growing
up.  We were there to get an education, not be housed in an expensive
classroom.  I remember going state side when in the fourth grade to
visit my grandmother and visit her fifth grade classroom.  Yes, I come
from a long line of teachers on both sides of the family tree.  It was a
truly wondrous revaluation.  My grandmother taught for years in North
Portland, Oregon to classrooms that were predominately “African
American”; hence, my sister and I were definitely objects of curiosity
in my Grandmother’s classroom, yet definitely not made to feel
unwelcome.  I wonder often if the same would be true in this day and age
of divisiveness?

This is all to say, and leading up to what I heard from some of our
local teachers via zoom at the Del Norte Unified School Board Meeting
last Thursday.  While the signs have been out there for decades, it was
still somewhat of a startling experience to listen to those that are
thought to be some of our best, brightest, and open minded among us. 
That was not the case. While I will not paint all teachers in the
district with the same brush, most that I heard speaking during the
course of nearly five hours of public comment, was shockingly ignorant
of current science, intolerant of anything that ran contrary to their
indoctrination, and an embarrassment to be calling themselves
educators.  They further tarnished the profession by referring to
parents as “disgusting” when it was a label that they should carry every
time they enter a classroom in the future.

The topic at the meeting was regarding whether or not school age
children while attending school should be relieved of the burden, yes
burden, of wearing a face mask inside the schools.  The very thought of
maskless school aged children sent teachers and union reps into a fit of
fury, calling down outrage upon the heads of parents who lobbied the
district’s supervisors for the elimination of masks for their children
while trying to be educated.  There was NO call for those that wished to
remain masked, including classroom teachers to set aside their masks. 
The logic of those that wish to remain masked and feel imperiled by
those that wish to be mask free defies explanation.  If masking works,
then why the concern for your safety?  Why is there a call to be
compassionate for those that remain afraid of virus infection, if
masking will save you?  What exactly is the problem, those that were
calling in to label parents “disgusting” and uncaring?

The reality is, the science of politics have many who claim to be
credentialed educators indoctrinated in their own belief system which
leaves them devoid of the ability to critically think.  The “Narrative”
is all they hear.  They do not even realize that real science is in
direct conflict with, “the narrative” and has been long before Covid-19
was even on the stage.  Masks, well before the current Pandemic, were
dismissed by experts, many employed by the Federal Government, as a
possible nonpharmaceutical intervention for the general public.  In
fact, none of the nonpharmaceutical remedies offered by the CDC, Dr.
Fauci, and the Medical Establishment were even considered to be
effective or provide “safety” for the public.  The one and only
intervention offered was for those experiencing symptoms of virus
infection to become isolated, that is it.  Nothing has changed about the
science since that time.  The only reason governments elected to employ
those as nonpharmaceutical placebo’s was to be seen as “doing something”.

The message to those teachers who exposed themselves as bigots on
Thursday evening should really do a soul search to see if they are
actually cut out to be an educator and those that agreed to that public
display of ignorance should join them.  Educators have already exposed
the dysfunction of Public Education over the course of the Pandemic and
it appears to in large part rest in the behavior of those that are in
front of students in the classroom. I will let you figure out just who I
am referring to…..