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weyassinebentalb · 3 years

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Gaza Conflict Stokes 'Identity Crisis' for Young American Jews

Dan Kleinman does not know quite how to feel.

As a child in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, he was taught to revere Israel as the protector of Jews everywhere, the “Jewish superman who would come out of the sky to save us” when things got bad, he said.

It was a refuge in his mind when white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, chanted “Jews will not replace us,” or kids in college grabbed his shirt, mimicking a “South Park” episode to steal his “Jew gold.”

But his feelings have grown muddier as he has gotten older, especially now as he watches violence unfold in Israel and Gaza. His moral compass tells him to help the Palestinians, but he cannot shake an ingrained paranoia every time he hears someone make anti-Israel statements.

“It is an identity crisis,” Kleinman, 33, said. “Very small in comparison to what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank, but it is still something very strange and weird.”

As the violence escalates in the Middle East, turmoil of a different kind is growing across the Atlantic. Many young American Jews are confronting the region’s long-standing strife in a very different context, with very different pressures, from their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.

The Israel of their lifetime has been powerful, no longer appearing to some to be under constant existential threat. The violence comes after a year when mass protests across the United States have changed how many Americans see issues of racial and social justice. The pro-Palestinian position has become more common, with prominent progressive members of Congress offering impassioned speeches in defense of the Palestinians on the House floor. At the same time, reports of anti-Semitism are rising across the country.

Divides between some American Jews and Israel’s right-wing government have been growing for more than a decade, but under the Trump administration those fractures that many hoped would heal became a crevasse. Politics in Israel have also remained fraught, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-tenured government forged allegiances with Washington. For young people who came of age during the Trump years, political polarization over the issue only deepened.

Many Jews in America remain unreservedly supportive of Israel and its government. Still, the events of recent weeks have left some families struggling to navigate both the crisis abroad and the wide-ranging response from American Jews at home. What is at stake is not just geopolitical, but deeply personal. Fractures are intensifying along lines of age, observance and partisan affiliation.

In suburban Livingston, New Jersey, Meara Ashtivker, 38, has been afraid for her father-in-law in Israel, who has a disability and is not able to rush to the stairwell to shelter when he hears the air-raid sirens. She is also scared as she sees people in her progressive circles suddenly seem anti-Israel and anti-Jewish, she said.

Ashtivker, whose husband is Israeli, said she loved and supported Israel, even when she did not always agree with the government and its actions.

“It’s really hard being an American Jew right now,” she said. “It is exhausting and scary.”

Some young, liberal Jewish activists have found common cause with Black Lives Matter, which explicitly advocates for Palestinian liberation, concerning others who see that allegiance as anti-Semitic.

The recent turmoil is the first major outbreak of violence in Israel and Gaza for which Aviva Davis, who graduated this spring from Brandeis University, has been “socially conscious.”

“I’m on a search for the truth, but what’s the truth when everyone has a different way of looking at things?” Davis said.

Alyssa Rubin, 26, who volunteers in Boston with IfNotNow, a network of Jewish activists who want to end Jewish American support for Israeli occupation, has found protesting for the Palestinian cause to be its own form of religious observance.

She said she and her 89-year-old grandfather ultimately both want the same thing, Jewish safety. But “he is really entrenched in this narrative that the only way we can be safe is by having a country,” she said, while her generation has seen that “the inequality has become more exacerbated.”

In the protest movements last summer, “a whole new wave of people were really primed to see the connection and understand racism more explicitly,” she said, “understanding the ways racism plays out here, and then looking at Israel/Palestine and realizing it is the exact same system.”

But that comparison is exactly what worries many other American Jews, who say the history of white American slaveholders is not the correct frame for viewing the Israeli government or the global Jewish experience of oppression.

At Temple Concord, a Reform synagogue in Syracuse, New York, teenager after teenager started calling Rabbi Daniel Fellman last week, wondering how to process seeing Black Lives Matter activists they marched with last summer attack Israel as “an apartheid state.”

“The reaction today is different because of what has occurred with the past year, year and a half, here,” Fellman said. “As a Jewish community, we are looking at it through slightly different eyes.”

Nearby at Sha’arei Torah Orthodox Congregation of Syracuse, teenagers were reflecting on their visits to Israel and on their family in the region.

“They see it as Hamas being a terrorist organization that is shooting missiles onto civilian areas,” Rabbi Evan Shore said. “They can’t understand why the world seems to be supporting terrorism over Israel.”

In Colorado, a high school senior at Denver Jewish Day School said he was frustrated at the lack of nuance in the public conversation. When his social media apps filled with pro-Palestinian memes last week, slogans like “From the river to the sea” and “Zionism is a call for an apartheid state,” he deactivated his accounts.

“The conversation is so unproductive, and so aggressive, that it really stresses you out,” Jonas Rosenthal, 18, said. “I don’t think that using that message is helpful for convincing the Israelis to stop bombing Gaza.”

Compared with their elders, younger American Jews are overrepresented on the ends of the religious affiliation spectrum: a higher share are secular, and a higher share are Orthodox.

Ari Hart, 39, an Orthodox rabbi in Skokie, Illinois, has accepted the fact that his Zionism makes him unwelcome in some activist spaces where he would otherwise be comfortable. College students in his congregation are awakening to that same tension, he said. “You go to a college campus and want to get involved in anti-racism or social justice work, but if you support the state of Israel, you’re the problem,” he said.

Hart sees increasing skepticism in liberal Jewish circles over Israel’s right to exist. “This is a generation who are very moved and inspired by social justice causes and want to be on the right side of justice,” Hart said. “But they’re falling into overly simplistic narratives, and narratives driven by true enemies of the Jewish people.”

Overall, younger American Jews are less attached to Israel than older generations: About half of Jewish adults under 30 describe themselves as emotionally connected to Israel, compared with about two-thirds of Jews over age 64, according to a major survey published last week by the Pew Research Center.

And though the U.S. Jewish population is 92% white, with all other races combined accounting for 8%, among Jews ages 18 to 29 that rises to 15%.

In Los Angeles, Rachel Sumekh, 29, a first-generation Iranian American Jew, sees complicated layers in the story of her own Persian family. Her mother escaped Iran on the back of a camel, traveling by night until she got to Pakistan, where she was taken in as a refugee. She then found asylum in Israel. She believes Israel has a right to self-determination, but she also found it “horrifying” to hear an Israeli ambassador suggest other Arab countries should take in Palestinians.

“That is what happened to my people and created this intergenerational trauma of losing our homeland because of hatred,” she said.

The entire situation feels too volatile and dangerous for many people to even want to discuss, especially publicly.

Violence against Jews is increasingly close to home. Last year the third-highest number of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States were recorded since the Anti-Defamation League began cataloging them in 1979, according to a report released by the civil rights group last month. The ADL recorded more than 1,200 incidents of anti-Semitic harassment in 2020, a 10% increase from the previous year. In Los Angeles, the police are investigating a sprawling attack on sidewalk diners at a sushi restaurant Tuesday as an anti-Semitic hate crime.

Outside Cleveland, Jennifer Kaplan, 39, who grew up in a modern Orthodox family and who considers herself a centrist Democrat and a Zionist, remembered studying abroad at Hebrew University in 2002, and being in the cafeteria minutes before it was bombed. Now she wondered how the Trump era had affected her inclination to see the humanity in others, and she wished her young children were a bit older so she could talk with them about what is happening.

“I want them to understand that this is a really complicated situation, and they should question things,” she said. “I want them to understand that this isn’t just a, I don’t know, I guess, utopia of Jewish religion.”

Esther Katz, the performing arts director at the Jewish Community Center in Omaha, Nebraska, has spent significant time in Israel. She also attended Black Lives Matter protests in Omaha last summer and has signs supporting the movement in the windows of her home.

She has watched with a sense of betrayal as some of her allies in that movement have posted online about their apparently unequivocal support for the Palestinians, and compared Israel to Nazi Germany. “I’ve had some really tough conversations,” said Katz, a Conservative Jew. “They’re not seeing the facts, they’re just reading the propaganda.”

Her three children, who range in age from 7 to 13, are now wary of a country that is for Katz one of the most important places in the world. “They’re like, ‘I don’t understand why anyone would want to live in Israel, or even visit,’” she said. “That breaks my heart.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

source https://www.techno-90.com/2021/05/gaza-conflict-stokes-identity-crisis.html

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automatismoateo · 5 years

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I am living proof that the grass is greener once you abandon your toxic family members. via /r/atheism

Submitted July 30, 2019 at 02:03AM by ifunnycadetbonespurs (Via reddit https://ift.tt/2GAEbDm) I am living proof that the grass is greener once you abandon your toxic family members.

Looking back on my life I was extremely lucky. I (31 M) was raised by a single mom who, although was religious, never set the stipulation of belief on me. She always left it up to me and made it clear that I had a choice (despite my current beliefs that we likely do not have a choice when it comes to beliefs). She couldn’t answer most of my questions but never discouraged me from asking them. Nonetheless I did end up believing heavily that Jesus Christ was my “personal Lord and Savior”. Whenever I was 16 years old I got into a bunch of trouble, mostly underage drinking, marijuana possession and then vehicular theft which landed me in jail. I ended up doing a little over year altogether before I reached 18 but while I was in there I read the Bible. I read it twice. It did in fact reinforce a lot of my beliefs and I remember feeling “a presence” so I went with it. Once I got out of jail I wanted, classically, to prove my religion to others. I wanted to save as many souls as I could. I started reading from all angles as I’ve always done. I’m not so much of a centrist politically, but I’m not ever going to fall into the trap of intellectually isolating myself. I read from all sides very regularly. So, naturally I wanted to read about external sources regarding the Bible. I wanted to read about the historicity of the Bible. As you can imagine that journey led me to the truth, which is that the book is proof of nothing; certainly nothing supernatural. I learned about all of these denominations, there’s different religions, even cults in which people clearly felt the same “presence”. The more and more I learned about history and science, the less I believed. I think having experiences with LSD and mushrooms really helped my critical thought process during this time. Then I went from one end to the other, wanting to prove as many Christians wrong as I could. These were dark times as I seem to have learned nothing from the first round of believing Christianity. I found myself evangelizing for atheism which sickened me. I came to understand that I can be a living example rather than trying to provide examples for everybody to not believe this or that. I kept doing me, kept researching, stopped putting my opinions out there; and it was great.

In the course of about a week I slowly came to the conclusion that I no longer would remain apathetic around false beliefs and fallacious claims. I vowed that I would now call them out, respectively. This began another dark time in my life. I found no matter how polite I was that the more I spread the truth and the value of critical thought, the more people thought I hated them and or their beliefs. I had relationships dropping left and right and I would be left asking myself afterwards, “Is this worth it?”. Before I get into the specific details on each family member, I want to clarify that Donald Trump aided this process greatly. I, in fact, had no clue that most of my family are scumbags. As you will see, it turns out many of them were and still are.

First it was my uncle. He is an evangelical Christian and a republican Trump supporter, something I never really noticed while I was a believer and even when I was de-converting back to atheism. One day my wife got a message from him on social media, it was a piece of garbage; Trumpian Christian evangelical fear mongering nationalist propaganda. Not having the social media app myself, I quickly downloaded it under the pretense that those were the rules now. We can share propaganda now with each other and our loved ones, great. So I started sending him Carlin quotes, Ricky Gervais quotes, small speeches by Sam Harris about Christianity and the like. As it should, this sparked many debates. I learned that my uncle thinks Hillary Clinton is knowingly working directly for Satan, liberals are trying to make everyone gay and/or trans, and 12-year-old rape victims should be forced to carry out the pregnancy and give birth to the rapist’s child. Honestly, he even alluded to his belief that the dad, the rapist, should be able to visit the child down the road. That’s what did it for me. Goodbye, Uncle. To be honest, that was when I deleted the app as well because his page was a cesspool that I became way too familiar with, and it caused me a great deal of worry while diminishing much of my already dwindling hope for future society.

Next it was my dad. This one was much shorter because my dad never gave a shit about me and stopped regularly reaching out when I was 6 so we never had a real relationship to terminate. It turned out to be a good thing though because he was insanely violent, alcoholic, and you guessed it—religious. Years after he left when I was 18, I was questioning my mom yet again as to why she would have babies with this obviously bad man and she admitted to me that he raped her and that’s how I was conceived. I had contact with my dad, however minimal, but that ended immediately upon learning this information. The sliver of a relationship we had was shit and toxic. The only real reason I continue to have any relationship with him is because of the societal view of “he’s still your dad.“ Still, it was my dad who used to abuse my mom in front of us regularly, he abused us kids as well and if you met my sister you would be able to see plainly how destructive that abuse turned out to be. My sister used to beat her dogs, and one time my dad came over and said, “what’s wrong with this dog?” because the dog was head shy when he went to pet it. I said to him, “She beat the dog so much that it’s head shy now.” He replied, “can she find me a girlfriend?” Think about how big of a piece of shit you must have to be to abuse your whole family, leave them and then come back years later to make jokes about enjoying how timid that abuse makes women. A separate time he came over when my kids were watching Mr. Rogers. He told me in front of my kids, “I never used to let you guys watch Mr. Rogers because I thought he was gay.” Again, he was a total piece of shit and still is today. Also I’d like to mention he’s an avid Trump supporter. Shocking. I cut him the fuck out and it’s been amazing. I made sure to mention to him and his new wife (who told us that she had been in abusive relationships before) that he broke his previous girlfriends ribs, raped my mom, and abused us all. She is still with him today.

Finally the most recent one which is my wife’s grandma. I know, I know, it sounds like it’s going to be cruel. Well the only cruel thing about this one was her. My 4 1/2-year-old daughter came to her house and was playing with dolls and Grandma asked her what she was doing. My daughter replied, “They are getting married.” But the problem was that they were two girl dolls. Then, apparently my grandma raised the issue and pushed back, telling my daughter that marriage is not for those couples. Thankfully my daughter also pushed back saying, “ I don't want to marry a boy, I want to marry a girl. My daddy showed me a video about it.” Now, I don’t think I need to say this but I’m not raising my daughter to believe that same sex marriage isn’t a reality. The fact is it exists, what’s more, I approve of it and when my daughter is an adult she can decide for herself. Whatever she decides has no significance to me or my love for her. As to the video, I don’t know specifically what she’s talking about but it’s likely that she may have been looking over my shoulder while I was watching wedding videos online of our many gay friends who have gotten married. Anyways, Grandma gets really mad and sends my wife and I a text message saying,

“I hope both of you are happy and proud of yourselves for working intensely to indoctrinate your precious, formerly innocent 4 1/2 year old daughter. How immature r you 2 feel u have to tell ___________ that you don't need to marry a man when u grow up and I quote her " I don't want 2 marry a boy; I want 2 marry a girl... my Daddy showed me a video about it". ( this came after she saw ___________ and my wedding photo.)

I felt sick to my stomach and it absolutely breaks my heart 2 see how you 2 r no different than parents who tell their kids 2 hate black people or " that brown church is bad they say bad things in there".

So immature, so hateful!!!

A little child can be taught to go w their parents 2 feed the needy or help / visit the elderly in a nursing home.. o, so many good honorable things.

Your beautiful children are being taught things that children r entirely too young 2 think about now. When they're older they can decide who they want 2 marry ... You two are so focused on telling her ( eventually ________) that gays r so wonderful and so mistreated... did u ever consider telling them that there r many other people who need love help encouragement and hugs... yes, hugs, ________.

What is your over zealous fascination with defending gays ? How about defending your Christian Grandma who has only ever tried to be kind loving 2 people.

I wanted planned 2 talk 2 You Both a week ago but you said you've been so stressed and _______ went 2 ER... yes, I prayed for him will continue to, whether I have your approval or not.

I won't be silent anymore as heartbreakingly sad this is for me 2 say, but if you want me to be a part of your family, you will have to immediately stop this hateful indoctrination, or I'll just bow out... with the greatest sadness I'll probably ever feel, except when ___________ died.

It hurts me so deeply that you are willing with strong determination, to indoctrinate your beautiful children with this Hateful diatribe!!! I can't hear it! the stress heartbreak is too much for me to take anymore.

Since my car's not working, I can't talk to you both, in person, unfortunately... hard when the kids are around... and they DEFINITELY DON'T NEED ANYMORE GRIEF PUT INTO THEIR INNOCENT SOULS!!

PLEASE DON'T TAKE AWAY ANY MORE OF THEIR INNOCENCE!

Your Heartbroken Grandma

( I know you won't chastise ___________ for the remark since she's only repeating what's she's been told).”

— END

So to clear up some things, I never said brown churches are bad, I never told my daughter to be gay, all I’ve done is explain to her that gay people exist and when you are older you get to choose whether or not you want to marry a boy, girl, or neither. Let’s say hypothetically I did try and indoctrinate her to be gay, that still wouldn’t equate me with white supremacists who are known for outright murder and violent racism. My response was brief, needless to say I ended that relationship as well. She isn’t my grandma to begin with, she’s my wife’s grandma. This one is probably the most satisfying toxic relationship to walk away from for me.

I’m writing just to explain to other people who may wonder if it’s worth it to cut out toxic, in this case religious, family members. It is worth it, I’ve never been happier. The lesson I have learned from all of this is; speak the truth and stand up to unfounded beliefs when you are around them. Don’t compromise that for anyone. There are some cases in which yes, maybe you have a 95-year-old grandma who is going to die any day now who believes gay people will burn forever in hell... do spare her. My wife’s grandma is 75 and sharp, she has no business threatening the very relationship with my daughter over her fear mongered beliefs that continue to poison her brain every night while watching Fox News.

EDIT: If you are a college student or are for one reason or another financially dependent on your parents, there’s no shame in waiting to “come out”. If you’re not being abused you should likely avoid contact and become financially independent before going all fallacy vigilante during thanksgiving.

#reddit

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ixvyupdates · 6 years

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One of My Most Conservative Students Shares What It’s Like to Be in My Class

My learning this year has been greatly assisted by a number of students willing to be honest with me. One of them, Alec, is the kind of kid teachers love to have. He will take a random idea or comment or side-reading from a lesson and go home and research and reflect on it. He comes in at lunch to talk about ideas, to challenge and be challenged. He is open to new ideas and uses discussion and debate to deepen his understanding of them.

Also, he was the kid this year who, on hat day, wore his bright red “Make America Great Again” hat with pride.

I disagree with Alec on just about everything politically, but that doesn’t mean he should feel unwelcome or silenced in my room.

Alec and I have been talking all year about what it means for him to have a ridiculously liberal teacher like me, a teacher whose politics are pretty Google-able and apparent, and who talks about things like race and current events and culture and politics in class constantly.

I check in with him now and again to make sure he still feels welcome and safe in my room, and he checks in so often to tell me what his brain is working on and how it relates to my class.

We started a Google Doc this week so I could have him put his answers down in writing to the kinds of questions I often ask him.

Does it bug you when your teachers are super liberal?

Teachers are rarely openly political and when they are there aren’t too many problems.

It’s when teachers say they won’t share their opinions and are passive-aggressive about it. When they are passive-aggressive it makes you feel judged and makes you feel like you can’t share your opinion, because if they were open they wouldn’t be worried about offending their students and they focus on understanding more than offending.

For example, if a student says Trump isn’t racist, a teacher shouldn’t reply with, “He hired an entire Cabinet that is racists.”

Instead, give them a chance to figure out why people would think so, a chance to be challenged in their beliefs. It shouldn’t matter what your politics are as a teacher, so long as you teach what’s right or wrong, and instead let kids figure out their own beliefs.

In sixth grade, we were watching CNN in class and people asked our teacher who she was voting for. She told us she shouldn’t share that but she will say that she doesn’t want a person who will never be able to set foot on European soil to rule us as a dictator. What she did is just as bad as saying I’m not racist but I don’t want my kids growing up with Black kids and being influenced in a life of crime with them. By not being direct, I think she did more harm than good.

When did you figure out I was super liberal?

Honestly I can remember the very first time I even heard about you I was on my way back from the state fair with my new MAGA hat and shirt. I sent pictures to one of my friends, and he said, “Dude, you should wear that on the first day of school. The new language arts teacher is a leftist to the extreme.”

I can say I am glad I did not decide to do that. And I know my friend wouldn’t tell me to do it now because you’re his favorite teacher just like most kids, including me.

And you’re a pretty conservative guy. Can you talk about your politics a bit? When did you start caring about the political world? What defines your political beliefs?

When I started hunting that was a big factor, because in school I had been leaning liberal. My mom was liberal and my dad didn’t talk about it much back then, but then I went hunting with 14 other guys and their politics varied from a centrist who leans right, to Republican, to a leftist.

Even though we didn’t talk about politics much, the conversations were just different. It was a completely different environment. They talked about a lot of different problems that I didn’t hear much about before, because they weren’t problems liberals focused on or addressed differently. All of it made more sense to me. I went hunting thinking I was a liberal but came home from it not knowing truly what to believe.

So I started asking questions and studying, and that’s when my dad started talking about it. Learning and understanding a side that I didn’t understand or really, truly know helped me find what made more sense for me. I think though to truly understand a political opinion you need to be in an open discussion and not listening to the media.

I live by morals, common sense and what I believe will help future generations of America. I believe that our rights shouldn’t be taken away unless you are taking them from an individual as a consequence. I believe a nation should puts its own people first before others.

One thing I recently learned and has kept me up at night is these organizations like the Food and Drug Administration, Internal Revenue Service or the Department of Corrections have way too much power and aren’t going through standard ways to make a law, and have very little government oversight.

I strongly believe they should have a citizens council that has a majority of the power over them, because, for instance, if you have a person on parole and he does something wrong there’s nothing the government can do and I think that is ridiculous.

What do think has worked well this year in my class? You’ve generally said you feel comfortable in my room, but we do talk about political and social things quite a lot.

In that aspect of things I think it has worked pretty well you always listen to what each student has to say including me and you never really put words in their mouth.

You also have an interest in getting each student to learn and do their best although sometimes it backfires.

One thing you have done really well is making everybody’s voice equal.

In past years, teachers have been overly guarded about making sure the BLM (Black Lives Matter) group of kids is heard so they don’t feel excluded because of race. But then the teacher doesn’t include the other kids and it really isn’t any better. You do not do that, and I think you’re one of a few that doesn’t.

Another thing you do well is make everybody uncomfortable or at least try to and that helps kids understand reality, and once they learn that then they will be ready to understand what is really happening and discussions that will change people’s lives will start happening.

Anything else you really want to say about this? What do you think teachers, who are mostly liberals, need to understand about the conservative kids in their rooms?

The worst part is that they’ll talk about stereotypes, during or before this conversation and then go and generalize about White men, especially conservative men. I don’t think accusing the other group is right especially when they’re being hypocritical about it. I think that it is up to teachers to learn and understand this so they can teach their kids this.

Another thing teachers could do is help the kids who have liberal parents and live in a liberal community understand the other side by challenging them with it. I think that these students aren’t being challenged enough and are being reinforced with their liberal views everywhere they look from their family to a huge portion of the media to their teachers and peers so they’re are going to think they are always 100 percent right and they need to be contested so they can have an informed opinion.

Something else that teachers could do better is quit being so soft on kids when it comes to politics. Teachers need to dig to the bone and ask them why and have them answer with not just emotion but evidence. We all need to be challenged, and we shouldn’t ignore the rest of the world just because we’re in school.

I Admit It, Sometimes My Teaching Is Just Too Damn Liberal

http://educationpost.org/i-admit-it-sometimes-my-teaching-is-just-too-damn-liberal/embed/#?secret=ikl3nWlNdP

Photo by SHANNON SHAW, Twenty20-licensed.

One of My Most Conservative Students Shares What It’s Like to Be in My Class syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com

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ixvyupdates · 6 years

Text

One of My Most Conservative Students Shares What It’s Like to Be in My Class

Also, he was the kid this year who, on hat day, wore his bright red “Make America Great Again” hat with pride.

I disagree with Alec on just about everything politically, but that doesn’t mean he should feel unwelcome or silenced in my room.

I check in with him now and again to make sure he still feels welcome and safe in my room, and he checks in so often to tell me what his brain is working on and how it relates to my class.

We started a Google Doc this week so I could have him put his answers down in writing to the kinds of questions I often ask him.

Does it bug you when your teachers are super liberal?

Teachers are rarely openly political and when they are there aren’t too many problems.

For example, if a student says Trump isn’t racist, a teacher shouldn’t reply with, “He hired an entire Cabinet that is racists.”

When did you figure out I was super liberal?

I can say I am glad I did not decide to do that. And I know my friend wouldn’t tell me to do it now because you’re his favorite teacher just like most kids, including me.

And you’re a pretty conservative guy. Can you talk about your politics a bit? When did you start caring about the political world? What defines your political beliefs?

What do think has worked well this year in my class? You’ve generally said you feel comfortable in my room, but we do talk about political and social things quite a lot.

In that aspect of things I think it has worked pretty well you always listen to what each student has to say including me and you never really put words in their mouth.

You also have an interest in getting each student to learn and do their best although sometimes it backfires.

One thing you have done really well is making everybody’s voice equal.

Anything else you really want to say about this? What do you think teachers, who are mostly liberals, need to understand about the conservative kids in their rooms?

I Admit It, Sometimes My Teaching Is Just Too Damn Liberal

http://educationpost.org/i-admit-it-sometimes-my-teaching-is-just-too-damn-liberal/embed/#?secret=ikl3nWlNdP

Photo by SHANNON SHAW, Twenty20-licensed.

One of My Most Conservative Students Shares What It’s Like to Be in My Class syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com

0 notes

ixvyupdates · 6 years

Text

One of My Most Conservative Students Shares What It’s Like to Be in My Class

Also, he was the kid this year who, on hat day, wore his bright red “Make America Great Again” hat with pride.

I disagree with Alec on just about everything politically, but that doesn’t mean he should feel unwelcome or silenced in my room.

I check in with him now and again to make sure he still feels welcome and safe in my room, and he checks in so often to tell me what his brain is working on and how it relates to my class.

We started a Google Doc this week so I could have him put his answers down in writing to the kinds of questions I often ask him.

Does it bug you when your teachers are super liberal?

Teachers are rarely openly political and when they are there aren’t too many problems.

For example, if a student says Trump isn’t racist, a teacher shouldn’t reply with, “He hired an entire Cabinet that is racists.”

When did you figure out I was super liberal?

I can say I am glad I did not decide to do that. And I know my friend wouldn’t tell me to do it now because you’re his favorite teacher just like most kids, including me.

And you’re a pretty conservative guy. Can you talk about your politics a bit? When did you start caring about the political world? What defines your political beliefs?

What do think has worked well this year in my class? You’ve generally said you feel comfortable in my room, but we do talk about political and social things quite a lot.

In that aspect of things I think it has worked pretty well you always listen to what each student has to say including me and you never really put words in their mouth.

You also have an interest in getting each student to learn and do their best although sometimes it backfires.

One thing you have done really well is making everybody’s voice equal.

Anything else you really want to say about this? What do you think teachers, who are mostly liberals, need to understand about the conservative kids in their rooms?

I Admit It, Sometimes My Teaching Is Just Too Damn Liberal

http://educationpost.org/i-admit-it-sometimes-my-teaching-is-just-too-damn-liberal/embed/#?secret=ikl3nWlNdP

Photo by SHANNON SHAW, Twenty20-licensed.

One of My Most Conservative Students Shares What It’s Like to Be in My Class syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com

0 notes

ixvyupdates · 6 years

Text

I Didn’t Realize How Liberal I Was Until My Student Told Me

Also, he was the kid this year who, on hat day, wore his bright red “Make America Great Again” hat with pride.

I disagree with Alec on just about everything politically, but that doesn’t mean he should feel unwelcome or silenced in my room.

I check in with him now and again to make sure he still feels welcome and safe in my room, and he checks in so often to tell me what his brain is working on and how it relates to my class.

We started a Google Doc this week so I could have him put his answers down in writing to the kinds of questions I often ask him.

Does it bug you when your teachers are super liberal?

Teachers are rarely openly political and when they are there aren’t too many problems.

For example, if a student says Trump isn’t racist, a teacher shouldn’t reply with, “He hired an entire Cabinet that is racists.”

When did you figure out I was super liberal?

I can say I am glad I did not decide to do that. And I know my friend wouldn’t tell me to do it now because you’re his favorite teacher just like most kids, including me.

And you’re a pretty conservative guy. Can you talk about your politics a bit? When did you start caring about the political world? What defines your political beliefs?

What do think has worked well this year in my class? You’ve generally said you feel comfortable in my room, but we do talk about political and social things quite a lot.

In that aspect of things I think it has worked pretty well you always listen to what each student has to say including me and you never really put words in their mouth.

You also have an interest in getting each student to learn and do their best although sometimes it backfires.

One thing you have done really well is making everybody’s voice equal.

Anything else you really want to say about this? What do you think teachers, who are mostly liberals, need to understand about the conservative kids in their rooms?

I Admit It, Sometimes My Teaching Is Just Too Damn Liberal

http://educationpost.org/i-admit-it-sometimes-my-teaching-is-just-too-damn-liberal/embed/#?secret=ikl3nWlNdP

Photo by SHANNON SHAW, Twenty20-licensed.

I Didn’t Realize How Liberal I Was Until My Student Told Me syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com

0 notes

ixvyupdates · 6 years

Text

I Didn’t Realize How Liberal I Was Until My Student Told Me

Also, he was the kid this year who, on hat day, wore his bright red “Make America Great Again” hat with pride.

I disagree with Alec on just about everything politically, but that doesn’t mean he should feel unwelcome or silenced in my room.

I check in with him now and again to make sure he still feels welcome and safe in my room, and he checks in so often to tell me what his brain is working on and how it relates to my class.

We started a Google Doc this week so I could have him put his answers down in writing to the kinds of questions I often ask him.

Does it bug you when your teachers are super liberal?

Teachers are rarely openly political and when they are there aren’t too many problems.

For example, if a student says Trump isn’t racist, a teacher shouldn’t reply with, “He hired an entire Cabinet that is racists.”

When did you figure out I was super liberal?

I can say I am glad I did not decide to do that. And I know my friend wouldn’t tell me to do it now because you’re his favorite teacher just like most kids, including me.

And you’re a pretty conservative guy. Can you talk about your politics a bit? When did you start caring about the political world? What defines your political beliefs?

What do think has worked well this year in my class? You’ve generally said you feel comfortable in my room, but we do talk about political and social things quite a lot.

In that aspect of things I think it has worked pretty well you always listen to what each student has to say including me and you never really put words in their mouth.

You also have an interest in getting each student to learn and do their best although sometimes it backfires.

One thing you have done really well is making everybody’s voice equal.

Anything else you really want to say about this? What do you think teachers, who are mostly liberals, need to understand about the conservative kids in their rooms?

I Admit It, Sometimes My Teaching Is Just Too Damn Liberal

http://educationpost.org/i-admit-it-sometimes-my-teaching-is-just-too-damn-liberal/embed/#?secret=ikl3nWlNdP

Photo by SHANNON SHAW, Twenty20-licensed.

I Didn’t Realize How Liberal I Was Until My Student Told Me syndicated from https://sapsnkraguide.wordpress.com

0 notes