Teaching and "propaganda"

[deeperdiving]

DC13 loves history and does well in it. DC has a new teacher and has said that the new teacher is teaching things in a very one sided way. I studied history at university and have instilled into DC the importance of being impartial and distinguishing sources and distinguishing fact vs opinion.

DC has said that they have a weekly current affairs lesson. Latest one was about Harris vs Trump. DC said that the teacher gave the Harris campaign narratives as fact, and when talking about various policies, misquoted things and when talking about US relationships with other countries gave no historical context. DC is quite keen on 20th c history, and is interested in context and why things happened as they did.

So, to illustrate, there are threads on here which have Harris or Trump supporters and for example one person will say "X said this" and the other side will say "no, they said this" and show a clip showing that what was actually said was completely different from what the other side was maintaining. The teacher here is giving the Harris campaign narrative, and DC is slightly confused about it.

Has anyone else experienced this with schools? I am not sure whether the teacher is following syllabus requirements in terms of how to present things. It doesn't seem to be being taught as it was when I was at school!

Tale as old as time surely?

Must be incredibly hard to not have personal political opinions as a history teacher.

Leftie indoctrination used to be the preserve of universities but it is well and truly embedded into schools.

Complain. When these kind of teachers are not encouraging kids to be multi gendered or cats, they are spreading some other propaganda.

For current affairs there won't be syllabus requirements, I'd argue it needs to be fact based but I'm a geography teacher so it's hard not to be balanced in my subject!

Bollocks. I can’t even influence my students to use capital letters accurately , so I’m not sure why you think I might be able to influence them politically.

In what way are they giving the campaign narrative? Give an example.

This. There’s little time to influence them to read a book without saying ‘it’s boring’.

Yes, I'd like to know this too.

The teacher said that the Democrats cared about people whereas the Republicans do not. That Trump planned to force Ukr to give R Crimea and western Ukr (NB all Trump has actually said is that he could end the war in 24 hours). That Trump is a liar, a racist, has affairs with porn stars and will force women to have abortions even if medical advice would be against it or if medical opinion would support choice. This was how the information was provided by the teacher, that is, as bare facts, no context, no exact quotes, nothing about Trump's stated policies, nothing about comparing Harris and Trump policies with pros and cons, and not giving any reasons as to why so many voted for Trump this time round. Completely incorrect info about Gaza was given too, about what Trump thinks, not based on what Trump has actually said.

I truly find it extraordinary. Are teachers definitely not being told what to teach here, there is no dictat on policy teaching re current affairs, does anyone know?

Is the teacher not trying to stimulate discussion and critical thinking about the discourse around the election? I am a teacher (albeit a uni lecturer) and sometimes I present perspectives in quite polarising ways to stimulate discussion and critique around sources.

@Ytcsghisn
It’s hilarious that you’re complaining about teaching propaganda whilst simultaneously trotting out that tired old line about school children identifying as cats despite that having been readily debunked as propaganda spread by right wing conspiracy theorists years ago: https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/viewpoint/23623894.children-identify-cats-litter-boxes-schools-myth-buster/

I think teachers don’t always understand their responsibilities when it comes to not promoting their own personal views. Honestly there is a feeling of deep self-righteousness among many on the left that means they do see their opinions as fact. Your description makes me concerned that the teacher is stupid as well as biased.

If I were you though I’d be talking to school about this. It’s not high quality education if the teacher is just trying to indoctrinate.

Whenever someone says that have "instilled into their DC" the importance of anything I just think sod off. Probably a weakness in my own character but God it's an irritating phrase.

I don't know...there was a thread on here about a week ago about this with an astonishing number of posters claiming kids in their children's schools were 'identifying as' cats/foxes/therians/furries. Although I work in a school and haven't come across it myself. I might see if I can find it.

Edit: link here
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5205281-to-think-that-children-in-your-childs-class-dont-identify-as-animals?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

I don't think so. DC said he tried a couple of times to give alternative views and the teacher said "yes but" and then continued as he was. At one stage the teacher was talking about autocratic dictatorships (about NK) and dc mentioned "tyranny of the majority" concept in relation to democracy, and the teacher said "yes, well the voting system in some states in the US were changed to allow for that" and then went back to what they were saying. So it doesn't seem so, I don't think.

I don't think this is a History teacher.

This is a teacher of another subject with insufficient training/oversight.

You could contact the lead for PHSE/Citizenship/whatever category this falls into and ask how they ensure a critical approach on current affairs topics.

It has been very very tricky over the last few years teaching students of Russian/Ukrainian background, or Arabic/Jewish background, in the same class, current affairs in PHSE, but that means more need for academic distance from the materials, not less.

Especially when they usually give you 15 minutes and you don't always get to see the materials beforehand.

I am a teacher of Economics but with enough background in History to be able to put events in context I hope. But any teacher could be given this kind of task and their personal views should stay out of it.

But much of what you say the teacher said about Trump, Trump actually said. I'm not sure this teacher is inaccurate.

This

Whats hilarious about children being allowed and facilitated to identify as animals in school. Do you just randomly cackle at stuff that is actually quite serious from a safeguarding perspective.

Personally I’m just sitting tight and waiting for the madness to blow over. There’s so many half truths floating around that it’s not worth engaging. It’s unfortunate, because a barrage of classroom propaganda teaches kids nothing except what it would be like to live in a George Orwell novel

I'm not sure I understand your issue? Teaching propaganda has been long on syllabus, something I learned at school many years ago. We learned it in both historical and current times which it sounds like this teacher is also doing.
Nothing the teacher has said sounds inaccurate either? Perhaps labelling the entire republican party as not caring could be broken down a bit more into traditional republican and the party they've become under trump but everything else seems accurate.

The OP is saying that the teacher is attributing things to Trump that he didn’t say. I personally hate Trump but I hate group think and indoctrination more. OP your DC sounds great by the way! Very impressive to have the ability to make an intelligent rebuttal of the teacher.

That Trump is a liar, a racist, has affairs with porn stars

What part of that is factually incorrect ?

Has anyone else experienced this with schools?

No. The situation you have described sounds very unlikely.

That thread is full of people saying ‘yeah, my seven year old sometimes pretends she’s a horse’ which is clearly normal imaginative play typical of children of that age. It does not have anything to do with furries (which is an adult sexual kink) and certainly has nothing to do with mad accusations about teachers indoctrinating kids to believe they are animals and providing litter trays in schools, which right wing nuts are always trying to convince us is happening.