Public school veteran
Joined March 2022
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Dissident Teacher retweeted
It is not the job of the teacher, school, or other 29 kids in the classroom to be subject to violent, disruptive, and abusive behavior due to a child’s unstable home environment.
Dissident Teacher retweeted
the cowardly thing about John Oliver in my opinion is that he never ever ever ever ever challenges the biases of his overwhelmingly liberal audience or presents them with any information that might cause them to question their existing beliefs. it’s all just partisan comfort food
HBO's @LastWeekTonight has a long track record of citing social science findings without the appropriate context, massaging them to support whatever point @iamjohnoliver is trying to make.
Dissident Teacher retweeted
The ultimate luxury belief is enjoying all the comforts of living in Western society, only to choose Islamo-communism as your North Star, despite having no connection to these cultures beyond being miseducated so badly that you now hate your own country.
Dissident Teacher retweeted
Notice the comments under this.
People are surprised that most young people won’t have heard of Voltaire (or whoever).
We have no idea how little of western history, literature and culture those under 30 know.
And then we wonder why they won’t defend the West.
Defend what?
“Inflammation” is the word that usually came to mind when I thought about the middle school I taught at.
Black families employ strict discipline; woke teachers do the opposite. How is this “culturally responsive”?
Stephen A. Smith: “I’m a dad, I will whip your a$$. Make no mistake… I’m a black man. Ain’t no time out in the corner. Not this way. Oh no, no, no, you act up, you’re going to feel something.”
“It never changed in the Smith household. When I acted up, I got my a$$ whipped. When my father did, he got his a$$ whipped. It’s been passed down through generations. It ain’t changing.”
“Will you going to get a spanking in the Smith household? H*ll yes.”
Bill Maher: *Claps* “I’m for it.”
Dissident Teacher retweeted
Teach Black children their history? ABSOLUTELY! But teach them ALL of it, not some carefully curated historical narrative designed to leave them perpetually angry, resentful, and convinced that their future is imprisoned by their ancestors’ past.
You want to teach them about slavery? EXCELLENT! Then let’s teach them about the African kingdoms and merchants who captured, enslaved, and sold other Africans. Let’s discuss the Kingdom of Dahomey, the Asante Empire, and the role African intermediaries played in the transatlantic slave trade.
Let’s teach them about the Arab slave trades, which operated across centuries, and the indigenous systems of servitude that existed in Africa before Europeans arrived.
And absolutely teach them about European colonialism, the Atlantic slave trade, the barbarity of plantation slavery, and the laws that systematically deprived Black Americans of their liberty.
But don’t you dare selectively edit history to manufacture an eternal racial grievance.
Let’s teach Black children about Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, and the extraordinary accomplishments of Black Americans who refused to let oppression define the boundaries of their existence.
Let’s teach them that African history did not begin with slavery and that Black American history did not end with emancipation.
Let’s teach them about African civilizations, scientific achievements, entrepreneurship, intellectual independence, family formation, and the extraordinary resilience of our ancestors.
And while we’re examining historical culpability, let’s examine the American political institutions that defended slavery, enacted Jim Crow laws, and resisted civil rights. Let’s name the politicians, examine their party affiliations, and acknowledge how those parties and their coalitions changed over time. No selective amnesia for anybody.
Here’s where I fundamentally disagree with you.
You appear more interested in teaching Black children whom to resent than teaching them what they can accomplish.
My ancestors endured extraordinary suffering. Their suffering deserves historical accuracy, reverence, and remembrance. It does not require me to surrender my intellectual independence or teach my children that their destiny is controlled by people who lived centuries before them.
History should produce knowledge, not inherited animosity.
Teach the entire historical record, including the uncomfortable chapters that contradict your preferred narrative.
Because a child who knows only the atrocities committed against his ancestors knows only a fraction of his ancestry.
And that is an egregious intellectual disservice.
I will teach my children what happened to their ancestors. But I will also teach them who their ancestors WERE before captivity, what they accomplished afterward, and what they themselves are capable of becoming.
My God did not create my children to spend their lives shackled to the grievances of yesterday.
Teach history. Don’t manufacture helplessness.
#AStoneGroove #SilentMajoritySpeaks
Normalize teaching your children about the twin evils of slavery and colonization.
Teach them who enslaved our ancestors, who colonized our lands, who stole our resources, and how their wealth was built on our suffering.
Black children must know their history — a history written in sweat, tears and blood.
Never let them forget it.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Most captives sold into the transatlantic trade were provided by African kingdoms and traders to European buyers. The longer Arab trade enslaved comparable numbers. Modern slavery continues in parts of Africa.
slavevoyages.org
britannica.com/topic/transatl…
walkfree.org/global-slavery…
Dissident Teacher retweeted
Disruptive children are not heroic rebels with an ‘anti-authority’ streak, courageously resisting an oppressive system. Romanticising their behaviour as some form of social justice is intellectually dishonest and profoundly damaging. More often, these are children who have been denied the boundaries, discipline and structure necessary to flourish.
Schools should be institutions of learning and character formation, staffed by teachers who care deeply about the children entrusted to them. Yet failures in parenting, compounded by decades of permissive educational thinking, have left some children unable or unwilling to respect authority, exercise self-control or recognise the rights of others. The answer is not to celebrate their defiance, excuse their behaviour or dismantle the very structures they so desperately need.
Parents who reject school rules are free to educate their children at home and indulge whatever behaviour they consider acceptable. What they are not entitled to do is impose the consequences of their choices on hundreds of other children, or demand that teachers and school leaders accommodate persistent
disruption, intimidation and disorder.
A child's right to an education does not confer a right to sabotage the education of others. Nor does compassion require adults to surrender their authority.
Discipline is not the enemy of children. It is one of the greatest gifts we can give them. The real injustice is allowing the behaviour of a few to compromise the education, safety and opportunities of the many.
As a kid who was suspended constantly, but is now a teacher, I want to comment on this story. And no, this woman is not a terrible mother.
Traditional schools, especially high-performers like Success Academy, often have a "zero-tolerance" policy for behavior
The schools and teachers place the rights of the classroom above than the rights of the individual
BUT, this is not the only way.
Before we discuss what's coming next, enabled by AI, let's discuss why schools like Success have such strict policies.
A zero-tolerance approach helps the school focus on instruction and on serving the 80-90% of students who are more obedient or conscientious.
A single "disruptive" child (like I was) will legitimately hold back the rest of the classroom. It is unfair to force those 80% of kids who are quietly working to watch as a frustrated teacher reprimands the trouble-maker.
Watching the teacher's frustration grow, directed at their classmates, reinforces an adversarial relationship between the teachers and students. The cultural effects have an impact far beyond the 4-5min lost to the interaction.
Given this, Success Academy is behaving in a moral and rational way; if your job is to help give kids an amazing education in a classroom of ~25:1 using traditional classroom techniques, you must accept this "zero-tolerance" policy.
BUT, this is not the only way.
I work in schools where I meet students like this constantly. They are wonderful kids who have an anti-authority streak. They have a greater sense of independence and are often some of the most courageous leaders in their class. The same traits that make them potential leaders is the trait that forces them to rail against the rigid school structure that ignores individuality.
In the last 5 years, a new technology has emerged that will allow us to change the structure of our schools to work for all students, rather than just those who don't have trouble sitting still or listening to instructions.
We do not need one teacher in the front of the class leading students along a group-assignment anymore.
Kids can now have significantly more choice in what they learn, largely because AI can take unstructured data and turn it into structured data.
That change alone will help kids like me to participate better in school, because they won't have to rebel when they feel the lesson is "stupid" or "pointless". They can simply do something else.
As this technology emerges, it also means that the physical structure of classrooms can change. We don't need desks in rows facing the front. Classrooms and schools can start to mimic great work environments like libraries or well-designed offices with chairs and couches and desks.
Teachers can stop worrying about making sure that every student is writing down sentences to the same question at the same time, and instead can start worrying about whether the student is intellectually engaged, whether they feel excited for their lives, whether they have confidence in their abilities, and whether they know how to work on teams alongside other kids.
Success is a great school network, and I am very glad it exists. I hope to build a school for those other 20% of kids like me who don't fit into the traditional system. Once this school exists, I think we'll find all kids prefer more independence, creativity, and collaboration.
And I think we'll find our workforce is remarkably more competent in this new age.
Dissident Teacher retweeted
The most dangerous idea in public education is that there are no bad kids.
I had teenagers that molested children, robbed small businesses, shot people, brought guns to school, and tortured animals.
When you don’t take sociopaths seriously, you endanger the entire school.
Dissident Teacher retweeted
Universities literally no longer teach:
• Democracy started in ancient Greece
• Codified legal principles and checks on power largely came from Roman law.
• The Greeks established the earth is round
• The Scientific Revolution was built directly on Greek mathematics and philosophy.
• Homer, Plato, Aristotle and often Shakespeare.
They don't teach these because they eliminated teaching Western Civ. Especially at the elite unis.
Here's something EVERY student now learns:
• The marginalized are oppressed by colonization, systemic racism and the patriarchy.
Think that might have something to do with the French riots?
Many schools are just low-level, simmering riots. The French riots were to some extent just an extension of what happens behind the walls of the schools everyday.
Dissident Teacher retweeted
Let this incident serve as yet another reminder that those who engage in blatantly antisocial behavior in public settings aren’t merely displaying a lack of manners. Whether it’s smoking or playing loud music, what they’re doing is daring those around them to confront them. If passengers stay silent and avoid eye-contact, the antisocial thug gets to tell himself it’s because he’s such a badass. If someone does speak up, the antisocial ruffian gets to use that as an excuse to give in to his violent impulses.
Now that the Nikole Hannah Jones thing has shown that it’s not funding and it’s not racism, what’s gonna be the next bien pensant explanation for why inner city schools are such a mess?
I have a project for all the compassionate folks who oppose strict school rule enforcement: rent out a large unused office building, take in the most recalcitrant rule breakers, and lavish them with your magic until they’re able to play well with others.
Working in schools for thirty years taught me that everything is easy. Want learning acceleration? Just create a program and call it “learning acceleration”. Want positive behavior? Just create a program and call it “positive behavior”. Want… you get the idea. Labels are magic.
The people who natter on about “joy” are the same people support the anti-discipline policies that are making schools such miserable places.
Public schools need a Bukele. Imagine the tranquility and the productivity they could have! Bullying—gone. Class disruption—gone.
nytimes.com/2026/10/23/world…
