It’s summer break time for most American school systems. But that hasn’t stopped the nation’s largest teachers’ union from seizing the opportunity to ram propaganda straight into 3,000,000 educators’ mailboxes in the form of the NEA Today Magazine.
I am a teacher and a mother of a now estranged son who wants to be a girl. I am sickened and horrified by what the NEA and other educator professionals are doing. The blatant disrespect and disregard for families and their rights is unthinkable. I don’t understand when it was decided that KIDS know better than adults and SCHOOLS know better than a child’s family. Although in my district it hasn’t gotten to this extreme, yet, as soon as it does it will be time to retire. I will not interfere and go against a family relationship as many are being told to do. Thank you for publishing this. I hope people know that not all teachers are on board with this backward and destructive way of thinking.
What a great essay - thank you! Your story had me balling up my fists and wanting to pound on my table! So many valid points! You are right, a teacher would never oust a gay student and cause shame or embarrassment but teachers are now being encouraged to promote and exploit a transgender student? The NEA Today Magazine was indeed a one-sided push supporting the trans-ideology and by connecting the dots it was not hard to see who is benefiting from this push - Big Pharma, of course! Poisoning the minds of our teachers to interfere in the personal lives of the student/parent relationship is so wrong! Tricking teachers into believing that they are the heroes in this foolish cult game is so wrong as they are actually the villains being used by the Pharma puppeteers! Ordering books for the library and classroom to support this trans-cult is going to promote further damage. Social Contagion! I hate this!
I am in my 28th year of teaching at a public high school and proud to have left the union years ago. I will use any name the kids want to go by but refuse to participate in the pronouns nonsense. I’ll fight as long as I am able. If coerced speech becomes policy, they’ll have to fire me and deal with the lawyers.
There is a great documentary called “the great awakening” it is free … https://plandemicseries.com/. The beginning starts off about Covid don’t let that stop you from watching it. It made me cry and gasp. If at all possible parents,….please get your children out of the schools that push this agenda,….
Those are lousy stories, I'm sorry they happened. Some young teachers deserve a chance, again, many may be scared. Also, identity politics isn't really communist or socialist, it's something totally different. Long discussion. Have a good evening.
I saw that article and she has points, but there are signs the tables are starting to turn. I am too busy for details right now, but... have hope. I know it will take effort.
I taught for 20 years in TN and I joined the NEA during my second year because of the promise of liability insurance and support if there was ever a false accusation brought against me. However, I quit the union after the NEA joined in on the political lynching of Judge Robert Bork and vowed to never give another dollar to the NEA, which I did not. The NEA has no concern for students. It is simply an arm of the Democratic Party pushing a left-wing agenda. Read the transcripts of their annual convention each and you will find very little about improving student outcomes and much more about raising teacher benefits and promoting a radical leftist agenda.
Check out the book The Return of the Gods. It was recommended by a woman in my support group. I haven't been able to put it down. Our children are being sacrificed!
From this great Article above.....yes more Stoicism would be a good thing IMO......
"The American psychologists Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge used national survey data of adolescents to map their locus of control. Their findings were based on the proportion of respondents who agreed with statements such as: “People like me don’t have a chance at a successful life” and “Whenever I try to get ahead, something stops me”. They concluded that, since the Nineties, the locus of control for all teenagers has become more external, but the shift has been greater for liberals, and greatest for liberal girls. Further, when the self-worth of teenagers was mapped, using responses to statements such as “I feel my life is not very useful”, the data showed a universal decline in self-worth since 2012. Again, the decline was stronger for liberals, and strongest for liberal girls.
People with an internal locus of control, believing they control their destiny, tend to be happier and have healthier habits, like good diets and frequent exercise, while people with an external locus of control, believing they’re at the mercy of fate, have higher rates of anxiety and depression and are more likely to abuse drugs and neglect their health. When you believe you have no control, you don’t.
And thus, as society has liberalised, and medicalised, young people have lost both self-belief and resilience. Many have subsequently become trapped in a cycle where they feel distress, and pathologise it, causing more distress, leading to more pathologisation and more distress, which eventually becomes textbook anxiety and depression. The rise in diagnoses is therefore not simply an illusion caused by medicalisation; society is teaching kids to develop real dysfunctions.
This is the greatest danger of the pathologisation pandemic: belief in one’s sickness is self-fulfilling. It’s a disease not of any bodily organ but of hope itself, and it harms its victim by crippling their immunity to everything else.
If there’s a vaccine for the pathologisation pandemic, then the best candidate is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). This is a form of talk-based treatment based on the Ancient Greek philosophy of Stoicism. Contrary to modernity, it teaches that our feelings are not always valid, but often deluded and self-destructive. The aim is to reframe harmful thoughts into alternatives that are more accurate, agentic, and soluble. So, instead of “The world sucks”, one could think “I feel like the world sucks right now”. Where pathologisation places problems outside your control, CBT places them within your control. Where pathologisation bundles many small issues into one giant insurmountable problem, CBT breaks down giant problems into small manageable pieces.
No form of psychotherapy has been as rigorously tested as CBT, and its effectiveness in restoring agency and reigniting hope is documented by decades of research. Some studies suggest CBT is gradually losing effectiveness, but this is mostly because CBT, like everything else in the social sciences, has been corrupted by amateurisation and the desire to be “inclusive” and inoffensive. The newest forms of CBT, such as “Transgender-Affirmative CBT”, are the opposite of classic CBT because they seek not to cultivate strength but to validate feelings.
More than ever, a return is needed to the original, Stoicism-based form of CBT, which has helped everyone from the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius, who governed Rome during a time of war and plague, to Vietnam POW James Stockdale, who used it to withstand torture at the notorious “Hanoi Hilton”. The ultimate cure to rampant pathologisation is to prepare the young to do battle against their greatest foe — their own minds — and to teach them a time-tested truth, bequeathed to us by history’s survivors: you are more than the things that happen to you. And you have as much control over your life as you believe you do.
Many of the misfortunes that befall you will not be your fault, but if you seek explanations for your suffering in things beyond your control, you risk falling prey to a culture and industry that are motivated to keep you feeling ill. Look within for the causes and, most times, you’ll find the cures. Modern society will tell you otherwise, of course, but it’s within your power to defy it, for you are not a helpless leaf in the wind but a mind that holds a world, which, depending on how you think, could be a Hell in Heaven, or a Heaven in Hell."
There's no need to let psychologists lay claim to the concept of rational self-analysis. They name it "CBT" and make rational & frank discussion a "technique" or a "therapy" of which only they decide who is and who is not an approved practitioner.
In fact I would strongly advise against doing that, considering that the so-called science of "psychology" has utterly debased itself, and utterly shredded its already-thin veil of being scientific. (Really that veil should've been considered irreparably tattered after the "satanic panic" fiasco - many of the exact same people involved in that have been outspoken proponents of so-called gender medicine.)
People benefit from having frank & rational discussions with an unbiased, friendly, and skeptical interlocutor. I think humans have known that since the beginning of time, or at least since Socrates. The very concept of "psychology" necessitates ceding the power of rational analysis and truth-determination entirely to a group of licensed practitioners - literally putting the locus of control not only outside oneself, as you discussed, but also outside one's own peers, family, and community. It is very, very plainly a synthetic, pseudoscientific substitute for religion, which has grown in authority as religion has faded.
In the old days people would just talk, ….talk to aunts, sisters, brothers, friends…family….and many more….
spending time in Nature and away from the electronics is the BEST for good mental health. Watching a bird or a butterfly vs fake world electric garbage. I chose butterfly bird any day. Sending strength and ❤️ to all, don’t let these monsters take the children.
Whether it's gender-identity ideology or social-justice diversity / equity / inclusion / anti-racism, the ideologies that are rooted in postmodern academic critical theory are preternaturally effective at producing what I'll call political antibodies that swarm and neutralize critics.
Another term for those antibodies is "trans ally." Whether they're brainwashed parents or, as here, educators, they're positioned to strike at an instant's notice whenever they detect dissent from orthodox beliefs.
There has to be some way to counter this phenomenon. In medicine they use vaccines. In this struggle, it could be education if it weren't for the fact trans activists and their allies have already occupied and captured the field.
In an ideal world, it would be the legislative and executive branches of government that could deliver the vaccination in the form of laws prohibiting the teaching in K-12 of concepts in social science, civics, history, sex ed, psychology, and other related fields that have not been shown to be sound when tested according to the scientific method.
That would, one hopes, block the teaching of the so-called "theories" that came out of the humanities and other similar disciplines during the height of the postmodern turn in academia, e.g., critical theory, queer theory, critical race theory, etc. along with the dumbed-down versions that find their way into the curriculum.
This could only happen in states where the legislature and executive branches are controlled by what conservatives.
A big open question is whether such legislation would pass constitutional muster in the courts. Likewise, what is the risk of federal retaliation such as the withholding of funding?
Another question is how to deal with the blue states, which would immediately proclaim themselves sanctuaries for "trans kids" and their families fleeing the grievous harm that comes from not being affirmed by everyone they encounter from the moment they awaken to when they fall asleep at night.
If you want the tide to turn, especially in blue states, support immigration - as much as possible, up to & including open borders. Nobody, but nobody, supports transgenderism (and its allied postmodern theories) as devotedly as white people. I'd explain this as a symptom perhaps of acute rootlessness and privilege - these aren't kids whose primary worry is a good career or helping out their family, it's kids who have bee raised to understand that their sole mission in life is to "find themselves."
Of course there's probably nothing in the white genome that makes us particularly susceptible to the postmodernist brain disease - just the conditions of our privileged lives. Perhaps in the distant future immigrant groups will be so comfortable in their wealth & status that they'll start to fall for this horse pucky in similar numbers. But as of now, they don't. The strongest pushback against progressive-minded miseducation, in liberal areas, has come from immigrant parents - in New York City, it's Asian parents, who are tired of being told that their concerns & their desires for good schools don't matter a fig.
Every new asian, indian, hispanic, african, indonesian, etc etc person who enters this country or is born in this country is pretty much a guaranteed vote against postmodern nonsense. If you want to live in a Democratic-voting area where schools, libraries, and national chains aren't papered in progress pride, it's really quite easy, just move to an area where the Democratic voters aren't white.
Thanks for this. It is all important information. The HRC is not only funded by Pfizer and PhRMA but also by a medical organization - GLMA. Please read the take down of HRC on the 11th Hour Blog. Note that even a cardiologist from a leading health insurance organization, Cigna, participated in the evil over a decade ago.
From part 2 of the 3 part series:
“ The cast of advisors from the initial HEI report in 2007 to the report in 2011 close to doubled and included a cardiologist from Cigna, a ‘medical outcomes specialist’ from Pfizer, a director in integrative medicine, a member of a healthcare accreditation organization, and others from the fields of law and medicine”
This is not a cast of advisors that belongs anywhere near young people ever.
There is also an excellent look at The Trevor Project on the 11thHourBlog.
Along with the reading agenda capturing youth into the trans fray, are also AP classes. There is currently a debate in FL over the requirement for the AP Psychology class to teach gender voodoo.
Gender-identity ideology isn't just a problem in American classrooms.
A member of Parliament had the gall recently to crow on Twitter about how he'd helped kill a bill that would have prohibited teachers from concealing pupils' trans identity from their parents:
The "likes" inside the trans activist social media bubble are a powerful psychological thing. It's a mix of self righteousness and in-group acceptance that gets the brain to release happy chemicals.
It never ceases to amaze me how many uniquely valid perspectives are being articulated by PITT parents! This piece is especially important, because it "follows the money" and brings us closer to understanding the engine that is driving this nightmare. Let's send this to our legislators at state and national levels!
I am a teacher and a mother of a now estranged son who wants to be a girl. I am sickened and horrified by what the NEA and other educator professionals are doing. The blatant disrespect and disregard for families and their rights is unthinkable. I don’t understand when it was decided that KIDS know better than adults and SCHOOLS know better than a child’s family. Although in my district it hasn’t gotten to this extreme, yet, as soon as it does it will be time to retire. I will not interfere and go against a family relationship as many are being told to do. Thank you for publishing this. I hope people know that not all teachers are on board with this backward and destructive way of thinking.
What a great essay - thank you! Your story had me balling up my fists and wanting to pound on my table! So many valid points! You are right, a teacher would never oust a gay student and cause shame or embarrassment but teachers are now being encouraged to promote and exploit a transgender student? The NEA Today Magazine was indeed a one-sided push supporting the trans-ideology and by connecting the dots it was not hard to see who is benefiting from this push - Big Pharma, of course! Poisoning the minds of our teachers to interfere in the personal lives of the student/parent relationship is so wrong! Tricking teachers into believing that they are the heroes in this foolish cult game is so wrong as they are actually the villains being used by the Pharma puppeteers! Ordering books for the library and classroom to support this trans-cult is going to promote further damage. Social Contagion! I hate this!
Thank you for the valuable references in this piece!
I am in my 28th year of teaching at a public high school and proud to have left the union years ago. I will use any name the kids want to go by but refuse to participate in the pronouns nonsense. I’ll fight as long as I am able. If coerced speech becomes policy, they’ll have to fire me and deal with the lawyers.
And then there’s this:
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/michigan-they-them-strikes-again/
I guess I’m going to have to fight or move. Come visit me in prison?
There is a great documentary called “the great awakening” it is free … https://plandemicseries.com/. The beginning starts off about Covid don’t let that stop you from watching it. It made me cry and gasp. If at all possible parents,….please get your children out of the schools that push this agenda,….
Those are lousy stories, I'm sorry they happened. Some young teachers deserve a chance, again, many may be scared. Also, identity politics isn't really communist or socialist, it's something totally different. Long discussion. Have a good evening.
I saw that article and she has points, but there are signs the tables are starting to turn. I am too busy for details right now, but... have hope. I know it will take effort.
I taught for 20 years in TN and I joined the NEA during my second year because of the promise of liability insurance and support if there was ever a false accusation brought against me. However, I quit the union after the NEA joined in on the political lynching of Judge Robert Bork and vowed to never give another dollar to the NEA, which I did not. The NEA has no concern for students. It is simply an arm of the Democratic Party pushing a left-wing agenda. Read the transcripts of their annual convention each and you will find very little about improving student outcomes and much more about raising teacher benefits and promoting a radical leftist agenda.
Check out the book The Return of the Gods. It was recommended by a woman in my support group. I haven't been able to put it down. Our children are being sacrificed!
The only option that is left:
HOME SCHOOL.
If at all possible, do not put your children in the hands of these monsters.
I have two tiny kids. I cannot imagine a scenario in which I ever, ever send them to public school.
https://unherd.com/2023/06/is-liberal-society-making-us-ill/
From this great Article above.....yes more Stoicism would be a good thing IMO......
"The American psychologists Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge used national survey data of adolescents to map their locus of control. Their findings were based on the proportion of respondents who agreed with statements such as: “People like me don’t have a chance at a successful life” and “Whenever I try to get ahead, something stops me”. They concluded that, since the Nineties, the locus of control for all teenagers has become more external, but the shift has been greater for liberals, and greatest for liberal girls. Further, when the self-worth of teenagers was mapped, using responses to statements such as “I feel my life is not very useful”, the data showed a universal decline in self-worth since 2012. Again, the decline was stronger for liberals, and strongest for liberal girls.
People with an internal locus of control, believing they control their destiny, tend to be happier and have healthier habits, like good diets and frequent exercise, while people with an external locus of control, believing they’re at the mercy of fate, have higher rates of anxiety and depression and are more likely to abuse drugs and neglect their health. When you believe you have no control, you don’t.
And thus, as society has liberalised, and medicalised, young people have lost both self-belief and resilience. Many have subsequently become trapped in a cycle where they feel distress, and pathologise it, causing more distress, leading to more pathologisation and more distress, which eventually becomes textbook anxiety and depression. The rise in diagnoses is therefore not simply an illusion caused by medicalisation; society is teaching kids to develop real dysfunctions.
This is the greatest danger of the pathologisation pandemic: belief in one’s sickness is self-fulfilling. It’s a disease not of any bodily organ but of hope itself, and it harms its victim by crippling their immunity to everything else.
If there’s a vaccine for the pathologisation pandemic, then the best candidate is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). This is a form of talk-based treatment based on the Ancient Greek philosophy of Stoicism. Contrary to modernity, it teaches that our feelings are not always valid, but often deluded and self-destructive. The aim is to reframe harmful thoughts into alternatives that are more accurate, agentic, and soluble. So, instead of “The world sucks”, one could think “I feel like the world sucks right now”. Where pathologisation places problems outside your control, CBT places them within your control. Where pathologisation bundles many small issues into one giant insurmountable problem, CBT breaks down giant problems into small manageable pieces.
No form of psychotherapy has been as rigorously tested as CBT, and its effectiveness in restoring agency and reigniting hope is documented by decades of research. Some studies suggest CBT is gradually losing effectiveness, but this is mostly because CBT, like everything else in the social sciences, has been corrupted by amateurisation and the desire to be “inclusive” and inoffensive. The newest forms of CBT, such as “Transgender-Affirmative CBT”, are the opposite of classic CBT because they seek not to cultivate strength but to validate feelings.
More than ever, a return is needed to the original, Stoicism-based form of CBT, which has helped everyone from the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius, who governed Rome during a time of war and plague, to Vietnam POW James Stockdale, who used it to withstand torture at the notorious “Hanoi Hilton”. The ultimate cure to rampant pathologisation is to prepare the young to do battle against their greatest foe — their own minds — and to teach them a time-tested truth, bequeathed to us by history’s survivors: you are more than the things that happen to you. And you have as much control over your life as you believe you do.
Many of the misfortunes that befall you will not be your fault, but if you seek explanations for your suffering in things beyond your control, you risk falling prey to a culture and industry that are motivated to keep you feeling ill. Look within for the causes and, most times, you’ll find the cures. Modern society will tell you otherwise, of course, but it’s within your power to defy it, for you are not a helpless leaf in the wind but a mind that holds a world, which, depending on how you think, could be a Hell in Heaven, or a Heaven in Hell."
There's no need to let psychologists lay claim to the concept of rational self-analysis. They name it "CBT" and make rational & frank discussion a "technique" or a "therapy" of which only they decide who is and who is not an approved practitioner.
In fact I would strongly advise against doing that, considering that the so-called science of "psychology" has utterly debased itself, and utterly shredded its already-thin veil of being scientific. (Really that veil should've been considered irreparably tattered after the "satanic panic" fiasco - many of the exact same people involved in that have been outspoken proponents of so-called gender medicine.)
People benefit from having frank & rational discussions with an unbiased, friendly, and skeptical interlocutor. I think humans have known that since the beginning of time, or at least since Socrates. The very concept of "psychology" necessitates ceding the power of rational analysis and truth-determination entirely to a group of licensed practitioners - literally putting the locus of control not only outside oneself, as you discussed, but also outside one's own peers, family, and community. It is very, very plainly a synthetic, pseudoscientific substitute for religion, which has grown in authority as religion has faded.
In the old days people would just talk, ….talk to aunts, sisters, brothers, friends…family….and many more….
spending time in Nature and away from the electronics is the BEST for good mental health. Watching a bird or a butterfly vs fake world electric garbage. I chose butterfly bird any day. Sending strength and ❤️ to all, don’t let these monsters take the children.
Your concern is with the author of that not me. I enjoyed the article and found it insightful.
Whether it's gender-identity ideology or social-justice diversity / equity / inclusion / anti-racism, the ideologies that are rooted in postmodern academic critical theory are preternaturally effective at producing what I'll call political antibodies that swarm and neutralize critics.
Another term for those antibodies is "trans ally." Whether they're brainwashed parents or, as here, educators, they're positioned to strike at an instant's notice whenever they detect dissent from orthodox beliefs.
There has to be some way to counter this phenomenon. In medicine they use vaccines. In this struggle, it could be education if it weren't for the fact trans activists and their allies have already occupied and captured the field.
In an ideal world, it would be the legislative and executive branches of government that could deliver the vaccination in the form of laws prohibiting the teaching in K-12 of concepts in social science, civics, history, sex ed, psychology, and other related fields that have not been shown to be sound when tested according to the scientific method.
That would, one hopes, block the teaching of the so-called "theories" that came out of the humanities and other similar disciplines during the height of the postmodern turn in academia, e.g., critical theory, queer theory, critical race theory, etc. along with the dumbed-down versions that find their way into the curriculum.
This could only happen in states where the legislature and executive branches are controlled by what conservatives.
A big open question is whether such legislation would pass constitutional muster in the courts. Likewise, what is the risk of federal retaliation such as the withholding of funding?
Another question is how to deal with the blue states, which would immediately proclaim themselves sanctuaries for "trans kids" and their families fleeing the grievous harm that comes from not being affirmed by everyone they encounter from the moment they awaken to when they fall asleep at night.
If you want the tide to turn, especially in blue states, support immigration - as much as possible, up to & including open borders. Nobody, but nobody, supports transgenderism (and its allied postmodern theories) as devotedly as white people. I'd explain this as a symptom perhaps of acute rootlessness and privilege - these aren't kids whose primary worry is a good career or helping out their family, it's kids who have bee raised to understand that their sole mission in life is to "find themselves."
Of course there's probably nothing in the white genome that makes us particularly susceptible to the postmodernist brain disease - just the conditions of our privileged lives. Perhaps in the distant future immigrant groups will be so comfortable in their wealth & status that they'll start to fall for this horse pucky in similar numbers. But as of now, they don't. The strongest pushback against progressive-minded miseducation, in liberal areas, has come from immigrant parents - in New York City, it's Asian parents, who are tired of being told that their concerns & their desires for good schools don't matter a fig.
Every new asian, indian, hispanic, african, indonesian, etc etc person who enters this country or is born in this country is pretty much a guaranteed vote against postmodern nonsense. If you want to live in a Democratic-voting area where schools, libraries, and national chains aren't papered in progress pride, it's really quite easy, just move to an area where the Democratic voters aren't white.
Thanks for this. It is all important information. The HRC is not only funded by Pfizer and PhRMA but also by a medical organization - GLMA. Please read the take down of HRC on the 11th Hour Blog. Note that even a cardiologist from a leading health insurance organization, Cigna, participated in the evil over a decade ago.
From part 2 of the 3 part series:
“ The cast of advisors from the initial HEI report in 2007 to the report in 2011 close to doubled and included a cardiologist from Cigna, a ‘medical outcomes specialist’ from Pfizer, a director in integrative medicine, a member of a healthcare accreditation organization, and others from the fields of law and medicine”
This is not a cast of advisors that belongs anywhere near young people ever.
Part 2 can be found here:
https://www.the11thhourblog.com/post/all-aboard-the-human-rights-campaign-and-the-making-of-transgender-industry-leaders-part-2
There is also an excellent look at The Trevor Project on the 11thHourBlog.
Along with the reading agenda capturing youth into the trans fray, are also AP classes. There is currently a debate in FL over the requirement for the AP Psychology class to teach gender voodoo.
Gender-identity ideology isn't just a problem in American classrooms.
A member of Parliament had the gall recently to crow on Twitter about how he'd helped kill a bill that would have prohibited teachers from concealing pupils' trans identity from their parents:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mick Whitley MP
@MickWhitleyMP
Today, I joined colleagues in voting down Andrew Bridgen's bill which would compel teachers to out their trans students.
While the bill was unlikely to become law, these proposals put young trans people at real risk of harm.
Together, let's say no to a new Section 28. 🏳️⚧️
(Section 28 was an anti-gay law during the Thatcher era in the UK.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This was a good rejoinder:
Bruno Parks
"THEIR" trans students are someone else's children. They're known as PARENTS.
How dare you assume:
1) that parents are a risk to their children; and
2) you know what's in the child's best interests better than the parents?
YOU are the REAL source of REAL risk to kids.
The "likes" inside the trans activist social media bubble are a powerful psychological thing. It's a mix of self righteousness and in-group acceptance that gets the brain to release happy chemicals.
We must keep speaking up wherever and whenever the opportunity arises. This madness and the people behind it WILL be exposed one day.
The truth is like a Lion-you don’t have to defend it, just set it loose!
It never ceases to amaze me how many uniquely valid perspectives are being articulated by PITT parents! This piece is especially important, because it "follows the money" and brings us closer to understanding the engine that is driving this nightmare. Let's send this to our legislators at state and national levels!