Certain truths are universal

Bernalillo Public Schools is looking into actions of a teacher who had a political rant against President Donald Trump on Thursday.

Some of the teacher’s highlights in the recorded conversation:

• “If you have a history teacher teaching you that Trump is good I feel really scared for you.”

• “Technically, he is the immigrant. And if he’s saying all this stuff about immigrants — and who is his wife?”

• Obama was never radical the way Trump is.”

A parent of one of the students wants his child assigned to another class. The parent is a self-described Democrat, but doesn’t want politics pushed that way toward a child.

I don’t think public schools will ever be non-partisan, because teachers aren’t robots. My high school days were largely non-partisan, but:

• I had a history teacher whose go-to story about the American system was that a construction crew owned by a caucasian had the lowest bid but lost out because affirmative action gave the job to a minority-owned company. Three years, same story. He didn’t have any other facts; it was just something he read somewhere.

• My sophomore year, we had a foreign exchange student from Sweden. I wasn’t in one of her classes where she said Swedish’s system of socialism was far better than the United States’ trickle-down capitalism. The teacher talked about it in the next class period, and there was a tinge of, “Foolish socialist teenager,” in the retelling.

It wasn’t until I got to college — that hotbed of liberalism — that I got to experience teachers who steered conversation away from one-sided criticism of policies and the elected leaders who enacted them.

I can’t, however, think of an incident that rose to this level. I wouldn’t think it’s a dismissal level offense, but I’m not making hiring decisions in any school district and I don’t know if this is a first strike against the teacher.

In any case, I think there are certain truths students should get:

• Your preferred candidates are humans. They’ll let you down.

• Your preferred opposition are humans. They’ll surprise you.

• Supporters of your opponents will trivialize faults in their candidates and magnify faults in your candidates.

• Supporters of your candidates will magnify faults in your opponents and trivialize those in your candidate.

• Your teachers have plenty of knowledge and they have the teacher’s manual with all of the answers. But teachers aren’t right all of the time, and teacher’s manuals sometimes have typos.

• Your parents and other adults have years of real-life experience, and that should hold weight. But that doesn’t mean they’re absolutely right about everything. Don’t believe something? Research it, and don’t limit yourself to only things that confirm your biases.

• Parents and teachers may warn you that offenses will go on your permanent record. They’re really saying, “You’ll regret this, but since you don’t believe me I have to engineer a threatening reason for now.” There is a permanent record to be concerned about, though; it’s called the Internet, so be careful what you put there.

Kevin Wilson is managing editor of The Eastern New Mexico News. Contact him at: [email protected]