Originally Posted by
RJSAviator76
So here's an interesting take... I ran into a teenage kid at our Yacht Club pool wearing a MAGA hat. He must have been maybe 15 or so. I was talking to his mom and she said he loves wearing that hat even to school games, etc. Interesting choice of hats for a 15 year old, but OK... I asked him if any of his teachers ever commented on the hat. He said he's run into a couple who told him it was a hateful hat, and his response was a very simple "I disagree with you." Then they tried to berate him and convince him otherwise, and the kid being stubborn said, well, you're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to mine... I don't see "Make America Great Again" as a hateful message unless you're the enemy of this country. The kid cracked me up...
When I went to high school, it didn't matter which side of the political spectrum you aligned with, a good teacher would make you defend it and ask tough questions, and the best part of the whole thing would be that the teacher would never reveal either directly or indirectly which way they lean in the political spectrum. We both know that's not the case today, especially with young, idealistic teachers, journalists, etc...
Yes, these days, the SYSTEM is failing because it's been infiltrated by the activists pushing an agenda, not people passionate about producing tomorrow's leaders. That's why today there's far more emphasis on activism and social "justice" and way less on STEM.
See, that's the problem. MAGA is antagonistic. The entire premise of the movement is to get in people's faces and generate a negative reaction. It isn't about "making America great again" and to claim it is being intentionally obtuse. The kid was wearing it solely because he KNOWS people find it offensive. And taking the opinion of a 15 year old claiming he was berated is absurd. You could tell a 15 year old to clean his room and they'd pretend like you asked them to cut an arm off.
You are taking very limited anecdotes and projecting them across the entire system. It couldn't be that the system has been under attack for decades and that it is perpetually underfunded and overly scrutinized. Or that the main recruiting tool is not money but "passion.". And to claim that "back in the day, all the teachers were neutral" is also absurd. When I went to school, teachers routinely encouraged students to attend religious gatherings with them. Does that sound neutral to you? I don't know why I asked. I'm sure it does.
And every school I've visited or read about in the past few years, their main advertisment was how good their STEM program is. Not sure why you think high schools are pushing social justice over stem.