Inputs vs. Outcomes: How left and right use words differently

Guest post by Dar

One of the problems with socio-political issues in the US is the Right and Left have fundamentally different understandings of basic words.

Regarding the "teaching CRT" issue, I think we are running into incompatibility on definitions again. 

Allow me to digress:

The Left sees "choice" as "total control over all outcomes." As in, "I didn't choose to get pregnant, therefore I should have abortion rights." or "I didn't choose to be poor."

They want power to determine outcomes and avoid bad consequences. 

The Right sees "choice" as "input" that brings about consequences. If you don't like a certain set of consequences, make different/better choices. You didn't choose to be poor, but you didn't make choices that lead to wealth, so in a way, you did choose to be poor. 

There are other words we disagree on. "Access" to the Left means "free and convenient to the user". The Right only recognizes negative "rights", the Left demands all sorts of positive "rights".

Teachers are supposed to help children learn concrete, discrete topics, NOT create carbon copies of their opinions in the next generation.

With CRT, I think the term at issue is "teaching." 

Teaching is all about an individual transferring information and understanding to students.

The ideal is that the teacher is somewhat interchangeable, although of *course* a good teacher will have students with better learning outcomes. 

But the teacher's personal opinions and values are supposed to stay out of the classroom.

That's impossible to do.

Teachers are not automatons.

But they should make an attempt to be neutral about politics, opinions, values, morals, etc.

It isn't their job. 

Somewhere along the line, teachers have gotten the idea that they were hired for their moral superiority. That they are supposed to teach kids *what* to think about complex issues. 

Teachers are supposed to teach a curriculum, as specified by the school board, the state legislature, the Department of Education, etc.

Math. Reading/literacy. Literature. Science. History. Communication. 

Teachers are supposed to help children learn concrete, discrete topics, NOT create carbon copies of their opinions in the next generation.

The strength of the US education system is that it didn't just push rote learning, the US education system produced students who can *think* 

But with things like global warming, racism, taxes, welfare, and now CRT, teachers have decided that they are charged with ensuring children think a certain way.

They are telling children *What* to think, not how to evaluate competing claims in a complex information environment. 

So conservatives want to ban teaching CRT, and Leftists retort that we won't let them teach about racism, about history, etc.

It's the word "teach" that's the problem.

They don't want to do what we want them to do. They want to put a specific opinion into kids' brains. 

Again, they want a specific outcome.

The Right wants a specific input, and wants to let the outcomes occur as they naturally do. 

The Left wants kids to finish school completely convinced that US society is inherently racist, and the only thing we can do is enact Social Justice, which is mainly preventing natural consequences of bad behavior, and giving lots of tax money to select minority leaders. 

The Right wants students to encounter all sorts of thinking and opinions on a given topic, and wants students to be taught methods of sorting opinions, and evaluating sources, and comparing to values, to come to a personal conclusion. 

In other words, the Left wants to indoctrinate, but call it teaching.

The Right wants actual teaching, i.e., giving kids tools they can apply to all sorts of problems. 

The Left's indoctrination leaves students helpless when they encounter any topic or situation not covered by indoctrination. There's no skill, other than "listen to authority to know what to think."

It infantilizes our future citizens. 

The point of this is that when people object to "CRT bans" by saying they will not be allowed to "teach", hone in on the concept of "teaching".

Make them admit that what they want is indoctrination, and that indoctrination is wrong and exactly what parents DON'T want. 

And then, of course, emphasize that putting kids in schools doesn't give teachers/schools ownership of the students. They don't have the right to decide what values kids should have.

Parents do NOT abandon rights & responsibilities to teach their values by sending kids to school. 

Call them out.

Ask them what right they have to decide values kids should have, what right they have to make kids think a certain way.

This should expose their intent, and make it easier to give instructions to School Boards and Legislatures to stop the indoctrination. 

Exit quote:

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