Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

When the Secretary of Education channels Wizard of Oz...

Over the weekend, you may have seen this tweet from the Secretary of Education:

The tweet gave me pretty strong “pay no attention to that man behind” the curtain vibes from the Wizard of Oz.

Trust them, they know what they’re doing. This is why we’re seeing: record-low test scores from history to math to literacy. The “experts*” blame it on the pandemic, but the trajectory has been downhill for decades notwithstanding our response to COVID.

*The Experts: Remember those folks? They reassured us that kids are resilient, and that distance learning and masks wouldn’t harm our kids.

Despite what the Secretary of Education claims, we know he’s the man behind the curtain. We know that it’s parents, not teachers, who know what’s best for kids.

My friend Sharon remarked upon reading this tweet,

Why is this administration aggressively going after the parent-child relationship so forcibly? Yes, teachers have important observations. In fact the most important observation ever offered by a teacher to us might have been that of a summer school art teacher who was one of the shortest and least personal relationships we ever had. But to say that teacher know best (over parents) which is probably the only straight reading is absolutely denigrating to those with the most investment in the child! Those who are trusted need not ask for trust. Trust is gained teachers are nearly always secondary to the those who have primary responsiblity: the parents.

But if the Biden Admin wants to build this hill and then die on it, I'm not going to stop them. File this note in the back of your notebook.

We’re here to help parents navigate their way out of the government school system. We’re here to provide resources to help you educate your child if you’re officially homeschooling or just supplementing on evenings and weekends. In addition to providing an escape hatch, we’re also here to keep pulling that curtain back. Thanks for joining us.