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Q&A Of The Day – How To Handle Teacher Activism In South Florida - Part 1
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s entry: First day of school in the books. Daughter in middle school. One daughter wants to change math class because teacher said we will not only learn math .. we will talk about what’s going on in the world, like George Floyd. Her comment. Is this math? What to do?
Bottom Line: I’m sorry but not surprised to hear this. In fact, what your daughter encountered on the first day in class is precisely what I’ve been warning about throughout the summer. We’re facing an unprecedented battle for the minds of our kids as teachers unions feel emboldened by the Biden administration to push radical agendas like Critical Race Theory. Here’s a quick refresh of some of what’s transpired over the summer. On July 12th I brought you this: The battle over the minds Florida’s children is on. Not only has the American Federation of Teacher’s, the parent of all of Florida’s teachers' unions, pledged support for the teaching of Critical Race Theory...they’re now upping the ante. Last week you had the AFT president, on a tour with First Lady Jill Biden, state support for the teaching of CRT. Now, the AFT has raised the stakes. The American Federation of Teachers booked a Critical Race Theory expert to speak at their annual national conference. The AFT president has now stated: Mark my words: Our union will defend any member who gets in trouble for teaching honest history. The AFT, which represents 78% of Florida’s public-school teachers, is openly calling on them to break Florida’s law and stating they’ll take care of any fallout. As I went on to discuss, the implications here were, and now that school is resuming, are significant. The Biden administration pledged support to the American Federation of Teachers to teach Critical Race Theory this school year. Because of that backing, the AFT subsequently encouraged its members to teach Critical Race Theory.
Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers specifically called on teachers in states like Florida, which have outlawed the teaching of CRT, to teach it anyway and they’d handle any legal implications that might come about from their doing so. As mentioned, 78% of Florida’s teachers are members of American Federation of Teachers – as every teacher’s union in Florida is an affiliate of the AFT. Many teachers felt so emboldened that they signed a petition to teach Critical Race Theory in violation of state law. At the time I named the names of the South Florida teachers who signed that pledge. With the new school year upon us it’s probably a good time for a refresher. In the second part of today’s Q&A I’ll name those pledged teachers once again and we’ll discuss next steps regarding what to do when your child is presented with CRT and similarly inappropriate material in the classroom.