One NJ Teacher's Response to DeVos' Criticism That We Are Brainwashing Children
Dear former students,
I would like to take this time to formally apologize for brainwashing all of you. I apologize for the teaching of Walt Whitman who said to "filter" from all what you have learned; I apologize for teaching Thoreau who believed in the majority of one; I apologize for Emerson and his belief in the interconnectedness of all life; I apologize for Ben Franklin and fellow skeptics.
I apologize for the viewpoints of many women, Edith Wharton, Kate Chopin, Emily Dickinson, Alice Walker. I apologize for understanding the plights of African Americans in such plays as Fences and Raisin in the Sun; for reading Cicero, Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Plato, Jefferson, and Paine - writers who dared to question authority. For this, I'm truly sorry.
I apologize for allowing such works as The Great Gatsby to question the hallowed state of The American Dream. I apologize for teaching the true story of Pocahontas. I apologize for Hemingway's bottle, Faulkner's Emily, and Path's suicide.
I apologize for assigning the essays and the poems and the stories and the recitals. I also want to apologize to my journalism students who sought out facts and the truth and the stories of the marginalized and voiceless Badass Teachers Association: One NJ Teacher's Response to DeVos' Criticism That We Are Brainwashing Children: