Teaching in the Age of Trump (Andrea Rinard)
ANDREA RINARD: “I’M A WIFE, MOTHER OF THREE, HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHER, WRITER OF
THINGS, AND NATIVE FLORIDIAN.” THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN MEDIUM, JULY 13, 2018.
Full disclosure: I’m not a Trump fan. I woke up on Wednesday, November 9, 2016 with a sense of dread and foreboding. I wondered how I was going to get up, go to school, and be a responsible high school English teacher in this brave new world of Trump.
Like many, I figured I would ride it out. My previous job, at a very conservative school, taught me to keep my head down when President Obama was elected and both colleagues and school families responded as if it were the end times. It was my turn now, I reasoned. Sure, Trump had admitted to groping women, he’d mocked a disabled journalist, done myriad things I found repugnant, but there were checks and balances. How bad could it be?
Well, I’ve now taught one school year that spanned the election and inauguration, and I’ve taught one school year under the Trump presidency. In my perspective, it’s been so much worse than I could have ever imagined — but I have a job to do. It’s a job that I take seriously, and I’ve tried my best to be a responsible educator in the age of Trump. As I prepare for the 2018–2019 school, I wanted to share the five tenets I now cling to.
- Kids need to learn how to be more responsible and canny media consumers
Alternative facts and fake news have become the modern version of “nuh-uh.” If you don’t like what I’m saying, call it fake news. If you can’t refute my assertion CONTINUE READING: Teaching in the Age of Trump (Andrea Rinard) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice