Please reassure me that MCPS teachers aren't this radicalized

[Anonymous]

We are transplants coming from Midwest. Mostly apolitical middle 'flyover' America (but a bluish leaning state)...

School systems were much smaller but fairly good. Nowhere near the resources of MCPS but smaller so not necessarily needing such resources. Overall MCPS schools seem pretty good but we've noticed a Democrat leaning favoritism in the schools we've been (IE going to the Library and seeing President Books displayed... all Dems with the lone Republican being Teddy Roosevelt). No real biggie as most schools tend towards the Left side of the political spectrum. Kind of a given.

Maryland is a bit of a conundrum for us, MoCo seems very Liberal (Baltimore too) I.E. neighbors have 'hate has no home here' signs, impeach trump placards, the many language welcome sign, yet the state elected a Republican Governor. Except for a few days before elections, back home you would never see lawn placards.

Anyway the point of all this is... there is definitely a partisan vibe here even though it seems a blue state open minded enough to elect a 'red' governor. Then I read this:

http://www.startribune.com/rosemount-educator-on-leave-after-tweeting-kill-kavanaugh/495903561/

(essentially a School teacher from mild mannered Minnesota tweeting assassination recommendations. A school teacher!.)

My impression of MCPS is despite its bias towards the Dems, everyone seems pretty amiable and reasonable.

Please reassure me we don't have teachers like this here... because if this can happen in Minnesota... (close to my home and we don't see any of the partisanship displayed on the streets as we see here) could such be here within MCPS? We want my children to be exposed to all kinds of peoples, beliefs, and political view points... but not radical view points... so whats your feelings regarding MCPS? Does everyone get a fair shake or are the children taught to hate (right or left)?

[Anonymous]

You moved to the DC suburbs - politics is front and center all year long. Yes, people are generally friendly and helpful in their various communities, and they also often have strongly held and relatively well informed political opinions. It really depends what you mean by “radical.” If you think Nancy Pelosi is “radical” then yes, you’ll find a lot of those radicals here. But not many anarchists or people who advocate violent revolution.

[Anonymous]

Our principal holds a get together in the spring for incoming parents of K students. At this event, in response to an at best tangentially related question, she stated that she would never go to an MD beach to spite the current R governor. (The governor mandated that schools start after Labor Day in large part to help businesses at the MD beaches.)

Regardless of what you think of starting school later, or the governor more broadly, it is crazy that she would make such a sharp political jab at a welcoming event. Either she didn't care, or she just assumed every would agree with her, neither of which is really ok.

[Anonymous]

MD has always been heavily Dem, but people are more vocal now in reaction to Trump. His rhetoric and policies have discriminated against women, minorities and immigrants. He has made hateful comments. There has been a visual and vocal reaction to this. (Like the Hate has No Home Here signs, or the Everyone is Welcome Here signs). Would you call that radical? I wouldn't.

Signed,
Former Republican (Independent until recently. Democrat now)

[Anonymous]

MoCo has always been very liberal and mostly democratic. So, the signs, etc. on private property are normal and has nothing to do with MCPS. As of MCPS, I haven't noticed that at all.

[Anonymous]

Don't you think apathy and ignorance is more dangerous than engagement and knowledge of issues?
When voters don't pay attention, they regret it.

I hope you can find your way to see this, and accept that you are living where people will be vocal, and mostly vocal for the moderate left.

And don't imagine that any current influential politician is a radical socialist or far-left ideologue. As a European, I can attest that your entire political body is shifted to the right compared to European nations'. Most democrats here would be considered centrist over there. There are actually respected Socialist and Communist parties in many European countries. Here both those words are swear words, for some reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our principal holds a get together in the spring for incoming parents of K students. At this event, in response to an at best tangentially related question, she stated that she would never go to an MD beach to spite the current R governor. (The governor mandated that schools start after Labor Day in large part to help businesses at the MD beaches.)

Regardless of what you think of starting school later, or the governor more broadly, it is crazy that she would make such a sharp political jab at a welcoming event. Either she didn't care, or she just assumed every would agree with her, neither of which is really ok.

She's probably angry because the Gov put beach business over student welfare. This condensed calendar is not in the best academic interest of students. Maybe the way it came out wasn't the most appropriate, but I don't know that I'd call that political. Her ability to help students learn and retain info is directly affected by Hogan's (& Franchot's -- a Dem) policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You moved to the DC suburbs - politics is front and center all year long. Yes, people are generally friendly and helpful in their various communities, and they also often have strongly held and relatively well informed political opinions. It really depends what you mean by “radical.” If you think Nancy Pelosi is “radical” then yes, you’ll find a lot of those radicals here. But not many anarchists or people who advocate violent revolution.

DC is not generally friendly or helpful. Come on now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You moved to the DC suburbs - politics is front and center all year long. Yes, people are generally friendly and helpful in their various communities, and they also often have strongly held and relatively well informed political opinions. It really depends what you mean by “radical.” If you think Nancy Pelosi is “radical” then yes, you’ll find a lot of those radicals here. But not many anarchists or people who advocate violent revolution.

DC is not generally friendly or helpful. Come on now.

People in my neighborhood and school community are friendly and helpful. They’re not likely to become your best friend overnight, but I don’t think that’s required for generally friendly and helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our principal holds a get together in the spring for incoming parents of K students. At this event, in response to an at best tangentially related question, she stated that she would never go to an MD beach to spite the current R governor. (The governor mandated that schools start after Labor Day in large part to help businesses at the MD beaches.)

Regardless of what you think of starting school later, or the governor more broadly, it is crazy that she would make such a sharp political jab at a welcoming event. Either she didn't care, or she just assumed every would agree with her, neither of which is really ok.

She's probably angry because the Gov put beach business over student welfare. This condensed calendar is not in the best academic interest of students. Maybe the way it came out wasn't the most appropriate, but I don't know that I'd call that political. Her ability to help students learn and retain info is directly affected by Hogan's (& Franchot's -- a Dem) policy.

I may not have described it in the best way. It was very clearly and unambiguously a political statement and stated a dislike for the governor beyond simply this policy point, although that was the focus.

It is not as clear cut as you present it that the slight delay to the start of school has any impact on students or their education. But let's say it were. I still do not think it is is appropriate for a principal at a welcoming event to make pointedly political remarks.

The idea of a welcoming event is to make the incoming parents feel welcome. For all she knows, someone who works with the governor could be a parent. She certainly should assume that, even in this area, there would be a few Republicans. There are almost certainly people who like the policy, or don't view it as a big deal, in the crowd.

Think what would (and should) occur if almost any other group or view point had been criticized at "welcome" event.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our principal holds a get together in the spring for incoming parents of K students. At this event, in response to an at best tangentially related question, she stated that she would never go to an MD beach to spite the current R governor. (The governor mandated that schools start after Labor Day in large part to help businesses at the MD beaches.)

Regardless of what you think of starting school later, or the governor more broadly, it is crazy that she would make such a sharp political jab at a welcoming event. Either she didn't care, or she just assumed every would agree with her, neither of which is really ok.

As a left-leaning person, I would lose respect for a school official who made such a comment. Many middle schools had events to commemorate the Parkland shooting. The ceremony was very dignified at my son's school, and the Principal turned it into a beautiful occasion. I could get behind that sort of thing.
My point is that there will always be stupid people, and smart people, everywhere on the political spectrum.

[Anonymous]

I'm from the Midwest, and I think your first mistake is to assume that the leanings in Montgomery County are "political" in nature. In case it really hasn't sunk in yet, this area is one of the most diverse in the country - in every dimension (race, religion, SES, etc.) You really have a hard time living around here if you somehow believe certain people are "less than" other people. If you think immigrants should go back to where they came from, this is not the county for you. Teachers in the school system especially have to value each and every student for who they are. If that is not a core value, you can't be a good teacher here. So yes, most teachers in this county will be able to say "black lives matter" because they understand the historical and current systemic oppression happening to people of color. That doesn't make them radicalized, nor does it make them Democrats. It makes them empathetic and caring about the needs of others (typically a core value of teachers.)

You also have to consider that there are two traditional axes on the political spectrum - socially liberal or conservative, and fiscally liberal or conservative. I would say there is a definite socially liberal slant in the county (diversity again) but a slight lean towards fiscally conservative (depends on the year and the issues.) As to why we have Hogan - Democrats didn't vote that year because they weren't very inspired by their nominee for governor, and assumed everyone else would vote. There were a lot of surprised (and pissed) people when they woke up with a Republican governor. It hasn't had a huge effect because there is a democratic super-majority in the Assembly, so Hogan can't veto a lot of legislation. But irritatingly, he takes credit for things he has opposed, and people who don't understand how the government works or follow the details think he is responsible. That's why he is still popular. MoCo broadly hates him, because Hogan has made no secret that he hates MoCo. He has withheld funding for school buildings that was approved by the general assembly, he has shifted transportation funds away from MoCo towards the Eastern Shore (real nice new 4 lane highway out there). He made a pretty close to unworkable mandate about school year start and end dates, and followed up with scathingly nasty letters to the BOE when they asked for clarifications or modifications. Hope that quick history gives you some sense of why we are where we are. For more, you can head to the Politics Forum, if you dare.

[Anonymous]

The "Everyone is welcome" signs do not mean Everyone.

Conservatives, republicans, Trump people, blue collar folks, traditional Christians and those from flyover country are not included in "Everyone".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our principal holds a get together in the spring for incoming parents of K students. At this event, in response to an at best tangentially related question, she stated that she would never go to an MD beach to spite the current R governor. (The governor mandated that schools start after Labor Day in large part to help businesses at the MD beaches.)

Regardless of what you think of starting school later, or the governor more broadly, it is crazy that she would make such a sharp political jab at a welcoming event. Either she didn't care, or she just assumed every would agree with her, neither of which is really ok.

She's probably angry because the Gov put beach business over student welfare. This condensed calendar is not in the best academic interest of students. Maybe the way it came out wasn't the most appropriate, but I don't know that I'd call that political. Her ability to help students learn and retain info is directly affected by Hogan's (& Franchot's -- a Dem) policy.

Off topic but come on now, you realize half the country starts school after Labor Day... its really no biggie... the more annoying change was moving the kids start of school time later in the day so the children could sleep longer... we all knew ahead of time this would only mean the children would stay up later. Then of course traffic was havoc and they had to move the bus schedule earlier so they could get to the 'later' school start on time. Of course this all had nothing to do with the governor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Don't you think apathy and ignorance is more dangerous than engagement and knowledge of issues?
When voters don't pay attention, they regret it.

I hope you can find your way to see this, and accept that you are living where people will be vocal, and mostly vocal for the moderate left.

And don't imagine that any current influential politician is a radical socialist or far-left ideologue. As a European, I can attest that your entire political body is shifted to the right compared to European nations'. Most democrats here would be considered centrist over there. There are actually respected Socialist and Communist parties in many European countries. Here both those words are swear words, for some reason.

Thats all well and good but the question is... do we have teachers who want to assassinate people they don't like??