# Would you want to send your kid to a "Public School Social Justice Factory"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 1, 2018, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982 "2018-02-01T20:54:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/181 "2018-02-05T21:55:13Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > They weren’t understanding it better, of course. But they knew how to **write** , and elegant writing is such a powerful skill that the engineering profs initially found themselves bamboozled by it until they figured out what was going on. Write, but also research and synthesize. Apply critical thinking. Look beyond the obvious. Be able to change styles or points of view. All of that is what is learned when you write lit crit from a feminist perspective, then write another from a marxist one, then write a third from an aesthetic one and do this again and again over four or eight or more years. And yet, I am neither a Freudian nor a Marxist nor an Aesthete. Despite writing these sorts of papers over and over and over again, I managed to escape indoctrination. I am guilty of being a Feminist, but I was before I started college. ETA: I also took an African American Lit and Film class and despite having to write weekly papers from an African American perspective - or as close to it as I could get, I’m still white. ---
**Author:** ![PigArcher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@PigArcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigArcher)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/182 "2018-02-05T22:27:17Z")
This reminds me a lot of discussions about “white fragility” or “male fragility.” Seriously, if any discussion of Marxist or Feminist ideas\* is necessarily a form of “indoctrination” (as **UR** seems to be arguing), then maybe conservative ideas are not on the firmest of foundations to begin with. - And yes, I’m aware of the difference between applying a Marxist perspective to literature and actually being Marxist, but that nuance seems to be lost on others in this thread, which supports my point even more. The mere _existence_ of other ideologies is a threat to their ideology. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/183 "2018-02-05T22:54:22Z")
BTW, I mentioned upthread that I have a friend who teaches in Edina. She is a liberal hippie. She regularly complains that most of her co-workers are about as far from kindred spirits to her as they can be. Apparently, lots of Edina school teachers are conservatives - conservative Christians, conservative Republicans. She isn’t complaining about this because they indoctrinate their students - they, like her, are professionals who try to cover their material in an unbiased fashion - she complains about this because socializing with them is painful. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/184 "2018-02-05T23:03:27Z")
Yup, Edina is not, by any stretch of the imagination, Liberal Land. The Edina State Rep (49A) is a Republican. The town is basically the district. Their State Senator is a Democrat, because we have 2 house districts (A&B) per Senate district (49) and 49B is the western part of Bloomington. Their US Congressional Rep is a Republican. That district includes most of the wealthier western suburbs, stretching out along Millionaire Land around Lake Minnetonka. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/185 "2018-02-06T00:40:04Z")
> [@Human\_Action](#): > > Are you able to articulate what you think it means to be pro-Marxist, in the context of literary criticism? There seems to be a lot of confusion on this point. Well, no, I don’t think there is any confusion. It’s more a matter of a thread in which it is stated fairly openly that the purpose of teaching this kind of thing is to advocate in favor of same-sex marriage - but that’s not political indoctrination. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/186 "2018-02-06T00:55:29Z")
No I would not want my child going to the school described in the OP, but I wouldn’t mind her going to Edina schools which just a bit of due diligence with google shows are not the schools described in the right wing fever dream that started this thread. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/187 "2018-02-06T00:58:59Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > No I would not want my child going to the school described in the OP, but I wouldn’t mind her going to Edina schools which just a bit of due diligence with google shows are not the schools described in the right wing fever dream that started this thread. If I had a kid I would _totally_ want them to go to the school described in the OP. And once my kid had demonstrated their ability to attend imaginary fictional schools, I’d promptly pull them out and send them to Hogwarts. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/188 "2018-02-06T01:26:22Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > It’s more a matter of a thread in which it is stated fairly openly that the purpose of teaching this kind of thing is to advocate in favor of same-sex marriage - but that’s not political indoctrination. You bounce around like a Happy Fun Ball, Shodan. As for that, as a government employee, it’s pretty well within my wheelhouse to say that things are okay that the Supreme Court has said are okay. But that has fish-badonkadonk-all to do with Marxist literary criticism. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/189 "2018-02-06T01:28:13Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Well, no, I don’t think there is any confusion. > > It’s more a matter of a thread in which it is stated fairly openly that the purpose of teaching this kind of thing is to advocate in favor of same-sex marriage - but that’s not political indoctrination. > > Regards, > Shodan I dunno, to me, advocating against it is based on Religious indoctrination, not on principles of equality and justice. ---
**Author:** ![storyteller0910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@storyteller0910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/storyteller0910)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/190 "2018-02-06T01:29:40Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > fish-badonkadonk-all. Coincidentally the name of my first born. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/191 "2018-02-06T01:32:30Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > No I would not want my child going to the school described in the OP, but I wouldn’t mind her going to Edina schools which just a bit of due diligence with google shows are not the schools described in the right wing fever dream that started this thread. I wouldn’t want my minority child (I have a Korean son who is now a young adult) to go to school in Edina. We picked a Twin Cities suburb without the great test scores or rating, but with a much more ethnically and socio-economically diverse population. I’m not thrilled with everything about that district, but much more so than I would have been with Edina. We could have chosen Edina, or Minnetonka, or Plymouth. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/192 "2018-02-06T02:27:12Z")
> [@storyteller0910](#): > > Coincidentally the name of my first born. 😃 (Urbanredneck is pretty clearly upset by foul language, so I’m trying to make this a safe space for him.) ---
**Author:** ![thatbpguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/258eb7/32.png) [@thatbpguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thatbpguy)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/193 "2018-02-06T02:41:05Z")
OK, I’m flashing in late and haven’t read the entire thread, so pardon my ignorance… “Public” schools are for readin’, riten’ and rithmatic’. To teach core, basic education. Not to rewrite factual history, create indoctrination camps, carry on left or right agendas… This agenda, hate-based garbage simply has to be removed. In short, it’s brain washing. It’s not teaching how to think or learn, but how to believe what you are told to believe. I sent my kids to private school where they focused entirely on core education. All 3 of them wanted a diploma from a public HS so we sent them there when they became seniors. By then they had completed the full education requirements + 50% or so. All went on to college and are doing fine. They know how to think independently rather that following some political party line and know how to learn. Those 2 traits are sorely missing in people under 30 today- and sadly, those same people think they do. Brain washed. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/194 "2018-02-06T03:16:31Z")
> [@thatbpguy](#): > > OK, I’m flashing in late and haven’t read the entire thread, so pardon my ignorance… Hey friend! Your ignorance would be pardoned if you hadn’t had a chance to fix it. If you’re not going to read the entire thread, though, I see no reason why I should extend you the courtesy of reading your entire post. > [@](#): > > “Public” schools are for readin’, riten’ Notice how “readin’” comes before “riten’”? That’s how threads work too. ---
**Author:** ![thatbpguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/258eb7/32.png) [@thatbpguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thatbpguy)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/195 "2018-02-06T04:20:54Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Hey friend! Your ignorance would be pardoned if you hadn’t had a chance to fix it. If you’re not going to read the entire thread, though, I see no reason why I should extend you the courtesy of reading your entire post. > > Notice how “readin’” comes before “riten’”? That’s how threads work too. Well, at least I see where your name comes from… ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/196 "2018-02-06T04:40:34Z")
> [@thatbpguy](#): > > Well, at least I see where your name comes from… Go back, read the thread, understand that what you’re talking about has nothing to do with the reality that’s been distorted by the OP, and then come back to spread idiocy. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/197 "2018-02-06T04:44:58Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > So how does one teach a student to look at something thru the lens of Marxism and Feminism WITHOUT first embracing those ideas? You can’t consider an idea without first deciding it must be true? Seems rather backwards to me. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/198 "2018-02-06T05:03:14Z")
Seems to me that asking people to look through that lens would be instructive as to the viewpoint of that philosophy. If you have no idea of the perspective of a philosophy, you can’t effectively argue for or against it. All you can do is rail at what you **think** they stand for. But I guess that’s how the world works these days. Liberals listen to Republicans to hear how they think. Conservatives listen to Conservatives to hear how they think Liberals think. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/199 "2018-02-06T07:13:06Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Sure. > > But down deep, when it comes down to it, even though you were ASKING your students to look at both sides, wouldnt you agree that it was YOU and YOUR views that were leading the discussion? NO. Part of my job as a high school history teacher was to help students see an issue from a variety of viewpoints. If a student argued the conservative side of an issue and a liberal student didn’t respond, I’d argue the liberal side; if a student argued the liberal side, I’d argue the conservative side. My own opinions were irrelevant, and my students didn’t have a clue as to how I tacked politically. I know this because they’d sometimes ask me what I thought or how I voted–neither of which I’d answer. Nor am I unique in this approach. I’d go so far as to say this: if your kids’ views–liberal or conservative-- are NOT being challenged, they’re getting short-changed. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2018, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982/200 "2018-02-06T09:49:08Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Well, no, I don’t think there is any confusion. > > It’s more a matter of a thread in which it is stated fairly openly that the purpose of teaching this kind of thing is to advocate in favor of same-sex marriage - but that’s not political indoctrination. > > Regards, > Shodan So when you were talking about Marxism, you really meant the entirely unrelated topic of same sex marriage? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-send-your-kid-to-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/807982.md?page=11)