Crazy teachers, crazy principals, crazy country

 

By Mike McDaniel

During my teaching years, I was disheartened, but not surprised, to hear the occasional fellow teacher of another discipline proudly state they never read a complete book in college and hadn’t read a book since. I was even treated to that kind of willful ignorance by a few English teachers. It will surprise no one, I suspect, to learn my English Department had to deal with two assistant coaches “teaching” English.

If your eyebrows are rising, you’re on the right track. A coach/English teacher is as rare as a live dinosaur. A college professor of mine played the old joke on a class I was taking when he announced he knew the first name of the high school history teacher of everyone in the class: “coach.”

On the days they bothered to hold class, they commonly showed videos that had nothing to do with the curriculum, seldom asked kids to read or write, and handed back graded papers once or twice a semester if they handed them back at all. How bad was it? Their students were complaining about them! The kids wanted to learn something, but because they were coaches, they weren’t expected to really teach. It’s a rare graduate of the public schools who hasn’t experienced something similar.

Skip across the country to Echo Shaw Elementary School outside of Portland, Oregon, where Principal Laura Manning recently addressed the Forest Grove City Council:

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"As a child, I was fascinated by World War II and read all of the stories about the holocaust, and we are entering similar territory," Principal Laura Mannon of Echo Shaw Elementary told the Forest Grove School Board, in hopes of passing herself off as an expert. “I felt like I was watching a George Floyd video — George Floyd is my friend."

"What ICE is doing," she passionately told the board, "is like the gestapo of Nazi, Germany." And then she had the temerity to say, "That is not an overstatement." 

School principals are supposed to be community, educational leaders. They’re supposed to reflect the values of their communities and uphold rigorous academic standards. Sadly, she probably is—reflecting community values:

For the principal in nearby Forest Grove therefore, it's easy to take a stand against "Hitler" and the "gestapo" when you're surrounded by dopes. There's a reason why Oregon is now 47th out of 50 states in test scores — stupid is as stupid does. 

I’ve found those that principal best principal least. They hire the best possible teachers, see that they have everything they need to do their jobs, enforce swift and sure discipline and get out of the way. 

Keep in mind no one becomes a principal without a Masters’ degree. Ms. Mannon appears to have learned little during her years of schooling.  She surely learned nothing about WWII and certainly not about the Holocaust. Federal agents enforcing immigration laws duly passed by Congress have nothing whatever to do with the Nazi “final solution.”

Principals and teachers have traditionally been expected to demonstrate not only substantial knowledge, but flawless character. Those expectations are quaint these days, and particularly in blue cities and states where every anti-social, anti-American idea and perversion is featured on classroom bulletin boards, to say nothing of male teachers sporting bovine fake breasts and other mutant affectations.

Declaring “George Floyd is my friend” demonstrates a deplorable, but all too common, disconnection from reality. Floyd was a convicted felon and drug addict who so badly damaged his body it was that damage, not the Minneapolis Police Department’s official restraint technique, that killed him when he was arrested for trying to pass counterfeit money. Floyd once held a gun to the belly of a pregnant woman during a robbery. This is the kind of man Mannon considers a friend?  The kind of person she wants her students to emulate?

Mannon is clearly an example of what’s wrong with American K-12 education apparatus, and it’s unsurprising people like her are principals in Oregon. The state’s lack of educational accomplishment speaks volumes. She’s certainly not the only example, there or elsewhere

If Mannon is an example of what is now, by default or purpose, acceptable educational leadership, one thing seems certain: we’re not going to make it. 

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor. 

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/12/crazy_teachers_crazy_principals_crazy_country.html