American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said Friday on MSNBC’s “Chris Jansing Reports” that the “culture wars” that she claimed were created when duly elected state legislatures decide what taxpayer-funded public K-12 school teachers can teach was “ripping America apart.”
Jansing said, “I spoke yesterday to the president of the Texas State Teachers Association, clearly, upset, clearly frustrated, she basically said she doesn’t think lawmakers have a clue what it is to be a teacher.”
Weingarten said, “I used to tease that anybody who said really stupid things about education just spend five minutes in a classroom.”
She continued, “What is worse right now is that they don’t trust us, particularly in Texas, which is where they ban books and stop kids from talking about, you know, who they are, and their sexuality.”
She added, “What we need to do is tell them, if you trust us so much to carry a gun, why don’t you trust us to do the what work really is? Trust us to be the mind workers. We’re not the body armor people. We’re the mind workers. We are the ones who try to help our kids critically think and to know themselves and feel good about themselves.”
Weingarten concluded, “What’s really happening is that you have these cultural wars that are just ripping America apart. instead of giving the teachers of the country the support that they need to do the work we have to do to reduce anxiety, to create a welcoming, safe environment and give kids hope.”
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