Thread by @insomnochick

I see it's lesson time in the Twitterverse. OK, take some notes:
Bad pedagogy gets its start in think tanks and universities. From there (with funding from NGOs and Foundations), it makes it into teacher training (in and pre-service). They have their own PR depts 1/

Teachers unions are also involved. Sometimes they work hand-in-glove with the think tanks to push the pedagogy via in-service training (often *required*), or they pressure states BoEs to require it for certification/endorsements. 2/

All of these unelected people have deep pockets to fund campaigns (literal, and ad) to get people into commissioner/state super offices, and onto state BoEs who have ties to companies making curricula, or ideologues pushing it. These people hire teams from these groups too 3/

The state BoE crafts the state standards, which legislatures tend to approve, but they are high-level, not granular, and most members are not well-versed in pedagogy. The few who are may have gotten their jobs b/c they agree with the unions/ed.assoc., who bought their seats. 4/

State standards and metrics to NOT specify materials in MOST cases. There's just enough room in rubrics to allow for gobs of wasted time on questionable materials. There's no enforcement of cert/endorsement limitations on teachers EITHER, they count on principals to monitor. 5/

School Boards have ZERO power over curriculum except in terms of making sure it can at least plausibly pass muster with the state standards, and usually they approve a total budget, not a BOOK. They lack the time, expertise and power to get granular. They are not judiciary. 6/

School board members are volunteers, they are not allowed to confer with each other except openly with the public listening. They can only go behind closed doors for very specific purposes, usually involving legal issues, like hiring/firing of superintendents etc.7/

School board meetings are meetings held in public by law, they are NOT public meetings. There is a difference. It's not a town hall, nor are they obliged to listen to the public at the meetings. Public comment periods are done to keep the peace, not b/c they have to. 8/

Yelling at a school board, while cathartic I suppose, achieves nothing more than publicizing an issue. This is both good AND bad. It broadcasts the issue, but also broadcasts how little parents understand about their own schools and how they work. 9/

Unions, teachers pushing this crap, politicians, etc. add this to their arsenal of "Parents aren't experts" arguments, and nothing changes at the classroom level. School boards DO have power over masking though, unless it's a county or state ordinance or mandate, then no. 10/

The vast majority of complaints are about TEACHERS in specific schools, or teams in specific districts. They should be taken to those schools, and to those principals. Failing there, they should go to the superintendents. Failing there, to the board, but about the super.11/

Then the complaint is "We went to the teachers, principals, and super, and they ignored us, please fire the super." Even THEN, they have to check his/her contract, and verify you followed complaint policies, that the super had knowledge, that the principal had knowledge, etc. 12/

The competence (he/she should have known) bar is exceedingly low. Plausible deniability is easy to have, and makes it harder to break a contract without a buy-out, or lawsuit. AND, if the pedagogy in question aligns with the state even a little, they did nothing wrong. 12/

The "guilt" gets spread soooo thin, it's very hard to get rid of the right person/people, and ultimately, it resides in the minds of the majority of those involved in any way with education, with the possible exception OF the school board members 13/

The least-likely people to push a specific pedagogy are school board members. There are some, certainly, and the more left-leaning the district, the more there are, but chances are your school board is made up of a bunch of people who wrongly thought they could make a diff 14/

In order, the guilty ones are: well funded NGOs/Think tanks and unions (split equally), university grad ed departments, college ed departments, state boards of ed, superintendents, principals, TEACHERS, and then parents, sorry to say. 15/

If this sounds opaque, and arcane, it's b/c it is, and it's designed to be. I have just described the complex immune system of the government education establishment. It's not R or D either, it's all. Motivated by (in order) money, power, ideology, they're well guarded. 16/

So if you think yelling at a bunch of hapless volunteers, who may indeed be jerks personally, even philosophically, but who are ultimately lowly on the totem pole, is "helpful" here, or will move the needle one iota, have at it. 17/

The one thing you're still free to do in America is waste time, money and energy NOT doing any harm to people in power over you and your kids. In fact, they love it. If you'd RATHER protect your children, you need to find a way to disengage, not engage more. 18/

Even if homeschooling feels out of reach, you need to find a way out. The more engaged with the gov't on behalf of your child, the more backlash you and your child could face, personally. Keep showing them publicly you don't know how it works, they'll keep exploiting that 19/

Eventually, they'll say parents have demonstrated we're too ignorant to educate our own, and try to ban homeschooling too. SO, if you want to preserve your exit strategy, get out. Nothing you could do would help children, and the country, more. 20/

As long as they have your kid, they have your money, and the power to do whatever they want, because lawsuits are expensive, and they've captured the legal profession to a large degree too. Their pockets are FULL of your money, yours? Not so much.21/

Seems like a very high price to pay for daycare, and your child is not getting anything resembling an "education," so what's left?/ Stubborn refusal to let go of the fantasy you were promised, the "free" education + daycare? 22

Look, I know it's hard, and I'm not a heartless witch. I had to make the same choices, face the same trade-offs, but I reason life is hard, and I'd rather choose my hard, not have it foisted upon me, especially when it COULD include the literal loss of custody, worst-case.23/

Am I saying there is NO school district where you'd have some sway going through the school board? No. Some tiny rural town in Iowa maybe, but for most of us, where the problem is worst? No chance, zero. Go higher, and lower, but bring your A game./END