Gaps? Schools Are “Outed”! (Part 4)
Categories: Schools Are “Outed”!, Léo’s Insights 2020-2021
“Educators worry that gaps may grow for disadvantaged students stuck at home.” That was the title! Not much point in reading the article itself because the title says it all. That is, if one does not question the presumptions inherent in it.
Unquestioningly accepting what we are told is, unfortunately, why we have the world we now call “normal.” We just don’t consider what is being said and so anyone willing to write or speak on any topic becomes an “expert.” There simply is no opposition and if there is, it is usually dismissed with some kind of disparaging comment or label.
Let’s risk being called something that is not nice and look into why such a title causes me anxieties.
To start, who are these “educators” that are worrying? Are they philosophers or practitioners? Do they have children of their own? Have they actually been in the classroom? If so, were they able to get to know the individual behind the face or was the student just a number?
Worry is defined as “giving way to anxiety or unease or to allow one’s mind to dwell on difficulty or troubles,” but this definition leaves out the question of whether the difficulty or trouble is, indeed, real.
Worry is often based on something that turns out not to be a problem after all. Our minds can and do create boogey men or monsters, if we allow them to. Is the worry that the “teachers” have real or created through a false understanding?
Now that we have questioned the legitimacy of the teacher and of the worry, let’s take a look at the “gaps that may grow.” One should immediately pick up the word “may.” This is important because it immediately qualifies the concern as being, at best, a potential problem.
Gap is defined as “an unfilled space or interval or a break in continuity.” Did you know that children have breaks in continuity, intervals, holes, spaces or cracks that are unfilled? Even if they did, when did teachers become crack fillers!? Furthermore, what are these cracks or unfilled spaces and how are they being filled?
The second part of the gap definition perhaps makes more sense, especially when considering the indoctrinating nature of public programming. It has long been known that if we restrict the narrative to a single point and then repeat it continually and consistently, it will result in its unquestioned acceptance.
Maybe that explains the “worry” of these “teachers.” Could it be that these “disadvantaged students” are receiving other information at home that may cause them to question the acceptable narrative? Now that could be seen as a gap (error), but only if a particular perspective is deemed to be absolute.
For instance, how would a climate change believer see alternatives to his beliefs, other than as gaps in the challenger’s thinking?
This leads us to the “disadvantaged student stuck at home.” You should clearly see the bias of the writer here. Was the student disadvantaged before or after they were “stuck at home”? Home is an awful place, isn’t it? No professional teachers, psychologists, guidance counsellors or standard bearers. Just loving parents who have a lifelong vested interest in the total welfare of their child!
Children come in imperfect packages, which is sometimes hard to believe because they are often so cute. In fact, all the training and teaching in the world will never put in what God has left out. The best that can be accomplished is the appropriate management of these individual differences, short comings and flaws. Gaps implies a failing that needs to be repaired.
Maybe these “teachers” should spend a bit of time in front of the mirror and attend to their own “gaps” before presuming to be able to fix the “disadvantaged student stuck at home.”
Those students who are fortunate enough to have parents wanting to keep them home will find that their “gaps” are dealt with through acceptance and management. Perhaps home is a place where perceived “gaps” are replaced with the freedom for independent critical thinking. That is hardly a disadvantage.
Thank God for those gap-filled home educated students who are stuck at home with the people that love them the most.
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