'Don't mention Brexit and don't support the Tories': London school teacher reveals horror at how the Left are brainwashing our children
The morning after the EU referendum last summer, I was in a buoyant mood
as I set off for work.
I welcomed the decision by the British people to embrace genuine
independence for our country. But the moment I arrived at the West London school
where I worked as a computer science teacher, my cheerfulness was
punctured.
At once I was taken aside by the headteacher, who knew where my
sympathies lay, and warned not to mention Brexit in front of the staff or
students. 'You can't talk about it. They are very upset and angry about the
result. Besides, many of our kids are from Europe,' he told me in reproving
tones.
Though I had to obey him, I found his injunction appalling on two levels.
First, there was the unjust implication that the vote for Brexit was a triumph
for bigotry, something I found personally offensive as a supporter of
immigration.
Teaching aids told students Left-wing meant 'the NHS', 'helping people'
and the idea that 'everyone should be equal'. Right-wing meant 'Hitler', 'less
help for people' and inequality
Heresy
Second, there was the impulse towards censorship of views that did not
fit the progressive orthodoxy. No one would be chastised in the school for
expressing distress about the outcome. Only Brexiteers were to be
silenced.
That reality illustrates just how the education system has become
increasingly gripped by a culture of Orwellian groupthink, where only
fashionable, Left-wing opinions are deemed acceptable. Any wish to deviate from
this outlook — such as by backing Brexit or the Conservatives — is treated as a
kind of heresy, an offensive challenge to the ruling creed.
'Conservative,' I replied.
A deathly hush immediately descended on the staff room. The atmosphere
became hostile. It was as if I had advocated the reintroduction of child labour
or bear-baiting.
Last year, I witnessed a teacher (file pic) telling a pupil that the lead
in the opinion polls for Leave was 'scary', while the executive headteacher of
the West London schools where I used to work sent an email to staff soon after
the Brexit vote, with a link to a petition for a second vote
'How any teacher could vote Tory is beyond me,' said my colleague
sanctimoniously to general approval. The pressure towards Left-wing conformity
is chilling. Schools are meant to be places of learning and intellectual
exploration, but there is now a real danger that they are turning into arenas of
political indoctrination.
In place of open discussion, there is aggressive propaganda. Instead of
balance in teaching methods and subject matter, there is crude
partisanship.
A classic example of this pattern was a teaching aid for pupils at a Kent
school, asking them the difference between the Left and the Right.
Like something issued by the Politburo at the height of the Soviet
Empire, this document told students that Left-wing meant 'the NHS', 'helping
people' and the theory that 'everyone should be equal'.
Right-wing meant 'Hitler', 'less help for people' and a rejection of
equality — a patent nonsense given that Britain's only two female Prime
Ministers have been Tories.
But this kind of bias is now just part of the fabric of modern British
schooling.
Last year, I witnessed a teacher telling a pupil that the lead in the
opinion polls for Leave was 'scary', while the executive headteacher of the West
London schools where I used to work sent an email to staff soon after the Brexit
vote, with a link to a petition calling for a second EU referendum.
Not all teachers subscribe to this conventional Left-wing thinking,
however — as I learnt last year when I wrote an article on a Conservative
website. In it I argued that 'pretty much throughout their entire educational
career, young people are being trained into a Lefty way of thinking'.
I added that: 'We should be encouraging our students to engage in
important political issues. We certainly shouldn't be censoring one side of the
argument.'
In response, I received a large number of messages from other teachers
who expressed their relief that someone had spoken out against the stifling
climate of Left-wing dominance. Disturbingly, however, many felt that they could
not be open about their political beliefs in the present, quasi-McCarthyite,
culture, where Conservatism is regarded as a form of treachery against the
progressive Establishment.
In one particularly outrageous move during the General Election, a letter
from headteachers to parents at no fewer than 3,000 schools (file pic) in 14
different local authority areas wailed about 'the dreadful state of school
finances'
So they are forced to remain silent, while the brainwashing continues on
an epic scale. It is no wonder that young people overwhelmingly support the
Left, given the barrage of one-sided political education to which they are
subjected.
I recall, during the London mayoral elections last year, travelling with
pupils on an official school trip to a set of hustings entitled the 'Citizens'
Accountability Assembly' in the East of the capital.
On the way up on the bus, one teacher began handing out leaflets for the
Liberal Democrats — a move that, to his surprise, I stopped by telling him it
was inappropriate. But the Assembly turned out to be even more
anti-Conservative.
Bullying
Essentially, it was little more than a gigantic rally for the Labour
candidate Sadiq Khan, particularly because the organisers, a movement called
Citizens UK, promulgated a raft of Left-wing policies that included more social
housing, a living wage for Londoners, and an amnesty for undocumented
migrants.
Why should school pupils be made to endure this Leftist love-in
masquerading as a candidates' debate?
The same misrepresentation can be seen in the Left-wing bullying about
so-called 'Tory cuts' in education. Over recent months, senior figures in
British schooling have abandoned all pretence of impartiality in their
relentless campaign against the Government.
In one particularly outrageous move during the General Election, a letter
from headteachers to parents at no fewer than 3,000 schools in 14 different
local authority areas wailed about 'the dreadful state of school
finances'.
The propaganda has continued since the Election. At one school at Gospel
Oak in North London a fortnight ago, the headteacher held a rally to protest
against the Tories.
Grabbing the microphone in front of 150 demonstrators, including parents
and pupils, John Hayes declared: 'Protest and campaigning actually work. We know
education was a decisive factor in reducing Tory votes... The speculation is
that another election is on its way. Let's make sure the biggest winners are our
kids'.
Among the banners at this rally was one which trumpeted: 'Education for
all. Shame on you, Theresa May.'
Malignant
John Hayes is typical of the modern breed of headteachers who see
themselves as the vanguard of anti-Toryism.
Tellingly, during the General Election, the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
was given a rapturous reception when he addressed the conference of the National
Association of Headteachers, the event resembling more a congress of the
hard-Left group Momentum than a gathering of responsible education
leaders.
Other teaching unions have been just as malignant. In the run-up to the
General Election, the militant National Union of Teachers put out a video about
'Tory cuts' which was viewed on Facebook by 4 million people. 'We want to put
pressure on every candidate to pledge to oppose school cuts... We can reach
parents with this and we can make a difference,' said NUT General Secretary
Kevin Courtney.
The NUT, like the other unions and the rest of the education
establishment, certainly made a difference. The tragedy is it is such an
undemocratic one, further cementing the stranglehold of Left-wing thought on
British education.
Left-wing campaigners love to blather about tolerance, but in truth,
whenit comes to schooling, they are deeply intolerant of any viewpoints other
than their own.
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