00:00:53.200And I had written then to the principal saying, look, people can hold political positions and they can espouse them freely, but there are constraints as to when they can do so when they are pursuing pedagogic responsibilities.
00:01:14.460And so a science teacher should not be espousing her political positions using her science
00:01:25.580portal to elementary school teachers, students.
00:01:29.400And of course, that proved to be an effective strategy in getting this ideologue masquerading
00:01:42.500So today I wanted to talk to you about another such situation. This is in high school. My daughter told me that in a class in sound engineering, the teacher in that class, as part of Holocaust remembrance, was saying that what had happened at the Holocaust is not unlike what's happening with ICE deporting.
00:02:12.500uh the illegal migrants that have entered the united states illegally this is exactly
00:02:19.320you know a reasonable comparison with the holocaust and so i heard that and i decided to
00:02:26.500write to the school i wrote to the principal the two vice principals and to the teacher herself
00:02:33.620i won't read their name but i'll read you the the email and i again i do this because i want
00:02:38.360to embolden you to actually participate. Don't say, ah, well, you know, maybe my student will
00:02:44.940get a bad grade in the class or, you know, my voice won't matter. The ideologues that are
00:02:50.740poisoning the minds of your kids are doing so precisely under the assumption that you'll be
00:02:57.320too apathetic, too cowardly to ever pay attention and then take the proper action. So here we go.
00:03:04.880uh the subject heading is on comparing ice's removal of illegal migrants to the holocaust
00:03:11.900dear so-and-so i hope that this email finds you all well i recently heard from various
00:03:18.220independent sources students and parents that in a recent sound engineering class mrs so-and-so
00:03:24.560compared the activities of ice in seeking to deport illegal migrants from the u.s including
00:03:30.300violent criminals to the realities of the Holocaust. If any of you are familiar with
00:03:35.220my professorial work, you'd know that I am an absolutist when it comes to freedom of speech.
00:03:39.720This, however, does not imply that teachers have carte blanche in espousing positions that are
00:03:45.680astoundingly false, if not deeply offensive. The Holocaust involved the industrial-scale
00:03:51.040extermination of six million Jews and arguably the greatest crime against humanity that the
00:03:56.160world has ever known. To compare this to ISIS actions in seeking to remove illegal migrants
00:04:04.140is bewildering. History matters. Facts matter. Truth matters. I'm involved in innumerable policy
00:04:14.120debates as a professor and public intellectual. That said, when I put on my professorial hat
00:04:21.440in the classroom, I do not allow my personal political preferences to interfere with my
00:04:26.740pedagogic duties, nor do I espouse positions that are breathtakingly offensive and perfectly
00:04:32.760incorrect. Mrs. So-and-so has every right to dislike ICE, albeit it is unclear why a teacher
00:04:40.400of sound engineering in Canada is discussing ICE's policies. She has every right to publicly
00:04:47.560proclaim her positions, albeit her pedagogic responsibilities should cause her to refrain
00:04:54.440from comparing the roundup of illegal migrants in the U.S. to the extermination of six million
00:05:01.820people. If the goal of last week's class activities was to remember the Holocaust,
00:05:08.160I'm afraid that drawing such insulting comparisons is deeply injurious, especially when one is tasked
00:05:17.060with forming young and malleable minds i assure you that many students and some parents felt
00:05:24.340extremely insulted by this dreadful comparison respectfully gs right i hope you'll agree it was
00:05:32.620a measured letter but it now of course maybe receiving this letter from me undoubtedly if i
00:05:39.980can be presumptuous they probably know who i am they might take the letter a bit more seriously
00:05:46.020because they know that I have several possible modes of communication at my disposal.
00:05:52.400But the point is, you simply holding them accountable, saying,
00:05:57.760look, not on my watch are you allowed to spew such nonsense,
00:06:03.860will usually keep people, if not honest,
00:06:08.540it will make them think the next time that they wish to engage
00:06:11.720in these types of ideological pollution
00:06:16.500and parasitic infestation of your children's mind.