It's that time of year when many of us who teach in America's public school system cringe as the nation's largest teachers' union meets at their annual assembly to reaffirm their commitment to a menagerie of leftwing causes that often have precious little to do with education.
It's not that we can't tolerate the fact that many of our colleagues have differing political, social, and religious views than we do. It's that we really tire of having to vouch for our professionalism when the public face of American educators behaves like this:
Every self-respecting educator in America after watching that:
But those antics aside, I think what stood out to me the most about this year's meeting in Portland, was the fact that NEA voted to sever ties with the Anti-Defamation League.
‘NEA will not use, endorse, or publicize materials from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), such as its curricular materials or statistics,' the approved measure read.
The ADL, an antisemitism watchdog group that has partnered with the NEA for decades, fell out of favor with the assembly delegates for their dogged defense of Israel in its current conflict in Gaza. According to multiple speakers on the convention floor, the ADL is too liberal in its definition of antisemitism.
‘Allowing the ADL to determine what constitutes antisemitism would be like allowing the fossil-fuel industry to determine what constitutes climate change,' NEA delegate Stephen Siegel claimed at the group's meeting over the weekend.
Unsurprisingly, the move left many Jewish educators feeling betrayed, and ADL leaders dumbfounded. In a statement, the ADL said they found it, "profoundly disturbing that a group of NEA activists would brazenly attempt to further isolate their Jewish colleagues and push a radical, antisemitic agenda on students."
The group continued: "We will not be cowed for supporting Israel, and we will not be deterred from our work reaching millions of students with educational programs every year."
How much will all this affect me personally? Not much. I will continue teaching the horrors of the Holocaust as I have every other year. But I can't help but admit that I'm intrigued by the invective used by delegates like Mr. Siegel given that the NEA, as far as I know, continues to partner with disgraced and discredited hate organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The SPLC, an unindicted instigator for the attempted mass shooting at the Family Research Council, has played fast and loose with its notorious "hate map" designations for years. Nearly every national orthodox Christian organization in existence has been placed on their "hate watch" lists, and the absurd propaganda the SPLC produces in their "Teaching Tolerance" periodical regularly brands faithful Christian teachers as bigots and haters.
Credible organizations know the radicalism and intolerant hatred of the SPLC and have properly distanced themselves from the fringe activists that make up their shrinking, legally embattled organization. But not the NEA, which still boasts of their relationship with the SPLC extremists on the teachers' union website.
Again, like most of all my colleagues around the country, whatever the NEA does with either the ADL or the SPLC will have no impact on what occurs in my classroom. Still, it's yet another indication of the moral incoherence of the nation's largest teachers' union that it would break up with the Jews while still romancing the Christophobic demagogues.
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Not the Bee or any of its affiliates.
