The NEA and AFT are not about students

The NEA and AFT exist to represent teachers, not students. Whenever there's a discrepancy between what's best for teachers and what's best for students, which is common, they will always side with teachers.

Perhaps the best example of this is the schooling system itself. Our schools were never meant to educate. Teachers have been trained in the status quo. It would be best for students if we replaced our anti-educational educational system with an educational educational system. Not all teachers would be able to keep their jobs if we went down that path, so the NEA and AFT are actively fighting to protect the disastrous status quo.

Another good example is sexual abuse. It is estimated that one in ten students will be sexually abused. I don't see how anyone can defend a rate that high. It would be best for students to raise awareness of this problem. Because it makes teachers look bad, the NEA and AFT are trying to hide the problem.

A broader issue is mental and emotional abuse. This is commonplace in our schools. It can also lead to such things as suicides, violence, and substance abuse. What teachers are doing to children can and occasionally does have lethal consequences. Instead of addressing this problem, the NEA and AFT are actively scapegoating social media. Although social media has its problems, it's clear that the NEA and AFT are trying to distract us from what they are doing to children.

I also want to discuss the freedom to learn. The NEA and AFT have openly acknowledged that they have had success framing issues around students. This appears to be an attempt to frame what they call freedom to teach around their students. The freedom to teach and the freedom to learn are actually contradictory concepts. Simply put, the freedom to learn can't exist in an environment in which teachers control and restrict what, where, when, and how students are allowed to learn.

What's best for students? The freedom to learn. Don't let their absurd misuse of the terminology fool you. The NEA and AFT are absolutely hostile to the freedom to learn. They are far more interested in maximizing the power of their members.