Teachers in the U.S. have an extremely difficult job teaching our children. Every kid works at different speeds or learns in different ways. Of course, you want a school that can prepare students for any and all walks of life, but sometimes the problem lies with parents themselves. For example, Mr. Major, a History teacher in Georgia, shared a handful of emails he received from parents about the curriculum their children were learning. The fact that Mr. Major didn’t send a mean email is a testament to his patience.
The first email Mr. Major (TikTok/c_major_44) reads is from a parent concerned by the “violet curriculum.” They note their son was “upset” because Mr. Major was teaching about World War 2. “We do not expose him to violent content in our home,” the parent wrote. They then mention their child is only limited to PG13 movies and skips “battle scenes” in The Patriot. “Could you please focus on more positive moments?” And to them, positive moments include baking traditions of the 1940s and fashion trends.
The second email Mr. Major reads is from a parent who “values accuracy” regarding the Cold War. Apparently, they think it’s “misleading.” The parent asks: “If there was no ice or freezing temperatures, why call it cold?”
The parent then asked if Mr. Major could clarify if thermometers were used. If not, then the name should be changed, they argued.
Mr. Major’s third and final email—which the parent labeled as “urgent”—was about “economic indoctrination.” Mr. Major had been teaching consumerism in the context of post-WW2 economics.
The parent shared that their son asked what consumerism was. “We do not use words like that in our home,” they wrote, and shared that they just “buy things because we need them.” They offer “safe topics” for Mr. Major to teach instead, like state birds and branches of government, but “not too deeply.”
The comment section of Mr. Major’s TikTok video is full of people roasting the parents.
One commenter made a dig at the kind of parents who might ask these kinds of questions: “The “No child left behind “ students are now the parents.”
Another commenter cut right to the core of the problem: “It’s crazy that the core of all of these emails is a parent not wanting their child to learn about the world.” Mind you, Mr. Major is a History teacher.
Another commenter, just as dumbfounded as Mr. Major, asked: “They want YOU to rename the Cold War??”
It all sounds like satire, but people like this do exist, and the education system is mostly to blame. Memorization is often your strongest tool. The lack of proper funding for schools is a big issue, too, and it does not help that teachers are severely underpaid.
