Parents around the world may’ve had a taster of what it’s like to teach their kids at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, and most were probably more than happy to send their kids back to school when the first opportunity arose. After all, teaching kids can be tough, especially when they’re your own flesh and blood. Due to the high frequency of snowstorms in Virginia this year, however, one mom has been forced to revisit those good ol’ days with some homeschooling while the extreme weather conditions continue. Unfortunately, the Virginia mom wasn’t too pleased when she took a closer look at the lesson material that she was obligated to teach her child.
The Virginia mom gets straight down to brass tacks, and explains her situation in the viral video above. “So, we live in Virginia and because there have been so many snow days this year, they’ve started sending work home with the kids when they know that a storm is coming, which they did. So, I’ve gotten to have the unique opportunity this week to see what my kid in fifth grade is working on in class, and it turns out that the answer is: Propaganda to make them love billionaires, which is interesting.”
The clip then cuts to a laptop displaying the work that has been set for the Virginia mom’s fifth-grade kid. At the top of the screen, you can see the title: “Space Isn’t Just For Astronauts Anymore” and appears to be a piece of English comprehension and reading work featuring a large chunk of text. “His reading assignment was all about Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and explaining to the children how we need billionaires because it helps us fund stuff like space travel. Like, literally, the whole assignment is just… well, a very American assignment. The assignment itself — seeing as it is fifth-grade –seems to be about reading a passage and just identifying what information is and isn’t relevant. And what they are and are not talking about.”
The mom then starts to read a section of the text from the homework that has been set by the Virginia school. “But it’s like the passage itself that is just… Have you ever dreamed of floating freely in space? How about walking on the surface of a distant planet? A few wealthy and innovative business owners are working to make these dreams a reality.” Rounding out the clip, she then adds a little bit of her own opinion, expressing, “Like, teach the kids to lick the boot a little bit more.”
As the internet begins scrutinising the footage, comments began flooding in denouncing the propagandistic school work. One person on TikTok wrote, “European here. My kid would never go back to that school.” with another adding, “I would lose my sh*t. Republicans are so “anti-propaganda” and this is what they’re doing?” Meanwhile, over on Reddit, one commenter exclaimed, “I hope she goes to the school board and raises hell about this.”
