Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Leahy was joined on the line by a disgruntled parent of a student in one of Tennessee’s public schools.
During the second hour, caller David called into the show to inform Leahy about his experience with a Franklin school teacher who he felt was promoting communism in the classroom wall by displaying a poster featuring communist figures like Mao Tse Tung. When the teacher was confronted by the concerned parent after a parent-teacher conference, it was obvious that he had a “rehearsed answer” stating that he bought it as a souvenir in his travels in China.
Leahy: In this half-hour, I wanted to open the phone lines and I want to hear from parents who have children in public schools in middle Tennessee right now. And I want to hear how you are evaluating the merits of continuing in those K-12 public schools. (Invites listeners to call in) Or you can contact us at Twitter.com/michaelpleahy.
So we were talking in the six o’clock hour good friend Kent Misegades, who’s the author of the Guide to Shop and Engineering as well as the executive director of the Star News Education Foundation which is focused on education over the next 10 years. And we are working on reforming K-12 public education.
If you are a parent, I would really like to hear from you now, or a public or private K-12 teacher here in middle Tennessee. It seems to me to be a very obvious issue that we have in the country. And I talk about it. I started a new book, Joey, it’s going to be a slim volume but I know you’re just can’t wait for it to be finished. But I have started it. I’m going to tell you about it. I know you’d like to hear about it. Wouldn’t you?
Producer Hinkebein: I would. What’s the title?
Leahy: The title is Come Back of the American Character and the subtitle is, How to Preserve our Constitutional Republic by Changing the Way we do K-12 Education. Now, I want to elaborate that on a little bit. This is the way I see the world. I think in order to preserve our constitutional republic we must accomplish I think two objectives. One is short term. And one is long term. I’ll talk about the short term.
We talk about the short term all the time. The choice to either keep sending your kids to public schools or consider a private school. In particular, considering $6,000.00 a year at Thales Academy. Back to our short term objective which I think is, number one, to re-elect Donald Trump to hold the Senate and take back the House. That’s for November of 2020.
That’s kind of what we have to do for that. Our long term objective, however, is over the course of about ten years and that has to do with reversing the left-wing propaganda of victim-hood that is indoctrinating our kids in K-12 government-run public schools.
Replacing that with a pro-American, can-do spirit of self-reliance and independent thinking. That by the way, that is what created America. The America we know is that independence. That self-reliance. The acquisition of knowledge. And so I think that’s a very important thing for us to consider.
As you probably know, we started a non-profit foundation to address this and we’re inspired I think by, absolutely inspired by the Thales Academy folks that are coming here tomorrow night in Franklin, Tennessee. Go to ThalesAcademy.org/franklin. I want to go to Franklin, Caller David wants to talk about the Tennessee public school situation. And David, welcome to the Tennessee Star Report.
Caller David: How you doing today?
Leahy: I’m doing fine. I’d be delighted to hear what you have to say on this topic.
Caller David: Well, it’s a lot. I listen to your show off and on. And you all brought this up and my wife and I are literally going to tour a Franklin private school at the end of the week to pull my kid out of Hunters Bend – and I’m going to call the school out, too. It seems, and I’ve got another child at Grassland – I’ll call them out, too.
Let me tell you a situation that happened this year at Grassland that was very concerning. Not really the academic side, but really it is. We had one teacher that, on his [classroom] wall, had a poster of Che, Mao, Stalin, and Lenin.
Leahy: Was is Che Guevara, Mao Tse Tung, Joseph Stalin, and Vladimir Lenin?
Caller David: Yes. Placed on the way. My son came home the first day of school and he’s very aware of right and wrong. Politics and communism and all that. We just educated him at home over time. And he came home and he was like, ‘Dad, you’re not going to believe this. Mr. So-and-so had on his wall.’ I said, ‘did you say anything about it?’ And he said, ‘no.’ And I said, ‘well, don’t say anything. Let’s see what he says then you can question him on why he has that.’
So we get to two months later, we go to the parent-teacher conference, and we went in there surely some other parents are going to bring this up when we’re sitting in the room for 15 minutes because it’s blatantly on the wall – nothing else – but this small 2’x4′ poster.
And so I’m sitting there and I was appalled that nobody ever said anything. At the end, everybody was leaving and I went up and asked what does this poster have to do with your class. It was like he scripted it. He was like, ‘I did a tour in China and I was amazed that they were selling these and had to buy one. I’m amazed about all the people that still visit their tombs.’
In the back of my mind, I’m thinking, you’re purchasing this so you’re supporting this. Also, you’re putting this on the wall and don’t have to say anything communism subliminally. So long story short I had a meeting with somebody at the school and they quietly talked to him about pulling it down. I’m just alarmed that if he had a poster of Adolph Hitler or regarding in the Jim Crow laws would have been more offensive. All three are offensive to me. I’m trying to get down a rabbit hole here from what you were talking about earlier.
Leahy: By the way, David, if you would, I’m going to invite you and your wife and your kids to come to this event at the Gate Church tomorrow night. Come say hi. I’d love to see you and talk to you about it. You’ll love learning about it. Go to ThalesAcademy.org/Franklin.
Caller David: In this school is through third grade?
Leahy: It’s starting out K-3 but I think if enough people came in they might start fourth and fifth as well starting in July. But come by, anyways.
Caller David: I just want to say to the parents that are driving to work and that get in their car every day and you have all this trust in the public and also private schools, too. You’ve got to be aware of everything. When I was growing up, my family could go to work and trust that this stuff was not being taught subliminally or directly.
It’s amazing. If you are a parent and you are not involved. You’ve got to get involved with everything the kids are bringing home and ask them. You’ve got to know everything. The math has changed. You wouldn’t believe that my kids going to be able to balance a checkbook unless we get involved.
Leahy: Isn’t it exhausting as a parent to do that? I mean really.
Caller David: Yes. And they know that. They know what they’re doing. This is planned. it’s not a conspiracy. They know what they’re doing. They started this back in the 1970s and 80s. And we got our heads in the sand because we’re trying to make it a day-to-day. Life just gets in the way.
Leahy: David thank you for calling – our segment is coming to an end, here. I hope to see you tomorrow night at The Gate Church at 6:30 pm. in Franklin, Tennessee. David thank you very much for your call.
Caller David: Thank you.
Listen to the second hour here:
– – –
Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 am to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
We have all had our heads in the sand for far too long. We cannot continue to allow the schools to raise our children and keep filling them with the left thinking, unless that is what YOU think. We have allowed the schools systems to be come a place to only teach one way, liberal. This is NOT the schools job, it is the parents. Get involved, pay attention to who gets on the schools boards.
Get involved in schools, it will effect YOUR life.