Commentary and Opinion by Samuel Strait I think that if most modern teachers were the least bit aware of the world around them, and not buried in the vacuum chamber of leftist, progressive, and liberal philosophy, it may just make them much better at their job, educating our youth. Memories of my upbringing and initiation into the world of education came to me at the tender age of four years when tagging along with my older sister and mother, the local kindergarten teacher, of myself, my sister and eight other youthful victims. At my advanced age I have only fleeting memories of school in the former officers mess at an old WWII military base repurposed for a school house to educate Mount Edgcumbe's handful of local children. From then on I was constantly teased about flunking kindergarten, as I had to repeat the experience the next year in the basement of the Methodist Church in College, Alaska. For the next three years, moving from one cinder block classroom to the one next door, I and 43 three other local children experienced the first three grade levels of public school in the Territory of Alaska. Alaska did not become a State until 1959, and this was a few years before that celebration. I am somewhat amused by the recent experience of hearing about the local expense of constructing a gymnasium in Smith River to the tune of $3.4 million. A school that has a multi purpose room already, that is also a cafeteria. Our "gymnasium" at Mount Edgecumbe was a series of large puddles on the road in front of the officer's club, in College, it was the parking lot of the church. Our "cafeteria" was our desk where we ate from a lunch box. Mine was decorated with Roy Rogers pictures. In spite of the rather unsophisticated and less than spectacular school facilities, I do not recall it being much of a concern while growing up. We were there to get an education, not be housed in an expensive classroom. I remember going state side when in the fourth grade to visit my grandmother and visit her fifth grade classroom. Yes, I come from a long line of teachers on both sides of the family tree. It was a truly wondrous revaluation. My grandmother taught for years in North Portland, Oregon to classrooms that were predominately "African American"; hence, my sister and I were definitely objects of curiosity in my Grandmother's classroom, yet definitely not made to feel unwelcome. I wonder often if the same would be true in this day and age of divisiveness? This is all to say, and leading up to what I heard from some of our local teachers via zoom at the Del Norte Unified School Board Meeting last Thursday. While the signs have been out there for decades, it was still somewhat of a startling experience to listen to those that are thought to be some of our best, brightest, and open minded among us. That was not the case. While I will not paint all teachers in the district with the same brush, most that I heard speaking during the course of nearly five hours of public comment, was shockingly ignorant of current science, intolerant of anything that ran contrary to their indoctrination, and an embarrassment to be calling themselves educators. They further tarnished the profession by referring to parents as "disgusting" when it was a label that they should carry every time they enter a classroom in the future. The topic at the meeting was regarding whether or not school age children while attending school should be relieved of the burden, yes burden, of wearing a face mask inside the schools. The very thought of maskless school aged children sent teachers and union reps into a fit of fury, calling down outrage upon the heads of parents who lobbied the district's supervisors for the elimination of masks for their children while trying to be educated. There was NO call for those that wished to remain masked, including classroom teachers to set aside their masks. The logic of those that wish to remain masked and feel imperiled by those that wish to be mask free defies explanation. If masking works, then why the concern for your safety? Why is there a call to be compassionate for those that remain afraid of virus infection, if masking will save you? What exactly is the problem, those that were calling in to label parents "disgusting" and uncaring? The reality is, the science of politics have many who claim to be credentialed educators indoctrinated in their own belief system which leaves them devoid of the ability to critically think. The "Narrative" is all they hear. They do not even realize that real science is in direct conflict with, "the narrative" and has been long before Covid-19 was even on the stage. Masks, well before the current Pandemic, were dismissed by experts, many employed by the Federal Government, as a possible nonpharmaceutical intervention for the general public. In fact, none of the nonpharmaceutical remedies offered by the CDC, Dr. Fauci, and the Medical Establishment were even considered to be effective or provide "safety" for the public. The one and only intervention offered was for those experiencing symptoms of virus infection to become isolated, that is it. Nothing has changed about the science since that time. The only reason governments elected to employ those as nonpharmaceutical placebo's was to be seen as "doing something". The message to those teachers who exposed themselves as bigots on Thursday evening should really do a soul search to see if they are actually cut out to be an educator and those that agreed to that public display of ignorance should join them. Educators have already exposed the dysfunction of Public Education over the course of the Pandemic and it appears to in large part rest in the behavior of those that are in front of students in the classroom. I will let you figure out just who I am referring to…..