This. It's important to remember this when making the generalizations I so often see on NES. The claim that Randi Weingarten somehow determines what gets taught to "American schoolchildren" makes me laugh. It shows that the person saying it has no idea how schools really work.
I have no idea what gets taught in the next town, let alone the next state. As you say, that's a feature, not a bug.
When I bring this up in class (I mostly teach juniors and seniors), they uniformly tell me they never watch the news nor read the papers nor visit MSM websites. To the extent my students follow the news at all, they do so based on what gets curated on Instatwitbookgramtok. I'm seeing the same trend among new hires, as well: younger teachers disregard legacy media outlets, too.
"Big Media" is an important boogeyman on the right, but it leaves young people unaffected except insofar as it's able to get its views platformed on those apps. So they're getting their news in the same truncated, self-selected fashion many posters here do.
Which is a double-edged sword, I think.
You're teaching HS kids who are more interested in getting laid and scoring a Six pack, I'm talking about 20, 30, 40 something highly educated leftists who have been brainwashed by their "educators" and vote. You don't think Ma./NY/NJ/CA, etc. are the epicenters of the Leftist agenda?
Try being a Conservative and attempt to give a speech on a college campus that goes against the Leftist agenda.
What would happen if a Leftist speaker was shouted down by a bunch of MAGA Republicans?
Walk onto the campus of BU, BC, Harvard, Emerson, Clark, Smith, UMASS, Mt. Holyoke, Williams with a MAGA hat on or attempt to set up a Republican/Conservative Club and tell me how that works out.
Ask Ann Coulter, Ben Shapiro, David Horowitz, etc. how they were received on college campuses.
Who do you think voted for the likes of Dementia Joe, Liawatha, Danang Dick, AOC, Omar, and organized the RESIST campaign etc.
Who organized the internal coup against Trump?
Who believes Abortion is a RIGHT?
Who believes the 1st and 2nd Amendment are archaic, and the Constitution was written by a bunch of Wealthy White Slave owners?
Who do you think run CNN, MSNBC, NYT's, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Bank of America, Disney, Coca-Cola, Blackrock, Citibank, etc.
Who runs Boston, NYC, Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore, Minneapolis, LA, SF, Philly, etc. where the majority of the population elect Leftists who scream racism and White Supremacy 24/7?
The Leftists own the Media, Higher Education, most Major Corporations, and now the Military which by my observations means WE are fighting a losing battle.
THEY don't need to kick your door in, again Trudeau and the CCP have demonstrated the power of the State.
Leftists drool at what Trudeau is accomplishing in Canada, stamping out free speech, protests, controlling the media and banning HATE speech, banning firearms, etc.
Since I lived thru and still remember the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 9/11, etc. and used to be a far left brainwashed liberal Democrat the change in the country is dramatic.
How else to explain the collapse of the "Red Wave" of 2022? The Media convinced many voters Democracy and abortion were under assault from Right Wing Extremists, MEGA MAGA Americans and we and Donald Trump are the enemy not Putin, Xi, Antifa, Anarchists, BLM, black violent felons, the Cartels, illegal immigration, etc.
They believe fossil fuels are more of a threat to their existence than the CCP and the PLA. Pure brainwashing by our Academic Elites and the Dem party.
Critical thinking is dead in Academia and replaced with mindless obedience to the Leftist agenda and it ain't changing anytime soon.
That is All!