Over at Dump Bachmann, Eva has gotten a hold of a transcript of one of Bachmann's now infamous tele-town meetings. While the young man in question may or may not be a plant, what interests me is the audacity with which she tries to lead him into saying that his teacher's somehow brainwash him with some sort of liberal propaganda.
MB Teleforum Call Transcript
Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2007
(Recording began with teleforum in progress.)
MB: When you're in school, do you ever bring up a different point of view?
Student: Well, actually sometimes I do.
MB: OK, does that go pretty well?
Student: Oh, sometimes it does. It's just like, teachers, it's a lot of them are just like, they like their idea better. I'm, I'm younger than them and stuff.
MB: Sure. Well, I am so glad, though, that you got on the phone. I actually went to schools in Anoka public school district, and I think Andover is in the Anoka-Hennepin Public School District, if I remember right.
It appears as though Bachmann didn't get the answer she was so obviously fishing to hear. Someone really ought to teach Michele about "leading" questions! Is it any different for her to lead this young man to an answer she desires than some fictitious liberal boogey man teacher leading their students to an answer of their choosing? One can only imagine if this student had taken the bait and claimed a widespread drubbing every time he had the audacity to speak up what Michele would have done. Even without taking the bait, Michele tries to fill this young man with some subtle propaganda of her own:
MB: It is. OK. Well, I don't – when I was there things may have been a little different I graduated from high school a long time ago, back in 1974. And at that time, the one thing I have to say is we didn't get teachers giving their political opinions maybe as freely in the classroom at that time.
Maybe? So what is it Michele, is there a vast liberal conspiracy beginning after 1974 or isn't there? Thank You, though, for questioning both my integrity and the integrity of teachers throughout the United States. Certainly, there are teachers that dishonestly use their pulpit to claim their view as the one and only but I challenge anyone to prove to me that this is an epidemic. For you to make a blanket claim about teachers behaving as such is both dishonest and a slap in the face to the vast majority of educators who take their role very seriously. In my years as a teacher I have taught both United States History and Civics, and I have not ONCE claimed that my particular viewpoint was either the correct one or the only one out there. In fact, in my years, I have been accused of being both a Republican and a Democrat and I take that as a high compliment of the fairness I have displayed in getting students to THINK rather than simply tow the party line as you have shown a propensity for in your career in politics. So, the next time you go leading a young student to believe their teachers are out to get them, perhaps you could remember that it is the same behavior as those whom you claim to be chastising!
They really focused very strongly on, on teachers teaching knowledge, facts, information. And there was an expectation that there would be a body of knowledge that we'd have to learn by the time we left fifth grade, or sixth grade. Or in, in eighth grade, maybe we'd be discussing American government, or maybe cell formation in biology class. So there was an expectation that we were there for one purpose, and that was to learn something, learn a body of information, and be able to understand it by the time we were done.
So, your teachers just filled you full of facts without ever giving you the tools in which to evaluate and question that information? What kind of school did you go to? The wacko school of facts without substance? It really does explain a great deal about you that you put stock in facts without the ability to question what those facts actually mean. If, in your American government class your teacher spent no time making you question why and making you evaluate the very things that you believe in then you, ma'am, were shortchanged. If your teacher didn't automatically take the opposite side of whichever argument you were on so that you would have to defend yourself then you, ma'am, were shortchanged. If the words why and prove me wrong were never uttered by any of your teachers then you, ma'am, were shortchanged.
And when I graduated from Anoka High School, I was so grateful for my teachers, and so grateful for what they had taught me. Because they really did it – they did their job and they did their job really well. And I know that, Bill, I've, I've heard this before, about the bias that sometimes people feel, and I think there's nothing wrong with talking about political subjects in school. But I think really the best teachers are those where you don't – where you certainly have no idea what the teacher's personal political views are. Because after all, the, the reason why we pay for schools – it's so that ch—it, it needs to be all about children, it needs to be about kids, it needs to be about what their needs are, not necessarily what teachers needs are or whatever their personal political agenda is.
Wow! The kid barely claims any bias in his classroom and you still feel the need to fill his head with the idea that this great liberal boogey man is out there and he is coming to get you! Are you really this paranoid?
We need schools because we need to have well-educated kids, and Bill, you sound to me like a really bright young man with a great future, and you're concerned, the fact that you even are taking your time tonight to be on this phone call is pretty impressive to me. I give you a lot of credit, I'm very, very proud of you, and uh, if you'd like to contact me sometime in the future, be sure to do so. We have an office in Woodbury, Minnesota, we also have one up in St. Cloud, Minnesota, back in the district, and then of course the office here in Washington, D.C. And the phone number for the office in Woodbury is 651 – ah, and it's 731-5400, and then of course the St. Cloud office and the one here too, but you can also go to the web site too and get more about contact information. And um, again, it's really an honor to serve you, and I'm really impressed that you got on the phone. I'm Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, thank you so much for being on our live tele--- (tape ends)
Oh, and by the way, if you do call make sure you mention that your teachers are filling you full of lies so that I can be outraged! Also, if you are in any way liberal, DON'T CALL!
