This story is incomprehensible.
Rebeca F. Rothstein apparently still works at North Bethesda Middle School in the Montgomery County School District despite posting on social media that “‘as a teacher I wish we could do more with our students like teach anti-racism and how to be kind people. Does anyone else feel like… we can skip the math, skip the science, like we’ll do that next year. Maybe this year we focus on teaching our youth how to be anti-racist.” Elsewhere she posted about providing “Marxist literature” to her students. “Fuck capitalism,” she wrote, and in another post shared that she was “tired after a long day of indoctrinating students.” In a video she put on TikTok, Rothstein said,
“I had to un-brainwash myself from capitalism in order to fall in love with socialism and communism. If everyone had the same amount of money, then money wouldn’t be worth anything.”
“Capitalism must go,” she opined in the same video, adding that “revolutions involve violence.”
Yet although several media outlets have asked the school district about Rothstein’s proclamations, she is still listed as a teacher. Here’s her “Rate my teacher” page.
How is this possible? Is Maryland that far gone? Are its parents that lazy, ignorant, and apathetic? Does a teacher in Montgomery County have reason to believe she can openly boast about indoctrinating her students and wanting to wait until “next year” to teach them math and science while fearing no professional consequences?
For a long time, Ethics Alarms has confidently taken the position that American journalism poses the greatest threat to democracy and national values. American education may have overtaken it.
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Source: Legal Insurrection
Addendum…
While I was walking Spuds just now, I realized that I should emphasize that the mere fact that Rothstein is apparently a communist and has other far-left beliefs should not disqualify her from teaching, as long as it can be ascertained that she will not attempt to inject her own political agenda and beliefs into her class work. However, the fact that she seems to be an idiot is troubling, for only an idiot would openly declare such inflammatory opinions on social media while working as a public school teacher. The school district has an obligation to acknowledge the problem her social media posts present and monitor her work carefully, and all parents in the district have a right to know what kind of teachers the district is hiring.
Neither capitalism nor communism should be taught in Middle School; one is as inappropriate as the other. If parents want their children indoctrinated into the joys of Marxism, it is perfectly acceptable for them to employ a private school or tutors for that purpose. Stupid and irresponsible, yes, but it is their choice to make.
Ethics Alarms 
Jack wrote, “For a long time, Ethics Alarms has confidently taken the position that American journalism poses the greatest threat to democracy and national values. American education may have overtaken it.”
Careful, people might tar you as a conspiracy theorist like they did Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt after she wrote “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America”.
There exists a reference for the approach of Rothstein, et al: INDOCTRICATION
Well, that’s terrifying. I’ll probably have more to say on it later; right now I’m preparing to participate in a Braver Angels forum this evening about public education. Anyone else who has an opinion, the link is here: https://braverangels.org/event/we-the-peoples-forum-are-our-schools-fulfilling-their-mission/.
And a recent post questioned whether teaching about the evils of communism is okay? The right is supposed to just stand down in the face of these vicious creeps?
In a word, yes. You’ve read all these guides to how to be anti-racist, and most of them basically say just sit down, shut up, and do whatever the left tells you to do.
My personal favorite is, “We need to have a conversation about….” Which means, “Sit down, honkey, so I can tell you how it’s going to be from here on out. Capice?”
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=richard+pryor+honky+honky&view=detail&mid=B58AA4BFEC056DD0FFA6B58AA4BFEC056DD0FFA6&FORM=VIRE
Hah! SNL will have to cancel itself, as will Chevy Chase. He said “nigger!” On TV. On tape!
She has the right to be a Communist but why does she have to be a stupid one? Under communism, everyone does NOT have the same amount of money. That’s now how it works, sweetie. “From each according to his abilities to each according to his needs” doesn’t mean that everyone has the same thing. It means that the government – the so-called dictatorship of the proletariat – decides what you need and what your neighbor needs and what their neighbor needs. Someone is always on top. Communism and its dystopian relatives only change who’s in charge.
Yep, communism and socialism also fall into the runner-up positions of that most important of human traits…the one on which capitalism seems to thrive: self-interest.
That’s my take as well, Joel. Capitalism works and is the only successful economic model because it relies on the only reliable human fundamental: self-interest. Communism fails because it relies on a virtually non-existent, but certainly unreliable, fundamental: concern for others beyond, perhaps, one’s family. A big Bart Simpson “Exactamundo!” is in order.
“If everyone had the same amount of money, then money wouldn’t be worth anything.”
Actually, the dollar has no value in itself. If people valued money, then they would not be disposing of it through spending. Our money only has value because it is a medium of exchange right now. It is a marginal store of value when inflation becomes the invisible tax imposed on consumers. As a unit of account, if everyone always had the same amount of money then there would be no need for money to measure anything.
What would our store shelves look like if money did not act as a proxy for relative value. People would not need to make decisions between goods to get maximum value from their income so the shelves would become empty in a matter of days because of insatiable wants. At which point, you still need to make no decisions because there is nothing to choose from.
Obviously, this teacher failed Eco 201, 202 in the Community College because you don’t need to go to an Ivy league school to get the basics.
I would like to ask this teacher if she awards the same grades for all work to all students. Her comments suggest that all will be well if all students are rewarded the same based on the notion that all workers should be compensated the same and all businesses should have the same profits of loss. I would like to ask her if a business loses money should consumers be required to give that business some of their money to equilibrate the distribution of the money supply.
How would we measure the effectiveness of her teaching if all students were given the same grades. And, if we could not make a distinction between her effectiveness as a teacher and any other uncertified person why would she need to be certified. Further, why is she even needed if everyone is going get the same money in the end? Why not just train the kids with Math aptitude and let the others off the hook because they will never need it? The same is true for all subjects for that matter. If children can be programmed at an early age for gender, why shouldn’t we track them from the start to learn specific trades? Again, that from their ability thingy. In short, why give kids choices when obviously the adults know what is best for them?
I would also like to ask this teacher if money has no value what she can produce to trade for things she herself cannot make. How does a teacher trade for food if the farmer has no kids that she can teach? Maybe she has other skills (from each their abilities) that she can employ to offer for trade. But what if the maker of those goods that she wants and needs has no desire for what she has to offer? I often wonder what the market value is of someone skilled in gender issues. How do I gain value from what they have to offer?
I left the academic world in 2012 because it became evident that ideology was to be taught and the idea that we wanted to develop critical thinkers was mere lip service. From what I gather it has only gotten worse. Perhaps because the pipeline of students has been corrupted by individuals employed by public school systems who think like as she does.
Communist states achieve equality. They make everyone poor. See, eg, Cuba. Vietnam, Venezuela. the Soviet Union, Maoist China.
The American “education” system, as currently constituted, is far and away a greater threat to the nation than the current trash that calls itself journalism.
The government can’t force you at gunpoint to read the Washington Post, but does use force to compel participation in government school systems. Opting out of that indoctrination for your children is possible, but is much more difficult than seeking out alternate sources for news and information that aren’t as corrupted as the mainstream media.
Perhaps she would like all students to take a year off to work in the rice paddies; I believe that’s been done in some countries. She could be permanently assigned to that duty as well.
It would be a win-win. She would get her shot at communism, and the students would likely come back as hard-core capitalists.
Off topic: Ann Althouse is getting (justifiably) dragged by the tongue on her own blog.
Saw that. Hilarious. Ann’s commentariat is more reliably lucid than she is. So’s a ham sandwich.
Heh. Indeed.
A day late…I mentioned that Ann was all wet when she defended the DEI hack in her first post about Stanford, and then she doubled down. I don’t understand her reasoning—and its an ethics issue—at all.
But hey, she has about 10X the traffic I do, so what do I know?
Oh, I definitely remember your comment about her first post.
After reading her comments, I came away feeling like someone had hacked her blog and posted in her stead. I know better, of course, because I’ve seen (and you have pointed out) how her mind occasionally goes into cloud-cuckoo-lefty land, almost at random (my words, not yours). It doesn’t happen all that often, but when it does, it is usually bewilderingly illogical and opaque.
Let’s face it, Jack — the reason she gets all that traffic is not because she’s better at blogging than you. It’s because Glenn Reynolds likes her and links her blog. If you got links from Instapundit once or twice a month, your traffic would almost certainly be much higher. It doesn’t help that you alienated social media platforms by refusing to pander to their dishonest biases and sticking to your beliefs.
I know the feeling of undeserved inattention well — anyone who has ever engaged in the labor of love that is blogging has. It’s better not to think about it.
“Capitalism must go,” she opined in the same video, adding that “revolutions involve violence.”
A point worth remembering, Ms. Rothstein.
This alone renders her unworthy, regardless of her economic views and leaving aside her off-topic woke bullshit instruction (which only makes it worse). Suggesting that violence is necessary to achieve the ends she desires (implicitly, of course) is not the kind of thing middle school teachers should opine in a public forum. It makes the school administration look incompetent–which they are–for hiring her, whether they agree with her or not. Shouting “Burn it all down!” or it’s equivalent in what passes for the 2020’s version of a soapbox on the street corner does not engender faith in the school administration’s personnel judgment, to say the very least.
How is this possible? Is Maryland that far gone? Are its parents that lazy, ignorant, and apathetic?
I think in Maryland, they pretty much ignore what the parents think, so …
For a long time, Ethics Alarms has confidently taken the position that American journalism poses the greatest threat to democracy and national values. American education may have overtaken it.
“May have?” I think you are slipping into the Jonathan Turley zone …
“May have?” I think you are slipping into the Jonathan Turley zone
Got me. I am abashed.
The Prof is getting better, though!
I’ve been reading “Res Ipsa” (why does he leave off the ‘loquitor?’ res ipsa makes no sense) and noticed he’s getting pretty straightforward. Maybe it’s his being published in the NY Post?
correction. he uses loquitor, the internet doesn’t.
Heh. He is. I guess you could call it “Red pilled,” but perhaps that’s just a bit much. 🙂
“If everyone had the same amount of money, then money wouldn’t be worth anything.”
That really does not follow.
More likely true is this: if everyone had the same amount of money [today], they won’t tomorrow.
-Jut
Complete Tangent, but it’s not Friday, and I can’t resist:
On March 9th, I said:
“So how about some of that equity, eh? I’m not going to hold my breath and wait for progressives to start talking about how young men should be incentivized to attend university, or how we need special bursary or scholarship programs to give young men an equal playing field. I’m not expecting the talk about the earnings gap to disappear, and in fact: “Equal Pay Day” is right around the corner. Does anyone want to make a bet against the likelihood that progressives and this administration use March 14th as an opportunity to trot out yet another deceptive figure for political clout? Because I’ll take your money.”
March 14th:
Sadly as predictable as the sunrise, and you nailed it.
Jack: “Neither capitalism nor communism should be taught in Middle School”
Maybe-maybe not.
If your point is that is about a Middle School currículum, okay, I guess.
Economics is not typically taught at that age.
Having said that, when I was in 7th or 8th grade (maybe 6th), we had a school project involving the sale of chocolate chip cookies. Mind you, this was a small school with 30 kids per grade. There were implicit lessons about business, supply and demand, customer service, teamwork, quality control.
It was more about practical knowledge, but it could have easily been supplemented by theory.
Kind of like the time when, at 12-ish years old, I told my dad (RIP) how much money I could make by mowing lawns in the neighborhood. He looked at me and asked how much I paid for the gas in the mower.
-Jut
The problem is that there is so much basic stuff that middle=school and high school students aren’t learning that getting into economics is premature. I also think kids get a pretty good feel for capitalism by living here, unless mom and dad subscribe to the Daily Worker.
Or “Jacobin.” Or Bernie’s campaign literature.
I was thinking the same thing. I remember being middle-school aged and we had Computer Lab where they taught us to play Oregon Trail and Lemonade Stand. Of course Lemonade Stand being predicated on the past custom of actually running one in your neighborhood. I still think that’s a great lesson for a middle schooler.