November 13, 2024

Illustration: Emma Erickson

Dear Emily,

I’m struggling with how to respond to a recent incident at my daughter’s New York City public school. When I came home from work on Wednesday, the day after the election, she rushed me at the door to tell me about what happened at school that day — not typical teenage behavior! She said her ninth-grade English teacher made all the students in the class watch Trump’s acceptance speech and take notes on “his values” and asked them to pay particular attention to how positively the crowd responded during his speech. Though the teacher didn’t say anything directly about how she voted, my daughter says she’s a known Trump supporter at the school, so I can only assume her intention was to in some way promote his ideas. When my daughter and many of the other students voiced their objections and said they found the exercise upsetting, the teacher said it was her lesson and she would teach the class the way she wanted — they had to do the assignment. 

At 14, my daughter is old enough to be politically aware and was excited by the possibility of electing our first female president. She was extremely sad that Kamala lost. I’m not totally sure how to tell my daughter that she needs to respect and listen to this teacher after she acted with so little empathy toward her own students. I suspect this teacher is an anomaly at the school, but I don’t know the other teachers and/or parents well enough to find out. What do I do now in terms of talking to my daughter about how to tough out the rest of the year in this teacher’s class or, if I can make myself take on having the conversation, talking to the school?

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Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Getty Images

By Madame Clairevoyant

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Tucker Carlson is not going to be press secretary, but it's easy to see why so many people believed it, given where we're at. But hey, lest we forget the current administration: Despite Biden's promise to protect old forests, he keeps approving plans to cut them down. Sorry, everyone. It's another rough Wednesday. At least the broker-fee ban passed.

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A biweekly newsletter interrogating modern family life, written by Kathryn Jezer-Morton.