ANALYSIS: Major Philly daily couldn’t find one teacher against the Dem ticket?
On Friday, The Philadelphia Inquirer essentially gave the Democratic presidential ticket free advertising in the form of an article filled with enthusiastic praise for VP candidate Tim Walz.
In her piece, city school reporter Kristen Graham apparently could not find a single educator opposed to Kamala Harris and Walz, nor did she raise any of the controversies surrounding the latter’s background and past statements.
The only thing to which readers are treated are accolades such as this from Spanish teacher Fatim Byrd: “[Walz] wasn’t three years in teaching, then gone; he taught for 20 years. He knows how hard the job is, and hopefully, he can get us what we need.”
Byrd said she “read up” on Walz after Harris tapped him for the veep spot, to which Graham notes Walz “spent two decades as a social studies teacher in public high schools,” “coached football” and was “the first faculty adviser” to a high school’s Gay Straight Alliance.
English teacher Matthew Kay was “completely delighted” at how Walz (allegedly) went into politics because he had “struggled to explain the choices being made in Washington to his students.”
This so-called “teacher energy” means that Kay won’t just sit idly by until early November; he’s now going to actively assist the Harris-Walz ticket.
Special ed. teacher Inez Campbell, a military veteran, likes that Walz also served and said she “was particularly moved” at his signing into law a bill which ensured free breakfasts and lunches for all students in his state.
“I see nothing wrong with him,” Campbell said, adding she has “such a good feeling now” with the Democratic ticket.
Philadelphia Virtual Academy teacher Molly Maldonado said teachers “recognized themselves in Walz,” adding the VP candidate acted like how “a teacher would deal with a bully” when he “took aim” at his GOP counterpart JD Vance and Donald Trump.
Maldonado also said young folks are excited by Harris, and they like Walz’s “old man, dad vibe.”
Left unmentioned by the Inquirer’s Graham:
— the controversy over Walz mandating “free period products” (of which Maldonado also is a fan) in boy’s school bathrooms.
— how a 20-year veteran social studies teacher doesn’t know the 1st Amendment has no exception for “hate speech.”
— the various controversies surrounding Walz’s military tenure.
— how Walz had to embellish even his football coaching résumé.
Regarding that last (arguably most trivial) point, many on social media noted Walz never directly said he was the head coach of his team (he was an assistant), and that there is no difference between saying he was “the” coach and “a” coach.
If that’s the case, why the obvious embellishment? As a former head and assistant coach of various high school and middle school sports teams myself, I can tell you there is a difference.
My high school alma mater was fortunate enough to have had one of the best football coaches ever to grace the First State, and I’d bet good money that no assistant coach who worked with him would ever say “I was ‘the’ coach” of that team. They’d say “I was a coach” or “I was an assistant/coordinator.”
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