Mueller Report

One thing that I have learned in my career as a high school teacher is that I should never try too hard
to catch someone doing something wrong. I find that when I do, I tend to miss everything else that’s
going on. For example, let’s say a student is on her phone in my classroom but she is concealing it in
her bag. I know she is on her phone but I also know that this is a difficult crime to prove. If I accuse her
of being on her phone, all she has to say is, “no, I was looking for my pencil.” What do I do then?
Empty her bag? Check her phone and hope that something she was doing had a timestamp on it so I
can prove she was using it at the exact time I accused her of using it? As the meme says, “ain’t nobody
got time for that!”       

If I concentrate too much on this infraction, my teaching suffers. Learning suffers. Or, maybe, I miss
some blatant infraction that is occurring on the other side of the classroom. So, what do you do, Mr.
Walsh? Do you just let students use their phones? No. You let them know that you know and you move
on. You say, “Jasmine? Have you found your pencil yet?” Jasmine gives you a look. You give Jasmine
a look. She’s been warned.   

For most students, that is enough. They know that you know and they are officially deterred. But that
doesn’t work for everyone. There are students that need to learn lessons the hard way. For these
students, all you have to do is be patient. Don’t concentrate on trying to catch them. Just concentrate
on good, clean teaching and learning. When everyone concentrates on that, the infractions fall onto
your lap because they are a clear contrast to the rest of the classroom. If no one cares that Jasmine
is concealing her phone, she’s going to do something else. Something more egregious. Most likely she
is going to try to show someone what she is doing on her phone. If you are patient and concentrate
on teaching and learning, students that insist on breaking the rules essentially turn themselves in or
conform.

The Mueller Report was like this. It was like the whole country was trying to catch Trump on his phone.
We said, “We think you are colluding with the Russians.” He said “No collusion!” (In case you missed it)
He said it a lot. It really looked like collusion. He had a lot of ties to Russia. A lot of his associates were
up to some shady business practices. Many have been indicted and convicted or reached a plea deal,
but Trump insists that he is innocent. He was just looking for his pencil!

Well, he’s been warned. Now what? Let’s stop wishing that we caught him and get back to running a
good, clean democracy. He knows that we know. He can either learn from this or continue on the same
path. Trust me, if he decides to learn things the hard way and keeps associating with shady folks doing
shady things he will get caught eventually. Too often, what distracts teachers from teaching and learning
has nothing to do with teaching and learning. This is no different.

Now, some may argue, nice analogy Mike but you have it backwards, Trump is the president. He’s the
teacher. We are the students. I disagree. Classrooms are not democracies, they are dictatorships. In a
classroom one person holds all the power. Our country is not a dictatorship. It is a democracy. In a
democracy the people hold the power. It’s called the consent of the governed (thanks John Locke!). We
vote and therefore give our consent to elected officials to govern us. They answer to us. If we don’t like
how they govern, we removed them from office.

If Trump was a dictator and not bound by the Constitution, this country would be a different place today.
Muslims would have already have lost their freedom of movement within our country (and maybe more
rights). There would be a wall at our southern border and migrants would be separated from their
families with impunity (maybe worse). Millions would have already lost healthcare. Every environmental
protection to curb climate change would have already been rolled back. Neo Nazi’s that Trump
considers “good people” would be even more embolden to spread their hate.

We the governed, by the power of the Constitution have stopped these things. We have protested in
the streets and airports. We have written our elected officials. Our courts have defended the Constitution.
We voted in the midterm elections (highest turnout in a century!). We’ve put signs on our cars, in our
yards, and in our workplaces to combat the rise of hate. We are the teacher not the students. We hold
the power!

Some say the results of the Mueller Report will embolden Trump. I say. OK, so what? We still hold the
power. Let’s be patient and focus on running a good, clean democracy. If he’s dirty, it will come out
eventually.   

My daughter Leah just did a project on President Lincoln. We listened to the Gettysburg Address. In
this speech, President Lincoln said that our government was one “of the people, by the people for the
people”.

You're damn right it is.