Johnny’s Bursting to Roast This Dumb Test- Class in Session

Whoa! Hey, it's Busted Pencils. It's fully-led in Education Talk. Educated Educator Stocking, Education Classes, and Session Dr. Johnny Lupinachi, Jacob

Chairman of the Board, me, Dr. Tim Slecker, and what an eventful Labor Day weekend, especially to

one of our team members. Oh, yeah, exciting. Dr. Johnny Lupinachi, you got to visit some

other doctors these past few days. What's up, man? Man, different kind of doctors, but yeah,

man, Labor Day, who to thunk it, not me, but, you know, and just waking up Labor Day morning, and

the old appendix wasn't happy, and it got supposedly got infected somehow, and I got appendicitis.

I wasn't quite sure what it was, but it felt pretty awful, and had to go to the ER, and man,

I was in surgery, and now here I am on the on the mend pretty quick, so nice. Thank you to all those

teachers out there who taught all those doctors and nurses who took care of me, because that's

how it works. I mean, they're amazing at what they do. They're doing, I say this often, like,

teachers and nurses are really a kin in a lot of ways. They're in a care profession. They're,

you know, radically underfunded, increasingly privatized, you know, and we say this public education

is the bedrock of democracy. We'll also so so as being healthy, and so like a healthy medical system

is so important, especially in the public sector, right? And so, you know, getting to here and see,

you know, our bright and brilliant nurses and doctors working in less than ideal conditions,

right? And so many people in the ER waiting room, right, so much trouble with different

insurances and things and, you know, schools, as we talk about the, you know, the politics of schools

is just like a refresher that, similarly, the politics of health in this country, you know,

seem to be a muck. And it reminds me, Tim, of like, we have a guest coming on in a few weeks,

we're excited about, you know, our, our pal Randy Winegarden, who's a book, I cannot wait for,

it just looks amazing. So keep listening because we'll have that show, you know, coming out later,

we haven't done it yet, but we're interviewing again, our good friend Randy Winegarden,

who's president of, right, the AFT, and which is one of the largest now unions for nurses,

right? So you have teachers and nurses. I think this is a really powerful thing. So that's my long

winded way saying about, I'm on my, I'm on my post op meds. I'm a little, little short today on

things, so I'll be here. I don't count on me for a whole lot because I haven't taken up. I got

a, I got a question though, you know, and don't, don't dwell on the answer, but

so of the things that, you know, can be removed, as tonsils, gallbladder, appendix. So

what do you, how many you got now, or, you know, worry out on the removal.

If those are the three, I think you could get a few more things removed.

Well, I mean, out of that common trifecta, I got two of the three out. I don't have tonsils,

and I no longer have appendix. Okay. And I still have a gallbladder, but hey, you know,

who knows how that one works? Well, make up one day, and then that's gotta go.

That little green sack that you used to identify in middle school biology class, like,

ew, that's the gallbladder. And I remember finding the gallbladder doing my first frog

dissection in ninth grade, and thinking I'm like, you know, I could take this gallbladder out of

this frog, and it won't matter. And then everybody was looking at me going, Tim, it won't matter

to this frog anyway. It's all right. All right. So glad to see you in good health,

Johnny, but again, pointing that out, yeah, health also being a foundation of democracy.

I think that's something we're going to have to explore even more in the future. But you know,

what's really important to democracy is the ability to prove your commitment to America first,

particularly, Johnny. You're doing the sarcasm every day. I mean, especially if you were educated

in those liberal bastion cesspools of Marxist ideology, California and New York.

Well, if you're going to be a teacher, particularly if you're coming out of those states,

there now is an assessment available to prove your Americanness, America.

And our boy, you know, state superintendent, Oklahoma, Ryan Walters,

teamed up with that illustrious, you know, Ivy, no, not Ivy League, but weed league

university, Prager U, and developed probably one of the most hard hitting assessments of Americanness.

That's that a test, Johnny, where if you're going to teach in Oklahoma, you got to prove that America

first matters to you. And Johnny, I just want to start in Jacob too. You can pay attention, jump in

here. But I got one question that I want to throw at you guys to see if you're okay.

Question five of 34. Why is the distinction between male and female considered important

in areas like sports and privacy? Okay. A, for equity in minority communities,

B, to preserve fairness, safety, and integrity for both sexes,

C, to increase participation in sports, D, to enhance the self-esteem of transgender children.

Those are your choices to prove your commitment to America first. I see Jacob's first on the

buzzer. Jacob. No, I am not now or have I ever been a member of the Communist Party.

Okay. Oh, that actually would be a really good answer to that question.

You know, again, yeah, lots of fun, lots of sarcasm there. But I'm going to go with B.

B, preserve the fairness, safety, and integrity for both sexes. Yes, it is B, according to

Oklahoma. That is why male and female distinctions are important because fairness, safety,

and integrity for both sexes is the American core value that typically is recited after the

pledge of allegiance in the mornings. I know, I know, I know, I know, I'm a post operation,

you know, like barely even 24 hours. And I'm not too, too bad with the medications. They

gone light on the pain stuff. But I mean, that could be one reason. But also, this is a lot of

sarcasm. I'm confused. John, what, what number question? Because I have the test stuff. What

number question are you talking about? This was a question six or five of 34. Why, why is the

distinction between male and female considered important in areas like sports and privacy and Jacob

landed on the correct answer, according to Oklahoma. Sure. You know, and if I could say the thing,

I think is ridiculous about this Tim or most ridiculous or always is standing out to me is that

you've got a list of four things, which I guess are kind of all factors you think about.

But no, actually, only one is right and the others are dead wrong. It's like,

absolutely fairness in sports. Well, I guess we should balance that and oh,

self esteem for trans kids. Yeah, we should balance those together. They're both important.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, these different things. Actually, no, only one is right and the other is

you're going to the gulag. Thank you, Jacob, for pointing out, yeah, beyond the sarcasm,

the seriousness of actually the wrong answers, according to Oklahoma and what the wrong answers

communicate about a certain sense of how they ideologically, yes, I put it out there, but

Oklahoma's ideological test of the ideology they want teachers to possess. Yeah, this is a

crazy test. Did you go through it now? I mean, I'm looking at it. We've talked about this test

down here before. It's a desperate cry for attention from the ultimate pick me right over there

in Oklahoma. There's great people in Oklahoma and amazing teachers there and great kids going to

school. It doesn't fair Oklahoma well or represent them well, much like how in the larger scheme of

this thing, you know, I believe most Americans are not represented by the interests of mega.

And this is a mega alliance test. Exactly. And it really reads like it's written poorly in the

sense of like Jacob pointed out, it's not just like, okay, that's the answer, but all of them listed

matter. And there could be like, if you were really writing this test in the spirit of that question

as like someone who cares about young people, right, talking about, you know, two genders and sports.

And even now that's our system where we're exploring ways to include more diverse identities

and how to handle that and how to make that, you know, there could have been all of the above

matter in this in this consideration. Okay, but instead it's really setting you up. It's kind of

kind of force you into a corner that you said it there is a correct answer and it's this

pledge of allegiance to, you know, mega politics. And it's never going to stick. It's never, it's

more of a tension getter. Like I said, this ultimate pick me, you know, that person who's just

constantly like, hey, me, me, look at me, pay attention to me. Well, that's this superintendent

wants the attention of the, you know, Trump administration. And it pledges its allegiance by

trying to say it's doing these tests. I don't even think they'll be able to.

And if they do, I think it's going to be a massive joke. But Tim, the bigger thing you brought up

and I want to come back around to it, you use sarcasm saw as lost. I was like, wait, are we all

about this? Oh, no, that's the sarcasm. But the other bigger issue here for me is that patriotism is

a core value of democracy. And there is a long list, not long, but you know, ten or so core values

of democracy that patriotism is part of. And it's holding at value, like holding, you know,

like practicing all those core values at equal amounts. That's sort of the goal. Like life, liberty,

you know, pursuit of happiness, diversity. I know, dare we say these, they were out before the

liberals, before the liberals claimed them as things like these things existed as core values of

democracy, you know, which we have here in the US is a democracy. Like we have a democratic,

you know, not saying that we're Democrats. But you know, that process, we're a democracy.

So, you know, this anti-democratic in the sense that it says patriotism is, you know,

not holding all those core values. So it's like redefining patriotism as, you know,

allegiance to, to mag up because Trump is the president. There's a foothold there. And this is

why I wanted this as a serious issue. But it's truly an erosion of patriotism. I hold that thought

right there because I want to kind of jump in because I think what you're pointing out,

Johnny, really is the distinction here, which is that typically, I don't know, Democrats or liberals

whatever are portrayed as anti-patriotic. Right. The reality is here, what you're pointing

out, some of you are right. Right. Right. Right. But what you're saying here, though, is just like,

look, patriotism, true patriotism holds these core values. And, you know, if you want like a patriotism

test, a patriotism litmus test, this ain't what's in front of you when you're taking this test,

this is an allegiance to a certain ideology test. It has nothing to do with patriotism because when

you, like you say, when you put those core values of patriotism under the microscope and what they

look like, it's not about allegiance to an ideology other than the ideology of, I guess, patriotism.

And so it's interesting that this is America first test. This is all these things. And just to point

out to people going like, actually, this test has is probably the most anti-American thing I have ever

really seen kind of get floated out because this has nothing to do with patriotism. Or Tim, it's

very American at the moment. And America needs to decide, are we a democracy or not, because it's

not democratic, you know, it's pretty malicious towards people. And that's not what a democracy's

goal should be. I love that you highlighted that, Tim, because I went into my notes, you know,

teach about core democratic values. And patriotism, you know, I always like to do street level definitions,

like just short. Let's define it. So we have a vocab word around it, right? After the whole list of

core democratic values, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, justice, common good, equality,

truth, diversity, and popular sovereignty, there's patriotism. And that means having a devotion to

our country and the core democratic values and what we say and what we do. So that second part

gets clipped off by this America, first of all, to our country. And that's our president. Let's go.

You know, it's not taking into consideration the whole read, the whole definition, right?

In support of our country and these core democratic values. Yeah, because the values define,

you know, this is basic kind of basic stuff. But you know, and let's break it down. It's class

and session values give definition to something, right? I can say that, you know, my glass of water

is actually a football, but it's not because there's measurable sort of values here. Like it's actually

water. It's class. It's not a football, right? So if we say something's a democracy, then we have

to look and say, are the people participating in that democracy, you know, ex-practicing these

values? Are they in what they say and what they do? And if they're not, then it's not democracy.

So you can't cherry pick little pieces like liberty. Oh, yeah, that's right. Everyone has a right

to do what they want. But you also have common good. So can't go up against common good. It also

has to have justice involved. Like what we believe is a just society. We also have, you know,

equality. It can't hurt equal opportunities for everybody to have, right? So yeah, it's not easy.

Democracy is not easy. That's why we teach it and practice it. But there is a set of core values,

just like any group has, like, you know, whether you're in a real, like maybe you're a Christian and

you, you know, adhere to the 10 commandments, that's your group's values. Like are you spousing those

values as you live in the world? That's great. Our country also has a set of values that helps us

define. And this is an example of, you know, cherry picking one of those and not only cherry picking

patriotism, but taking part of the definition, just the first few words in support of the country.

And that thought that to me says that therefore it's not patriotism they're looking at.

I know, Jacob, what do you, what do you think of the two madman rent ranting here?

Well, maybe I'm going crazy too, because you're all making a lot of sense to me today.

I agree with Johnny. We've got multiple values in a democratic system in a democratic country.

And it's just like the answers to that stupid breaker you question. All the answers have to

be balanced against each other. They're all factors that go into making these decisions and

working together in democracy. The answer to the question is not patriotism. We're not a democracy.

We're not working together. It's just patriotism. No, I mean, you have to have a balance of all

these different things in order for us to get along together. Also, I'm not going to get into this

too much, Tim. But I mean, do you have to be patriotic to be a teacher? I don't know. I mean,

if you're a science teacher and you're doing a great job teaching science, doesn't matter

that you prefer Colombia as a country at home at night, and you're in your bed, you think of

moving to Bogota. I don't think it's anybody's business. I think mostly when I have those visions,

it's about being coming a contestant on the history channels alone and being left out on some

remote place alone, that to me is true liberty right there. Yes. Okay. A lot's going on,

but you know what? Kind of coming up and I know, Dr. Johnny, we do not want to see what happens

when the side effects of potential medications take hold. He was already thinking his glass of water

was a footballer earlier. I know. I'm glad you saw it today. It's a little wild today. So maybe

it's almost time for me to go. Well, it's, you know, there is on the, actually, the Fox

news site where I found my questions. There's a little bit of a commentary from a superintendent in

the state of Oklahoma. This morning, I took the new teacher qualifications test that Ryan Walters

says teachers will need to pass to teach in Oklahoma. My score 100%. I guess that makes me

highly qualified in under five minutes. Honestly, it felt like an eighth grade pop quiz,

no studying, no effort, barely a second thought. And since the entire test is already posted online,

anyone he could preview it for themselves. In other words, sheet. I don't want to fault

Oklahoma for wanting to have excellent teachers. We all want that. But sorry, this online multiple

quiz test does anything but that. So here we go. Johnny evidence of what you said, there are great

people. There are great leaders. There are great educators in Oklahoma. And those are the types

of voices we continue to want to hear. And, you know, put it out there. If anybody actually does

have to take this test to get their teaching license in Oklahoma, busted pencils wants to talk

to you because we want to have a conversation. But other than that, now it's time for your moment of

losing. I believe that compassion is basic to human nature. And I am counting on that to pull us

through. Hey, thanks for listening to busted pencils class in session today. And you can always

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busted pencils.com. And don't forget, you can find us throughout the entire week every Monday,

Wednesday, Friday with home rooms, class in sessions. And that's right. Always loads of fun to wrap

up the work week on Fridays with chairman of the board Jacobs choice. Those are always a blast.

And listen up. I know you love this because you get us for a full hour every Saturday when you tune

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for your favorite hour of two blue collar scholar. Tim and Johnny and keep busted pencils.