RUSH: Doug in Fort Collins, Colorado. Great to have you, sir, with us. Hello.

CALLER: Good afternoon. Thanks for having me.

RUSH: You bet, sir.

CALLER: I teach in the local school system. I’m a little bit nervous about losing my job over this call to you, but we received, all the teachers K through 12 got an e-mail about classes where we can expand our techniques, learn how to handle violence in the classroom, become better teachers. And one of the classes that is optional, not required, optional, it’s brand-new: Race, Class, and Culture in School. It’s for teens who are interested in addressing equity issues, changing classroom practices based on effective cultural responsive strategies. Training will focus on understanding culture, diversity, recognizing the role of power and privilege in individual and institutional interactions and developing a philosophy of social justice and equality.

RUSH: Oh, my God.

CALLER: — unquote.

RUSH: Oh, my God. I know where this is going. I know right where this is going. You’re gonna be teaching white privilege, right? You’re gonna be warning everybody. You’re gonna have to be critical and condescending toward white privilege. You’re gonna have to point out the horrors that white privilege has caused in this country. Is that where this is headed?

CALLER: It sure looks that way. They do want a team that has a diverse background. They want an administrator, pupil services staff, at least three teachers and then one individual, possibly a parent, to come together, and this is a five-day program. It’s not a simple two-hour class or three-hour class. It’s five full workdays. And if you complete it, you’re awarded a stipend which you are to use for purchasing — and it’s italics here — “approved culturally responsible classroom instructional materials.”

RUSH: Wait a minute, now. You’re being taught here to teach what age-group?

CALLER: This is for everyone here. This goes out K through 12 teachers.

RUSH: Oh, jeez.

CALLER: So you can be teaching, you know, kindergarten, first grade kids about privilege and power.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: And the fact that they’re gonna let you buy approved classroom instructional materials for afterwards. Just about a year and a half ago we got a new superintendent from California.

RUSH: Uh-oh.

CALLER: Yeah. So I’m fairly concerned about this.

RUSH: What happens if you just don’t participate?

CALLER: This one’s not required, yet. This one is one for people who are interested in changing the classroom.

RUSH: Oh. Oooh, okay. It’s for the enlightened, who realize —

CALLER: Yes.

RUSH: — that it might be time for cultural evolution here. If you want to really change your classrooms and instruct your students in white privilege and all this other stuff, this seminar is for you.

CALLER: Yes. And again, it’s not required, yet. But I find it very concerning when it’s hard enough for teachers to focus on reading and writing and math and science to have to add this —

RUSH: No, no, no. There is no science. Science is global warming. If you teach that, you’ve covered science requirements. Math is whatever you want the answer to be until you figure it out, and the rest of the time is all this cultural rot.

CALLER: My daughter recently received a math lesson about global warming.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: They were told to figure out how much money the city will save by using CFL lightbulbs, et cetera, that kind of thing.

RUSH: (laughing) Jeez.

CALLER: Yes. I understand. I try to laugh whenever possible, too, but, boy, it gets hard sometimes.

RUSH: I know. I know. I’m at my wits end. This has been a tough week, and I’m worn out. Your call actually comes at a good time, ’cause I don’t know. That made makes me laugh, global warming combined with math, show you how much a town can save to go to spaghetti lightbulbs. I don’t know, for some reason it just cracks me up. It’s a screwed premise. And we’re screwed.

CALLER: Yeah. Well, not all of us, because my children have been taught to smile and nod and bite their tongues.

RUSH: Well, yeah, but you said here at the outset of your call that you feared for your job if —

CALLER: Yes. If I was to go ahead and give more information about where I work, et cetera, as a teacher, because these kind of things are more, how can I put it, accepted and promoted in the workplace. When they are mentioned, something like global warming, it is dogma that is not to be questioned, it is to be followed.

RUSH: I gather there are not too many of you who think as you do in this particular domain, so you have to be close to the vest about this?

CALLER: I would hazard to say you are correct. If there are many of us, we’re probably all being quiet and nodding our heads.

RUSH: You may not even know each other. (laughing)

CALLER: Yes. Hard to take that chance.

RUSH: Yeah. “Are you, are you — never mind, I’m not asking.”

CALLER: (laughing) Exactly.

RUSH: All right. Well, you know, Doug, I don’t want to get you into trouble, but you know what I’d like to do?

CALLER: What is that?

RUSH: Well, I’d like to send you some Rush Revere books and, like a care package, some of the things that we send out from the Rush Revere site.

CALLER: I could try that. I could definitely try that.

RUSH: It’s truthful American history and every kid that runs across these books ends up loving them. There are no politics in it, purposely. It’s just the truth about American history in a unique way, and it takes these kids back to the actual events. They live them by reading about them, and the characters come to life and so forth.

CALLER: And also, got another smile for you here. I was recently at a large box store, supermarket that had Hillary’s book laid out there, and someone had come up and picked up a copy of “13 Hours In Benghazi” and put it on top of Hillary’s book.

RUSH: (laughing).

CALLER: I took a photo of that and sent it to a few friends.

RUSH: The small moments in life. Well, look, hang on here, Doug. We’ll get your address so I can put together a care package for you. I’ll send you CDs, audio versions, and the new one when it comes out October 28th, Rush Revere and the American Revolution. So sit tight. We’ll have some stuff out to you hopefully next week ’cause you deserve all the help that you can get. Very, very, very courageous thing that you’re doing, calling attention. This white privilege stuff, I’ve seen how this gets taught. I’ve seen the results of it in kids. You would not believe the guilt that is taught, transmitted to white students. And they end up believing it and living it, and they basically walk around, their life is one big apology, in their mind. It’s hideous. Anyway, Doug, thanks much.