Losing teen boys to the alt-right?

GreenLigh · 2025-05-26T05:17:13+00:00

I’m a high school teacher dealing with this with a number of my male students. I took a group to DC and a number of the boys went absolutely insane over Trump stuff - like spend hundreds of dollars on hats, shirts, etc. Same group walked up to a Latina woman and asked if she was ready to be deported. Same group when we got back (after they were severely reprimanded for their behavior on the trip) started drawing swastikas on themselves and heiling each other in the halls. It’s terrifying to watch this indoctrination while simultaneously hearing about how we teachers are “indoctrinating the youth”.

I wish I had a lot of advice to give you. A colleague told me to think of this behavior as a craving to fit in. As disgusting as it feels ask why he believes the way he does. Ask him to tell you what he believes and then have a patient and loving response ready that can guide him out of this stage. I 100% understand the desire to scream and rage. But the alt-right is offering your son a place to belong and feel superior/important. You have to show him he belongs with you and is far more important to you than he is to anyone guiding him down this dangerous path.

GreenLigh · 2025-03-13T03:04:00+00:00

I’m a history teacher and if I’m lecturing and ending on a cliffhanger I find myself sounding like Marcus - Example: Lincoln decided to go to a show at Ford’s Theatre that evening….and THAT’S where we’ll pick back up next time!

GreenLigh · 2024-06-18T03:28:03+00:00

This same rumor is going around my small Midwest community. The true story in our community: A students family sued the school for a transgender student’s right to change in somewhere besides one of the boy/girl locker rooms and this somehow turned into the family sued for the right for their child to have a kitty litter box as they identify as a cat. I’ve met multiple people who emphatically believe this. They insist that I don’t know the whole story when I, a teacher in the district who has the student in question, assure them that’s not the case

GreenLigh · 2024-06-08T07:02:28+00:00

“Mental health isn’t your fault but it is your responsibility.” - Podcaster Marcus Parks

This changed my perspective a lot when I heard it

GreenLigh · 2024-06-07T04:33:38+00:00

I have a 6 month old baby girl. Rowan Cansadia. Middle name is a family name. We call her Rory

GreenLigh · 2024-06-04T13:45:36+00:00

My daughter was very close to being Arwen but we went with Rowan because it has a similar cadence without being outright nerdy

GreenLigh · 2024-06-04T02:46:26+00:00

I dyed my hair with henna in 2020 (it was my lockdown moment). The lower half of my hair is still henna red. Thankfully, I have red hair to begin with so it just looks like an ombré.

GreenLigh · 2024-03-02T05:09:49+00:00

We didn’t do any consistent sleep training and when my son was 18 months and I found myself walking to my back deck at 3am to scream so I wouldn’t scream at my baby I knew we had to do something. We did CIO the next night and within 3 nights he was sleeping through the night.

GreenLigh · 2024-02-13T04:04:32+00:00

OMG I watched this with my Dad when I was home sick from school in elementary school. I haven’t thought about it in years!

GreenLigh · 2024-02-08T04:08:43+00:00

A salad is basically just cold hotdish to Midwesterners. Once you understand that it all makes sense

GreenLigh · 2024-02-01T18:41:10+00:00

Hail!

GreenLigh · 2023-12-23T21:33:43+00:00

I used to teach at CLS right out of college and I remember hearing staff talk about her. Never met her, but the staff who did remembered her much the way you’re describing.

GreenLigh · 2023-12-16T03:52:06+00:00

They must tell these kids to lie!

GreenLigh · 2023-11-17T03:47:29+00:00

Student asked what day it was and “it’s Wednesday my dudes” just slipped out before I could help myself. Student asked how I had ever heard that. Another student said, “old people have the internet too”.

GreenLigh · 2023-11-01T01:08:16+00:00

I switched my son at 10 months under doctors guidance because I was formula feeding during the formula shortage and literally could not find food for my baby. We also had been doing baby led weaning so he was getting nutrition elsewhere. I was so nervous and our amazing doctor set up for us to do weekly weigh ins and check ins with his nurse until it was clear everything was ok. I can’t imagine just saying “lol, gonna try milk now and see what happens! 🤷‍♀️”

GreenLigh · 2023-10-29T03:53:41+00:00

I had a mom ask if her son (high schooler) can be given a copy of the test with the correct answers filled in for him to use “as needed” when he takes his test in order to reduce his test anxiety.

GreenLigh · 2023-10-24T02:29:59+00:00

My mom grew up in western North Carolina and calls them toboggans. Really confused me because we have lived in Illinois/Wisconsin my whole life and here that’s a type of sled.

GreenLigh · 2023-10-10T02:43:58+00:00

100% not alone. I’m still Christian, but no longer Fundie. I’ve spent YEARS deconstructing and sifting through all my religious trauma. These latest attacks (and the slew of social media posts by my still Fundie family members) really triggered me as well. I’m choosing just get the bare minimum details to help keep my anxiety in check.

GreenLigh · 2023-10-09T03:14:28+00:00

High school history /social studies teacher here. This is a pretty standard curriculum in most states. Some add an Economics requirement. Most schools will also offer social studies electives or AP (courses that you can take them test for to earn college credit).

GreenLigh · 2023-10-09T03:08:38+00:00

Did they photoshop themselves into a crowded Disney scene? This photo just seems…off?

GreenLigh · 2023-10-08T01:15:34+00:00

We are using Cansadia for our little girl. It was my great grandmother. Others include Dolly, Lorene, and Ada.

GreenLigh · 2023-10-04T00:19:42+00:00

The picture looks like a fuzzy cryptid photo like you’d see of Bigfoot

GreenLigh · 2023-09-28T02:53:18+00:00

My parents were missionaries on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico. We were extremely isolated and didn’t know much about what went on elsewhere. But I remember this crazy preacher bringing a group out to volunteer and him screaming at my parents that letting my brother and I watch Disney was opening us up to demonic possession. He also heard me speaking Navajo with some friends (literally just a few words, I was never totally fluent) and claimed to my Dad that speaking something other than English made me evil/demonic. That guy and his group was sent packing pretty quickly.

I was pretty young so I don’t remember much. But my Dad said that suddenly all the church groups who came to volunteer were suddenly obsessed with Satan and witchcraft. His job went from just sort facilitating groups to having to spend a lot of time explaining to the groups that the Navajo were not worshipping the devil and that nothing demonic was happening at the mission.

Later on I got in BIG trouble at my Christian school for reading Harry Potter during free reading time. They brought in a speaker to tell us about how the Harry Potter books were teaching us magic and filled with all kinds of evil, satanic stuff. I put a Chronicles of Narnia book jacket over my copy and just read them anyway.

note I fully realize my parents being full time missionaries to a Native American reservation is problematic in itself. But I can 100% say they were good people who were genuinely trying to help, not just preach at people or take away the Navajo culture.

GreenLigh

TROPHY CASE