When my son turned 12, he joined my monthly Dungeons and Dragons game with friends. Picking up his dice for his first attack roll, I could see him deducing his chances of hitting the gigantic frog that was trying to devour his character whole. “I’ve got less than a 25% chance to hit it though,” he […]
Thomas Courtney
BIO: Thomas Courtney is a 6th-grade middle school English Language Arts and History teacher in San Diego, California. He is the author of many articles, memoirs, and short stories found in anthologies, magazines, and newspapers. He has written several books, including the upcoming Viral School Rhetoric: A Teacher’s Story of Good Intentions, Bad Policy, and a Pandemic, available in the Fall of 2025.
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Dystopian Teacher Tales #7: The educational advocate and her clients
In this scenario, Donald Trump has been elected to a third term, which is something he’s often mentioned during the first portion of his second term. With the complete closure of the federal DOE, something that both Trump and Secretary McMahon have noted as a priority, many Title protections have been returned to states. Similar […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Around the World in 80 Lessons: Warnings in Genocide to the US from Armenia
This summer, I was invited to study at the Genocide Museum in Yerevan, Armenia as a teacher fellow with the Genocide Education Project. I walked the museum with Regina Galustyan, the museum’s biographer and researcher. I sat in on lectures from professors like Dr. Dikran Kaligian and visited cultural sites and monasteries. I watched Armenian […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
I’d Like to Report Some DEI
The following is my DEI report to the Department of Education: There’s now a webpage on the US Department of Education’s website asking for folks to report cases of DEI. Some folks are looking to embrace these anti-DEI measures. A recent oped in my area even asked teachers to help Trump dismantle DEI measures in […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Teaching 102: Avoid Recess Issues? Go Play!
It’s a Friday, and you’ve got a terrific math lesson planned. All you need to do is move your group of math geniuses from where they line up after recess back to your classroom. But as you have been dreading, there’s another argument between two young men on the playground. What if someone hadn’t “started […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Dystopian Teacher Tales: What a Stupid Question
Recently, I met a man named Professor Marvin Dunn, from Miami, Florida. Professor Dunn purchased five acres on which sit several key sites of the Roseville massacre, where scores of Black Americans were murdered in 1923. Professor Dunn told us that while surveying the property so he could lead tours there, he, his son, and […]
Posted inCharter Schools
Dystopian Teacher Tales: The La Jollan Educational Missionary Society
Last week, the US Supreme Court was deadlocked 4-4 on a ruling that would have allowed a Catholic charter school in Oklahoma to receive public funding. In the decision, Amy Coney-Barrett recused herself. Although this decision at first might seem like a victory for public and secular schools, it may just lead to some dystopian […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Dystopian Teacher Tales: Cool swag at the school fair!
The following story is fictional, set in a third Trump term. The President has recently alluded to the idea of seeking a third term, and as imagined in this story, that could lead to deep-rooted changes for children in schools. In the story, a single mother and her son Jamaal struggle with finding a proper […]