If I am a person running to be the top public education official, I probably better make sure I give a very public (if not fawning) show of gratitude to educators during Teacher Appreciation Week.

Michele Morrow is not exempt from this.

Here is the video:

I salute teachers' commitment to providing quality education and fostering a love of learning in their students.

This week, thank your teachers! #TeacherAppreciationWeek #nced pic.twitter.com/IwwaBWVkdK

— MicheleMorrow (@MicheleMorrowNC) May 6, 2024

Teachers,

You are the foundation of our education system.

We all have teachers in our past who we remember fondly because they were encouragers, supporters, and may have even pushed us to accomplish things that we may have thought unattainable.

Teaching others is a calling. Most young adults enter this field because they love children, love learning, and have a passion for helping others to succeed. This is why we are so excited to celebrate our North Carolina teachers this week.

We want to say, “Thank You!” to every individual who continues caring long after school lets out, and even sacrifices their time and often their own money to ensure that our students reach their potential.

When I’m elected, I will work to make our schools the safest buildings in the state. Everyone deserves a comfortable workplace where they feel respected and protected.

I believe that more of the money meant for education should actually make its way into the classroom. Let’s treat our teachers as the professionals they are and make the work environment a place that celebrates and rewards growth and achievement. Together we can elevate the teaching profession to new heights and do everything in our power to support these pillars of our community.

So, if you have already done so, go thank a teacher.

But what makes her statement so disingeninuous is that it has to be measured against what she has said in the past about public schools, its teachers, and those who have been in office before.

Furthermore, the plastic veneer of this “salute to teachers’ commitment” while donning an American flag sweater with birds chirping happily in the background with a shaded wooden setting makes what Morrow has erased from her earlier social media accounts scream louder.

I am a veteran teacher having taught over 20 years in North Carolina. I have read some of Morrow’s older tweets. I have seen many of her videos commenting on issues. And I have read the many exposes in online periodicals that verify each other reveling Morrow as a candidate trying change her profile to be more appealing to the public.

Such as this one:

So, when I view this “Teacher Appreciation” video from Michele Morrow, I hear between the spoken lines things she has said in the past that totally contradict the facade she tries to convey.

What I hear is:

Teachers,

You are the foundation of our education system.

In the rare instances she wrote about education, she portrayed public schools as “the indoctrination army of the socialist dems.”

We all have teachers in our past who we remember fondly because they were encouragers, supporters, and may have even pushed us to accomplish things that we may have thought unattainable.

… Morrow’s later assertion that students with special needs weren’t sufficiently separated from other children and were inhibiting “healthy competition.”

“When our scholastics are declining, when we have children that cannot read, write or do math, and yet we are promoting over and over again that we must discuss with them how they feel about things, and culturally that the United States is systemically racist, and we’re telling teachers that they have to apologize for their whiteness, they need to get to the depths of who they are and and apologize for their white privilege, and we need to put people into homogenous groups by either the color of your skin or by who you are attracted to or by, you know, what your culture is, which is what is happening in our schools, then that tells me that the the goal is not the individual,”

Teaching others is a calling. Most young adults enter this field because they love children, love learning, and have a passion for helping others to succeed. This is why we are so excited to celebrate our North Carolina teachers this week.

 …there’s a “radical agenda” in public schools that is “poisoning our children’s minds and keeping them from getting a good education.”

We want to say, “Thank You!” to every individual who continues caring long after school lets out, and even sacrifices their time and often their own money to ensure that our students reach their potential.

High school students read the questions—some directed at both candidates, some at just one. “Do you believe that the public school system is a socialist indoctrination program, as you’ve publicly said?” one asked Morrow.

She pressed her lips together, then raised the microphone. “Yep, I do.” 

When I’m elected, I will work to make our schools the safest buildings in the state. Everyone deserves a comfortable workplace where they feel respected and protected.

“I prefer a Pay Per View of him in front of the firing squad,” she wrote in a tweet from May 2020, responding to a user sharing a conspiracy theory who suggested sending Obama to prison at Guantanamo Bay. “I do not want to waste another dime on supporting his life. We could make some money back from televising his death.”

I believe that more of the money meant for education should actually make its way into the classroom. Let’s treat our teachers as the professionals they are and make the work environment a place that celebrates and rewards growth and achievement. Together we can elevate the teaching profession to new heights and do everything in our power to support these pillars of our community.

“Thank you, Proud Boys.”

So, if you have already done so, go thank a teacher.

“Time to end teacher’s unions.”