(File Photo By Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Kenosha, Wis. — Some Wilmot Union High School parents are speaking out this week, accusing a 10th grade World History teacher of pushing a politically biased message in the classroom. The criticism centers on a quiz that students were given concerning the economic impacts of former President Donald Trump’s tariff policies — a quiz many say unfairly portrays Trump in a negative light.
The assignment, titled “The Consequences of Black Friday,” includes four questions directly targeting Trump’s approach to international trade:
- What is the main economic consequence discussed in the video regarding Donald Trump’s tariff announcements?
- How does Donald Trump justify the market turmoil caused by his tariff policy?
- According to Edward Alden, what was Trump’s expectation regarding the responses from other countries to his tariffs?
- What concerns does Alden express about Trump’s approach to international trade?
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Critics say the assignment offers no counterpoint or supportive view of the Trump administration’s economic strategy and serves more as political commentary than historical instruction. Kenosha County Eye contacted Wilmot High School Administrator Michael Plourde for comment, but he did not respond. However, Principal Rob Kreil did address the issue, telling KCE:
“The attachment you shared was a document used by a 10th grade World History teacher at Wilmot High School. The lesson touched on the topic of the U.S.-China tariffs and included references to President Trump. While it was generally well-received, one parent did express concern about how the material was presented.
The teacher also planned to follow up with a second lesson that presents a pro-tariff and pro-Trump perspective, aiming to give students a more balanced and comprehensive understanding of the issue.”
Several parents who spoke with KCE disputed that a pro-Trump or pro-tariff lesson had been previously planned. Instead, they believe the promise of balance came only after concerns were raised.
“Reactive, not proactive,” one parent said. “They weren’t going to offer any counterpoint until people started complaining.” Social media lit up with criticism from local residents after a copy of the quiz surfaced online.
“The problem is they won’t balance this out with all of the positive things that are going to come out of this tariff standoff game. It’s all going to be leftist propaganda on how bad Donald Trump is,” one commenter wrote. Another added, “Not appropriate. If you tested them on defining tariffs, trade agreement, international trade — bet they don’t have the background to understand any of those questions. Sophomores? Indoctrination.”
“This is insane. I own a business that is majorly impacted by the tariffs and we don’t even know the overall impact yet. Plus, it’s changing,” wrote another. “USA wins — that is the long-term effect. The companies are already coming back. I would think this should be in Economics rather than History,” said a local resident.
The controversy is the latest in a string of complaints from area parents about what they perceive as politicized classroom content in local schools. Wilmot administrators have not yet stated whether the quiz will be revised or removed from the curriculum.
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70 Responses
Q) How does the consequences of being fired affect the finances of this Claire Binger look alike?
A) Do it for the children.
The person pictured is the school administrator, not the teacher, who has not even been named.
Major players, in world finance have big time differing opinions on Tariffs. Kudlow Miller Forbes laufer goulsby
To think 4 directional questions will teach is flawed. It Is indoctrination and I would guess, above the paygrade of the instructor.
Before discussion starts, everyone should know the Tariffs that were in place after nafta. If u think they were zero, you are a fool. If u think only cash is the issue and not volume limits and other requirements that limit our goods, u are a fool again. Our wood isn’t sold in Canada. Dairy has had a 425% on it in Canada. (So much for wisc cheese and milk!) PARENT WHO DISAGREED NEEDS TO HAVE A FRIGGIN MEDAL!
Nit 425. 235 and 295%
Consequences (?)
More jobs here.
Mire manufacturing, here.
People will have opportunity for ither than Walmart or customer service telephone jobs.
More jobs for design, engineering, machining, tooling, cad,mechanical engineering, electric eng, aeronautics, steam fitting, thermal eng, welding, welding under water, all the things we could do before the dems and frigging gop gave it away after the Vietnam war. We watched main streets decay and people had to take greeter jobs at wally world.
We’ll also see an increase on product prices because everything is more expensive in America. And social security will no longer be available.
Bullshit.
Keep absorbing the propaganda at msnbc tho. 👍🏻
And the propaganda being skewed by Faux news
Actually more jobs in America will contribute more to the SS fund. As it exists today, less workers, less money in. The last Baby boomers have just started to apply for SS and draw on funds.
Or else raise the rate paid by workers. It’s not the optimal solution, but would work
No,
DOGE exposed the real issues with S.S. , Medicaid, Medicare.
USAID, and democrats giving funds to Illegals, dead people and many who aren’t even bone yet.
Except we already saw that for the last 4 years, so maybe people should just shut the f****** and wait and see how this turns out because at least it’s a plan that has an end game beyond planting Monopoly money in the system and devaluing our own currency while spending additional funding that we don’t have?
Social security will be available so long as the budget takes into account the shortfalls and funds it. That’s the way it’s been and that’s the way it will be. The only people screaming about social security going away are the lying Democrats and the idiots who actually believe them. You know the Democrats have been screaming for decades that the Republicans are going to get rid of social security, correct? Yet, it never happens because it only exists in the lying speeches of the left who will do and say anything to retain power and money, while running their own country into the damn ground.
… with my liberal friend since before the election. Now that Trump has won, we go back-and-forth as each move is made. About the only thing we can agree on is to wait two years till midterms. And then we’ll all see how people are doing in their personal situations and if they feel that Trump is responsible good or bad.
Because as we all know,
“ it’s about the economy stupid.”
Except it’s about the lying and two years of hating their country because it’s all about the next election and Power. The second Trump won, nothing else has or will matter to the Democrats except for the two-year run up to the election. They will scream about 401ks as if one snapshot in history is the entire world, and they will gaslight the past because the only thing that matters is throwing one accusation after another at the wall to see if anything sticks.
A parent needs to pull the curriculum and see where the teaching standard in World History is for the discussion of current day tariffs. If the quiz had asked students to compare the policies of prior tariffs to today, the teacher might have a leg to stand on. Not really thinking tariffs are in World history curriculum. Unless, said teacher has a catch all; current topics ….
There isn’t going to be any accountability anyway.
Only thing you can do is get your kids out of there.
Does he also have a rainbow flag in his class room along with a pro Palestine one?
Why would you ask such a question?
What is wrong with asking these questions? I mean seriously. Prepare the students for the real world. Prepare them to understand bias. It’s not going away. People really need to stop worrying about things this trivial. Keep the child predators out of schools. Way more important.
Because Tariffs are a huge study and a wanna be economist in 4 biased questions to students without a basis of history and education are bs.
When in ur lifetime have Tariffs been used to benefit the USA? Do u know?
Answer” trumps first term.
Huge amounts of people gained living wage jobs and chances to save and invest.
Teacher would be better off teaching 401k and principle vs interest..duh
Yeah I don’t take economic advice from some dipshit who spells “your” as ur. Twit.
Yeah
When u tell me u can invest at fisher investments, I will give u more attention than this sentence.
Can you even begin to explain where the bias is? When asking what Trump’s justification for the market turmoil is, this presents the students with an opportunity to potentially defend trump and allow them to build an argument on why the market turmoil is beneficial for the tariffs put in place. Question 3 then asks what Trump’s expectations are of other countries? For a party that ran on free speech and freedom of ideology the right sure does like to suppress any thought that disagrees with them.
Nothing wrong with the topic if the “teacher” isn’t a one-sided liar trying to manipulate the kids instead of teaching how to think.
Sounds like you have a personal vendetta with the guy…
Sounds like you are the guy. Crazy ass lib
I’m Republican and love me some Trump but some of you other Trump people are fucking morons.
The teacher was asking valid questions. So if I ask you about Hitler and give you a quiz asking you to answer why he thought his idea was good, why the rest of the world thought it was bad, etc….would that make me a Nazi?
Good on the teacher for asking about viewpoints.
No, it shouldn’t be the teacher’s job to teach his students whether or not the President is “wrong”. If indeed tariffs are remotely part of his curriculum, he can do very well with all of the prior examples where the events have already occurred instead of giving personal opinions on something that is ongoing.
This teacher is just preaching from his pulpit, not teaching about a subject. It is especially egregious because with the age group involved here the time should be spent on the basics and pros and cons of tariffs and economy in general, assuming that is even part of this teacher’s curriculum.
None of these questions are asking whether Trump is wrong or right… instead it is presenting the opportunity for the students to build their own thoughts and give their own ideas.
Consequences…. a negative term.
Yeah except consequences isn’t a fucking negative term, dipshit. Look it up in the dictionary.
Not at all.
The “questions”are deliberately manipulative.
Explain how jimmy long john
They are only deliberately manipulative in your eyes because they expose the issues, we will potentially face as an economy and nation with tariffs
Tell me you basically only have a high school education without telling me you just have a high school education.
The word “wrong” isn’t even in the questions posted above. Get back to your 9-5 working for the man.
Agree, only if there are questions of neutrality. It’s no secret teachers lean left, hopefully there would be questions like-
Do you think the U.S. should deport criminal Terrorists or Gang members that are in our country without due process if they aren’t legal citizen’s? If No why?
Or – Do you think a trade in-balance that enriches another country is helpful to U.S., if so why?
Questions of neutrality should always be apparent, bias has no place in academia. This leads to brain washing that infects the population and weakens the security of our nation. I’m shocked with some of the though patterns expressed in society. We should all love our country and disagree with rational thoughtful debate, not the bat shit crazy mind set that exist today. The ideology being taught today is a threat to our republic, people better wake up or the U.S. will fall like many nations before us. This is not a statement to disenfranchise real debate, but to not allow mental disease to become mainstream reality. We must all call this out before it’s too late, I genuinely fear our country is dying.
You calling them “criminal terrorists and gang members” is literally the definition of bias. That’s called a leading question. Your automatically calling immigrants dangerous, which is not true.
No bias, IMO. The world criminality explains the activities these groups engage in or the fact they are here illegally in our country. Why pretend to make a statement to twist the mind of the reader, it’s clear, who these individuals are. What makes an immigrant illegal in the country? Here with no legal authority and or additionally here involved in criminal activity. You can make an argument in your answer, that’s what it asks of the reader. I think the Wake-up America was making a point that common sense is lacking and mental sickness is rising at an alarming level. Maybe, question is leading? I think the question is neutral, it’s not asking you to argue immigration policy in a large scale but specific to a circumstance. The question would be biased to who? A non-citizen here illegally involved in terrorist gang activities.
welp, because of tariffs Abbotts just decided to build a new manufacturing plant at Abbott Park –200 manufacturing jobs
200 jobs you aren’t getting and then they will be raising the price of everything to make up for that.
What does that mean? That means normal Joe Schmoe will be paying more for their stuff.
The questions seem appropriate. One in particular discusses Trump’s expectations.
“Circular” teaching …….. just like “circular” reasoning.
Get your kids out of these dumbed down places.
Jim Long, you went to Reuther. Who are you kidding?
I have lost count of the number of school stories reported here in the last year alone. Why do parents want to homeschool?
I don’t want to homeschool. Nor do I have any interest in being a teacher.
Kids need to learn firsthand that generally people suck. The earlier the better. So don’t shelter them in your home pretending they are getting a better education. Any of you ever met someone who did 12 yrs of homeschooling?
Shelter them from advances from teachers? Trannys? Fake history?
Whatever, groomer
So I’m a groomer for that. Wow. You’re a bright one aren’t you.
So they’ll never run into any of those people in the “real world?” Ok, keep them locked in your basement then. Create a whole different set of issues.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
You would have to teach the complaining parents what tariffs are first. They only know to parrot what Fox News said that day.
Let the kids learn. They are going to be entering a crappy world due to the current trashing of the government. They might as well hear the truth now and prepare for it.
“According to Edward Alden”…
The teacher uses Alden as an “expert” for economics? The guy follows Elizabeth “Indian” Warren…that says enough of Alden’s economic “knowledge”. Now doubt, he was probably one of the so called “experts” who thought Biden’s economic “stimulus” wouldn’t cause massive inflation and a destruction of our economy. Ya, someone who knows what he’s talking about…..Any teacher relying on such imbeciles should be immediately fired.
Snap there it is
F*** tariffs!! I don’t wanna work a real job!
Here we have questions about a test… but yet no one ask the question of is required reading… Why do kids have to read Romeo and Juliet? Or Hamlet ? Written in a langauge we don’t even speak… Cultural literacy?? How about thought provoking, full discussion on books that challenge the system… Like “1984” or “Animal Farm” or “Fahrenheit 451”.. These master pieces bring to light authoritarianism, surveillance, censorship, propanda are way more relevant to the world today.
We had to read those at Woodland & Warren
Those schools are cesspools of liberal shit now
Hello Required Reading,
I believe that the Shakespearean books like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, etc. are worthwhile because their themes are thought-provoking and they provide an archaic diction that makes students critically think to extrapolate a meaning out of unknown text. Those two points make these books timeless in education, and they likely will be (considering the age of the books).
Concerning other books, like 1984, Animal Farm, or Fahrenheit 51, those are important in a different sense. They do bring into light everything you will say and discuss consequences of such things. Burning books, constant surveillance, and paradox are quite important. However, many of these books have been banned for unknown reasons… Perhaps for them teaching students to think critically? I’d like to modify a quote from Animal Farm here. “Critical thinking is important, but some critical thinking is more important than other critical thinking.” And the critical thinking that is taken away from curriculums is often more skeptical and somewhat right-leaning, leaving all of the left bias to infiltrate our students.
Donald Trump is the CURRENT president not “Former” President Donald Trump
Honda is gonna make cars in the USA now.
If you are paying attention we don’t make most of the parts for cars here. We ship in the parts and just ASSEMBLE the cars here.
Trump wants us to make every nut bolt and fender.
Only then will we work towards
FULL EMPLOYMENT.
Tariffs make it cheaper to manufacture here.
Once we get most industries back up and running, the middle class will once again be strong.
Mm-hmm. Kamala would not like hearing that. She will try to brainwash Americans…
“No Social Security.” WRONG–Democrats have been saying that for years.
“No abortion.” Personally, I have a more religious intake on this and would rather have it eradicated, but still, Donald Trump has not restricted abortion or made a “record.”
“We’ll make the middle class strong.” With your inflation? The prices are unbearable, Mrs. Harris.
“Our children will learn how to equip themselves in the real world.” Ah, with your transgender ideology and critical race theory?
“Project 2025.” No. Donald Trump has not associated himself with such a project, and still has not enacted the principal measures of such a project.
“We want immigrants to call the U.S. home.” Ah, those gang members who came here for violence?
And let’s not forget old Joe here:
“We’ll make America… America… ice cream.” True, America will melt under your leadership.
In the end, Democrats claim they’re fighting for the middle class, but the tariffs are what is really going to propel America towards a greater, NOT gayer, future. We’ll head “straight” to the stars.
Oh, and them lefties don’t even want us to go to space anymore.
These tariffs are going hurt America. Trump already had a trade agreement with Canada and Mexico that he signed in his first term but obviously that doesn’t matter. To start making products in the US that we get from other countries could take years if not decades and cost billions upon billions of dollars. It’s true we don’t know how these tariffs will affect businesses but I work for a company that gets most of its products from china and other countries and they are already laying people off because of the potential increase in prices. People losing their jobs is obviously not going to help the economy at all. But I know we all need to trust the presidents plan and deal with the pain. That’s easy to say when you’re worth billions of dollars and half the country probably doesn’t even have $1500 in their savings account.
Yeah. The key word is china bro
Interesting. I have seen that in many high schools, this leftist thought has become more prominent. Of course, Democrats’ and Republicans’ perceptions are different. Therefore, questions that are more neutral in nature should be explored, rather than inherently leaning towards the left or right in a discussion, which could alienate the other party or put it in a more negative light while shunning the possible positive outcomes. In this case, I see that there is somewhat of a left-leaning perspective, with those words like “turmoil” and a video that seems to explore more negative consequences of the tariffs when there are more positive ones, like industries that potentially move to the U.S. to bolster the economy.
Yes, you could argue in the second question that you could explore both perspectives; however, the video and the questions are in nature more liberal, and students who share more pro-tariff and pro-Trump viewpoints would likely not receive as high a grade as those who despise it with this education. Obviously, the education these days is more liberal, and this is why they want to keep the Department of Education and promote ridiculous ideologies about the “fluidity” of one’s being!
It’s ridiculous.
Classes should be nonbiased. If tariffs are remotely part of this teacher’s world history curriculum, I think, as many have expressed in these comments, that it should be focused on tariffs in the past, and in a nonbiased way (exploring both positives and negatives of the tariffs). However, talking about Donald Trump negatively within a mostly Republican demographic is going to inevitably cause outrage, even from one parent. I’m not saying demographics should determine the ideas being expressed, but neutrality is necessary along with feeling free to express different viewpoints, as long as there is evidence that supports a given claim.
It would be interesting to know the curriculum, and if tariffs were immediately relevant to this class. Since it’s the fourth quarter in a world history class, I’m assuming that more modern topics like tariffs are going to be explored, but again, we need neutrality, not woke bias.
first of all, the questions were somewhat neutral. and second of all, you did pretty good summarizing, but again, didn’t he say that he would do a pro-trump lesson the next day?
interesting point, but we can’t just shut down different opinions and be closed-minded. its just a social studies class.
Point 1, you said, was that the questions were somewhat “neutral,” but the video, seems to emphasize a more anti-Trump and leftist viewpoint rather than equilibrium of opinion. Essentially, in education, there should either be no opinions at all or a balance between different polar opinions. Just as there needs to be the same amount of protons and electrons, there should be the same amount of left and right viewpoints in the atom of education–and as many neutral viewpoints as needed–for something to be approved within the educational system to make it unbiased, which is the ideal of social studies. Actual facts and data should be also used in class, as they are somewhat impartial, yet they should not be interpreted as to create a cloudy forecast for the future (a brief allusion to the “turmoil” the tariffs have caused, although a relocation to the United States and an economic bolstering is inevitable, in my opinion (which should not be taught by itself!) of what Trump is doing). I thought that I made it clear when I said that the curriculum should be focused on “tariffs in the past… exploring both positives and negatives of the tariffs.” I also should add that exploring both pro-Trump and anti-Trump sentiment should also be explored, as long as both feelings are equilibrated and if, when backed up with evidence, would receive equal scores by the teacher, who seems to be biased as well.
You said that I did well summarizing, but then you started another tangent about the pro-Trump lesson that was to theoretically pass the next day. I believe that the article makes it crystal-clear that this new “pro-Trump” lesson would only occur after a significant backlash from the public, or a news article here. And, that refuted your original claim that the questions were “somewhat neutral.” Would questions that are “somewhat neutral” need a counteraction of a “pro-Trump” lesson the next day? That would not be needed if everything was neutral! When the teacher planned a lesson the next day that was pro-Trump, he essentially admitted that his first questions were biased. And, it does not appear that the lesson even took place…
Point 2: “Interesting point, but we can’t just shut down different opinions and be closed-minded. It’s just a social studies class.”
Hmm. Interesting point on your side, but not positively. I believe that I am trying to show exactly the opposite of “shutting down” different opinions; rather, I just want equilibrium. The questions, when you examine them closely, do not seem to be equal at all. Saying it’s “just a social studies class” undermines the educational system entirely. Social studies is a very important subject. These social studies classes help you read, think critically, and form opinions USING EVIDENCE FROM BOTH SIDES. Look at AP curriculums, like AP Government. THEY STRESS LOOKING ON BOTH SIDES. Not this teacher! And, if you’re retorting, why are your words worthwhile, when this is… just a social studies class?
Jeez Louise what a bunch of wussies we have spawned. As a child of the 60’s we discussed civil rights, war, women’s lib, religion and all sorts of other controversial issues in schools. Get a life.
At least it wasn’t porn, drag, DEI and the male teacher wasn’t wearing a dress. Lighten up, people.
We need to get back to “If you’re a teacher your students shouldn’t know your religion nor political affiliation”.