I understand that politics has reached the point that we don’t merely disagree with one another, we must destroy the opposite side. And we must point out that not only are they bad in their current jobs, but they were also always bad.
It’s like sin, but in politics and repentance is not possible. Once a sinner, always a sinner.
Nikki Fiske, in the Hollywood Reporter, says she was White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller’s 3rd-grade teacher and that he ate glue. It wasn’t even glue sticks that he ate. He used to pour liquid glue onto his arm, wait until it dried, peel that off, and then eat that. I don’t know if there is a hierarchy of glue eating, but that sounds far worse. We must condemn Miller!
I’m confessing now that while I didn’t eat glue (or at least, I can’t remember eating glue), I too used to pour Elmer’s Glue (let’s face it, other brands are awful) onto my hands, let it dry and then peel it off. It was fun. I would probably do it today if I could buy Elmer’s glue in this country. I expect Inc. to revoke my contract at any moment for this youthful indiscretion.
To keep reading, click here: White House Advisor’s 3rd Grade Teacher Says He Ate Glue. Time to Fire the Teacher and Regain Sanity.
I believe starting the hiring process by going back to high school and requiring an extremely detailed and time-consuming work history is part of the TOPGRADING process (search Google). Were it me, if I thought a potential employer was using the Topgrading method I would immediately bail out, but, your mileage may vary — to each his own.
“f Ms. Fiske is still a teacher she should be severely disciplined for releasing this information.” Suzanne, no! Public school administrator here. You need to study FERPA regulations a bit more. It is illegal to reveal information about a child’s grades, transcripts, health issues, special educaiton needs, and personal contact information. Saying stuff like “Bill ate glue” or “Jenny sang loudly in the halls” or “Emily was a nose picker” or “Edward was a bully” is not a violation of the law. Teachers can certainly talk about their past students as long as they’re not revealing specific grade, health, or contact information. Thought should be given to making comments like my examples about current students, of course. But I agree with the rest of your article. The only time it’s acceptable to look at high school records is if your candidate is too young to have any work history or professional/educational certifications.
Thank you! So it’s legal but still unethical, right? I mean, schools don’t want teachers speaking publicly about their students.
Context matters. A teacher simply recalling fond memories or using their stories to mentor a newer teacher or advocate for better education policy is one thing. But reading the article you linked to in this paritcular one, yea, Fiske appears to be using her story to get attention and for politica purposes – she almost wants to appear like she “warned them long ago” about how bad Miller woiuld turn out to be. But sorry, ALL kids do weird, gross, inappropriate things.
Bullsquid. Anyone in his class could have made the observation that Miller ate glue. It’s not private information and is not part of his school record.
I commend you for defending Monica Lewinsky; she didn’t do anything wrong. She was an intern working for a high-ranking sexual predator; there was a distinct power imbalance there so it’s hard to blame her for consenting to anything. And it’s past time the media quit asking her about it. She doesn’t have to answer questions about that anymore.
Stephen Miller is essentially a Nazi. I don’t really particularly care what happens to white supremacists, neo-Confederates, and Nazis. They are actively seeking to persecute and eliminate people based on their race. And yes, I know he’s Jewish. That only makes it worse, because he should damn well know better. But racism is corrosive and it’s rotted him from the inside out.
This is part of being a public figure. People will say stuff about you. Personally, I think it’s hilarious that Miller was a glue eater. There is no violation of anything here.
What he did as a 3rd grader is completely irrelevant to what he’s doing now.
Completely. It should never be brought up.
I’m absolutely fine with holding him accountable for the things he’s doing *now* but no one should ever criticize an adult for things they did when they were 8.
I’m with Suzanne. I utterly despise Miller – and this is VERY personal for me. But, there are VERY, VERY few things that a third grader does that are in any way relevant.
You REALLY don’t want to create a new, ridiculous and dangerous norm. Leave his third grade shenanigans alone.
Perhaps I shouldn’t even be commenting since I was the one — horrors! — who commented that Monica Lewinsky shouldn’t have “flashed her thong.” But, I don’t really see any harm or violation in this teacher’s disclosures. Miller stood out as unusual even way back then — frankly, the glue-eating is the least remarkable aspect — and still does. That’s hardly breaking news, since — supposedly — our personalities are, mainly, set in early childhood. And, it seems like the kind of “news” one would expect in a gossip rag like the Hollywood Reporter. At any rate, it’s not the type of information calculated — or likely — to “destroy,” “condemn” or brand Stephen Miller as “bad” or some type of “sinner.” Get a grip! What kind of self-victimizing snowflakes are we becoming?
You were one of many that brought up the thong thing.
The concern is that we should not be digging into people’s pasts like this. Ever.
Why on Earth would we not be interested in people’s pasts? Especially those who choose to place themselves in public, or highly-prominent, positions? Strange position, indeed, coming from someone in HR, the function involved in personnel matters based largely on people’s past actions.
Digging into pasts “like this.” We never need to know about a candidate’s elementary school years–even if it’s a 16 year old applying for a job at McDonald’s. We certainly don’t need it for 35 year old.
The further we go back the less valuable the information is.
My initial expectation was that this would be some sort of meta-commentary on the political climate using a satire story from the Babylon Bee, but no, it’s a real story (though from a source about as credible).
Instead, it turns out to be an example of Trump Derangement Syndrome, the condition suffered by people with such a blind, irrational hatred of Trump that they literally hallucinate a world in which everything he does will cause the end of human civilization. And it requires a certain degree of derangement to believe that eating glue in the 8th grade (or, for that matter, being a loner in the 8th grade) matters now, decades later.
Should we dig into people’s childhoods when hiring? No.
Can the childhoods/school history of public, political figures only ever be referenced in the service of making them look good? Please.
I agree the glue thing is stupid, if for no other reason than it distracts attention from the more pressing concern that we have someone with ties to neo-Nazis and White Supremacists in a prominent role in the White House, but I don’t think we need to pretend that they emerged on a clamshell as a fully-formed adult.
I am skeptical that this teacher has such a clear memory of her student from a quarter century ago. That’s just bizarre.
In any case, let’s suppose she does remember him accurately, and he was an introvert who was messy and did goofy things. So? How is he different than many other 3rd graders?
Glue in the 3rd grade? Not important. He is probably not going to hold someone down, pour glue on their arm, let it dry, and make them eat it.
Behavior as teenagers or older, especially behavior that encourages others to act badly or behavior that is repeated? Definitely important.
But I think you left the most important thing for the end of your article: “Let’s give up the concept of career original sin and reintroduce the concepts of repentance, forgiveness, and growth.”
The key word here is ‘repentance’. That is what we are not seeing from public figures.
I am glad you brought up the undoing pressing need for the PC side to start digging up suddenly remembered events in order to incriminate someone who doesn’t agree with their PC views and in doing so get themselves a quick 15 minutes in the spotlight.
A behavior from childhood would only need addressing if current behavior can be traced to that because it wasn’t dealt with during development stages. As someone who had children with learning problems, the teacher is suppose to help children develop appropriate behavior and not make fun of problematic behavior by telling stories about it. For this particular teacher to have such a vivid recollection of a specific child from decades ago, speaks more to their lack of feeling towards children and more to their need to get the spotlight. Shame on that teacher.
Stephen Miller wrote the family separation policy from earlier this year and is currently attempting to revive it once again. I’ll save my outrage for the pre-verbal children taken from their parents without any records taken, the toddlers currently representing themselves in immigration court, the deported parents who may lose their children to Christian adoption agencies and the record-breaking 14,000 kids we’re still detaining. Kids in jail is a break from civil and moral norms that deserves our attention, not this minor bit of gossip that harms no one. If you are a horrible human being who does horrible things in public view, you’re going to attract negative attention. Shedding no tears for Stephen Miller. (And I realize the article was attempting to make a larger point, but at least for Mr. Miller, his high school history would be relevant, because he spent that time campaigning for student government on a platform that involved being a jerk to janitors. Consistent!)
I could not agree more!
We are going back to Elementary School now?! Come on! In my eyes, the teacher looks ridiculous and petty! This utter nonsense has to stop! People are growing tired of this. We know who the culprits are! Lib Lunatics
If every one of us was judged for things we did when we were kids, we would all be living in a van down by the river b/c no one would want to hire us. That’s why we call kids KIDS and not adults. Kids have to learn right from wrong, good from bad, etc. and the best way to learn is by doing it the wrong or bad way.
The teacher is completely ridiculous and only looking for her moment in the spotlight. Frankly, I think that’s all politics is about any more. Not the welfare of the country but how much spotlight I can get. But I digress…….