Teaching 9th Grade in a 93% Mormon Town

A few resources I mention in the video:
*Other demographic data in American Fork, Utah:
*Story of BYU’s LGBTQIA club:
*Tyler Glenn’s music video for his song Trash about Mormonism/Joseph Smith:
*Child sexual abuse facts:

A few videos that may interest you:

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[himinimellow]

Oh my gosh I was one of your students!! No wonder why your face looked so familiar. I always felt so bad about the class and the kids were awful in it!! It’s crazy listening to all of this because I remember this English class so vividly especially every thing we studied. I just want to say that some of the things you taught have stuck with me from all these years and appreciate what you taught. That class was rough with the kids in it, they were straight up rude and disrespectful, it always bothered me, being a shy and quiet kid. So I’m so so sorry for that. It’s crazy to see you do something so amazing now and reconnect to some degree. Love your stuff, keep it up!

[closeconscious]

"If you think that teaching history is activism, maybe you should think about why teaching history promotes people to be activists."
Just brilliant.

[CC]

"Not bullying someone to the point of suicide is so woke."

[abigailrhodes]

This story is nauseating honestly. "Racism isn't even a problem anymore" while actively committing racist bullying

[parkervanessa]

Emmett Till was my mom’s cousin, their cousin Wheeler Parker was with Emmett the day/night of the events, and my grandfather was the one to drive Wheeler up north in the middle of the night to make sure he wouldn’t be taken by Emmett’s murderers. I grew up hearing his story a million times from our family, but I hardly ever had teachers that knew his story, let alone ones that taught it. It’s so cool to me that you cared to share this with your students, and I am SO sorry that you had this experience. You are wonderful and brilliant!

(Also, his mother’s name is pronounced like “May-Mee”!)

[ashtonoliphant]

I was one of the utah teens that attempted. I was so sensitive and undiagnosed autistic and also queer af but didnt know it. i was bullied constantly. Teachers like you kept me going. Thank you for talking about this.
(I'm 27 now, still struggling but alive and happy to be alive and loudly myself in washington)

[DutchApostle]

One of my school trips when I was 14 was to the Anne Frank house. I don't know if you've ever visited it but it has very graphic images of the concentration camp mass graves and filled gas chambers.

Two of my class mates started hysterically laughing at the pictures. Something that infuriated many of us as we tried to make sense of what were seeing. Our teacher explained to us that not everyone always knows how to deal with cetain emotions and will react in very 'odd' ways as they process their feelings and perhaps shield their true emotions towards peers by, in this case, laughing.

Putting his emotions and judgement to one side, the teacher took the two outside and explained in a calm manner how their reaction made him feel and then asked how they were really feeling. One laughed again, but the other became emotional.

I was reminded of this memory watching your (once again fantastic) content.

[Ccamero]

Why I made my husband turn down a job in Idaho. First of all we are Canadian. Second, almost the whole town was Mormon. We’re not. I knew we wouldn’t be able to handle it.

[ManuelFernandezDJ]

I come from a very "macho" culture in Puerto Rico and at least in my generation and location most kids around me, particularly the stronger ones, would protect the weaker kids from bullies... What I saw in Utah was just pure bully behavior. I love my upbringing and we were pretty conservative but part of being a "macho" is not to be an abuser because abusers are cowards.

[lobachevscki]

I commend you for sharing the photo, you are indeed living to the legacy of that poor kid mother.

[sowercookie]

Even IF racism was "not a thing anymore" why wouldn't you discuss it? Is history not important? It's the wrong way to look at things...

[Bre.hayman]

As someone who grew up in the suburbs of Utah and attended public high school here, I can confirm that all of this is true. Some of these Mormon kids were the most cruel people I’ve ever met. The culture here is actually crazy even when I was in fourth grade, my friends would bring me books of Mormon to give me at recess. I was one of the very few non-Mormon kids in our class at one point. I was even told that I was a horrible person because I was not Mormon.

[jellerzellar]

I grew up in utah county and i moved to washington my senior year of high school. It was the most intense culture shock. You dont realize how much the mormon culture affects EVERYTHING until you move away

[shammydammy]

I attended 8th, 9th and 10th grades in a Utah public school. It was an eye opening experience. I was, like you, a rule follower. Quiet, introverted, wore no makeup, had long straight hair, modestly dressed, polite. Had a very important surname in the LDS church.
Just...one...minor issue...Wasn't Mormon. Never had been Mormon. Was immediately mistaken for one.

[nechpei]

the story you told about the boy bullied for being gay and trying to end his life rlly stuck out bc i was that kid at my middle school. its so interesting to hear a teachers perspective on it. i personally was forced out of the closet and bullied for it and i remember approaching my teacher (who was also very very early in her teaching career) and she seemed so lost on how she could help me. i felt very hopeless at the time bc of everything going on but she let me stay in her classroom at lunch and read silently. i was very depressed but i will always remember that small kindness of giving me a tiny bit of peace. and im certain that boy remembers you asking if he was alright, even if he didnt want to talk about it, you being there probably did help even if it was just a little bit.
and to anyone else who needs to hear it, it gets better. it really really does.

[juliasmith]

As someone who used to teach 9th grade English in a wealthy area of Texas, this video gave me flashbacks. Sometimes the kids were bad but it was the parents and the enabling that got to me. Teaching in the US is very, very bad right now. Teachers are facing level of abuses that make the actual act of teaching nearly impossible.

[celticcheetah]

I’ve been a high school English teacher in the UK for nearly 10 years. What you say about temperament is so true - teaching really isn’t for everyone, and I have full respect for anyone who tries it and leaves. So much better to get out than stay and end up hating yourself and the kids.

It’s totally crazy to me that in Mormonism your Dad effectively has the right to choose your career.

Also I have the privilege of teaching in a place where racism and bigotry like the awfulness you describe is not tolerated. I can’t imagine sticking around in the circumstances you describe. Hideous.

[scourgatory]

the story of the essay kid really hits me close to home. i didnt ever grow up in utah, actually i grew up in a pretty progressive state, but my junior year was hell and absolutely traumatized me. imagining that poor kid lying down on his desk and waiting out the harassment reminds me a lot of my own experiences. Im a trans man and my junior year was when i was noticably transitioning. i had been on T for maybe half a year, and i passed about 50% of the time. that 50% of the time i was absued more than the times i didnt pass. not passing i was perceived as harmless but when i did pass, they saw me as a threat. Im autistic and ive never been able to pass as a neurotypical straight man, and i never will. I have near complete amnesia to the start of that year, the teachers were doing their best but somehow they never caught any of it. i was sexually harassed, had things thrown at me, yelled at, cat called. it was hell and if i could stop myself from doing anything, it would be to have never entered that classroom.

hearing this stuff from a teachers point of view is so helpful. to know i wasnt being ignored. Im still scarred from that class. I still flinch when i hear people whistle, i still cant wear the clothes id wear, and all it takes now is the slightest hint of judgement to completely shut down. i dont know how or why kids end up so cruel, i imagine its parenting. its disturbing how all it takes is one display of such cruelty to never end up recovering. thank you for this video

[kaylynnirvinesthetics]

I grew up in Juab County in Utah and this is so accurate. I tell my mom all the bullying and horrid things these kids said and did to me when I was young and she has a hard time believing it because, "their family is so nice and they go to church every week". I hated growing up there and I still do not like or want to associate with the people I grew up with. Every time I go back, my mom says, "there's so and so, go say hi" and I always have to tell her that I do NOT want to associate with someone who bullied me and treated me like garbage our whole childhood and she always hits me with, "I'm sure they have changed, you know they went on a mission". Even if they've changed I do NOT want to associate with someone who treated me the ways they did. I was very mormon and a rule follower all growing up and no matter what I did, even when I started to rebel like them, they still treated me horribly. I talk to my siblings and one person (who is my sister from another mister) from there, who I grew up with and she has been my best friend since second grade.

[haileylarson]

I'm my 9th grade Geograpy class I heard Hitler jokes, holocaust jokes, jokes about massacre, jokes about pretty much everything. But don't worry they were respectful during seminary