Why Hillary gets my 61 seconds of fame
Tags: Hillary Clinton, Politics, Election 2016, Education

By Liz Middleton



I teach American history and other social studies classes at a public high school in North Central Florida, and this is my 21st year. Recently, I was in a spot for LocalVoices.org endorsing Hillary Clinton for president.

This was not a decision made without consideration. I live and teach in Donald Trump country. On my 20-minute drive to school, I pass many Trump signs and Confederate battle flags. I have colleagues who are convinced — with absolutely no credible evidence — that Hillary Clinton is a crook, or worse, and students whose parents feel the same.

Still, when given a chance, I exercised my First Amendment rights in a way that could stir things up in this part of the country. A four-hour visit was edited into 61 seconds, and this is the result:

When I began teaching in my early 40s, my guiding peer teacher said never smile until Christmas and never show political beliefs to students. Then I read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. Zinn’s controversial book looks at history from the perspective of the little people, not the Founding Fathers, the captains of industry or the corporate elite. Zinn said that, as a professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, he found it necessary to say and do exactly what he thought. How, he asked, could students trust a teacher who was not open and honest about his or her own convictions?

I am that kind of teacher, and that is why I agreed to make this video. I was happy to be given the opportunity to speak out publicly about Trump’s crass insensitivity and hateful language about women, about weight, about judging anyone female more by how she looks than by what she knows and can contribute. I want my students, male and female, to know that the only reason to worry about body image is when working for optimum health, that nobody has the right to judge them or anyone else by some arbitrary and rigid standard of beauty. I want them to grow and develop surrounded by adults who are caring and support them for who they are.

I want my students, male and female, to know that the only reason to worry about body image is when working for optimum health, that nobody has the right to judge them or anyone else by some arbitrary and rigid standard of beauty.

My principal told me the spot was viewed on ESPN in the cafeteria during lunchtime. None of my students seem to be angry that I am supporting Hillary Clinton, although there have been some negatives. Comments on Facebook said that I clearly supported abortion rights (guilty as charged — I want the government out of healthcare decisions — but that point certainly wasn’t in the video). Others said that I am an idiot for believing Clinton’s lies. A mother whose son I taught in 1999 found me on Facebook and sent a lengthy message saying that I failed her son.

Truly, reading some of those posts was upsetting. But then came the vindication. Former students and current students have jumped to my defense. One of my students now refers to me as Hillary, and I respond by calling him Donald. Others have thanked me for standing up for my convictions. I received a gift from one of last year’s students, a blue plastic “Make America Great Again” Trump bracelet. I was honored and wore it to balance my Hillary pin — underneath my Hillary pin, I might add.



I feel so strongly about the absolute value of education, I truly have no choice but to support the candidate who more closely shares my view of the world. Hillary Clinton gets that public education is the best hope of equalizing opportunity for all, both domestically and abroad. Education is what will allow girls and women, half the people on the planet, to make the necessary gains to compensate for too many years of patriarchy and limited opportunity. Education is what will make the next hundred years much better than the “Make America Great Again” years that Donald Trump extols.

A few students seem convinced that I was paid big bucks to participate in political discourse. No, I tell them, I wasn’t paid for speaking into the Localvoices.org microphone. I did what I did because I think what I think. I hope that seeing me take the leap into a controversial position will empower students, past and present, to do the same.

In a democracy, I tell my students, if we ever get to a point where all of us agree, we might as well march in lockstep.

Before I was a teacher, I worked for the Florida House of Representatives in Tallahassee. My master’s degree in criminology was good preparation for the Committee on Corrections, Probation and Parole. For 10 years I researched issues, drafted legislation and made reports to legislators.



And then it was over, and I moved to the country from the capital city. I became a teacher and discovered there is nothing much that can beat building relationships to empower students, that teaching is where I am most myself. So I teach. I encourage. I harass. I explain that education gives choices, gives control, gives the ability to “break the cycle of bull***t” for students who have grown up in dysfunctional families.

Since I first began teaching in my early 40s, I have been outspoken on multiple controversial issues while always pointing out that my students are not only free to disagree, but are encouraged to disagree and think for themselves. In a democracy, I tell them, if we ever get to a point where all of us agree, we might as well march in lockstep. Show me, I tell them, where I am wrong. Help me understand your perspective.



A son’s lifelong friend asked if I was going to be fired for speaking out. No, I am not.

I thanked God that the swimsuit shot didn’t show my thighs. It may seem at odds with my video message about body image, but what woman doesn’t know that getting to a healthy perspective in this area is a lifelong fight — even under the best of conditions, even without a candidate who seems determined to undermine all the healthy work that teachers and caring parents and adults try to do in this domain?



Had I been given 62 seconds, I might have thrown that in.