I took Ryan Walters’ so-called ‘woke’ test for Oklahoma teachers. Now PragerU is spamming me.

After weeks of hype, it turns out the Oklahoma Department of Education’s new test that promises to weed out “woke” teachers doesn’t do any such thing.

In fact, it’s impossible to fail Superintendent Ryan Walters’ so-called “America First” test that he promises is “woke-proofing the classroom” and that he wants to require blue-state educators to take before they can teach here.

It turns out you can get every answer wrong and still receive a “Certificate of Completion” certifying that you have “successfully completed the Teacher Qualification Test.” I know because I purposely set out to get every question wrong by picking the stupidest answers in the 34-question multiple choice exam developed in conjunction with PragerU, a self-described conservative nonprofit, that includes a mix of random history, culture and gender-related biology questions.

The test, which is available to anyone to take, requires you to keep guessing until you pick the correct answer. As a result, there’s no true measure of if someone is too “woke” to teach in our schools or even if they actually understand our nation’s history.

I had been looking forward to pitting myself against the test to get a better grasp about how Walters and PragerU actually define “woke.” Walters, after all, is encouraging schools to use PragerU’s videos as instructional materials in our schools.

So I was disappointed, though perhaps not entirely surprised, to discover after weeks of promises, this test amounts to the latest harebrained antic dreamed up by a headline-thirsty public official.

The effort does little more than fearmonger against imaginary boogeyteachers who Walters seems to think want to consume Oklahoma children’s little souls with “liberal” lessons.

But this stunt is the biggest embarrassment yet for our Republican state superintendent, and that’s saying a lot given that he has proven time and again to be all show and little substance. He’s already created the do-nothing Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism and once tried to require a video of himself attacking the “radical left” be shown to children.

I fear this latest effort will do little to help our state attract the quality teachers we desperately need and to bolster faith in the lessons being taught in our classrooms. We’re in the throes of a massive teacher shortage and have seen record numbers of emergency certified educators entering our classrooms. We’re behind the regional average in educator pay, and though Walters has implemented successful signing bonus programs aimed at helping recruit talented teachers, it hasn’t been enough to turn the tide.

Because it wasn’t the actual test questions themselves that were so insulting, though it is pretty bold to require an assessment that doesn’t actually do any assessing and to pass it off as a barometer to prove “your commitment to truth and integrity.”

What I found alarming was Walters’ seeming reckless disregard for protecting personal information. In order to take this dubious “assessment,” people are required to visit PragerU’s site and provide the California-based nonprofit with all sorts of personal information.

Why does PragerU need to know my mailing address, my phone number, my name, my email address and if I’m a parent or teacher in order to access this.

What’s next, a DNA sample?

And I also had to agree to give PragerU carte blanc permission to send me emails and “view, monitor and record” my activity on their site. And, they have wasted no time in spamming me with unwanted emails like a sandwich shop rewards program.

We’re supposed to be able to trust Walters to act in the best interest of our children, and I fail to see how shilling for PragerU does that.

What I also found outrageous was the bizarre, 16-minute video conversation that Walters recorded with PragerU’s CEO Marissa Streit that introduces the test. The CEO lets loose and says the people who are critical of her group “are the same people who don’t care about children,” and “people who have been able to hold schools and our children hostage to their political agenda.”

She also said their group and Walters have the “same enemies.”

Rather than pushing back on that “woke” indoctrination and insulting inflammatory rhetoric, Walters responds: “That’s exactly right.”

“We’re not going to continue to sit back and watch the teacher’s unions use schools to force a left-wing ideology on kids,” Walters also says in the video.

Talk about a political agenda.

Anyone who registers to complete the test receives a welcome email from PragerU containing this gem: “Alarmingly, many young Americans haven’t been exposed to clear, conservative perspectives. PragerU fills that void by offering fact-based content that simplifies complex issues and champions foundational values like freedom and personal responsibility.”

Not surprisingly “conservative” indoctrination is OK in Walters’ eyes.

As a parent, I don’t want any sort of indoctrination going on in my schools.

And, to borrow one of Republicans’ favorite phrases, shouldn’t I have parental choice in terms of what my children are learning? Why would I want some random California nonprofit determining what’s right for my children or spouting hate about me – their mother – being an “enemy” simply because I’m a critic of PragerU’s efforts to oversimplify our history and make fun of historically marginalized people?

As a particularly revolting example, PragerU has a cartoon on their site that features two time traveling children who go back to 1493 to speak with Christopher Columbus. They’re on a mission to determine whether the U.S. should honor him with a holiday or if that day should honor the Indigenous people of the Americas who lived here when he arrived. When asked about slavery, Columbus justifies it by saying it’s as old as time, and that “being taken as a slave is better than being killed.”

Wow.

Does saying slavery is wrong make someone “woke”? I’m not sure. But teaching children that it’s a better option than death is callous. And immoral.

Walters said he’s fine with allowing his children to learn from PragerU videos, and that’s a choice he gets to make. He’s in a position of power, even if he’s using it irresponsibly.

But if Walters truly embodies parental empowerment like he claims, he should not be associating in an official capacity with a group that is trying to assert their political beliefs in our schools.

Walters should be pushing back against all out-of-state actors, even conservative ones, who are trying to impose their views on our children. And he shouldn’t be allowing random groups to create “tests.”

Let’s leave that to the education experts.

Oklahoma Voice (oklahomavoice.com) is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. Oklahoma Voice provides nonpartisan reporting, and retains full editorial independence.