By D.C.
Normally,I do not write about Wisconsin specific issues.But after learning (from Mark Belling on his WISN radio show) that Bill Ayers would be the featured speaker at an Oct.15th fundraiser for the Milwaukee based group "Rethinking Schools" and knowing Ayers' history as a left wing terrorist,I thought it would be worth a look into this group.What I found out from Rethinking Schools' own website was both shocking and very disturbing.
I knew from during the 2008 election that Ayers,beside being a unrepentant terrorist,is a quack professor of educational theories.But he is considered by many on the far left as some sort of visionary on public education.Ayers has written,or co-written,many books on these quack theories of his.I had thought that his theories were just the stuff of master's degree level teaching and had no real application in the world of K-12 public school teaching.
I was wrong.After looking at the books Rethinking Schools publishes and reading their quarterly magazine,I found out these quack theories are very much in practice by public school teachers.What I learned was shocking.Here is a look at just few of these books.(Note,these books have instruction into actually teaching these ideas,complete with lesson plans,student projects and activities.)
"Rethinking Early Childhood Education",edited by Ann Pelo
The following is from a summary of the book from Rethinking School's website;"Early childhood is when we develop our core dispositions — the habits of thinking that shape how we live. This book shows how educators can nurture empathy, an ecological consciousness, curiosity, collaboration, and activism in young children. It invites readers to rethink early childhood education, reminding them that it is inseparable from social justice and ecological education.
An outstanding resource for childcare providers, early-grade teachers, as well as teacher education and staff development programs."
Here are the titles of a few chapters in the book;
"Introduction:Embracing Social Justice in Early Childhood Education"
"Why We Banned Legos:Ownership and Equity in the Classroom."
"Lego Fascists" (That's Us) Vs. Fox News"
"Rethinking "The Three Little Pigs""
"Playing with Gender"
"Talking with children about War and Peace"(I don't think they are talking about Tolstoy's "War and Peace".)
Why do teachers need to discuss these issues with preschool age kids? Why does a 4 year old need to learn about "social justice"? We all know that "social justice" is a loaded race baiting term and a left wing term for redistribution of wealth.
Why do 4 or 5 year old children need to be learn about "activism" or "ecological consciousness"? What about teaching kids their ABC's and 123's and leave the leftist political indoctrination out of it? Don't you think these political issues should be left in the home,up to the parents or care provider?
Would you want your child taught these things?
"Rethinking Globalization:Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World." Edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson.
Recommended for students grade 4 through 12.Here the authors are writing about teaching "social justice" theory,from the summary;
"As we teach and organize around these matters, it's vital that we emphasize the centrality of race. The development of European colonialism was sheathed in theories of white supremacy which sought to justify the slaughter of indigenous peoples, the theft of their lands, and the enslavement of millions of Africans. Today's system of global inequality builds from these enormous crimes and is similarly legitimated, albeit more subtly, by notions of white supremacy. Vast imbalances of wealth and power still correlate heavily with skin color. Centuries of racism have normalized this inequality and have blinded too many people to its contemporary manifestations."
This is not teaching! This is marxist ideological indoctrination of children.It's taught without any opposing view,to children as young as 4th grade.
Again I ask,Would you want your children taught this?
Rethinking Schools has many more books along these same marxist social justice ideological lines.One of these books,"A People's History for the Classroom",is a left wing revisionist version of American history. Another book is titled "Classroom Crusades".Here is a quote from their summary of the book,"it covers the religious right’s efforts to stamp their own brand of politics and religion upon our country’s schools".The book goes on to discuss how to fight against this or teach around it.
While the above are books,what I found especially disturbing was an account from a Madison teacher about actually teaching these marxist social justice ideological ideas to her public school class.She teaches 2nd and 3rd grade.
In Rethinking Schools' summer 2011 magazine,a Madison district teacher,Kate Lyman,has a long article titled,"Teaching and Learning in the Midst of the Wisconsin Uprising".She writes about walking off her job(which she refers to as a "work action") for 4 days to protest Gov.Walker's budget repair bill.(Which she is rather proud of herself for doing.) Then she discusses how she went about teaching what is happening to her 2nd and 3rd grade class.
First,she writes about returning to school and a warning that the school principal emailed to all the school's teachers,she writes;
"We had received a three-page email from our principal warning us to “remain politically neutral” as noted in the school board policy relating to controversial issues. We were to watch not only our words, but also our “tone and body language.” If students wanted to talk about the rallies, we were to respond: “We are back in school to learn now.”."
She then goes on to write about how she decided to teach about the protests to her class anyway.She tells of how she had violated the school policy of being politically neutral before and how the school had tried to fire her for this.She tells how the teacher's union fought it and how she was able to keep her job.She even adds with extreme pride that the union forced the school to seal the documents of this incident and label them as "Do Not Open" in her personnel file.(Yet another reason for getting rid of these unions.)
She basically has this attitude.I have been here 35 years.The school system has already tried to fire me before and they couldn't do it.I'm made.I'm golden.They can't touch me.I'll teach these kids anything I darn well please. The pompous arrogance of this woman is incredible.
She does know that she can't get away with teaching about the protests without putting it into some already existing educational context.This is what got her in trouble before and she goes out of her way to point this out to other teachers.
She decides,along with a student teacher working under her,to include the Madison protests in a 2 month course on the civil rights movement that is already part of the school's curriculum.So,she and the student teacher decide to put together a sort of slide show of pictures from the 1960's civil rights movement juxtaposed to the Madison protests.Then to discuss the similarities with the students.
(While I think teaching about the 1960's civil rights movement is a very important part of American history,I question whether a 2 month course for 2nd and 3rd graders is appropriate.)
I just want to say this.It should come as an insult to any black person to compare the Madison teacher's protest to the civil rights movement.These protests had nothing to do with any one's rights.The Madison protests were about privileges and just like a driver's licence,if you abuse the privilege,such as driving drunk,then the privilege can be taken away.WEAC has certainly abused their collective bargaining privileges.
Mrs.Lyman goes on to write about how she showed these pictures to the students and how their discussion went (to say that discussion was one sided would be an understatement).Then she writes about a list of questions she had for the students to answer,she writes;
"Who are the protesters?
What do they want?
What are ways they protest?
What is the role of the police and firefighters?
Who is on the other side?"
"I hesitated to ask this last question as the students were examining a photo of white segregationists (“We want a white school!”) juxtaposed to a Walker supporter (“WisSCOTTsin”). But we talked extensively about rights, in the context of both the Civil Rights Movement and the Capitol protests. Students were able to articulate that the white demonstrators wanted segregation. They didn’t want black people to have rights. The students connected the Walker supporter to someone who also didn’t care about people getting their rights—the money, education, or health care they needed."
Oh come on! You know what these kids took away from that.Gov.Walker and his supporters(Republicans) are all white racists.I believe Mrs.Lyman did this with full knowledge of what she was doing,brainwashing these little children."I hesitated to ask this last question." Baloney! Kate was licking her chops to get at the point she wanted to make,that all white Republicans are racists.
She has many quotes from the kids.One I found interesting was not so much what the kid said but the fact he addressed the teacher as "Kate".There is a reason kids should be taught to call their teachers Mr.,Mrs.or Ms..It is to show respect for the teacher's authority in the classroom.She has ceded this respect away,and along with it her authority,in an effort to become the children's friend.Her job is not to be friends with her students.
Lyman continues;
"We followed the slide show with an individual writing activity. We asked students to choose a photo either from the Civil Rights Movement or the Capitol protests and to imagine themselves as a participant. They wrote using the following prompt:
I see . . .
I hear . . .
I feel . . .
I wonder . . .
I hope . . .
"After another day finishing their reflections on the photos, we moved on to other projects. However, the Madison rallies continued to play a part in many things we did. Especially after the massive weekend rallies, students reported on what they had seen in person or on television. Tamika was especially impressed by the free food that had been donated to the protesters by people from all over the world. Teachers and students continued to make and solve math problems about the rallies on the square. When students wrote time travel stories about the Civil Rights Movement, some started their story at the Capitol protest."
I think teaching these children this is not just wrong,it's morally corrupt.In my opinion,this woman is demented.She should not be any where near children.
She goes on to discuss how she had her class have a mock school board election and she concludes with this;
" I thought about the impact in my classroom of the Capitol protests. We made connections with the Civil Rights Movement, deepening student understanding of who protests, and how and why they protest. We linked the protests to the election and asked important questions: Who votes? Who are the candidates? What are the issues? Why is it important to vote? Marches, rallies, boycotts, sit-ins, demonstrations, and elections were no longer foreign words to them. They were all part of how people have struggled for their rights in the past and continue to do so. And we were there on Election Day, standing out in the cold, displaying banners—Vote Today!—in English, Spanish, and Hmong.
Yes, I thought, this is what democracy looks like. And this is what learning looks like."
If this is what urban public education looks like then it is no wonder why it is failing.
I want to ask a broader question here.If minority kids are taught,day in and day out,from preschool through high school,that white racism is at the root of all of their community's ills,does it come as no surprise then the lack of respect for whites many in these communities have?
If you thought that all the reasons for the dysfunction and poverty,in your community,were to blame on white racism,then why would you care if you joined a riot at Mayfair mall? A mall filled with all the ill gotten gains of white racists.Why would you have any problem ransacking a convenience store in Milwaukee if it was just filled with items that had been stolen from your people by the white racists anyway? Why would you hesitate to attack white people for seemingly no reason in a Riverwest park or at the State Fair,if those are the same white racists who keep your community in poverty?
This distorted view of white racism taught through social justice theory must be true to them.They learned it in public school.
Many folks have commented that these black racist attacks on whites,in Milwaukee and other large cities around the country,are rooted in dysfuctional parenting or lack of any parenting by some (I stress some) in the black community.I believe we must also look at just what these children are being taught,using our tax dollars,in these urban school districts.I believe teaching this marxist social justice ideology is also to blame.
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