Hundreds of Colorado students protest history curriculum[W:234]

GBFAN said:

LOL .... another over-reaction from someone who didn't actually bother to investigate.

They do not 'teach' patriotism ... they teach truths that 'promote' patriotism. Read the report ... it actually enhances students' access to historical facts.

Now, your skin won't crawl ...

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cting in direct conflict with district policy, the new board majority hired an attorney with no clear scope of work and a contract of up to $90,000 a year to be paid for with tax dollars. The new majority also recently loaned money to a financially failing charter school even though the school has not repaid its initial debt to the district. More stunningly, this new majority halted a $5 million grant focused on kindergarten assessment despite the fact this assessment will be mandated by the state beginning next school year. In a time when school districts have experienced shrinking budgets and faced tough choices, this seems capricious and not in the best interest of our children.In 2012, Jeffco voters approved a mill levy override on the promise that money would be used to maintain the district's history of excellence. Now the new majority has proposed moving $7.4 million in mill levy funds to support Jeffco's 15 charter schools instead of restoring programs and positions cut prior to the override. The state does not require districts to share any of their mill levy funds with charter schools. Yet Jeffco does at the rate of $100 per pupil — an amount jointly agreed upon by the charters and the district. To give 15 charters more than $500,000 each to use as they wish is extreme.
This new board majority appears to be full of contradictions. Instead of following through on Board President Ken Witt's declaration that the board would operate in an open and collaborative manner, there have been numerous instances of sidebar meetings among select board members and attempts to retreat into executive session rather than engage in healthy conversation about important decisions affecting the district's more than 84,000 students.

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What is this new majority is trying to achieve? Jeffco students continue to outperform the state in all grade levels and content areas on CSAP/TCAP tests. U.S. News & World Report ranks six Jeffco high schools in the top 40 on their 2013 Best High Schools list. According to the Colorado Department of Education, the graduation rate for Jeffco students hovers above 81 percent — 5 percent higher than the statewide average. Jeffco Public Schools ties for the second best graduation rate of the nation's 50 largest school districts, according to Education Week's Diplomas Count report.

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I was truly surprised by the reaction of so many people regarding the AP U.S. History curriculum (APUSH). I must not have explained myself clearly. I thought everyone, or at least everyone involved in education understood the huge debate and controversy surrounding the new APUSH. To be accused of censorship? “Seriously?” That is just ridiculous. I am advocating for just the opposite. So, please let me start at the beginning…
APUSH rejects the history that has been taught in the country for generations. It has an emphasis on race, gender, class, ethnicity, grievance and American-bashing [Pols emphasis] while simultaneously omitting the most basic structural and philosophical elements considered essential to the understanding of American History for generations….parents who have reviewed APUSH have been very unhappy with what their children will be taught and have lost trust in the “experts”. Please note: This is NOT a committee to review teachers, this is NOT about teachers, it is about curriculum review, which is a board’s responsibility.

Balance and respect for traditional scholarship is NOT censorship. Again we believe that exposure to the curriculum itself, not inflammatory rhetoric; will convince most parents that a review committee is a very good idea. I humbly ask our Jeffco history teachers to review their philosophical position on the APUSH. I think the majority will be surprised to find they agree. I invite them to join us while we investigate this curriculum, together…

Last, when it comes to history I believe all children graduating from an American school should know 3 things: American Exceptionalism, an understanding of US History, and know the Constitution.
- See more at: http://coloradopols.com/diary/63166/the-madness-of-julie-williams-2#sthash.c8GMrexs.dpuf

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Let me give you some examples of who is omitted: Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Franklin with not even a mention of Martin Luther King, Jr. who was on the forefront of the civil rights movement. It ignores lessons on the Boston Tea Party, Lexington, Jefferson’s First Inaugural Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and the list continues…

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Here is some perspective: The Texas State Board of Education has voted to set aside the new AP U.S. History Framework in favor of its own state-mandated U.S. history curriculum.
If there is no concern with the curriculum then I would ask why so much resistance?

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Did you know Moses played a role in the writing of the U.S. Constitution? I didn’t. Apparently neither did the Founding Fathers, since he’s not mentioned in the Federalist Papers or any other relevant document. But students reading Perfection Learning’s new textbook on American history will think Moses was right up there with John Locke and Charles de Montesquieu in influencing Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and their brethren. What role did Moses supposedly play? The textbook claims he contributed the concept that “a nation needs a written code of behavior.” Forget the biblical ignorance shown in suggesting Moses provided the code for a “nation” rather than for the Jewish people, who had no nation (failing to reach the Promised Land was kind of key to the Book of Deuteronomy). Forget the legal ignorance in suggesting the Constitution had anything to do with a “code of behavior” rather than establishing democratic government and the rights guaranteed to citizens. Forget the historical ignorance in suggesting that the first laws came from Moses when the sixth Amorite king of Babylon established one of the first written set of laws, known as Hammurabi's Code, hundreds of years earlier.

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That’s why the book says the following, grammatical errors and all: “During their years of wandering in the desert of the Sinai, Moses handed down God’s Ten Commandments to the Hebrews. These commandments now form the bedrock on which the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian codes of behavior are based. The full account of Moses’ life can be found in the Bible’s book of Exodus.”

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americanwoman said:

Whether is was a good thing or was not should not matter in the educational teaching of the events. You tell the facts of the dates and the events that happened and then the teacher ( a good one) should then have a discussion without giving their own opinion but instead having the students come up with their own view on whether it was a good thing or not, provoking intelligent discussions and debate in the classroom. That's just my opinion on how it should be teached and it could be a good thing or not.

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Mr.Nick said:

To progressives US patriotism is a no-no.... They're more comfortable with "white guilt" - more specifically "white male Christian guilt."

Yes, the only way a progressive can feel pure and content is to demonize white male Christians..

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GBFAN said:

There's a big battle brewing in the Jefferson County, Colorado, school system. The manufactured controversy over a proposed curriculum review is generating national headlines. But the fight is not about what misguided students and biased reporters say it's about. "Censorship" is a red herring. The real issue is union control.

Here's the deal: Public school teachers in this Denver-area district walked out of their classrooms this week to protest the implementation of performance-based pay. The JeffCo school board approved the new compensation system last week, which rewards the most highly effective teachers with 4.2 percent raises, effective teachers with 2.4 raises and inferior teachers with nothing. Only 2 percent of teachers received no pay raises.

One fact the grievance-mongering teachers conveniently left out of their politicized pep talks to student sympathizers: The board gave bonuses to 450 teachers who would have otherwise received no raises under the union's arbitrary step scale. The old system didn't take performance into any consideration at all.

Despite the hefty rewards for teacher competence and excellence, disgruntled union leaders called for a strike last Friday (or as they prefer to whitewash it, a "sickout"). The Big Labor avengers succeeded in shutting down two schools — and enlisting students to protest with them. But the optics of robbing kids of valuable educational time to protest an $18.2 million salary compensation package did not play well with taxpayers.

Enter the "censorship" fakeout.

'A' Is for Agitation: What's Really Going on in Jefferson County Schools | CNS News

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Deuce said:

Translation: "History classes aren't aggressively pushing my right-wing political agenda, that's not faaaaair!"

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americanwoman said:

Hundreds of Colorado students protest history curriculum changes that would promote patriotism | Fox News

I'm with the students on this one. Complete bs on the part of that school board. No curriculum should be biased or censored, just straight facts.

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Fearandloathing said:

I had the fortune of studying in both Canada and the US.

In one I learned that no one won the war of 1812, that the major battle, New Orleans was fought after the peace treaty was signed.

In the other, I learned that John Paul Jones was the greatest naval commander in the world, that the English were still as evil as they were in 1776 and that America won.


I'm with the students too.

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Mr.Nick said:

The best misconception is that the revolutionaries were outnumbered by the British when in reality the revolutionaries outnumbered the British...

I have a **** ton of historical "misconceptions."

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Fearandloathing said:

We need to talk!

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Mr.Nick said:

I need to stop reading books..

Ideas should never be protested, unless they're taught as fact.

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americanwoman said:

Hundreds of Colorado students protest history curriculum changes that would promote patriotism | Fox News







I'm with the students on this one. Complete bs on the part of that school board. No curriculum should be biased or censored, just straight facts.

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Fearandloathing said:

Don't EVER stop reading anything.

Ideas cannot be suppressed....ideas are what America is born from, Canada, the US and Mexico all share the same beginning with that idea that men should live free.

No good idea can be suppressed as thinking is the ultimate form of freedom; there are those who will always try to control HOW people think, and this is just another example of that.

When I was in Jr High, they gave us an assignment to write an essay on "Better dead than Red." Me and another kid went the other way, citing Ghandi in his case..he was smarter than me.

We both got "E's".

You know, they think they won, but that idea, that thinking, that philosophy became hardened, perhaps because of that police state attitude. I believe that, and what I saw on the campuses a few years later that led me into journalism, where you cannot be silenced.

Education should be about new ideas and a place to express them, not sausage factories turning out zombie-like morons who question nothing.

I now follow the words of the world's most famous carpenter, "test everything, you will have many false prophets among you" a favorite of Gahndi. Evil triumphs whenever it can hide.

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DaveFagan said:

Absolutely true. If your Nation does good things, it will have the patriotic support of its' citizens. Propaganda and enforced patriotism were the foundation of the old USSR and now the attitude is rampant throughout the US gov't. We've got to find some good guys.

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americanwoman said:

Hundreds of Colorado students protest history curriculum changes that would promote patriotism | Fox News





I'm with the students on this one. Complete bs on the part of that school board. No curriculum should be biased or censored, just straight facts.

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TeleKat said:

Hey AW :2wave:

I agree...that's ridiculous. Unfortunately school textbooks almost always have some sort of agenda, especially in regards to US history. That's why I tend to be leery of public schools these days. I understand the need for them, I do, but I hope that we can phase out of needing them sometime in the future. I think government-run education is dangerous.

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Mr.Nick said:

Translation: "Marx should be the standard."

Only a brainwashed authoritarian would be opposed to learning an alternative POV.

It's sad I have to use the ****ing word "alternative" to describe patriotism....

That's how ****ed this country is tho...

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SheWolf said:

Private Christian schools have an agenda too.

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SheWolf said:

Private Christian schools have an agenda too. The best place to get a real education is a university where scholars and PHDS dedicate their entire career to the subject.

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Deuce said:

No, its your guys who are objecting to teaching about things like slavery or genocide of Native Americans in a "negative light," as if it's some horrifying thing to admit that America has a seriously ****ed up past.

But apparently that's unpatriotic, and we must punish anyone who isn't patriotic!

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