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Social Predation 101: Now showing in classrooms near you
Sierra Times ^ | 12-11-03 | Andy Donnach

Posted on 12/12/2003 5:24:31 AM PST by SJackson

"When you told me there were social predators teaching at the high school I thought you were a bit nuts -- I'd never heard of such a thing," the district administrator whispered. "But, I've since come to see you had understated the problem."

The administrator's discovery process had likely been triggered six months earlier when I used the word "predatory" to describe the practices of activist-teachers who were using their positions of authority in the classroom to recruit children into their personal, political, social, and religious agendas.

These "teachers" were using the classroom to promote activism, not academics. Worse, they often exploited children to promote their personal interests by involving them in protests, meetings, and other activities that supported the teacher's convictions. They had become teachers to "make a difference" by using the government education system to indoctrinate children to their personal interests -- not to educate children to be contributing members of society.

Using the word "predatory" to describe the practice might seem harsh. But, what better word is there to describe an adult who uses a position of power to realign the minds and actions of an impressionable child with his or her personal interests -- with neither parental permission nor knowledge, and counter to the values of the child or family? Some might consider it predatory, others might consider it harmless, and a few might even prefer it -- as long as the indoctrinator is advocating beliefs and actions aligned with their own.

Regardless, people who know children in the government school systems might want to pay special attention to an entrenched movement that advocates social, moral, and political indoctrination of children as a teacher's civic responsibility. Bluntly: the government school system is being used as a recruiting ground for special interests; worse, parents are unwittingly, blindly, or willingly participating in the violation of their own children. Before you dismiss this as "a bit nuts", you might want to see for yourself Alan Singer's tutorial for activist teachers.

GETTING KIDS TO "CRITICALLY THINK" INTO A ONE-MIND PARADIGM

In "Student Clubs: A Model for Political Organizing" (Rethinking Schools, Volume 17, Number 4 - http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/17_04/club174.shtml), Singer outlines for teachers how to promote personal agendas using students. While Singer bases his activist-indoctrinator model o­n his activities as a high school social studies teacher in New York City, similar models are actively used o­n K-12 campuses across the USA. By understanding how Singer's model is implemented, parents can gain insight into how they can recognize predatory practices in their child's school.

Singer starts by telling teachers that they have a responsibility to "act as models" for "questioning authority" -- starting with questioning the values by which the students are being raised. He justifies this position by evoking a strange interpretation of "critical thinking".

Critical thinking is vital for the lifetime success and survival of an individual; which is why most parents try so hard to implement critical thinking skills into their children. If anything, critical thinking helps the individual recognize right from wrong, the lie from the truth. More importantly, critical thinking helps the individual make correct choices -- even when everyone else is making wrong choices. In other words, critical thought and independent action are vital skills that allow children to stand tall against peer pressure -- and to shield themselves from predators. However, when social predators say "critical thinking" they seem to mean something entirely different.

The "critical thinking" that Singer advocates is for students to "consequently question authority (starting with their parents)," and he advises other activist teachers to act as models for helping children to question their values and to accept the values inherent in the teacher's special interest. This is also commonly called "values clarification", a process by which predatory indoctrinators help align the child's values with their own -- for the greater good, of course. So, when activist teachers say "critical thinking", they apparently mean to think more like them -- and less like their parents. Ironically, "more like them" typically means to accept a o­ne-minded collectivist philosophy that has zero tolerance for alternative viewpoints. (Which brings up an interesting side-note for people who can think critically: are not critical thought and collectivism mutually exclusive? Collectivism tends to create homogeneous cultures that allow little tolerance for critical thought and independent action.)

SOCIAL PREDATION 101: USING OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN TO PROMOTE A TEACHER'S INTERESTS

Singer presents workshops and assemblies through which he helps teachers "understand their right to disagree with and protest against government policies" and "involve their students in political action" that promotes the teacher's interests. In other words, Singer seems to be teaching social predators how to use the classroom to recruit children to their personal perspective by supplanting the values taught at home with their own. The values that Singer says teachers should advocate to children are similar to those he promotes in his own classroom, including:

- Reproductive freedom, abortion access, and condom availability for minors;

- Opposition to laws requiring parental consent for abortions;

- Opposition to policies requiring parental consent for exposure to objectionable materials in the classroom;

- Opposition to American foreign actions and policies.

"One of my primary goals as a high school social studies teacher was to empower young people so that they could become active citizens and agents for democratic social change," Singer writes (For an example of what Singer means by "Democratic Social Change", see the Democratic Socialists of America web site at: http://www.dsausa.org/). "This approach requires that teachers... express views o­n controversial issues," and get students to be willing to take action in support of the teacher's values, Singer says.

For teachers who express concern that enlisting children for their own causes might jeopardize their jobs, Singer presents "a model [he] was able to use effectively to engage students as activists," while avoiding the legal and ethical issues involved in using the classroom to promote personal interests to children. Following are key excerpts from Singer's model:

DEVELOP A STUDENT CLUB FOR ADVOCATING SOCIAL ISSUES.

"[Singer's club] provided students who were excited by classroom discussions... with a place where they could further explore their questions and act based o­n their beliefs."

Recruit students from the classroom to join the club, and encourage students to recruit others into the club. "Usually, the students who joined the club were from my classes, but they also involved their friends?"

Use the club to unite students around the teacher's values. "As the club's faculty advisor, I was able to both encourage students to see themselves as activists and to help them learn through experience how to organize for social change."

CHARTER THE CLUB SO YOU CAN HAVE ACCESS TO THE OTHER STUDENTS ON CAMPUS AND IN THE CLASSROOM.

"As a chartered student group, [Singer's club was] entitled to receive some school funds; to do fundraising in school; to distribute a newsletter and leaflets; to hang up posters; to make and sell political buttons; and to use rooms, copying machines, and computers. It gave us access to other students, the ability to meet with parent groups, and the right to send speakers to classes to report o­n club activities."

ENCOURAGE STUDENT PARTICIPATION BY GIVING STUDENTS "COMMUNITY SERVICE CREDIT" FOR PARTICIPATING IN ACTIVIST EVENTS.

"An elected executive committee met regularly (sometimes daily during heated campaigns) and we tried to hold monthly meetings of the full club. Students actually received community service credit for their political involvement."

BUILD THE IMPRESSION THAT THE CLUB HAS AN EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE.

"As a student club, [Singer's club] had to have a clear educational purpose." "Academic" activities included being guided by the faculty advisor o­n how to do the following to develop and promote advocacy positions: "researching issues and presenting information in writing and o­n graphs, exploring the underlying ideas that shape our points of view, giving leadership by example to other students, and taking collective and individual responsibility for the success of programs", like getting news "coverage of pro-choice demonstrations" and other club activities led by Singer.

DEVELOP METHODS AND PROCESSES THAT PROTECT THE CLUB ACTIVITIES FROM OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE.

"Despite efforts... we were not completely protected from interference [from parents, administration, and others who might question his activities]," Singer writes, citing cases like the following as outsider attempts to obstruct his campus activism:

- Being pressured by the district to present alternative points of view in workshops led by select socialist speakers;

- Being "asked to invite an anti-abortion speaker to balance a presentation by the National Organization of Women";

- Having to "silence" a "small group of 'pro-life' students" and teachers during an abortion workshop for children;

- Being "pressured... to cancel a club trip to Washington to participate in a pro-choice demonstration." In this case, Singer writes that the district backed off when he had the students "[threaten] to take the issue to the newspapers".

- When your ideas are too difficult even for your activist trainees to stomach, back off a bit. Sometimes, when students don't agree with the activist teacher, "you have to back off," Singer advises. For example, when his students resisted his efforts to have them participate in "anti-war activities while troops were involved in military conflict", he decided to stop pressuring them. Singer even admits that taking students to protests puts them at risk; so much so that, o­nce, he chose not to bring students to a protest because he heard there would be "hostile counter-demonstrators".

AN INDOCTRINATION MODEL THAT LASTS

Singer has taken his activism-not-academics approach to Hofstra University, but there are plenty of teachers stepping in to fill his shoes. For example, o­ne of Singer's former "students has successfully used his own variation of [Singer's club] to promote student activism," through which he used his students to protest the pledge of allegiance in their school.

Singer may be o­nly a single example, but he's representative of entire movements that seem to be enveloping our government school systems with programs to promote sexual, political, and social agendas to children -- frequently without parental knowledge. This movement is seemingly being institutionalized even in state and federal law. For example, during the week prior to his recall, California Governor Gray Davis signed into law SB 71, which essentially allows special interests virtually unrestricted access even to kindergarteners.

IS IT "A BIT NUTS" TO ADVOCATE FOR OUR CHILDREN?

At first blush, we might think ourselves "a bit nuts" when we start noticing that some activist-teachers are using the classroom as a recruiting ground to promote their personal interests -- especially while everyone else seems oblivious. But, like the administrator who came to realize that entrenched social predators were exploiting his students for their personal interests, we might find that the problem is far worse than we could imagine. Then, the absolutely insane approach would be for us to become silently complacent in the violation of our own children by entrusting them to social predators -- and allowing the social predators to operate with neither exposure nor opposition.

A more rational approach might be for us to stop abdicating our responsibilities to virtual strangers at a government facility, and to start taking primary responsibility for and heightened interest in the formal education of our children. In addition, we may want to start demanding that teachers exhibit competence and dedication to academic development of children. Most importantly, we may want to give our children the emotional and cognitive skills necessary to shield themselves from social predators, starting with being aware and involved ourselves. In short, we parents should join true teachers to promote education, not indoctrination; demand academics, not activism.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: academia; antiamericanism; education; fifthcolumn; fifthcolumnists; indoctrination; liberalagenda; litteredschoolhouse; nea; pc; politicallycorrect; publicschool; publicschools; reddupes; reeducationcenters; stalinsusefulidiots; taxdollarsatwork; teachers; unamerican; usefulidiots; youpayforthis
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1 posted on 12/12/2003 5:24:32 AM PST by SJackson
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To: SJackson
President Bush flew over here in a helicopter a few months back. A 17 year old I know said a high school teacher of his told the class when he flew over he went out and gave the President the "one finger salute". He told me he hates Bush and often spewls his rhetoric to his class. This a government school (propaganda mill). Anyone see the "MISLEADER" commercials? The one that really gets me is the one that states the $87.5 billion that goes to help turn Iraq and Afghanistan into sane nations could have gone for 2,000,000 more teachers ( hate spewling government union working socialists) or 200 more government schools (socialist propaganda mills). Over $700 billion a year is spent by the federal government alone on education. When is enough enough?
2 posted on 12/12/2003 5:43:00 AM PST by HankReardon
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To: Tax-chick
ping for later
3 posted on 12/12/2003 5:44:51 AM PST by Tax-chick (It's hard to see the rainbow through glasses dark as these.)
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To: HankReardon
Tell the student to make an audiotape of the teacher (secretly) and then send it to Fox News or Rush Limbaugh or NewsMax with the school and teacher's name identified. The teacher will be shamed, will cower and make excuses, and his opinions will not stand the light of day. Also send the audiotape to the local newspaper. We must OUT these jerks.
4 posted on 12/12/2003 5:48:08 AM PST by tom h
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To: tom h
Excellent reply. You can get digital recorders the size of a cigar that record 120 minutes for about $50.

I call mine the secondary self defense tool.

5 posted on 12/12/2003 5:55:56 AM PST by marktwain
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To: SJackson
Luckily, most of these NEA swine lack the courage to be predators.

They're satisfied with being merely parasitic.
6 posted on 12/12/2003 6:08:00 AM PST by headsonpikes (Spirit of '76 bttt!)
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: SJackson
What do you people expect. By putting the government in charge of schools you allow it to interpet history, economics, philosophy, morals, values, culture, literature and art. Is this freedom? Why isn't every person who ever raised a child demanding school vouchers?
8 posted on 12/12/2003 6:48:03 AM PST by reed_inthe_wind
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To: reed_inthe_wind
Why isn't every person who ever raised a child demanding school vouchers?

Because receiving public funds would subject our home schools to government control :-). We'd rather lose some money and keep our freedom.

9 posted on 12/12/2003 6:56:56 AM PST by Tax-chick (It's hard to see the rainbow through glasses dark as these.)
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To: Tax-chick
That is an apparent good for you. But your children will live in a country where many will be indoctrinated. How free will they be, if the majority of its citizins are pawns?

Can your fears by addressed in another way: could not the law allow a private school category where it is required that the school and parents enter into a contract to forbid voucher aid to the parents. In return, the school is categorically exempt from any government interference - (of course, at this stage this presumed government interference of the private school is a concern but not a foregone reality.)
10 posted on 12/12/2003 8:19:48 AM PST by reed_inthe_wind
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To: dd5339; cavtrooper21
Yet another reason to homeschool!
11 posted on 12/12/2003 8:36:06 AM PST by Vic3O3 (Jeremiah 31:16-17 (KJV))
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To: HankReardon
Why that high School teacher wasn’t called on the carpet boggles the mind, unless he did his “one finger salute” at home and not on school grounds...never-the-less this dunce is what has become the epitome of American High School teachers and the destruction of honor and integrity for your country. I assume this same teacher gave a ‘thumbs up’ for Bill Clinton, a perjurer, rapist and traitorous president. The NEA isn’t about the betterment of schools, teaching, or heaven forbid, a truly good education, it is about more $$’s for the teachers. Probably one of the most destructive groups in America today. I do not mean to tar and feather all teachers, but if the shoe fits wear it! Teachers should clean up their own and put America first, not their unions!
12 posted on 12/12/2003 8:40:51 AM PST by yoe (Mrs. Clinton's heart is rumored to be as big as a Caraway Seed, but I think that is an exaggeration.)
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To: reed_inthe_wind
could not the law allow a private school category where it is required that the school and parents enter into a contract to forbid voucher aid to the parents. In return, the school is categorically exempt from any government interference

You're suggesting that the government would allow itself to be bound by a non-interference contract? Sorry, we know better. You don't get within a stone's throw of government money without government control; ask Hillsdale College.

I can't control what other parents do, or how their children turn out. It appears that a majority will put up with anything as long as they have somewhere to leave their kids all day. Without a major change of heart on the part of millions, we'll just have a growing number of bread-and-circuses zombies.

How free will any of us be? As free as owning land and guns can make us. Everyone has to die sometime, if it comes to that.

13 posted on 12/12/2003 8:46:41 AM PST by Tax-chick (It's hard to see the rainbow through glasses dark as these.)
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To: SJackson
This is the Liberal elite's hero... basically his strategy is to infiltrate and destroy the foundation of the Republic from within. They focus on the idea of hegemony... and apply it in a micro-sociological manner in American institutions... primarily education... most of the foot soldiers aren't even aware that the liberal elites plan social experiments and implement them using ignorant bleeding-hearts.

From Liberal Utopia Gramschi "Along with Mao, he was one of a handful of early 20th century communists who fully appreciated the central importance of cultural revolution in the struggle for socialism. His insights on the importance of cultural, intellectual as well as political autonomy for working class liberation helped lay the intellectual foundations for the rebirth of revolutionary anti-capitalist working class struggle in Italy in the 60's and 70's. The "Autonomist" New Left in Italy, France and Germany as well as the US New Left with their distinctive emphases on counterculture were all Gramsci's intellectual children. Gramsci is a central part of who we are as revolutionaries in the US and Europe are today."

"The proletarian revolution cannot but be a total revolution. It consists in the foundation of new modes of labor, new modes of production and distribution that are peculiar to the working class in its historical determination in the course of the capitalist process. This revolution also presupposes the formation of a new set of standards, a new psychology, new ways of feeling, thinking and living that must be specific to the working class, that must be created by it, that will become 'dominant' when the working class becomes the dominant class. The proletarian revolution is essentially the liberation of the productive forces already existing within bourgeois society. These forces can be identified in the economic and political fields; but is it possible to start identifying the latent elements that will lead to the creation of a proletarian civilization or culture? Do elements for an art, philosophy and morality (standards) specific to the working class already exist? The question must be raised and it must be answered. Together with the problem of gaining political and economic power, the proletariat must also face the problem of winning intellectual power. Just as it has thought to organize itself politically and economically, it must also think about organizing itself culturally..."

14 posted on 12/12/2003 8:57:45 AM PST by Porterville (No communist or french)
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To: SJackson
It's in preschools too:

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0403/jjacobs042503.asp

Honestly, after yesterday's court case condoning the teaching if Islam in California public schools and now this, I don't know why parents don't get off their butts and pull their kids out. Well, I really know why: they need to dump their kids someplace and it's "free."

15 posted on 12/12/2003 9:08:03 AM PST by ladylib
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To: SJackson
In my ex-neighborhood there were two young girls, 6 and 8, who used to like to come over and play with my dog in the backyard. We would discuss various things as they played with the dog. An instructive exercise: to learn how 6 and 8 year old think.

One afternoon I was kidding them about, "What did you learn in school today?" After remarking that I sounded like their mother, they proceeded to tell me about spelling words learned and math problems solved. Then, the 8 yo said, "I just wish President Bush would stop killing all those people."

Shocked, I asked where she learned that. She said, "That's what our teacher taught us."

I asked, "Your teacher said President Bush is killing people?"

"Yes."

"And where are these people dying?"

"In Iraq."

"Your teacher said President Bush is killing people in Iraq?"

She said, "Yes. And my teacher said it was lots and lots of people."

I said, "Maybe your teacher made that up."

She said, "She'd never do that, she's my TEACHER!" (Lord, help us!)

I directed the conversation on to something else. Later I mentioned this to their mother. She was horrified and promised to take this up with the school principle. Unfortunately, I moved shortly thereafter and never learned what happened.

This is scary stuff folks!

16 posted on 12/12/2003 9:13:57 AM PST by upchuck (Yes! I am weird. But in a dreadful, eerie, creepy, odd, horrific, warm, gentle, friendly kinda way)
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To: ladylib
Thanks for the link - it reminded me that I lost my Education Intelligence Agency newsletter when I changed e-mail addresses; now I'm back on!
17 posted on 12/12/2003 9:18:22 AM PST by Tax-chick (It's hard to see the rainbow through glasses dark as these.)
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To: upchuck
One of the things we teach our children (suggested by John Taylor Gatto!) is, "You can't believe everything adults tell you, including us." Adults could be (1) lying, (2) honestly wrong, or (3) making a joke. We give examples: Remember when Uncle Ernie told you he went to college and played on the golf team with Sir Thomas More? (My son later produced a picture of St. Thomas for Sunday School, with golf clubs!)

All education is "indoctrination" to an extent - the student is being taught the beliefs of the teacher. An honest teacher will be open about it: "This is what I believe; others believe differently." A well-educated person will have the tools to evaluate what he's taught, including research skills, reading and comprehension ability, and LOGICAL (not "critical") thinking.
18 posted on 12/12/2003 9:26:42 AM PST by Tax-chick (It's hard to see the rainbow through glasses dark as these.)
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To: SJackson
Bump for later read.
19 posted on 12/12/2003 9:47:21 AM PST by irgbar-man (solely responsible for this reply's content. Not endorsed by any candidate or group.)
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To: ladylib
>>...why parents don't get off their butts and pull their kids out....they need to dump their kids someplace and it's "free."

I would say that's often true, though many parents must work and have no choice in the matter.
There's no private school in my little town (except for fundamentalist Muslims). In my child's grade level, the public school teaches history for about ten minutes out of a year, no I'm not exaggerating, I asked. I'd go without a lot of luxuries to cover that educational shortcoming, and I do. But many parents can't do that, or are too young or unimaginative to realize they can and should.
20 posted on 12/12/2003 9:48:30 AM PST by Graymatter (Let's issue a new $40 bill to honor our 40th president)
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