Posted on 03/02/2006 7:49:21 AM PST by genefromjersey
What Junior May Have Learned in School Today
Taped in a Denver – area classroom by a concerned student –the day after the State of the Union Address, this transcript details how a teacher named Jay Bennish instructed this class in World Geography at Overland HS.
Bennish: [tape begins with class already underway. Bennish completing an unintelligble statement about Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.] Why do we have troops in Colombia fighting in their civil war for over 30 years. Most Americans don't even know this. For over 30 years, America has had soldiers fighting in Colombia in a civil war. Why are we fumigating coca crops in Bolivia and Peru if we're not trying to control other parts of the world. Who buys cocaine? Not Bolivians. Not Peruvians. Americans! Ok. Why are we destroying the farmers' lives when we're the ones that consume that good.
Can you imagine? What is the world's number one single cause of death by a drug? What drug is responsible for the most deaths in the world? Cigarettes! Who is the world's largest producer of cigarettes and tobacco? The United States!
What part of our country grows all our tobacco? Anyone know what states in particular? Mostly what's called North Carolina. Alright. That's where all the cigarette capitals are. That's where a lot of them are located from. Now if we have the right to fly to Bolivia or Peru and drop chemical weapons on top of farmers' fields because we're afraid they might be growing coca and that could be turned into cocaine and sold to us, well then don't the Peruvians and the Iranians and the Chinese have the right to invade America and drop chemical weapons over North Carolina to destroy the tobacco plants that are killing millions and millions of people in their countries every year and causing them billions of dollars in health care costs?
Make sure you get these definitions down.
Capitalism: If you don't understand the economic system of capitalism, you don't understand the world in which we live. Ok. Economic system in which all or most of the means of production, etc., are owned privately and operated in a somewhat competitive environment for the purpose of producing PROFIT!
Of course, you can shorten these definitions down. Make sure you get the gist of it. Do you see how when, you know, when you're looking at this definition, where does it say anything about capitalism is an economic system that will provide everyone in the world with the basic needs that they need? Is that a part of this system? Do you see how this economic system is at odds with humanity? At odds with caring and compassion? It's at odds with human rights.
Anytime you have a system that is designed to procure profit, when profit is the bottom motive -- money -- that means money is going to become more important potentially than what? Safety, human lives, etc.
Why did we invade Iraq?! How do we know that the invasion of Iraq for weapons of mass destruction-- even if weapons had been found, how would you have known, how could you prove--that that was not a real reason for us to go there.
There are dozens upon dozens of countries that have weapons of mass destruction. Iraq is one of dozens. There are plenty of countries that are controlled by dictators, where people have no freedom, where they have weapons of mass destruction and they could be potentially threatening to America. We're not invading any of those countries!
[Pause.]
I'll give you guys another minute or two to get some of these [definitions] down. I agree with Joey. Try to condense these a little bit. I took these straight out of the dictionary.
Anyone in here watch any of Mr. Bush's [State of the Union] speech last night? I'm gonna talk a little about some of things he had to say.
...One of things that I'll bring up now, since some of you are still writing, is, you know, Condoleezza Rice said this the other day and George Bush reiterated it last night. And the implication was that the solution to the violence in the Middle East is democratization.
And the implication through his language was that democracies don't go to war. Democracies aren't violent. Democracies won't want weapons of mass destruction. This is called blind, naive faith in democracy!
Who is probably the single most violent nation on the face of planet Earth?!
Unidentified student interjects: We are.
The United States of America! And we're a democracy. Quote-unquote.
Who has the most weapons of mass destruction in the world? The United States.
Who's continuing to develop new weapons of mass destruction as we speak?! The United States.
So, why does Mr. Bush think that other countries that are democracies won't wanna be like us? Why does he think they'll just wanna be at peace with each other?
What makes him think that when the Palestinians get their own state that they won't wanna preemptively invade Israel to eliminate a potential threat to their security just like we supposedly did in Iraq?
Do you see the dangerous precedent that we have set by illegally invading another country and violating their sovereignty in the name of protecting us against a potential future--sorry--attack?
Why doesn't Mexico invade Guatemala? Maybe they're scared of being attacked. Ok. Why doesn't North Korea invade South Korea?! They might be afraid of being attacked. Or maybe Iran and North Korea and Saudi Arabia and what else did he add to the list last night - and Zimbabwe - maybe they're all gonna team up and try and invade us because they're afraid we might invade them. I mean, where does this cycle of violence end? You know?
(Sources of this report were the Rocky Mountain News and Michelle Malkin’s column.The teacher in question was suspended after a tape of his lecture surfaced on the Web and was seen by a school board member.)
I can’t help but wonder whether this is an isolated event, or whether such classroom political indoctrination attempts are commonplace.
Judging by some of what I’ve seen expressed on the Internet, I suspect Mr. Bennish has had a LOT of company over the years –probably to the great distress of the truly dedicated teachers who have to work with such people.
$100 says Bennish's favorite movie is Brokeback.
LOL, it sounds like this commie-vampire was indocrindated at an early age.
Sounds like somebody's PO'ed that the best he can be under capitalism is a schoolteacher.
You know, I got similar sorts of foolishness when I was in high school in the 80s. The names and events and crises were different, but the gist was the same.
I nodded, passed the exams, and moved on.
I used to get alarmed and mad every time I read one of these articles, but upon further reflection, indoctrination doesn't work anyway, so what's the big deal?
If indoctrination worked their would still be a soviet union.
No amount of indoctrination can hide the truth forever or steal a persons desire for freedom.
Got that right, D.P.! He can't believe that all of his really stupid friends drive New BMWs while he's schleping around in a rust-eaten, cock-eyed, barely running Chevy Cavalier(I love Chevys, but that car was a POS). So, he directs his disappointment through his anger, and releases it on the kids. I don't think many of them will buy it because Mr. Bennish sounds like a creep. He also possesses a nice, high whiny voice, don't you think?
Loser.
How come:
1)The intellectual left that condemns capitalism usually has dady's money to fall back on.
2)Protectionist generally have not traveled to the countries they profess knowledge of.
3)teachers profess knowledge of things they have no experience of.
4)Anarchist haven't been exposed to real violence.
5) So many environmentalist fly to conferences in private planes.
Junior's at work today.
....and or that his coke supply is drying up and it's Bushs fault.
I'm not quite where you are but I'm getting there.
Draft-dodging hippy filth took over academia 35-odd years ago, and have spent the intervening decades seeking to foment revolution.
Well, we're all still waiting.
And the huge majority of the students who attend their classes ultimately graduate, find respectable, maybe even lucrative jobs, and end up as donors with far more influence on the life of the school than the faculty.
So as their students leave to take over the world, those teachers remain, forever protected from the ups and downs of the working world, and ever more disconnected from real life.
I don't think a whole lot of people really fall for their foolishness. They just tolerate it and move on.
What a Moron. Thank God for homeschooling so my (future) kids will never have to listen to this stupidity - at least not until college.
This is a REAL pet peeve of mine. Several of Mrs wbill's friends are academics, that are quick to condemn big business (WalMart is a fav target), when their reality is that that they've never stuck a single toe out of academia and no more understand business than they do nuclear physics.
One of them has her law degree, and is in Student Services at a major college. My question, after a particularly vitrolic rant, was: "So, become a corporate lawyer and change things. Are you in Student Services because you enjoy being underpaid to clean up 19-year-old drunks that have thrown up all over themselves? Or, is it because you know that you'd be eaten alive in a business environment by people that are far more intelligent and motivated than you are?"
The silence was deafening. Needless to say, I'm not all that popular with the wife's friends. I'm not losing much sleep over it....
A loosing theory explained by a looser.
source was listed as vanity. This certainly no vanity. this is a first hand unfiltered look at what our schools are really like.
Better firsthand reporting than any news outlet.
Thanks!
The news said he is a Rastafarian and flies a Rastafarian Flag in the back of the room.
Excuse my ignorance - but isn't Rastafarian a religion?
For one thing, think of the valuable learning foregone. For example, Mr. Bennish might have also given the contrary arguments I'm sure have occurred to all of us here. Economists call this the opportunity cost.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.