Administering ‘Truth’ in our Schools

American Thinker ^ | 24 Oct, 2020 | Janet Levy

[MtnClimber]

The Orwellian manufacture of ‘truth’ is very much a salient feature of the American educational system.

In George Orwell’s novel 1984, the Ministry of Truth is responsible for falsifying historical events and advancing government-approved versions of the ‘truth,’ such as ‘2 + 2 = 5’ and ‘War is peace.’ The ministry, the propaganda wing of the government of Oceania, one of the fictional superstates in the novel, uses ‘doublethink’ and ‘newspeak’ to obscure, distort or even reverse the meaning of words.

That was a fictional dystopia. But a few current examples will leave no doubt that the Orwellian manufacture of ‘truth’ is very much a salient feature of the American educational system.

Last week, the Palm Beach County School Board, FL, voted four to three to reinstate William Latson, a former principal of the Spanish River Community High School, Boca Raton, who had emailed a parent: “I can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event because I am not in a position to do so as a school district employee.” His dismissal of the most well-documented genocide in history, and in a school with the largest Jewish student population in the country at that, caused shockwaves and resulted in his suspension.

[MtnClimber]

If this all happened at once people would be outraged. But, the progressives have done it progressively.

[Don W]

I never in my life thought I would agree with Alcee Hastings about anything, but the whole "blind squirrel" thing just happened:

Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL) made the following statement: “At a time when anti-Semitism in our country exists at record levels and basic knowledge of the Holocaust among young Americans has been found to be profoundly lacking, it is incumbent upon our educators to push back against intolerance -- not embrace the language of Holocaust deniers. This decision reflects poorly on our community and is an insult to the thousands of Holocaust survivors who have made South Florida their home, the descendants of victims, and the millions of Jews who were murdered during the genocide.”

[Kriggerel]

Anti-Semitism, and Holocaust Denial merely serve to burnish one’s credentials amongst “woke” leftists these days. I bet he’s got a well-thumbed copy of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion in his office.

We’ve officially been down the rabbit hole for quite some time now.

[polymuser]

The children are the cultural Marxists’ future. Have been for many decades.

Our children have been specifically targeted by our pubic schools, news, media, churches and now social media. For many decades.

We had John Dewey’s early 1900’s Progressive (Marxist) anti-home schooling influence, followed by The Frankfurt School’s mid-1900’s social Marxist plan for children, then Hollywood’s 1950’s communist influences, then NEA’s No God push in our schools.

Then, the 1960’s CPUSA push of college youts for war protests, drug use and wanton fornication, then the 1980’s sitcoms ridiculing parents, then the 1990’s queer push, then the 2000’s self-esteem facade.

Now, our MSM, SJW groups and social media are feeding them "social justice", systemic racism and white supremacy lies, to foment rioting, physical destruction and social breakdown -- anarchy.

Then, the socialist progressives and D'rats will valiantly step in to "save us", even if they have to cook an election. Hey, it's for our own good!!

[ConservativeInPA]

It is dystopian is that judge reinstated this principal. Forget the reason why the principle was terminated. Forget there is a state law that mandates teaching the holocaust. The school district as a proxy to the people should be able to fire the principal for any reason they want. Hire at will. Fire at will.

Let's say the principal picked his nose. If enough people in the school district want him fired, he should be fired. Now, I use that as a rhetorical device. One would assume that there are enough nose picking reasonable people in the school district that principal would not be fired. The key word here is reasonable.

When people hand over matters to the state they cede their decision making along with it. And when people stop making decisions because they abdicated that capability they lose their ability to make decisions and become dependent on the state. Eventually, there are no people competent to make decisions. That includes those employed by the state making decisions because they come from the people too.

The representative republic in which we live has a delicate balance that requires citizens to be competent, not dependent. Putting hiring and firing decisions in the hands of a judge aggregates power away from the people.

[bgill]

I first saw this happening in the 90s. As a teacher, it was my mission to correct the revisions to the students.