Teens seek debate vs. Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh said on his nationally syndicated radio show that Evanston Township High School students "don't know anything about World War II" and "they've probably never heard the name Adolf Hitler" because they're so focused on a multicultural curriculum.

Some Evanston kids want to show Limbaugh what they know. They want to debate him on American history.

"I think [a debate] would be great because then we'd prove him wrong and open up his opinion a little bit," Sarah Loeb, an ETHS sophomore, said Thursday.

Limbaugh's comments came after he read a Christian Science Monitor article Tuesday that profiled global studies courses required at ETHS. Limbaugh railed against multicultural education generally and singled out the North Shore school.

"What multiculturalists is, is balkanizing this country," Limbaugh said Tuesday. "People are coming here from various parts of the world and they're bringing their cultures with them and the multiculturalists are saying 'your culture is better than the American culture. The American culture is discriminatory, it's racist, sexist, bigot, homophobic.' "

Limbaugh's producer did not return a call on whether Limbaugh would agree to a debate.

"Maybe he might be a little intimidated because I don't know his basis for saying we don't know anything," Sarah said. "But I think he might be interested if he wants to live up to his reputation and back up his ideas so he doesn't look stupid."

All ETHS sophomores choose among several "global perspectives" courses covering the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Asia and Russia. In the Middle East class, for example, students adopt a new identity for the semester -- a Syrian baker or a medical student in Qatar -- and try to view what's transpiring in the region from that perspective.

In 2003, ETHS won an excellence in international education award from the Asia Society and the Goldman Sachs Foundation. ETHS offers seven languages, including Japanese and Hebrew, and has several clubs with an international flavor, including Model United Nations and Amnesty International. Students and staff also point out that the school requires yearlong courses in U.S. history and Western civilization.

"It's funny to me that someone would say we don't know about World War II -- we live in a large Jewish community," said Jane Biliter, a senior. Each year, the school hosts activities for Holocaust Remembrance Week. "Until 10th grade, all we did was U.S. and European history. It's just so false that what he says is funny."

School officials haven't decided how -- or if -- they intend to respond to Limbaugh.

"It struck me as incomprehensible that somebody would think multiculturalism antithetical to American values," Supt. Allan Alson said. "I was stunned that he had such certainty that our kids were not knowledgeable about basic American history when in fact our student do extremely well" on standardized tests in that area. "It's a shame he lets his conclusions determine his evidence."

Aaron Becker, who teaches the Middle East class, said his students also are considering sending Limbaugh essays they've written on American history.

"This is a perfect teachable moment," Becker said. "Kids are angry and want to respond by showing they know a lot, that it's not a zero-sum game, that you can learn about more than one history."

"It's not even worth responding to," said Aaron Hamilton, a senior. "He has nothing to say about my education and my future. He's just a guy talking on the radio."

My great niece (brother's grand daughter) was a finalist on last week's "Battle of the Jaywalk All-Stars." She was the 17 year old girl who named the picture of the Secretary of State as "Mona Lisa Rice."

She is a bright 17 year old and a victim of public uneducation.

I went to public schools for almost all of my grade-school education and I didn't turn out like that. I'm not defending public schools, but you can't fall back on the victim mentality to explain it away. I believe her problem is that she's apathetic about knowledge and has no real interest in learning. That's the biggest problem with the public schools; they don't instill a love of learning, but rather make it tedious and ultimately seem irrelavant to the students' lives. They don't teach children how to learn, just what to learn according to their woefully inadequate curricula. I learned most of what I now know not through the school, but by reading. There's simply no drive for intellectual edification on the part of public school students; they're not encouraged to think for themselves and seek after knowledge. Because of that I had to find an impetus for learning elsewhere. Luckily I found it, but most in the public schools, and even in many private schools (which often only differ from the public schools in that they allow prayer and discussion of God, and maybe have a few religious courses) never find it. Whenever I hear a student say "I don't read books", I know their school failed them. If you have no desire to become a knowledgeable citizen, then you won't ever become one. It's as simple as that.

So the problem with your great-niece is not that the public schools simply didn't teach her the right things, but they failed to teach her to learn at all. Instead she only cares about the immediate concerns of her own life, which probably include a lot of pop-culture influence and the desire for immediate gradification. I'm afraid when she goes to college she'll be easy prey for the elitist professors who wish only to propagate their own liberal ideologies in the next generation.

By the way, if I may ask, why does your great-niece participate in the "Jaywalking" segment of the Tonight Show? Does she realize she's being made fun of? Is she awarded anything for her participation, or is she merely delighted in the fact that she'll be on national television? I've just always wondered what motivates these people to seek ridicule, as it seems contrary to normal human behavior.

Your assessment of her learning skills is dead on.

She was on a school sponsored trip with their drill team of which she is a member. While shopping with a group of her team mates she was approached by some of Leno's production people and asked if she would participate in a JayWalking segment. She turned them down and was then courted for nearly an hour before she gave in to their request. After her segment was aired a couple of weeks later, she was chosen for Battle of the All-Stars segment.

The Tonight show paid all expenses for her, her sister, and their Mother and Father to fly to L.A. for a taping of the show. They all enjoyed the trip and meeting with Jay and his crew. A short, but jam packed fun trip for a young family who needed a vacation. Little brother stayed with his grandparents.

I don't understand your point about that comment. Believe me, the students understand that the sari (I think that's the name, I may just be making that up) is a forced culture on women in the region. Nonetheless, it is a part of the culture, which is what the class studies. Whether or not Mr. Becker advocates the lack of fashion expression freedom in Middle-Eastern women, I can't say, as I'm not in his class. He's just teaching the culture, and if the culture includes oppression of female liberties, he's not going to pass over that. On a more basic level, the headdresses are simply traditional clothing of the region. It may be nothing more than that -- just dressing up in the region's traditional attire.

I wish I could access the transcript of the radio telecast, because I'm fairly sure that Rush claimed he "knew" the people who teach Global Perspectives, and that they were "failed minorities" (or something along those lines). I remember this because my sophomore year Russian Studies teacher was standing in the room as we listened, and that gave us all a good laugh, seeing as how he's a white guy. If I can get my hands on a transcript, I'll try to be more specific, but the text of the aired conversation is no longer free on Rush's site.

Though there are many points of view, there is only ONE history. Historic events happened a certain way, period. Revealing the real facts is the challenge.

By the way, wearing of the Middle Eastern headgear may be looked at as cultural but it also could be looked at part of their religion. Now why is it that this is allowed but in certain schools Christmas trees are forbidden? Especially since Christmas trees are part of the American culture and arguably not part of the Christian religion...

Rush should be careful with this one.

Rush is always careful, I would not worry about him, but there are undoubtably kids in this school who do know their history. If nothing else, my son was an avid History Channel watcher, and found that he knew much more than what was actually taught when he got to the history classes. Scored 4 out of 5 on the History AP exam in his junior year. NOw he also knows enough history to be able to differentiate between the liberal version and the real version, so Rush would not have to convince him of anything.

My point in raising this is that the school could not all depabe Rush, If they could, he would leave them in their collective dust, but two or three students may be offered instead and they may know their stuff. Now if the question was whether they studied the right things or not, How is Rush going to convince them that they studied the wrong things? Maybe he could convince an audience that their education was inferior, but likely they would score points on the things they covered well -- America was racist and still is, corporations have made lots of money and corporation leaders have gotten rich, for a long time we increased the level of polution before laws forced us to clean up... So you see, they would focus on their history, Rush would focus on a much broader range of ideas including that this is the greatest country the world has ever seen, but he may not win many hearts and minds among the youth of public education.

Opps, I see we agree completely, I just expanded on what you posted.

”Now if the question was whether they studied the right things or not, How is Rush going to convince them that they studied the wrong things?”

Let them talk that is all it takes. If they speak out loud the crap they are learning they might actually understand that it is just crap.

For example; Mojowo11 is equating dictatorial control as just a lack of fashion expression. Or his continued elitist talks about white people. Will he understand it what he is saying? I seriously doubt he will get it right off but given time he might.

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