Posted on 09/28/2005 9:40:40 PM PDT by Angry Republican
ALBANY, N.Y. - State legislators across the country are increasingly directing their schools to teach students more about the struggles and triumphs of different races and ethnic groups — a move critics say amounts to politically correct meddling.
In the latest such example, a new commission in New York will examine whether the "physical and psychological terrorism" against Africans in the slave trade is being adequately taught in schools. The commission is named for the slave ship Amistad, which was commandeered by slaves who eventually won their freedom in the U.S. Supreme Court.
The recommendations could mean rewriting textbooks, which may influence educators in other states, according to the National Council for the Social Studies.
A number of other states have enacted similar measures in the last five years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Illinois also created an Amistad commission this year and added lessons on the Holocaust, while New Mexico's legislature required Indian education lessons be bolstered in kindergarten through sixth grade.
In 2001, New Jersey created an Amistad commission and the Commission on Italian and Americans of Italian Heritage Culture and Education to advise policy makers.
California created Cesar Chavez Day in 2000 and directed schools to include lessons about the farm labor activist. That same year, Rhode Island directed schools to teach about genocide and human rights violations including the slave trade, the Irish potato famine, the Armenian genocide of the early 1900s, the Holocaust and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's fascist regime.
Virginia also directed schools that year to teach about the accomplishments of people from different ethnic backgrounds and races, women and disabled people.
But while most legislatures enact curriculum changes recommended by education departments, teachers and researchers, New York's Amistad Commission is a case of the Legislature trying to circumvent the state's policy-setting Board of Regents.
"Slavery is the backbone on which this country was built," said Assemblyman Keith Wright, a New York City Democrat who wrote the Amistad bill. "We haven't even touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of studying it ... I have two children and I don't think they have studied the issue thoroughly."
Critics say the goal of the commission is laudable but that teachers already have limited time to teach American history. They also say educators are needed on the panel to make sure its recommendations are feasible.
The commission will include 19 unpaid members. Eight will be appointed by the governor, and the rest will be picked by the state secretary of state, the state education commissioner and the majority leaders of the Legislature. Panelists need not be academics.
"It's like taking a group of teachers and telling doctors how to practice," said Peggy Altoff, president-elect of the National Council for the Social Studies. "And yet it seems to me that it's fairly standard practice that everyone seems to be able to tell teachers what to teach."
New York already requires children to learn about the Irish famine, the Holocaust, the Underground Railroad and "a great deal" about slavery, said state Education Department spokesman Jonathan Burman.
"There's no question that it's dabbling," said Carl Hayden, the former New York state schools chancellor who led the Board of Regents in developing higher academic standards. "The single most difficult standard that the regents dealt with was the history standard, because it is so potentially controversial."
Candace de Russy, a State University of New York trustee and national lecturer and writer on academic issues, said she believes the state's commission opens the door to endless group advocacy-oriented legislation.
"Inherent in it, Jews will decide how to teach the Holocaust, the Irish the Great Famine, Armenians the Turkish genocide, Indians the French and Indian War, and so on," she said.
Well, at least they aren't letting the French write it :)
Give it time.
They aren't gonna let Castro write about the bay of pigs, is he?
As if the drivel being taught isn't PC enough.
Even when I was in school the only thing we learned about westward expansion was that "Whites" committed genocide on the Indians.
Then of course there were the lessons on how "Whites" lynched every black person they could lay their hands on.
The best though is the idea that we fought WWII to save the Jews.
Ask some school kids about these subjects and see if you don't get that kind of response.
When I was in elementary school in the early 60's I learned that Communism was bad and the USA good.
Oh those were the days....now long gone cuz of liberals.
Who controls the present controls the past; who controls the past controls the future.
I could care less. After reading this, it makes me glad I left SUNY when I did. I do exstensive reading on my own and don't need silly gubbermint schools telling me what to read and holding my degree hostage if I don't read their crap.
You raise an interesting point. I once knew a lady from The Phillipines who did not know that her country became a US territory 1898 and was granted its indepedence from the US in 1946. And she was an educated person with a college degree.
Whoever tried that in South Florida would be shot.
I mispelled a word but it's way past my bedtime. Here's an interesting quote:
Candace de Russy, a State University of New York trustee and national lecturer and writer on academic issues, said she believes the state's commission opens the door to endless group advocacy-oriented legislation.
** She used to be lampooned in the Stony Brook press which meant to me that she obviously was doing the right thing. She's hated far and wide. After attending Stony Brook, I'm convinced they're interesting in two things, brainwashing Americans and enrolling as many Asians as possible to get all Charles B. Wang's money.
This kind of thing will drag down even the "good" school districts here in NY. It's bad enough we have close to the highest per-pupil spending, but the school performance is only average.
I already correct my kid's homework- will I now have to correct everything she's taught? Wait- I already have to do that.
What about us "dumb Swedes?" We gotta story, too.
Read "The Emigrants" by Wilhelm Moberg. (or see the movie, starring Max von Snydow and Liv Ulmann) or both.
Wagon from home, to coastal town of Kalmar. Thence ship to Hull England. Train across England to Liverpool. Ship from Liverpool to New York.
Steamship up the Hudson. Canal boat across New York state, to Lake Erie. Another boat around the Great Lakes to Illinois. Another boat up the Mississippi.
Finally from Wisconsin on foot, to the Chisago Lakes settlements in eastern Minnesota. This group traveled thusly in about 1853.
Might be a mistake in the route, for I'm doing it from memory several years after reading the series of books.
Author described in much detail the hardships, including the fact a quarter of the passenger often died crossing the Atlantic.
Many Immigrant groups stopped at the eastern shoreline, but as you see the Scandihoovians undertook a very difficult route, to wind up in lands colder and more hostile, than their homes back in Sweden.
Homeschool, homeschool, homeschool.
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