Students Call for Banning of Peace Studies Class

Washington Post (aka Pravda on the Potomac) ^ | February 26, 2006 | Lori Aratani

[freespirited]

For months, 17-year-old Andrew Saraf had been troubled by stories he was hearing about a Peace Studies course offered at his Bethesda high school.

Last Saturday, he decided to act. He sat down at his computer and typed out his thoughts on why the course should be banned .

"I know I'm not the first to bring this up but why has there been no concerted effort to remove Peace Studies from among the B-CC courses?" he wrote in his post to the school's group e-mail list. "The 'class' is headed by an individual with a political agenda, who wants to teach students the 'right' way of thinking by giving them facts that are skewed in one direction."

He hit send.

Within a few hours, the normally staid e-mail list BCCnet -- a site for announcements, job postings and other housekeeping details -- was ablaze with chatter. By the time Principal Sean Bulson checked his BlackBerry on Sunday, there were more than 150 postings from parents and students -- some ardently in support, some ardently against the course.

Since its launch at the school in 1988, Peace Studies has provoked lively debate, but the attempt to have the course removed from the curriculum is a first, Bulson said. The challenge by two students comes as universities and even some high schools across the country are under close scrutiny by a growing number of critics who believe that the U.S. education system is being hijacked by liberal activists.

At Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Peace Studies is taught by Colman McCarthy, a former Washington Post reporter and founder and president of the Center for Teaching Peace. ...McCarthy makes no effort to disguise his opposition to war, violence and animal testing.

"Unless we teach them peace, someone else will teach them violence," he said.

[wita]

It's gotten so bad, I need a heating pad to warm my cockles, but then it is still winter.

[wita]

Most times, that dreaded moral compass allows one to sense the pile long before one has to smell it, touch it, taste it, or shudder, wallow in it. That is why the dung hill smells as it does. If you have disregarded all of the other indicators, and now find yourself in range of those heady and siren like odors, you are suddenly awake to the danger. Credit FR with giving most of us, a heightened sense of dunghillrecognition.

[DustyMoment]

"Unless we teach them peace, someone else will teach them violence," he said.

Holy Crapola, Batman!! What a pantload of leftist gibberish.

But, it is fitting since it comes from a FORMER WaPo reporter.




(How bad do you have to be not to be able to keep your job as a reporter for the WaPo??)

[LS]

On our student evaluations, we instituted five additional questions at my request that indicated a) how many times students attended class; b) how much homework they did; c) how seriously they took class so that we could immediately discard any evals from people who were seldom there.

[armydawg1]

"the U.S. education system is being hijacked by liberal activists."

I think the past tense is better suited here.

[Chanticleer]

"Peace Studies is one of the things that makes B-CC unique," Bulson said. "It's been an institution here, and kids from all across the spectrum have taken it. It's not about indoctrination. It's about debate and dialogue."

"I've never said my views are right and theirs are wrong," he said about the students who take his course. "In fact, I cherish conservative dissenters. I wish we could get more of them in."

Doesn't sound like there's much debate or dialogue in the class. Maybe they could bring in some guest dissenters -- someone from the NRA perhaps?

[MarxSux]

"When I went to University..." Canajun, eh?

[jiggyboy]

"Unless we teach them peace, someone else will teach them violence," he said.

He's right; there are plenty of Muslims out there happy for "peaceful" victims.

[YourAdHere]

Good sign that the kid who started this was named Saraf. One would think he'd be the class's biggest supporter.

[kevkrom]

Students rising up in protest against the intellectual oppression of the barking moonbat class. How this warms the cockles of my aging heart.

What the aging hippies forget to realize is that they are now "the establishment" that the younger generation will rebell against...

[ClaireSolt]

I see a lot to disagree with here, such as, students don't know what to expect in this popular class. Where is the approved curriculum and syllabus?

Gimmicky courses can crowd out solid fare. I asked my son why he took "Bible as Literature" from an aethist in college. He said it was hard to avoid the black and feminist activists and fulfill his humanities requirement. Actually, he took it twice to get a good grade, because of the bias of the first prof.

Peace is a serious subject that should not be reduced to giggles about urinating turkeys. Also, it cannot be studied without war.

[steelcurtain]

At a nearby college, a psychology prof and an art prof of my acquaintance - both extremely liberal and self-righteous about it - got together and created a course called "The Art of Science of Peace," for which they were honored by some pacifist group. I have no idea whether any college students actually sign up for the class, though. A lot of college students these days are more concerned with taking classes that prepare them for the working world, not some artsy fartsy pacifist Kumbayah nonsense.

[poinq]

The course should be named liberal thought, not peace studies, because he vears off the subject of peace to his other concerns like animal rights. This is like a political class in Russia.

They say its worth the time because it invokes discussion. But it can do that by discussing conservative values first and then we can discuss those.

[freepatriot32]

aaah huh huh huh huh huh you said cockles.

[wintertime]

The solution is complete separation of SCHOOL and state.

This is another example among HUNDREDS possibly thousands in which a government school is establishing the worldview of some ( with religious, political, and cultural consequences) while trashing and undermining the most cherished beliefs of others.

It is another example of government schools demanding that taxpayers pay for an agenda that can never be neutral in content or consequences.

Let's really examine the power of government schools:

1) Government schools run a price-fixed monopoly, and then when private schools are scarce and exclusive they threaten parents with police, court, and foster care action if their children don't show up in the government assigned indoctrination camp. Some "choice"! (sigh)

2) Government also have the power to sell at auction the home and/or business of any taxpayer who refuses to pay for the government school agenda. The government can and WILL force citizens to pay indoctrination of children in a worldview that establishes the worldview of some ( with religious, political, and cultural consequences) while trashing those of others.

So...when did it become OK for political bullies to impose their worldview view on resistant parents and children? Don't we have a federal and state constitutions to protect us from this human abuse? And,,,,since children are involved isn't this Child abuse?

Also,,,It is immoral and abusive to FORCE immature children and youth into a government indoctrination environment where they are surrounded by teachers and other children who attack and undermine the most cherished traditions taught in the home. When and why did citizens give government this much power over our minds and thoughts?

Government schools are human rights abusers and therefore child abusers.

[reformedliberal]

Well, Class of 1965, here, and no one ever asked us for evaluations! There were Required Courses, one of which was Western Civilization. There were Honors Seminars, where we got to sit around big conference tables and debate/argue/defend our points of view for/against whatever, with the emphasis being on how well we marshaled our facts and how well we presented/defended them, as well as several papers plus a term paper on assigned topics. There was Rhetoric, which was required and for those who haven't any idea what that might have been, it was 3 hours 2x/week where we wrote essays and were graded on spelling, grammar, cogency, writing ability and penmanship.

We had great professors, lousy instructors, TAs who could barely speak understandable English and pretty much no recourse: pass the course, keep up the grade point, go on probation, graduate, or leave school.


When I first heard about Student Evaluations, I was a bit shocked. Then, as I realized just who had become university professors, I hoped it would allow students to rebel against the tripe and the brainwashing. If that is happening, then good. If all it is a chance for whiners to excuse their own inability to think or do required course work or an opportunity for payback against an instructor, then I still question it.

Sixty-seven-year-old professional leftists shouldn't be shocked if their students question their authority. When they were students, they demanded the right to question authority. So now they are the authorities and the students are questioning them. Perhaps they need to examine their own assumptions.

[sport]

Good for them.

There may be hope for the Country Still.

[SuziQ]

"I've never said my views are right and theirs are wrong," he said about the students who take his course. "In fact, I cherish conservative dissenters. I wish we could get more of them in."

Oh, I'm sure he would, so that he could ridicule them, and encourage the other students to do the same. Why WOULD a conservative student take this class? It would be better for them to take a class that could truly EDUCATE them about the world in general, not some aging peacenik's opinion of how the world SHOULD work.

[2nd amendment mama]

From the B-CC website:

Peace Studies Participation and Grading Criteria

Introduction

Peace Studies is created to expose students to nonviolent theory/theorists, contemporary issues, and current events in an effort to force students to form or reform their opinions about these subjects. The goal of the course is to broaden horizons about ways of resolving conflict, achieving goals, and even choosing a career. It is important that students remain flexible as the semester unfolds. Due to current events and the schedule of guest speakers the order of events may change or be interrupted.

Very scary!!!!