Posted on 02/05/2007 8:50:29 AM PST by LNewman
"Do your students say the Pledge of Allegiance?"
That was the question I posed in several ways to Marcos Aguilar, a founder and now the Tlayecantzi or "school guide" at Academia de Semillas del Pueblo Xinaxcalmecac.
You see, it's charter school renewal season in Los Angeles and Semillas del Pueblo ("Seeds of the People"), a 318-student, K-7 charter in El Sereno, is one of 18 schools whose contracts will soon get a thumbs up or thumbs down from the Los Angeles Unified School District.
...
But what about the trickier, more philosophical, some would say irrelevant: "To what extent do you impart the values of American democracy?"
...
Last May, a KABC radio talk-show host made a big deal of the school, accusing it of fostering separatism and bigotry...
Now that Semillas del Pueblo is up for renewal, the founders, trustees and many supportive families who send their children to the school are clearly worried.
...
A website for the hyperventilating Mexica movement (www.mexicauprising.net) posted Aguilar's remarks along with a letter from the school protesting the "hate speech" against it, further enflaming blogland.
...
As a starting point into this thorny area, I raised the question of whether students say the Pledge of Allegiance. The conversation spiraled into a rhetorical vortex where "yes" or "no" was supplanted with a scolding about mainstream public schools' failure to teach the U.S. Constitution's roots in indigenous cultures, a lecture on Europeans' slaughter of this continent's original inhabitants, a rap about the importance of "choice" as a democratic principle, assurances that the school teaches to state standards, and this: "I'm sure many gang members say the Pledge of Allegiance.".
...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
BTW, the Academia de Semillas del Pueblo Xinaxcalmecac thug that assaulted the radio station reporter is scheduled for arraignment tomorrow.
You figure that Pravada, I mean Izvestia, I mean The People's Daily, I mean the LA Times would write positively that this school did not have the Pledge.
Here is one old thread of an interview with Aguilar with some info on it. Also, there are several other articles posted under keyword: Marcos Aguilar
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.