Posted on 03/19/2024 6:32:40 PM PDT by DoodleBob
A New York University professor claimed last week homeschooled students can easily become victims of indoctrination.
During an American Federation of Teachers (AFT) book club meeting, Ruth Ben-Ghiat argued the recent opposition against public schooling stems originates with authoritarians who want to indoctrinate their children via homeschooling.
One of the reasons that they all go after education and one of the reasons that schools are being targeted ... A big thing is to destroy liberal, democratic models of secular education – get everybody out of the system, put them in homeschools so they can be indoctrinated,” Ben-Ghiat told AFT President Randi Weingarten, who hosted the discussion.
Schools encourage community values, which people supportive of dictatorial beliefs seek to erode, according to the professor.
“It also has to do with destroying teamwork, solidarity, empathy – civic values – and that’s what we teach in school, even if we’re teaching history or english,” Ben-Ghiat remarked. “The rituals of schooling, the rituals of being together at recess – all of that is teaching people to respect each other, ideally ... to bring together all kinds of people.”
She suggested authoritarians want to advance racism by weakening public education.
All of this is anathema to authoritarians who want the end of empathy, the end of solidarity,” the professor said. “They don’t want familiarity because racism is lessened when there is familiarity, when there is teamwork, when there is friendship.”
Those targeting schools seek to undermine democracy with their educational viewpoints, according to Ben-Ghiat.
Neither Ben-Ghiat nor the AFT provided The National Desk further comment Monday.
Angela Morabito, a spokesperson for the Defense of Freedom Institute and former press secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, pushed back against Ben-Ghiat's comments in a statement to The National Desk.
"Teacher union bosses and their allies are major sponsors of indoctrination in public schools. In fact, many families choose homeschooling to escape the indoctrination going on in their local school district," Morabito said. "Homeschooling is an important and valuable option for many families, and they deserve support - not condemnation by activist educators who are terrified of parents having options outside of their government-assigned school.”
Despite Ben-Ghiat's claims, many states have recently sought to challenge what they perceive as indoctrination in public schools. Last month, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita launched a portal for parents to report “objectionable” curricula.
Our kids need to focus on fundamental educational building blocks, NOT ideology that divides kids from their parents and normal society,” Rokita wrote. “The media and schools themselves have continued to deny that this indoctrination is happening here in Indiana.”
Upon its launch, portal entries included a “gender-support” plan, which directed faculty to refrain from disclosing information concerning a student’s gender identity.
Other content users submitted involved a Pride flag with a Black Lives Matter symbol, along with race and gender-based fairs and scholarships. The attorney general stated the portal helps parents and teachers.
“We not only want to help empower parents,” he said. “We also want to help empower excellent educators. In some cases, district bureaucrats suppress the conscientious efforts of caring and well-qualified teachers. Our portal is a place where educators, too, can submit examples of materials they find objectionable.”
Her most recent book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (2020; paperback, 2021), looks at how illiberal leaders use propaganda, corruption, violence, and machismo – and how they can be defeated. It was the first book to examine Trump in the perspective of 100 years of authoritarian history, and the first book to include masculinity as a tool of autocratic rule. In it, she predicted that if he lost the 2020 presidential election, he would not leave office quietly.
Her work has been recognized with Guggenheim, NEH, Fulbright, and other fellowships, a residency at the American Academy in Rome, and a 2023 Maggie and Dan Inouye Distinguished Chair of Democratic Ideals at the University of Hawai’i.
Ruth’s mission of civic education led her to found Lucid, a Substack newsletter on threats to democracy, in the wake of the Jan. 6 coup attempt. She advised the House Select Jan. 6 Committee and wrote a report on Donald Trump’s incitement of violence as an authoritarian strategy. And as an advisor to Protect Democracy, she was part of a 2019 Amicus Curiae brief in the context of PEN America’s lawsuit against the Trump administration’s attempts to stifle press freedoms.
Ruth is an MSNBC opinion columnist and frequently provides television commentary on that network. Her insight into the authoritarian playbook has made her an expert source for television, radio, podcasts, and online events around the globe. She gives hundreds of interviews a year and also writes for CNN, The Economist, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic.
She has appeared in many documentaries about dictators and threats to democracy, such as How To Become a Tyrant, The Dictators’ Playbook, and Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump. She also serves as a historical consultant for film and television productions, including Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning Pinocchio.
Ruth relaxes by doing yoga, traveling, spending time with family and friends, and listening to electronica.
Bich!
Ruth Hyphenated-name is obvously a new age “pseudo professor” with a box-top degree in underwater sex change dancing from Wazzamatta-U (any Ivy League joke home qualifies for this name).
As with all of her ilk, she is a glittering jewel of colossal ignorance. Imagine how her meager brain would explode had she attended even the most simple of frosh STEM courses.
That would explain why that movie both sucked and blew.
Pish-tosh.
She wants white kids to get their reparations beat-downs, to knock their white privilege out of their skulls.
Guarantee she hasn’t spent 5 seconds teaching at a diverse public school.
so the new definition of authoritarian is “Good Parent”
not sure I can agree, but I have been wrong before
Why do we give these Left looney crockpots recognition is beyond me.
Whose children? Their children. Not the state's children.
They’re all just looking for attention and all too often, we’re falling for it. Let’s start seeing these bullies for what they are.
There is a definite plan to crush homeschooling using the media lapdogs and the punitive laws in Dem states.
Michigan AG, lawmakers call for homeschool oversight.
Detroit Free Press
Dec 6, 2023 — Attorney General Dana Nessel and a Democratic state lawmaker are calling for more state oversight into homeschooling.
((They are using one alleged child abuse case there to paint all home schoolers with a broad brush of being low class patriotic flag wavers who don’t accept the glories of Marxist Socialist indoctrination in public schools.))
AG Nessel is the one famous for “Drag queens are fun. All schools need a drag queen.” She is the first lesbian state attorney general in US history.
What a load of crap!
The problem is, public schools are cram jammed with kids who are being abused at home and the schools do nothing about it.
Kids are in real trouble today.
A Catholic priest radio host and author (and outspoken gun rights advocate) Fr. Mitch Pacwa said about child molestation and abuse that the percentage of guilty priests and bishops is far less than the “public school teachers and staff members” and people in other professions. He still said one case is a case too many.
Sad.
she ticks an awful lot of boxes or should I say raises a lot of red flag warnings to be avoided at all costs
Yeah, they try.
Also wanted to add that the most dangerous introduction to a child is their mother saying “I want you to meet my new boyfriend. He’s going to come live with us.”
Highest percentage of abuse.
“Hey, we were supposed to indoctrinate those kids!”
The first thing he did was have iron auto opening gates and fencing erected. That is bad manners around here. A Yale professor does the same thing but he didn't buy. He rents an air B&B for $250 a night and expenses it to his department. He also doesn't actually go to a classroom or lecture hall.
Seems to be selective virtue there.
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