Posted on 09/05/2001 2:22:33 AM PDT by 2Trievers
THE BEGINNING of another school year affords opportunities for politicians to complain that not enough money is being spent on education and for others to observe the disappointing results from the record amounts of money that have already been spent on our public schools. Occasionally, one sees evidence of how young minds are being manipulated in these institutions to accept a certain point of view about politics and the world. One such example is found in a publication called, “Editorial Cartoons by Kids—2001,” published by News Currents of Madison, Wis., which describes itself as “a weekly current events discussion program (with print and Internet components) ... (covering) important and interesting news and feature stories for students in a radically old-fashioned way ... “ They have the radical part right, although by that they mean, “we rely on the skill of teachers and the curiosity of motivated kids.” Looking at the editorial cartoons drawn by children from kindergarten to high school reveals an ideology that’s mostly liberal. Jake Zingler, a fourth grader in Albuquerque, N.M., won second place in the contest for his cartoon of three pigs — labeled “rich,” “GOP Congress” and “big business” — eating at a trough. A sign over the trough reads, “Bush Tax Cut.” Keenan Fernandez, a sixth grader from Albany, N.Y., has a man standing in front of George W. Bush. The man says, “I think, therefore I am.” In the next panel, President Bush evaporates. The point seems to be that Bush doesn’t think, therefore he isn’t. Natasha Bax, a Los Angeles fifth grader, has drawn two restroom doors. One has a male symbol and is labeled (Attorney General) “John Ashcroft’s Office.” The other has a female symbol and is labeled “Out of Order.” It doesn’t get any better in junior high. Breanne Sullivan, a seventh grader from Wilmington, Del., has drawn figures representing President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. They stand on a “yellow brick road.” The cartoon is titled, “The Wizard of Oz Party” and is subtitled, “1 doesn’t have a brain. 1 doesn’t have a heart.” Amelia Quist, of Watertown, Wis., depicts President Bush violating church-state separation by destroying the Constitution. Several entries take the Democrats’ view that Bush stole the election, and that Republicans are polluters and don’t care about the poor. Will Hubbard, a 12th grader in North Palm Beach, Fla., has drawn a cartoon featuring a chess board. The king is topped with a dollar sign and the queen with a cross. The rooks are the GOP elephant symbol, the bishops are Cheney and Ashcroft, and the pawn is President Bush. Hubbard won first place in the “senior level” competition. Mike Luckovich, editorial cartoonist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, praises the work: “The kids are not only aware of what’s going on in the country and the world, they also have the intelligence to comment on issues in a cogent and often funny way,” he states on the back of the publication. It is good that children are thinking about their world, but that they mostly reflect a single point of view is the stuff of nations that indoctrinate children. Woodrow Wilson, one of our most idealistic Presidents, said, “The great melting-pot of America, the place where we are all made Americans of, is the public school, where men of every race, and of every origin, and of every station of life send their children, or ought to send their children, and where, being mixed together, they are all infused with the American spirit and developed into the American man and the American woman.” Not anymore. If these editorial cartoons accurately depict what’s going into and coming out of young American minds, public education, which increasingly fails the nation in too many categories, is succeeding in churning out more young people made in the liberal image. This imposition of liberalism is being accomplished with the tax dollars of many people who do not share a liberal point of view. No wonder liberals oppose freedom of school choice for parents. Cal Thomas is a political columnist based in Virginia and a commentator on FOX News Channel.
Yeah...because the "choice" in many cases is a Catholic school...
Our Founding Fathers may have missed the boat on the First Amendment. They forgot "Freedom from Propaganda."
John Stossel had a recent hour special on the environment....he asked kids questions and they got the wrong answer - on the facts - but got the right answer for the teachers.
UH-oh, Ohio, more evidence to favor my argument!
Then all is working according to plan ... right on schedule.
The DJ was astounded that the youth of America was so "open minded", but in reality they were just parroting what their teachers had told them--same thing with these cartoons.
Don't worry, .30, I agree with everything Cal Thomas said here. The problem of liberal brainwashing in the vast majority of public schools is severe, as it is in almost all colleges and Universities. The truth of that doesn't change the fact that there are exceptions.
Many kids who are completely sheltered from reality implode when they first encounter it. And sometimes kids who are armed with the truth and infused with confidence grow strong, and end up more conservative than their parents.... Right there in those nasty old public schools. :o)
No doubt Jake told his mom and dad to send their $600.00 refund straight back to the IRS instead of buying him a new skateboard, Nintendo, and the latest Nikes because if they didn't, that would make Jake awfully "piggish".
If I had a kid and that happened at his/her school, I'd send them to school with pencil nubs and teach them (and their classmates) the "there's a sucker born every minute" and "a fool and his money are soon parted" lessons.
So who are these guys, anyway? Remember, these cartoons don't necessarily reflect the ones sent in, they reflect the ones for which these "News Currents" folks have decided to award the prizes. And if they're anything like their Madison environment, they think Trotsky was middle-of-the-road.
Shortly after that I received a copy of the propaganda newsletter the local school district publishes with my tax dollars. They had published a group of top essays on government. I almost gagged. Although the words were different, every essay said essentially the same thing. It was an ultraliberal position on an issue. No, certainly the high school teacher wasn't foisting her own political positions off on her students. /sarcasm again
The schools today are propaganda machines and training centers for the left. If you care about your children -- even a little bit -- homeschool!
Absolutely right. The saddest thing is that this includes most Christian universities today too. The liberal institutions are the creators of most PhDs, even those who teach at conservative Christian schools.
Unfortunately, you are right that it is also true in most Christian universities. Many of today's professors are products of the 60's, where the ideology, either implied (in Christian schools) or spoken (in secular Universities), was that all educated people were liberal. I think this was particularly true in the areas of Political Science and History.
Now all those mind-numbed, brainwashed students are professors who are feeding the same garbage to the next generation, and now, as then, only the strong survive with their values intact.
Sadly, some of them are pastors, too. There were something like 18 [wolves in sheep's clothing] pastors who signed a pro-homosexual-agenda petition, which they paid to run as an ad in many Vermont papers, when the Civil Unions Bill was coming around for votes in the VT House and Senate. These were not just leaders at the Universalist churches, either; they were from Methodist and Episcopalian, as well as other lesser known denominations.
Thankfully, God has set HIS pastors in key areas, even in Vermont. There were Evangelicals, Baptists, Jews, and Catholics on our side, among others.
Many Bible believing Christians were scared out of their socks (and their pews) to learn where their leaders stood on the homosexual issue. It became the line that separated the sheep from the goats.
You know that to be a fact? And they couldn't be repeating what their parents have said at home?
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