Posted on 09/06/2009 6:23:17 AM PDT by Freedom Dignity n Honor
Host Tucker Carlson, asked experts, teachers, publishers and parents the same question: "Do you know what is inside your children's textbooks?" From kindergarten through college, we found staggering errors and omissions which may be pushing agendas, hidden and otherwise.
We spoke to the author of "The Language Police," education historian Diane Ravitch, who said textbook publishers censor images or words they deem to be controversial in children’s textbooks. She told us that publishers pander to special interest groups, and assemble bias and sensitivity review committees. These committees decide what words to ban or redefine, and even what images are deemed offensive.
And we examined some college textbooks both in print and in digital forms. We found a glaring mistake in an expensive history book written by Alan Brinkley, Provost at New York’s Columbia University.
And in Fairfax County Virginia, questions remain about what textbooks are used in the private Islamic Saudi Academy. The ISA teaches about 1000 students each year pre-K — 12. Questions have been raised about its textbooks at least since 2006.
This summer, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, ISA’s 1999 valedictorian, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a 2002 Al Qaeda plot to assassinate President George W. Bush.
The ISA is wholly owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and teaches students from textbooks, which according to a report by a Saudi scholar interviewed by FOX News, continues to “propagate an ideology of hate to the unbeliever...
snip
We tracked down two American college professors who were paid by the ISA to review these textbooks. They signed a letter obtained by FOX News that the ISA's 2008-2009 textbooks' do not contain inflammatory material…” One of them sat down for an interview; the other refused.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
There would be charity for people who couldn’t afford schools.
Healthy citizens are as necessary as educated ones but we don’t have socialized medicine.
What gives you the right to force a parent to send their kids to school?
There are kids who would be better off out of school learning a trade than warming a seat and taking the teachers time.
RIGHT!!!
Government schools have no place in a free society.
Back in the “olden days,” didn’t the local community pay what they could for a teacher and a schoolhouse?
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Please read post #46.
No, government schools can not be reformed “if only” we could go back to the old days where local government threatened citizens with police force to pay taxes for an educational service that parents wanted for free.
Again, please read post #46. The problem with government schools is that they are ( an always have been) **socialism**! It is impossible to reform socialism!
Jefferson would disagree with you as would most of the founders of the country who believed that an educated populace was vital to a functioning democratic republic.
Since Carlson joined Fox News Channel he has had a make over...he is definitely more serious, and without the bow tie, he doesn't look so silly and sophomoric.
My husband and I thought Carlson, the father of 4 kids, did a great job with his text book show and that he was very knowledgable about the subject, which was both shocking and enlightening....we think it is a must for all parents to see. It ranks right up there with the information that Glenn Beck is getting out on his programs. Glenn, especially has a lot of courage to say it like it is. We are definitely praying for Glenn's safety.
We all should be thanking Rupert Murdoch and Fox News Channel for airing these programs so that we are becoming more aware of the communist and Muslim philosophies that are progressing much too fast right under neath our noses. We also have to be thankful for Hannity and O'Reilly, and even Greta, especially in her questions concerning the one thousand pages Health Care debacle, is showing lots of spunk these days. Without these Fox Stars we would not have near the information we need to keep informed about what the left is aiming to accomplish. For a while Rush was the loudest voice for conservatism and good old American Patriotism, but there is so much out there now that he can't do it alone anymore. We need all these voices to be heard.
And thanks to Free Republic for its forum where we can learn and debate on what is going on in this country.
Buyer beware! Anyone looking for a Catholic school should be sure they are buying Catholicism and not Marxist Liberation Theology.
You have a point there. The poor who want to go to school could via charity and those that don’t, learn a trade.
People hate it when I point out that putting their kids in government schools they are feeding at the public trough, just like the people who move into government projects.
People who put their kids in government schools are having their lifestyles subsidized by others just like people on food stamps or taking WIC checks are. But they hate to have that fact pointed out and really hate to face it.
Yep!
The beauty of patronizing Catholic schools, or any other capitalist school, is you can stop buying their service if they fail to meet your expectations.
Rush’s biggest sin was to carry too much water for George W. Bush, which he later apologized for. He also does like his time on the golf course. Oh well, we have Glenn Beck now to help out.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.
Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
Get the feds and the states out of school decisions; and put it back in the hands of your local elected parents/friends.
Look, I’m not a fan of public schools but that’s because public schools are for everyone and I didn’t want my children being exposed to well, that. It was simply a mandatory that for 8 years of their life they would be in Catholic schools with a 90% Catholic student body because I wanted them to develop a strong sense of community identity that they will need when they get out in the world and have to deal with non-Catholics. When I did send some to private schools that were not run by the church I picked schools that still had large Catholic student bodies. That’s just me. I didn’t want my children going to schools where they would have had classmates from Evangelical Protestant religions as well as the kids who might have atheist or agnostic parents (as rare as that would be here) but that’s just me. Other parents might want their kids exposed to that kind of background
However, we do need to have public schooling to remain economically competitive and also because we’ve had it for 150 years at least in most parts of the country and it has become a time honored American tradition. Now, I support charter schools and the like but ripping up the public schools is a bad idea. It’s not like a gun is cocked to your head and you’re forced to go or anything. It’s simply that many parents don’t want to make the financial sacrifices to send their kids to private schools but I have seen more than a few kids at my kids schools be picked up in 30 year old rusted out cars so I know there are people who make the sacrifices.
....and at one point, in grade school, even part of the Bible was taught.
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Please read post #46
This is another “if only” argument. Government schools are OK “if only” a parent is involved enough to deflect 99.999% of the brainwashing...
Another is “if only” the bible would be taught...
All government schools are godless in their worldview. **ALL** of them! All government schools teach children how to live their lives without God. All government schools teach children how to evaluate everything they learn from a godless perspective. They swim in a sea of godlessness for 6 to 7 hours a day ( or more) 180 days a year for 13 or more years!
1) This is not religiously neutral and is fundamentally the taxpayer establishment of godlessness by the government. This is a fundamental violation of our human and First Amendment rights against government imposed religion.
2) Maybe highly dedicated parents can overcome 99.999% of the godless indoctrination but why should they be forced to do this? Why should taxpayers be forced to pay for it?
3) I bet the family fortune that the Bible course taught was merely for cultural literacy. It is was likely a “Bible as literature” course and taught children to **ignore** the religious principles and to merely focus on the cute stories. Well...Courses that do this teach children to think of the Bible and the God who authored it as “cute”.
Exactly!
While it sucks not getting credit where it is due, you have to be thankful your work is getting out and aired. If you hadn’t done the ground work this wouldn’t be happening, pat yourself on the back. Most of us have been where you are at right now, not nationally of course, but where we work(ed) and have had our thunder stolen. If it benefits the country then you will have accomplished what you wanted.That is what you wanted isn’t it, to help the country’s children and not for self gratification?
We don’t need socialized schools to remain economically competitive any more than we need socialized medicine to remain economically competitive, although that is one of the arguments the national socialists are using to push Obama Care.
And just because we’ve had bad policy for 150 years doesn’t mean we should keep it. We were under a king for more than 150 years but we changed that.
One of the worst aspects of socialized schooling is it teaches kids by example that socialism is acceptable. It sets in motion the thought that if we have government education, why not have government medicine, and government housing, and government food, etc.
Nobody puts a gun to people’s heads and forces them into government housing projects either. Like putting kids in government schools it is a choice.
I commend you for using capitalist schools rather than having your lifestyle subsidized by others. Everyone should follow your example.
Please read post #46.
Government schools can NOT be reformed! They **are** ( and always were) a socialist scheme. Socialism can not be reformed!!!!
Your statement is another one of the futile “if only ...” arguments used by people who believe government schools can be reformed. In your case you believe that “if only” schools boards were more conservative, “if only” decisions were made on a more local level the government schools would be reformed.
Wrong!
All taxpayer supported schools have **always** taught children that the government can force their neighbor to pay for a service that their parents want for FREE! Do this for 13 or more years and it is a short step from wanting free schooling to wanting free medicine, retirement, disability, health care, home heating, transportation, food, welfare checks, housing, clothing,...and even free entertainment!
Government schools really are recent in our history. The last states to mandate them was not until the beginning of the 1900s. My mother, by the way, is still alive and is 96 years old and a member of the “Greatest Generation”. She was born in 1913. Our county's high school is celebrating it 100th anniversary this year.
It is my belief that the reason FDR and his “New Deal” came to pass (and the income tax, as well) was due to my mother's generation and my grandparents being educated in compulsory attendance, compulsory tax-funded schools. She and my grandparents learned to be comfortable with socialism by attending socialist government schools.
Jefferson would disagree with you as would most of the founders of the country who believed that an educated populace was vital to a functioning democratic republic.
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They would be **appalled** to see our monstrosity of government owned and run K-12 schooling!
They likely believed that citizens should be fed as well, but we don’t have government owned and run farms and grocery stores. I doubt that our Founding Fathers would have supported that.
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