Posted on 12/24/2001 4:18:54 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
In his December 7th column, "Ask My Permission Before You Exercise Free Speech!" Review columnist Joe Sabia reminded us of the haunting specter that American tax dollars are being spent on dumbing down each successive generation. Left-leaning Ithaca is no exception as it is now Ithaca City School District (ICSD) policy to school local youngsters in a "politically correct orthodoxy whose sole commandment is Thou Shalt Not Offend."
The Ithaca City School District has recently mandated that elementary school students in the first and second grades receive an actual grade on how well they "respect others of varying cultures, genders, experiences, and abilities." Now, six-year-old Johnny can get an extra quarter from mommy and daddy just by being "tolerant."
This absurdity is the first thing noted on the progress report. Under the heading "Lifelong Learning Skills," it appears well before social studies, science, reading or writing. Apparently, the educational "experts" at ICSD think parents should more concerned with diversity training than with whether or not their child is learning the basic skills of a traditional education.
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Ithaca Schools Grade Kids on Compliance with Liberal Agenda
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/590768/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/590768/posts Ithaca Grades Kids on Compliance with Multicultural Agenda
*To teachers: Be sure children are fully aware that white anglo-saxon protestants, especially if they hold conservative political views are excluded from those who should be respected. They are the scum of the earth and merit derision at every turn. Children who heap scorn on people fitting this description should be highly praised and given extra credit.
Our universities and colleges are still belching out teachers with this philosophy; they still study this Marxist while in school!
First and second grade are not play schools, that is what kindergarten is for. I was reading and writing by the end of second grade, long before 'play dates' and political correctness became the norm. Tolerance is taught in the home or it should be, it is called respect.
Get a grip Ithaca, you're paying mighty tax dollars for your child to learn how to read and write, not how to be Politically Correct! How is the latter going to put food on the table someday?
Read The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America - A Chronological Paper Trail : The Feel-Good Curriculum: The Dumbing Down of America's Kids in the Name of Self-Esteem by Maureen Stout. These two books are a must for every parent and grandparent.
Congressman Billybob
It is based upon a flawed belief that Western civilization is inherently racist because it believes that the morals and values in some cultures should be adhered to, while those in other cultures should not be. For example, it would be "racist" to think that it is better to treat women the way we do in America than the way they are treated in Afghanistan. It would be "ethnocentric" to say that the United States is better than the Sudan because we abolished slavery 136 years ago.
In this context, all cultures are considered to be equal. No culture or country can be said to be better or worse than another. In other words, we shouldn't condemn the Sudanese because they still practice slavery, we just need to acknowledge that they are different. And these are all differences we must cherish.
This is what provides the framework that governs our children's education. A traditional curriculum is supposedly biased in favor of the historical, scientific, mathematical, philosophical, and literary accomplishments of Western civilization. It is alleged to be Eurocentric because it conveys the predominance and superiority of a culture that Americans directly inherited from Western Europe. Mutliculturalists argue that a Eurocentric curriculum inferiorizes other cultures and injures the self-esteem of minority students. They attempt to lift this "oppression" by down playing the achievements of western influence, while at the same time highlighting the achievements of non-Westerners and minorities. Never mind that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, it was a black man who invented the streetsweeper. Forget about Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephone, make sure you know it was a black man that invented the traffic light. By learning this, young people will recognize that these groups are in no way inferior.
Don't be fooled by the leftist propaganda. If multiculturalism was truly about exposing students to how the larger world works, it wouldn't be controversial. Who could be against teaching kids about Confucius, Sun Tzu, and Al-Farabi? The debate is not about whether or not to respect or study others, but about how to study the West and other cultures. The multicultural crowd does this by attacking American traditions, our values, and our morals. The say that truth and falsehood, right and wrong, justice and injustice are all in the eyes of the beholder--that they cannot be truly known.
But everyone knows that's bunk. The biggest embarrassment to multiculturalism is scientific fact. The claim of Western superiority has, for centuries, decisively rested on science and technology, which offers access to both the laws of nature and to the material benefits of exploiting the natural world. It would be utterly ridiculous to claim that each culture has a valid claim to perceiving the physical world. The truth is the truth. Or does it make sense to say that the earth is round for us, but not for other cultures? If we concede that Kepler's laws of planetary motion are universal, it is possible that other things could have originated in the West yet are universal in application.
Take for example representative self-government. Is that not superior to a theocracy? Is America not better off now with a republic that she was with a monarchy? Are our people now not as free as under the British? Where did it originate? The West.
What about our economic prosperity? Capitalism is undeniably a better economic system than communism. Countries with the highest standards of living in the world have a free-market system. In contrast, communism has become synonymous with economic ruin. The reason? The former creates wealth, the latter just divides it up. One is a product of the West, the other of the East.
Basically, it all comes down to this: knowledge is more important than diversity. A true education is one that is aimed at expanding one's knowledge to make a good person and a good citizen. To do this, a school must expose students to the "best of what has been thought and said." The best can come from a variety of cultures, not just the West. However, it just so happens that some cultures produce more of the best things than others.
Bump.
What I want to know is, Who invented the red light?
| What I want to know is, Who invented the red light? |
| Karl Marx. |
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