Free Republic

However, in Lumberton, Texas, this week, high school girls were made to wear burqas as part of a CSCOPE study of Islam. One student quoted the teacher as saying, “We are going to work to change your perception of Islam.” The teacher in the burqa lesson, according to a student, also said, “I do not necessarily agree with this, but I am supposed to teach you that we are not to call these people terrorists anymore, but freedom fighters.” Critics argue that this should not be a teacher’s role, and are concerned that CSCOPE curriculum appears agenda-driven. According to a...

Stan Hartzler has been a math teacher for a long time. The 40-year teacher has written textbooks, taught college math, and given hundreds of presentations on how to teach his subject. So when he was hired in August 2012 to launch a robust attack on Luling Independent School District's failing math scores, he brought a solid understanding of what his students needed. But Hartzler would soon become a casualty in a growing state controversy when, shortly after his hire, his superintendent adopted a new teaching system called CSCOPE. It organized each day's classroom topics — minute to minute — and...

AUSTIN, Texas – Parents of school children across Texas now are gaining access to a previously secret public school curriculum, according to an announcement from a state lawmaker. The CSCOPE program, an online offering that until now has prohibited, under penalty of law, teachers from sharing the lessons with parents, stirred up controversy because of its various lessons – some that were taken offline after the questions arose. Among those issues were that the curriculum at one point taught the Boston Tea Party was an act of terrorism and Christians were cannibals, and forced students to draw a socialist flag...