Is this happening at the schools in YOUR area?

March, 2003:

(you don't think THIS is NEW, do you!? And every WORD is true)

It’s a crisp, clear, palm-tree swaying Santa Monica day. High school students are arriving by foot and by car. Parents drop their kids off, waving goodbye and watching as their kids disappear into the packs of waiting friends. Soon, last minute cigarettes are thrown to the ground and the morning din calms down as kids start filing into the classroom. The teacher bursts through the door, briefcase in hand, and greets them.

“…’morning…I hope you all saw the news last night. What you’ve all got to remember is that Bush is more evil than Saddam, he causes more problems for us than anyone else, and he’s the one we should be fearing right now.”

According to the student I interviewed for this article (I’ll call her Faith), this teacher is only one of many of the teachers at this school who very openly share this point of view.

“Most students have absolutely no respect for Bush,” Faith told me. “Liberals are referred to as ‘free thinking’ at my high school. When Conservative students dare to speak up, they’re told they’ve been brainwashed by their parents and the media.” (Obviously, this ‘media’ must not include Paul Begala, Phil Donahue, Judy Woodruff, Dan Rather, Peter…well, I could go on and on, of course.)

It was during school choir rehearsals, while singing patriotic songs including “The Star Spangled Banner”, that the music teacher said they were going to sing these songs whether or not there continued to be complaints that “America isn’t our country and we don’t want to sing about it.” Many students are talking about how they’re moving to Mexico or Canada when they’re adults and can get away from this country. It was just a few months ago when the high school hosted a folk singer from the sixties who sang peace songs during assembly and suggested to the students that “we should try for peace by talking to the people who hate us”. Make love, not war. . He was treated with silence and respect. "SO COOL!"

David Horowitz, of Frontpagemag.com came to school recently. At that appearance, David Horowitz was treated with anything but silence and respect. It became necessary for the principal to calm the group down. At the front of the auditorium with David Horowitz was Steven Miller, one of the few Conservative students who has spoken out against extremist views taught to the students by their teachers. Steve Miller is often on the Larry Elder talk radio show, out of Los Angeles. Larry Elder has had him on to expose some of what’s going on in schools today. Faith, a classmate of Steve Miller’s, told me that anyone agreeing with him is said, with derision and disgust, to be “a Steve Miller follower”. He is regarded as one who “causes trouble,” “makes our school look bad,” “doesn’t reflect any of the ideas we have around here.” Steve Miller has stuck it out and continued to challenge his teachers. He is one of about three Conservative students in all of their classes. The secretaries in the high school office complain to Steve that he is creating great problems for them. They tell him that, the day after his appearances on the Elder show, the phones don’t stop ringing with people complaining about what they’ve heard. I can’t help wondering if it’s the parents of the students who are calling, or outraged conservatives who listen to the show or, more hopefully, fair-minded people of both sides who recognize that high school is not for indoctrination but for education and understanding of all sides of a subject, to teach our kids how to form their own opinions.

It’s not just Anti-American sentiment that’s been noticed at Santa Monica High School. One of the English teachers, often voted “Teacher of the Year”, is a Buddhist. His huge Yin/Yang poster is allowed on the wall in his classroom along with other Buddhist symbols. His ‘about 10’ little statues of Buddha are allowed, too. I can’t help wondering what would happen to this teacher if he had ten little statues of Jesus on his desk. There is no celebration or even honest analysis of every religion, only the teacher’s. He can have any Buddhist representation he likes in his class, but “Bush”, according to him, “is a hypocritical Christian.” Buddha teaches against war, so “there is no just war.” The students listen; they believe this amiable teacher. This is the liberal open mindedness that’s celebrated on campus, closed to anything but the way the teacher thinks.

When the Bible was recently brought in, it was chapters and verses dealing with the peace of Christ which got cited. Faith couldn’t help wondering that the Bible can only be brought in to echo a teacher’s point of views. It would be forbidden in any other case.

Faith tells me that there is a distinct lack of conversation allowing both sides of any political or religious conversation. She told me she thought that’s what education was. She wonders why the liberal point of view is suddenly the only point of view. There are no other ways of looking at anything and, if you do, you’re a "Right-wing whacko." Or worse, you’re a "Right-wing Christian Conservative," perish the thought. “ The teachers tell us they’re ridiculous. They have nothing of any consequence to bring to the table,” Faith told me. And the kids suck this up like they do the last drag of that Marlboro, filling the lungs and smoking up their brains.

It’s a history teacher who was asked to please not wear a cross to school. The students found it ‘noninclusive’ and ‘distracting.’ One wonders if the crosses Madonna wears on her videos are considered distracting. The Pledge of Allegiance seems to be distracting, too.

Over the loud speaker, twice a week, someone recites the pledge. It’s optional. “They play it,” Faith told me, “but everybody talks right over it, so you can’t hear it at all.” That’s the pledge of allegiance to America. Who wants to say a pledge to a country like this, after all? Who wants to die for America? That’s what was discussed when the draft was brought up by one of the teachers.

“You’re going to be killed, so you’d better figure out a way to get out of the draft,” started the conversation one day in class. “Let’s start a dialogue here about how to avoid the draft”. The entire class time was spent discussing ways to avoid the nonexistent draft. No English or history was discussed; just ways to avoid fighting for this "undeserving, corrupt country." At least they didn’t create a whole hour for this discussion like they do for the after-school group, which is meeting on a regular basis to discuss the corruption of capitalism.

Just recently, an Armenian immigrant student who is a teacher’s aid, finally had heard too much and told the class and the teacher what he thought of the constant America bashing. Who knows if any of the students really heard him and got his point? As the student addressed the teacher and the class, after hearing a particularly anti-American diatribe, he spoke passionately and earnestly. I paraphrase here, because I wasn’t there, but these are the points Faith told me that he made:

“I am offended that the teacher’s talking about how bad America is, and that we should respect Sadism Hussein more than we do President Bush. I am from Armenia, and I can tell you that America is a blessing to me. I lived in poverty, with little economic opportunity. I lived in a black-market situation, where people were depressed and repressed and can only dream of total freedom and the promise just the thought of America brings them! I would go to war and die for America, for what it has meant to me. I can’t understand any of you. How can you have your attitudes against our country when you have been lucky enough to grow up here? Is this what you think education is? Don’t you know that what you are hearing is only the teacher’s one-sided opinion? Don’t you want to hear all sides to everything? Isn’t that the American way?”

To this, the teacher announced that the Armenian student was misinformed and that he needed to read more to learn just how bad this country really is.

This teacher is paid by American taxpayers, and he’s shaping the minds of America’s next generation.

So, we have just another American high school and what’s going on there. We have a young high school student who told me these things because she’s upset by them and has little voice of her own. And, every day, the students leave that palm-swaying, “free-thinking” environment, light their Marlboros up, and feel like they were educated today. They were, but for whose benefit?

***I wish I could say things have changed, but they've probably only become worse these last five years. Lest you say “That’s just LA”, I have stories from all over this country. I met a kid from Ohio at his grandfather’s funeral here 2 years ago “So,” I asked “you’re in high school…do they ever teach you anything good about America?” “Not much,” the kid responded. (Faith has now graduated from college and was teaching English in China until the earthquake which she survived and helped others to survive).


ANYBODY HAVE ANY STORIES THEY WOULD LIKE TO SHARE? WE NEED TO HEAR AND ACT. MAKE PEOPLE AWARE. ASK YOUR CHILDREN! Check their textbooks...."what did you talk about today?"