Local school and college officials Wednesday blasted the passage of a new Arizona law that bans ethnic studies in public schools, calling it an attack on freedom of speech and minorities. HB 2281 bans schools in the state from offering classes designed for students of a specific ethnic group or that promote ethnic solidarity.
What they've been doing in Arizona is teaching African-American kids African-American ethnic studies....Latinos are taught Latino ethnic studies, and Asians are taught Asian ethnic studies. That's in HIGH SCHOOL, folks. Not the usual and beneficial courses like an English class that includes the great writers of Central America...or a science class which makes mention of Black American scientists....No, I'm talking about classes devoted totally to ETHNIC STUDIES IN AMERICA, depending on which ethnicity you want to choose. I post this because I was disappointed in the Tucson "Director of STUDENT EQUITY" (WHAT kind of post is that?), Mr. Augustine Romero, who was interviewed yesterday afternoon by John King on CNN. I took notes:
When King asked anything that sounded like it wasn't supportive of Mr. Romero, he posed the question as a "Devil's Advocate" question, typical of CNN. Not a "Well, I heard this, though...are you sure you're right?" No, he back pedaled and asked sheepishly his best questions like "Let me play devil's advocate and ask you if it's not true that the superintendent and many of the teachers who are told to teach these studies say these classes are set up to promote resentment for America from these ethnic groups....and that they promote the overthrow of the United States government"
"OH, no..." Mr. Romero responded..."...that's not true.
Mr. King, to his credit, comes back with "And, isn't it true that you say all kids can take any of the ethnic classes and it's a healthy melting pot but the kids actually self-segregate and only take those ethnic classes relating to their ethnicity?"
Mr. Romero answers with "Well, okay...that's true (Z: he'd presented it previously, several times, by saying all ethnicities can take any class and DO, which is apparently not at all true once King put his feet to that fire), but it's because these kids should and like to take classes CULTURALLY RELEVANT to themselves." (Z: your tax dollars at work, folks) "We look at the LESS FAVORABLE ASPECTS OF AMERICA as a MEANS OF UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL POLICIES BETTER SO WE CAN MAKE BETTER POLICIES IN THE FUTURE." (Z: OH, I'll just bet)
Romero than asserts that stats show that students who take these classes perform better, more graduate, and more go on to do well in college. WHY? Couldn't it be that the brighter kids bother to take these kinds of classes, anyway? How the heck could Ethnic Studies help kids perform better in general? Mr. King never asked that.
Any criticism was responded to by Mr. Romero with insults to the critics (surprise!) "The superintendent also voted against bilingual education which is 'basically anti-Latino'."
WHAT? Being against bilingual education is a bad thing? Why should these kids be more stupid than my own grandfather who learned English in about six months? Why the low level of expectation by Mr. Romero and others of his ilk that these kids need to learn in Spanish? Is it just to make sure they carry on their family tradition of Mexican gardener and Mexican cleaning lady because they didn't learn English? Why wouldn't he want higher expectations for those kids? Of course, the teachers MAKE MORE MONEY when they teach bilingual, did you know that? That's been a big bugaboo here in California and didn't go down well even here when the truth was leaked that it's about bigger salaries, not bigger hearted teachers meaning to help bilingual kids!
Then, I LOVED THIS....this "Director of Student Equity", Mr. Romero, a teacher himself, says "Here is WHERE WE'RE AT.." Where we're AT? I hope he's not teaching English!
Ah, well...please read the article I linked above...HERE it is again......and let me know what you think after having read that and having hopefully read about the interview, quotes of which I present above.
You think specific classes of ETHNIC STUDIES, which the Superintendent of Tucson's School District and many of the teachers say are "promoting resentment among students for America"....and "promoting the overthrow of the US government", are a good idea? Mr. Romero says that's not true, no overthrow is ever discussed (though he admits that his Hispanic Ethnic Studies group is La Raza-based)....has he heard of THIS?
Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer did sign the law..HERE is another piece on it with more information.....There cannot be ETHNIC STUDIES taught anymore........I say those kids ought to learn with all the rest of the ethnicities in their classes about ALL ethnic heroes in America. And, of course, I'd love it if they mention WHITE MEN AND WOMEN and their contributions, too? Don't you? YA THINK!?
z
38 comments:
I say get rid of public education and if people want to study ethnic studies, then let them make pay for it. Problem solved.
Sounds like a good plan to me. Until hate speech is stamped out on all fronts, the racial gaps will continue to widen.
It was said during the 2008 campaign that Obama's election would heal racial strife. But it's only gotten worse... because radicals feel empowered to force feed their racist views on others, without fear of accountability. And why should they, when the racist in chief plants those seeds himself?
It looks to me as if segregation is alive and well. Astonishing that a school would even make this possible.
Arizona officials are gutsy aren't they? Amidst all the uproar about them, they do the right thing again.
To think we put up with the busing programs, and all that upheaval, to integrate schools here, only to end up with more of the same. The irony is, then, all kids went to their neighborhood scools regardless of race.
They still do, only once they get there they'resegregated into classes based on race. Oh but of course this isn't profling, Right?
The left is consumed by race. Consumed by the victocrat mentality, and all the while making white people and conservatives the villains.
When, before the civil rights movement, and segregated schools in the South existed then, I was attending integrated schools in Los Angeles.
Now, they do this and expect to look like benefactors when in reality, liberals still engage in this racist, paternalistic behavior and are shocked if you have the temerity to point it out.
They obviously don't get it. They're oblivious to the reality of the damage they cause. Good for Arizona, and the politicians there willing to take the heat, and to right the wrongs.
Pris
Pris is right, it was segregation. Tom Horton the superintendan was on the radio describing these classes, They taught that their race was good and everyone else bad and they taught Marxism. One teacher taught that Republicans hated minorities.
Z, thanks for this article. I've written the good governor of AZ and expressed my gratitude to her for her political courage.
Call or write Jan Brewer and give her some love ya'll!!!
http://www.governor.state.az.us/contact.asp
What she's done is nothing more than common sense and decency, but unfortunately that takes courage in a politically correct atmosphere. That ethnic studies crap is nothing more than the left's divide and conquer strategy for the kids.
The other day I had Carmen read to me from her Honors American History textbook and I was shocked at how preposterously BIASED the text was on the years 1890-1910.
G-d help us!
The more we talk against "Hate Speech" the more so-called Hate Speech will PROLIFERATE.
School should exist for these purposes primarily:
READING
WRITING
ARITHMETIC
GEOGRAPHY
BASIC HISTORY
PHYSICAL TRAINING
After School clubs for extra-curricular hobbies such as various sports, photography, painting and drawing, putting on plays, rhymes and verse, sewing, basket weaving, ceramics, supervised target shooting, etc. should be fine if well directed.
School is not SUNDAY school, but opening each day with a short prayer and daily acquaintance with some part of the Bible SHOULD be part of our children's upbringing, because the Bible and daily devotions have ALWAYS been two of the basic building blocks of OUR society.
PREACHING of ANY kind -- and that would include preaching AGAINST religion -- and daily denigration of ANY group -- and that would include White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Christians -- should be PROHIBITED -- FORBIDDEN.
School is a place to acquire skill and knowledge in an atmosphere where it is possible for learning to take place. School is NOT an ARENA where militantly opposed political, ideological and religious factions publicly grind their axes and try to hack each other to pieces in front of audiences of tender years.
If someone's hired to teach ENGLISH, he or she has NO business using Identity Politics, and the various "Rights" and "Liberation" Movements as vehicles used to acquire literacy.
Dick, Jane, Spot, Puff, Thornton W. Burgess, E. A. Milne, Kenneth Grahame, The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Albert Payson Terhune's Dog Stories, Misty of Chincoteague, Mary Poppins, J, M, Barrie, Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, et al. had NO political agenda, NO ham-fisted attempts to "raise social consciousness."
And we were SO much the better for it.
We want people who come here to become AMERICANS, we do NOT want them to turn OUR country into the stinking mess they came here to ESCAPE.
WHOOPS! I got so caught up in what I was saying I forgot to sign that last post. Sorry!
~ FreeThinke
There is nothing wrong with ethnic studies; we generally find these combined with geography and global studies in an environment where all students learn the material together. No, the problem is what some campuses and teachers are doing with these classes. First, it is segregating students into one or another group and telling them that their group identification is what is most important. It is the antithesis of American civics. Students are told, they are tested, and we must assume in some instances remediated on the basis of what their teachers tell them is important about Hispanics, African-Americans, Native Americans, and Asian-Americans. We cannot fathom why these educationalists ignored Norwegian-Americans, but we might presume it has something to do with their own brand of racism. The governor is a courageous woman and I think the legislation is way over-due.
"The left is consumed by race."
To say nothing over their obvious profiling too! Hey you...you look hispanic...you go over there. And hey...that kids black...you go over here. And hey...you white kids...get outa the hall and go somewhere!
Then LA boycotts AZ for...possible racial ( illegal ) profiling?
Major
Well Pris, I don't think integration of schools outside the south was quite so rosy as you relate.
Boston was no day at the beach and we know all about the white flight and the reasons the schools re-segregated. These white heroes that z talks about sure did themselves proud but you'd never know it the way they point fingers.
I'm sure you are threatened that some one isn't learning the official right wing story which the right laughingly calls "the truth". Well sorry, you need a few points of view to find anything close to truth and that is not something the right is comfortable with in our educational system.
I'd reserve judgment on this program till I knew a little bit about the content but I reject this ham fisted banning by a reactionary governor also.
"The left is consumed by race."
The left is consumed by putting people in boxes. They have no imagination whatsoever. They don't see individuals. They love simplifying people through their gender, race and now through the dominated-dominant Bourdieu prism. An oversimplified vision that leads to tyranny.
DUcky, you comment all the time without even reading posts or links..why can't you learn about this and then comment?
you said "These white heroes that z talks about sure did themselves proud but you'd never know it the way they point fingers."
Yes, I think our forefathers did us proud..
I don't even understand why you can't read and digest the fact that Conservatives want both sides taught...that we want our kids to be taught, not indoctrinated. Go ahead and insult that, it just says a little too much about you, sadly.
I thought you were against segregation yet you sit by and admittedly don't look into this situation enough to comment intelligently, but insult instead? WHY?
Well Frog, the right wingers here seem to be the ones who feel there should be an official truth and forget about any alternative views. Strikes me as the totalitarians.
However, when you've swung so far that you worship at the extreme dysfunctional Randoid cult of the individual then most everything is totalitarian, no?
Right z, you want both sides taught. That's why you favor the ban.
Of course what you want is the distorted AMERICA UBER ALLES version which you can't seem to understand is itself an indoctrination.
What's totalitarian about wanting individuals to strive with their qualities and flaws in a very free system? It may appear totalitarian to lazies and whiny babies of your kind.
But even in a more free and open system like in the US, there are more opportunities and leeway for those people. Socialist France forces people to work 35 hours a week while I as a freelancer can choose to work 25 hours week because salaries are a lot more decent.
I would really recommend you to export yourself for 10 years in Europe and live like a citizen. Not a US expat with nice US benefits. Then we could talk seriously about the non-sense you've read in books. Greece for example would be a nice destination.
Hi, Mustang.
What you are calling "Ethnic Studies" we USED to call "Social Studies." You're right -- in that sense most of have e been exposed to "Ethnic Studies -- BUT the MEANING of that term has changed dramatically since it became part of the arsenal of weapons the Left uses to defame, divide, weaken and conquer America.
In elementary school we studied geography, but also a basic history of each region along with an attempt to learn the different social customs, mores and religions all over the world. Most of us found it absorbing. It was like leafing through the pages of National Geographic -- a peek into exotic, foreign, strikingly different ways of life different peoples gave evolved for themselves.
We WERE taught about the slaves, No one ever suggested it was right or good, but neither did out teachers beat us up with recriminations about how much to blame WE were for ignorance, poverty, prejudice and intolerance. We were taught that terrible wars occurred and people suffered, but we were NOT taught that ANY "race" was BETTER than any other or INFERIOR.
We were encouraged to understand that WE were the luckiest people who had ever lived, because we lived in the United States of America.
The one thing we WERE taught to loathe, despise, reject and fear was COMMUNISM.
Also, it was suggested to us that Spanish colonialism was crueler, more exploitative and abusive of native peoples than British colonialism. That may have been "prejudice," but then British Rule generally produced better societies than Spanish Rule, unless you happen to believe that the countries of Central and South America are generally superior to the United States and Canada.
At any rate, education in my young years was friendly, wholesome, fascinating and encouraging. Today it foments division, discontent, despair and destructive attitudes.
~ FreeThinke
However, when you've swung so far that you worship at the extreme dysfunctional Randoid cult of the individual then most everything is totalitarian, no?
and if we carried signs that read long live the white race and had classes on white power you'd be okay with that?
duhkkky these classes (22 in all) were discriminatory, segregated children, promoted one race over another and were being taught by people like Hispanic civil rights activist Dolores Huerta told students in 2006 that "Republicans hate Latinos." and that they are oppressed by white people.
Tom Horne Public School Superintendant:
Public schools should not be encouraging students to resent a particular race, he said.
"It's just like the old South, and it's long past time that we prohibited it," Horne said.
did you like the 'old South' duhkkky?
Of course what you want is the distorted AMERICA UBER ALLES version which you can't seem to understand is itself an indoctrination.
been awhile since you've been to college eh duhkkky?
talk about your madrassas
I was the only white boy in my African-American studies class in high school. I chose it as an elective. Was an easy A.
LaRaza-MALDF-et.al.are promoting racial anger-in our schools and universities---
Now there is a tax-payer funded movie - to be released-promoting taking machetes to whites:
http://carolmsblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/un-nato-want-our-best-to-hold-fire-get.html
Your Little Ray of Sunshine :-)
C-CS
Here's someone with whom I'm sure CNN and King agrees. He is a shoe in for one of these so called
"ethnic studies" classes. No reporters here though in search of their hateful bigots. Probably cause there all at Tea Party events so they can be there if some incriminating footage is to be had.
Well elmo, I would like some information on the content of the classes (rather than a couple of aphorisms).
May be as you say but if you don't think the official line promotes white America over all then you've been asleep for awhile.
My thesis is that the so called "truth" requires contradictory points of view. It has to be sorted out and if some of it hurts your feelings then it's tough noggies, no? Because at the heart of it anything is okay so long as your position at the top doesn't feel threatened.
Ducky you say "May be as you say but if you don't think the official line promotes white America over all then you've been asleep for awhile."
Talk about who's been sleeping. PLEASE PLEASE READ THE POSTS and the LINKS?
We have kids who don't know George Washington's name, they even clump birthdays into PRESIDENT DAY so our kids' ears don't have to be soiled.
As I've said before..Europe's still Europe because they don't teach the worst about their countries..yet. Here, we've on our way to honoring everything politically correct and nothing of substance and truth. The naivite of the left, like Ducky, to consider our small children must know anything that sheds terrible light on the country the love for whom gives them security and then an open heart and mind to more detailed and open studies as young discerning adults is scary and very, very dangerous.
Elbro, some day, I still want you to write me that account of the indoctrinating and ridiculous mind bending of teachers you're well acquainted with...please???
Will be gone most of today and tonight...I hope to come back to more super comments..thanks, folks :-)
My thesis is that the so called "truth" requires contradictory points of view.
This probably explains why Ducky is incapable of separating fact from opinion.
OH, Mustang, that was just too easy. :-(
:-)
My thesis is that the so called "truth" requires contradictory points of view.
Which is why, despite warnings, Ducky is a champion-level competitive paint chip eater.
I had no idea there were separate ethnic studies! OF COURSE that should be banned for being discriminatory!
GO, AZ! Bring the rest of the country back into the real world!
Ducky is on his usual form. He's beginning every childish retort with, "Well, ____. Insert invalid argument here."
"What you are calling "Ethnic Studies" we USED to call "Social Studies.""
Right FT, I participated in HS, in a debate on segregation. I chose the side which was for desegregation. That was in the 1950's.
I mention this only for the benefit of some sixties folks who think there was no life, or thinking before they came along.
In fact certain of these are stuck in the sixties, and seem to have trouble realizing learning and becoming adult, shouldn't have stopped in 1969!
Pris
PS; Please excuse the typos in my previous comment. That'll teach me not to comment at 1:00AM!
Interesting mustang. My entire thesis is that "fact" is very elusive and requires a lot of sifting.
Somehow you seem to have overcome the serious indoctrination you got from the military and come up with a definitive truth.
Now possibly you take the easy route and use the biblical revealed truth method (King James only of course) and tack on the chosen nation idea and voila ... but just what exposure have you had to allow you to say you have found definitive truth when so much out there disagrees with you?
Sorry, you are no less a danger to indoctrinate than the most shrill La Raza members.
Interesting mustang. My entire thesis is that "fact" is very elusive and requires a lot of sifting.
I have little doubt that your facts —once exhaustively sifted —will assume the complexion you most desire. Of course, you may no longer be in possession of salient facts, or even a smidgeon of the ‘truth’ you profess to seek. But let’s be honest, Ducky. You seek neither truth, facts, nor even justice. You seek the destruction of the United States of America. That’s okay … you can admit it. We already know.
The video at "First Things" has been taken down. I'm thinking that it is the same one I posted in an ealier comment. It is still available via my link, if it is the same one, and if anyone is interested.
Did you hear about some colleges doing hispanic and black graduations on top of the general graduation in CA?
This is blatant racism and segregation the opposite way. I wonder if whites could have a Caucasian graduation as well.
God where are we going?
//There is nothing wrong with ethnic studies; we generally find these combined with geography and global studies in an environment where all students learn the material together.//
I have always found studies of other cultures to be very interesting. Learning about other people's social mores, traditions, and customs can make one better able to respond to the needs of said people.
But I must draw the line when those customs infringe on the rights of others.
1. I get offended when anyone tries to force me to think as they do, or denigrate me for what I think.
2. I am not particularly happy when they are condescending snobs who think they are better than me.
3. More than anything, I can and do take great offense with people who shed innocent blood to further their political goals.
With these three principles in mind, I can have a conversation with with almost anyone who is marginally respectful. We may not agree on much, but we can get along.
Ducky writes:
//Somehow you seem to have overcome the serious indoctrination you got from the military and come up with a definitive truth.//
How does a man who never donned a uniform (that which requires a potential personal sacrifice....like life and/or limb) have the slightest inkling of anything?
Something tells me I am wasting time with this, but here goes anyway.
No one indoctrinated me. They made me be better than I thought I could be. They gave me s strong work ethic, taught me the value of commitment, and how to perform all of life's important tasks with heart and spirit.
They taught me how to set goals and meet my objectives.
There is no way I could have ever been much of anything had I not had some discipline instilled in me.
That doesn't mean that my house is in barracks inspection condition at all times, that doesn't mean my shoes are always spit-shined. I am not a robot. I have a will, a desire, and a mission in life.
duhkky may have a thesis and an antithesis....it's the synthesis he's missing
"DUcky, you comment all the time without even reading posts or links..why can't you learn about this and then comment?
Z??? Why would duckfarts not take his cue from dear leader....OR ERIC ( I DIDN'T READ THE BILL ) HOLDER? These freaks just take their lead from the twits running the farm. Lemmings, quislings and liars all.
Major
Z,
In my Advanced Placement US History classes the students get the facts, unvarnished. We get into the whys and wherefores because they need to be able to think independently and analyze information in order to arrive at an understanding for those actions taking into account content, context etc. Sounds like a course description, right? It's from the one for my course. As Galileo said, "Nothing just is."
Law and Order, I'd LOVE to hear what percentage of your classes you get the sense are conservative or at least really love the constitution and this country.
Major..I can hope!
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