Teaching as indoctrination

If you are a parent, read the article which follows. You do not have to be Jewish to see what can happen in any school system. I do know that a teacher can indoctrinate; some do. With government control of education in Canada, it would behoove parents to monitor and to read closely what is being offered to their children and which may develop attitudes detrimental to a broad education, in that a child's education becomes not exploration of ideas, facts, history, et cetera, but indoctrination into what is the prevailing view -- what are politically correct attitudes, perhaps without regard to all facts.

Whether in thrall to political correctness, one version of reality, one political view, or whatever, teachers are often not even really aware that they are actually indoctrinating children; the fact that to be allowed to work, teachers must fit within an acceptable spectrum of political correctness or not be hired plays its part. At any rate, so onside are teachers, that they view opposition to the received wisdom as wrong, not an occasion to explore alternative views; they may stifle debate and occasions for learning -- reinforcing one acceptable way to view the world. Teaching needs a little madness to unlock the best in children. I fear the repressed, anxious-to-please-their-bosses (including big government or a political party) type of teacher far more.

If I had children, I would consider home schooling or a private school--whether religion-based or not, so ubiquitous has big government become in influencing the range of thinking that is acceptable within the schools. Other views . . . . ? Not only that, but awards, scholarship money, jobs follow those who fit in, not the squeaky wheel who evokes discomfort or poses contrary views. Yet, studies have shown that home-schooled students excel at university, despite the doomsayers and naysayers. No wonder big government wants to teach your children -- think kindergarten, daycare, overtaxation so that both parents must work. Enough!

The point of what I have written is that any parent should become cognizant of influence in the schools whether from a foreign source or through its own governments and the lobbying bodies which seek to gain influence over government(s), ideas, curriculum and curriculum materials.



First, they want understanding . . . then . . .

Tainted Teachings or here October 27, 2005

Saudi Arabia is paying to influence the teaching of American public schoolchildren. And the U.S. taxpayer is an unwitting accomplice. A special JTA investigation uncovers the complex path by which teaching materials creep into U.S. public schools. It reveals who creates these materials and how some of America's most prestigious universities — with the use of federal funds — help disseminate them.

[. . . . ]

Tainted Teachings [Part 1] What your kids are learning about Israel, America and Islam

Tainted Teachings [Part 2] What textbooks have to say about Israel, America and Islam

Tainted Teachings [Part 3] What teachers are learning about Islam, Israel and the Mideast

Tainted Teachings [Part 4] National resource centers at center of debate over Title VI legislation

Excerpts:

Tainted Teachings [Part 1] What your kids are learning about Israel, America and Islam

[. . . . ] Saudi influence enters the classrooms in three different ways. The first is through teacher-training seminars that provide teachers with graduate or continuing-education credits.

The second is through the dissemination of supplementary teaching materials designed and distributed with Saudi support. Such materials flood the educational system and are available online.

The third is through school textbooks paid for by taxpayers, some of them vetted by activists with Saudi ties, who advise and influence major textbook companies about the books' Islamic, Arab, Palestinian, Israeli and Middle Eastern content.

Ironically, what gives credibility to the dissemination of these distorted materials is Title VI of the Higher Education Act, a federal program enacted in 1958 in part to train international experts to meet the nation's security needs. [. . . . ]

Many of the principal players involved in disseminating pro-Islamic, anti-American and anti-Israel materials to the public school system have links, direct or indirect, to a little-known place called Dar al Islam.

Located in Abiquiu, N.M., Dar al Islam (www.daralislam.org), which means "abode of Islam" in Arabic, is an Islamic enclave registered with the state as a non-profit in 1979. [. . . . ]

Search:

Calif.-based Arab World and Islamic Resources, or AWAIR, (www.awaironline.org)
Middle East Policy Council of Washington
Charles Freeman Jr., a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al Saud
Sandra Stotsky, a former senior associate commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Education
Arab World Studies Notebook
a study, "The Stealth Curriculum: Manipulating America's History Teachers,"
embed their political agendas in the instructional materials
MEPC
to counter the "rampant negative stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims held by most Americans." [for which there is no conceivable reason? NJC]
links, direct or indirect, to a little-known place called Dar al Islam.
a "Muslim village as a showcase for Islam in America."
runs speakers bureaus and programs and maintains a Web site



Tainted Teachings [Part 2] What textbooks have to say about Israel, America and Islam

[. . . . ] With a debate under way over evolution and intelligent design in science textbooks, a less-publicized battle is being waged over the content of social studies and history materials — some of which are pro-Islamic, anti-American, anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic.

[. . . . ] distortions of Christianity and Judaism, with an overarching positive spin on Islam

[. . . . ] California has mandated the study of religion since 1987. Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism are studied in sixth grade, and Islam is covered in seventh grade.

Meanwhile, the institute has pulled "The Modern Middle East," a package of supplemental materials deemed so objectionable that a report by the San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council said it creates a hostile environment for Jewish students. [. . . . ]




Tainted Teachings [Part 3] What teachers are learning about Islam, Israel and the Mideast

[. . . . ] Less known is that with public money and the designation as a national resource center, universities such as Georgetown, Harvard and Columbia are dramatically influencing the study of Islam, Israel and the Middle East far beyond the college campus.

As a condition of their funding, these centers are also required to engage in public outreach, [. . . . ]

Dar al Islam, which houses a mosque, religious school, summer camp and teacher training institute, was financed in part by the late King Khaled ibn Aziz of Saudi Arabia. Its Web site lists four other outreach centers it admires: the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan.

Professional development workshops like the one at Georgetown provide the most frequent paths for the dissemination of supplementary materials to history and social studies teachers, according to "The Stealth Curriculum: Manipulating America's History Teachers," a lengthy inquiry by educational expert Sandra Stotsky.

Tainted Teachings [Part 4] National resource centers at center of debate over Title VI legislation

U.S. lawmakers and academics are engaged in fierce debate over the renewal of Title VI of the Higher Education Act.
Under Title VI, select universities get federal funding and prestigious designation as national resource centers for the study of places and languages the government deems vital for meeting global challenges.

[. . . . ] Its purpose, according to its framers, was to ensure "trained manpower of sufficient quality and quantity to meet the national defense needs of the United States."

[. . . . ] Critics seeking to amend the legislation contend that universities often promote anti-American and anti-Israel biases and do not merit federal funds that were intended to serve American interests.

Many academics worry that restrictions will violate academic freedoms.

While Title VI may have had a noble purpose, it does not work in practice, according to Middle East scholar Martin Kramer. He analyzed Middle East studies centers and the work of the Title VI national resource centers in his 2001 book, "Ivory Towers on Sand — The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America."

Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America (Policy Papers (Washington Institute for Near East Policy), No. 58.) -- by Martin S. Kramer
ISBN: 0944029493

Reviews excerpted

Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2001

A case study in the broader trend of the universities reduced to irrelevance by the “post-modern” denial of objective truth.

Do the lunatics run the asylums?, David Thomson, October 6, 2002

Martin Kramer provides abundant evidence that the politically correct Leftists dominate the academic field of Middle Eastern Studies in the United States. These individuals are also intellectually incompetent and possess an intense hostility toward the values of Western Civilization. The author quotes esteemed scholar Bernard Lewis as deploring the painful fact that "Professional advancement in Middle East studies can be achieved with knowledge and skill well below what is normally required in other more developed fields or more frequented disciplines, where standards are established and maintained by a large number of competent professionals over long periods." The situation has worsened considerably since the 1978 publication of Edward Said's "Orientalism" which [. . . . ]

Book: Buried by the Times : The Holocaust and America's Most Important Newspaper author: Laurel Leff, Cambridge University Press (March 21, 2005), ISBN: 0521812879

Scroll down for the editorial reviews, one by Peter Novick from The Washington Post.

Jews were often described as "among" the Nazis' victims rather than as their primary victims. By thus "burying" the Holocaust, she charges, the Times sabotaged efforts to rouse the American public -- efforts which, had they been successful, might have produced an effective rescue program. [. . . . ]