G.I. Slur

New York Post ^ | February 22, 2005 | David Andreatta

[DJ Taylor]

The city Department of Education, red-faced over Brooklyn sixth-graders who slammed a GI with demoralizing anti-Iraq-war letters as part of a school assignment, will send the 20-year-old private a letter of apology today.

[DJ Taylor]

Something really needs to be done about this. Any suggestions?

[rocksblues]

A thorough investigation into the teacher that collected and the forwarded these hateful messages would be a good start.

[bahblahbah]

Kill liberals? I swear they're teaching too much about multiculturalism and putting condoms on bananas and not enough about our own heritage and the essentials of reading writing and arithmetic.

[roylene]

O'Reilly just had some teachers talking about this ... the (dare I say idiot) eighth grade teacher said she gave her class an opportunity to write Pres. Bush about Iraq and she 100% of the kids wrote letters that said 'bring home the troops'.
Aww .. come on .... that is not even statistically possible. I would believe in the Easter Bunny before I would believe her.

[sageb1]

How about flooding the Dept. Of Education and the teachers' unions with letters?

The teachers O'Reilly had on tonight are full of beans. The kids aren't getting their liberal views from rap. They're getting them from the teachers.

[Clemenza]

NY City is a hotbed of antiwar sentiment.

[sageb1]

She probably had them sign form letters.

[TankerKC]

that is not even statistically possible.

Sure it is...depending on the neighborhood.

[sageb1]

I remember when I was a kid and we were learning about how to compose "friendly" letters and business letters, we did things like write to the chambers of commerce for each state requesting informational pamphlets. Now, the teachers are turning our kids into little left-wing activists.

[Cultural Jihad]

"We are sorry that we are subsidizing the insidious activities of a indoctinator who instills hatred of America into the minds of our students." (but not really sorry enough to do anything about it.)

[cubreporter]

Correct. We should be teaching our children reading, writing and arithmetic. Instead we are teaching them everything about all the wrong things in life that they should be getting at home and not in the classroom. These children were guided by the teacher and so I put the blame on her. She should not be allowed to teach if she is going to teach hatred.

[Kaslin]

In the defense of the teacher I have to say that she said she has given her students the choice of either writing possitive or negative letters.

[DJ Taylor]

"Teacher Alex Kunhardt had his students write Jacobs as part of a social-studies assignment."

For what it's worth, the teacher is male.

[rocksblues]

I read excerpts of these letters. There is no way that a 11/12/13 year old kid would have these kind of thoughts about our military!!!!!!

The letters were either written by the parents or encouraged/enhanced by the teacher!

[YourAdHere]

I live in Maryland, a thoroughly blue state, and a lot of people are upset over a NEW school grading policy, where, get this, the kids will be graded on ACHIEVEMENT. Can you believe that?

[DJ Taylor]

Where did you find excerpts from these letters? I would like to view them.

[rocksblues]

They were in the NY Post. If not on line I can scan and forward the page to you.

[DJ Taylor]

Thanks

[roylene]

Well, its nice that you are defending the teacher .. but 100% paleeze.

[HighlyOpinionated]

"If I were in Iraq and read that the youth of our nation doesn't want me to be there and doesn't believe in what I'm doing, it would mess up my head," Jacobs said.

"I want to think these letters were coached by the teacher or the parents of these children," Jacobs said in an interview from Camp Casey, Korea.

"It boggles my mind that children could think this stuff."


I think the young soldier hit the proverbial nail on the head. The children were COACHED.

Demoralizing letters and comments are NOT good etiquette even if a person doesn't particularly support the military. BESIDES, it's BAD MANNERS.

What to do? Get us the address of the Principal and the Teachers' Union and let US write a few letters.

My mom and dad always said the only reason people curse is because they don't have a large enough vocabulary. I have a huge vocabulary and I'd like to use it to chastise a teacher who has shown is lack of scruples and manners.

Freepmail me with an address or two.

[wiltale]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1348479/posts

See the post above for contact information. Just scroll down the page.

[Graymatter]

Not arguing that MD is blue, but Bush won in 18 of 24 counties in 2004. It's often crossed my mind to move there (nearer kin) so I notice these things.

[sdcraigo]

I think what this teacher did smacks of sedition.

= = =

16 May, 1918
The U.S. Sedition Act

---

SECTION 3. Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States, or to promote the success of its enemies, or shall willfully make or convey false reports, or false statements, . . . or incite insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall willfully obstruct . . . the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, or . . . shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States . . . or shall willfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or shall willfully . . . urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production . . . or advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both....

= = =
I am referring specifically to the part about:

"shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about ... the military or naval forces of the United States...or ...teach,...or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated and whoever shall by word or act ...oppose the cause of the United States therein"
= = =

I personally think this teacher should be fired, fined 10 grand, and imprisoned for at least a year.

[OldFriend]

Two things come to mind.

Peer pressure

Sucking up to the teacher

[rbmillerjr]

"MD is blue, but Bush won in 18 of 24 counties in 2004"

Read those articles closer. The 18 states that Bush won have chickens and cows and fish, but not alot of people.

[rbmillerjr]

umm 18 counties - rather

[Verginius Rufus]

I caught a minute or two of the morning call-in program on C-SPAN a few mornings ago. Some caller from NY on the Democrat line was expressing admiration for the Iraqi "freedom fighters" (he objected to the term "insurgents").

[WmDonovan]

Several years ago (late nineties I think) Thomas Sowell wrote a column titled "A Childish Letter." In it he described a letter that a 15 year old boy wrote to him saying that MacArthur had "over-estimated" the casualties that would have occured in invading Japan and that therefore the dropping of the nuclear bomb was unjustified. Mr. Sowell then went on to skewer the idiot teacher who was behind the nonsense. The text below are some exerts from that column (it was so good I printed it out at the time, but unfortunately the date did not print out, and the title doesn't appear in the Thomas Sowell archive online):

"If this were just some kid who has gotten to big for his britches, then it would only be a small part of the passing parade of human foibles. But school children all across the country are being encouraged or assigned to engage in letter-writting campaigns, taking up the time of people ranging from journalists to congressmen and presidents. Worse, these pupils are let to believe that having opinions is more important than knowing what you are talking about."

"Few things are more dangerous than articulate superficiality. Glib demagogues have been the curse of the 20th century and tens of millions of human beings have paid with their lives for the heady visions and clever talk of political egoists. Yet the danger is not that a particular child will follow in the footsteps of Lenin, Hitler or Mao. The danger is that great numbers of people will never know what it is to know as distinguished from sounding off."

"They will be sitting ducks for the demagogues of their time."

...

"Assigning students to write letter and papers on vast topics is training them in irresponsibilites. It is putting the cart before the horse. There will never be a shortage of ignorant audacity. What is always scarce is thorough knowledge and carefully reasoned analysis, systematically checked against factual evidence."

"Our education-is-fun approach is setting up the next generation to be patsies for any political manipulator who knows how to take advantage of their weakness. Educators who are constantly chirping about how this or that is 'exciting' ignore the reality that education is not about how you feel at the moment but how well the young are being prepared for the responsibilities of the future"

"Classroom letter-writing assignments are not just silliness. They are a dangerous betrayal of the young and an abdication of adult responsibility by self-indulgent teachers."

Can anyone find a link to the original? It seems even more appropriate now.

[Graymatter]

Yes, I'm aware of that. If I ever do move there I'll be sure to get a place where there's more chickens and cows, not so many people.

[DuncanWaring]

Thomas Sowell: A Childish Letter

The Great Altavista Knows All.

[Mad Mammoth]

That just proves that the animals in 18 of those 24 counties have more sense than the people in the other 6 counties that voted for John F'in Kerry.

[Fido969]

But the teacher, I am sure, subtly suggested what kind of letter she would like, and kids in class don't look much further than trying to make teacher happy now. So, they wrote what she wanted them to write, not what they thought. I think it is naive to think otherwise.

And the teacher is training the kids to express the teacher's political viewpoint, not teaching the kids critical thinking.

Because few who learn critical thinking would ever become liberals in today's political world.

[Salamander]

Here's a real estate guide....:)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/vote2004/PresidentialByCounty.aspx?oi=P&rti=G&tf=l&sp=MD

[Salamander]

See link in post #33.
The parasitic city rats overrun us, every time.

[Graymatter]

Thanks! Stuff they don't tell you on realtor.com -- I'm crossing Bawlmur off my list, hon!

[Kaslin]

My reply to Roylene wasn't about the teacher in the article, but about the teacher that was on O'Reilly. She was a female

[Salamander]

"I'm crossing Bawlmur off my list, hon!"

ROFL!

[only a true "Merliner" would make that joke]....;)

[cubreporter]

Absolutely. Besides...the children should have written letters that were meant to bring smiles to our troops and tell them about this or that. Not political. It's a disgrace. Today if I had kids school age...they would NOT be sitting in classrooms like this learning everything BUT academics. I'd pull them out in a heartbeat!

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

In the defense of the teacher I have to say that she said she has given her students the choice of either writing possitive or negative letters.

Fine, let them write what they will, but do not forward the trash to a Private in the field. Send them to the President, a Congressman, or your Senator. Why subject some guy with ZERO impact on the decision to this crap?

Had it been my son, and the teacher was male, he would be in need of dental work.

[rocksblues]

In case you missed the letters.

[YourAdHere]

Counties to avoid - Montgomery, Baltimore, and PG. All thoroughly blue.

[DJ Taylor]

This will do the trick.