Harmonious Education

Campus Report Online ^ | April 16, 2007 | Don Irvine

[liberty1971]

San Francisco, Ca.~On Friday the NSBA's Council of Urban Boards of Education kicked off its meeting in San Francisco with an address by 1960's civil rights activist and emeritus professor at UC-Berkeley's Department of Ethnic Studies Carlos Munoz Jr. on racial harmony according to the School Board News.

In speaking of American democracy, Munoz asked the audience "Will it be an emerging multiethnic, multi-racial democracy-or a neo-apartheid system of white control over a new majority of color?" and followed that by asking "Is our future destined to be one of racial and ethnic conflict that divides our nation, or will it be a future of a united American people characterized by a common purpose of liberty and justice for all?"

Munoz says today's political environment suggests our policymakers aren't preparing for this future and instead of investing in education "our hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being spent to the tune of billions to finance a tragic war." That money could be better spent building or rebuilding schools in urban communities according to Munoz.

He continued on by telling the audience that some political leaders feel threatened by the nation's growing diversity citing the border fence, using the military to guard the borders and the growing movement to ban bilingual education as examples.

Munoz said there was a war on immigrants who are arrested daily and deported without any trial including U.S. citizens who don't have any documentation and that the Mexican border has become a war zone.

Such strong language is nothing new for a man who in the 1960's led a large student walkout in Los Angeles to protest the quality of education Hispanic students were receiving. He faced 66 years in prison for his actions before the courts sided with him and declared the walkout was constitutionally protected free speech.

He the urged school leaders to prepare students for future political battles by making sure that schools provide "a multiracial curriculum to learn the history of our people" that goes beyond what he called the ad hoc lessons during Black History Month. In other words Munoz wants the schools to help develop the next generation of left wing activists by de-emphasizing the actual history of this country and replacing it with one that highlights indigenous people and his perception of their suffering at the hands of the colonists.

According to Munoz, American society has always been multiracial and multicultural and understanding this legacy is vital for future generations. He also said that there are people who will use divisive rhetoric to fight for their cause, pointing to those on the right. Apparently being divisive doesn't apply to those on the left. Finally Munoz said "We can put together a new vision for that multicultural democracy- a democracy that promotes and nurtures racial and ethnic diversity and equality beyond symbolic tokenism, a democracy that honors our immigrant legacy… and promotes social justice, religious tolerance, and peace at home and abroad."

The language he uses sounds good, but they are all just code words for developing a more liberal or left-wing world in which to live, a world where Americans will be treated as second class citizens and illegal immigrants and others will be given rights and privileges that they neither earned nor deserve. Unfortunately instead of seeing right through Munoz and his rhetoric, the NSBA actually embraces it and by doing so further endangers the education of our children and grandchildren.

Don Irvine is the chairman of Accuracy in Media, Accuracy in Academia's sister organization.

[goodwithagun]

i m a publik scewl teechur. This rhetoric ticks me off. He is just like my professors at Akron. They “teach” us how to run a classroom and how to discipline students. They “teach” us how to handle ourselves in the classroom. They “teach” us the importance of multi-ethnicity, and that everybody is “special.” This guy, along with my professors, have not spent one class period in a real school. Until they have paid their dues on the front lines, they need to shut up and stay out of my classroom.

[ClaireSolt]

We could fund 20 Iraq wars with what we are now spending on education.

[goodwithagun]

As a teacher, I would rather see the money go to them than to our broken system. I can’t begin to explain all of the wasteful spending that I see on a daily basis.