Mom Angered to Find Obama Speech in School Text

Fox News | Tuesday, October 14, 2008

[ConfidentConservative]

Mom Angered to Find Obama Speech in Son's Middle-School English Text A Wisconsin mother is furious that her tax dollars helped buy a middle-school textbook that includes a passage from Barack Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention -- but has no mention of John McCain.

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

Little ACORNs are sprouting everywhere.

[Brown Deer]

Here is the press release from the district. You are correct there was nothing in the book about Senator McCain. The rational is in the district response in the press release..

I hope this helps answer your question. I think an article is in the Racine Journal Times Website as well.

Thank you for sharing your concern and your comments.

Sincerely,

Julie McKenna

RUSD School Board Member

Office of Communication

Summary
o The Racine Unified School District had not been contacted by any parents regarding concerns with the 8th grade literature textbook.
o The book was adopted in 2007 and was used during the 2007-2008 school year.
o The book was chosen by a group of teachers and was chosen because of its explicit alignment of the Wisconsin State Standards.
o This textbook is one of the most popular in the nation and is used by all 8th grade students in the Racine Unified School District as well as other students throughout the country.
o The selection that a parent expressed concern to an online blogger, “Dreams of My Father” by Barack Obama, fits into the curriculum through the community unit.
o The choice of this selection was to provide a contemporary and multicultural figure to explore the unit on community.


Rationale:
The 6th – 8th grade English/Language Arts 9 year book adoption rotation cycle took place in 2007. The textbook was chosen from 6 different publishers because it is based on Instructional Process and Understanding by Design pedagogy. Its remedial program, Bridges, allows for flexible grouping in reading and more fully be integrated into the language arts program. All levels – remedial, regular, and advanced – sequence more smoothly from the K – 5 programs. With the 2008 edition, McDougal Littel is providing the Interactive Reader that coordinates with Bridges as well as an Advanced Interactive Reader that provides Pre-Advanced Placement and Pre- International Baccalaureate books and materials. Furthermore, writing, grammar and vocabulary study are embedded in the reading selections. There is a separate and consumable grammar workbook, which will be free for the life of the adoption. Study guides and study kits in Spanish are provided.

Flexible, ongoing assessment options in both print and electronic formats are integrated with the selections to help assess student learning using a variety of strategies.

The 2008 McDougal Littel series has the Wisconsin State Standards noted in the columns of the teachers’ editions. This alignment is a major strength of the program and a valuable resource for teachers.

Selection:
The selection committee consisted of 6 teachers presently teaching middle school reading and/or language arts at our middle schools. Three Central Office staff members were also part of this committee. Teachers were asked to notify parents so that any parent or guardian was able to join the committee. The committee made the selection in April of 2007. The recommendation to adopt this series was made after a series of meetings that reviewed our present program, examined local and state standards, and reviewed the programs presently available for adoption. The committee used the Tregoe Decision Process to eliminate four of the six different series. The final two were the Holt Elements ofLiterature and the McDougal Littel Language of Literature. The committee’s Tregoe scoring unanimously chose the McDougal Littel series because it had the best transition from elementary to middle school, supported Instructional Process/Understanding by Design, allowed for Continuous Progress, had texts available online, and offered Pre AP and IB programs. The embedding of skills in the thematic approach is considered the best instructional practice at this time.

RUSD Position:
The Racine Unified School District DOES NOT endorse any candidate or political party. The choice of this selection was to provide a contemporary and multicultural figure to explore the unit on community.

Unit in Question:
The Racine Unified School District is a multicultural school district with 49% of our student body comprising students of color. Identifying materials that reflect our student population is a priority. The selection in question is part of a larger unit centered around the question, “If the people within a community accept each others’ difference, how do individuals and their community benefit and prosper?” The selections, “Dreams of My Father” and “Out of Many, One”, fit into the curriculum by requiring students to engage in the central question around these and other selections. Other selections that are part of this unit are the novel, 145th Street Short Stories and other selected poems from the Literature by McDougal Littel anthology.

2220 NORTHWESTERN AVENUE, RACINE, WI 53404
262.631.7057 tel | 262.631.7016 fax
stephanie.hayden@racine.k12.wi.us | www.racine.k12.wi.us

[Califreak]

His picture will be everywhere.

It will be in dentist offices, government offices, schools and workplaces.

There will be Obama statues and murals.

Maybe even a national holiday.

His face in America could be like Saddam’s used to be in Iraq.

[proudpapa]

You never know where you’ll find the Post Turtle...

http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2008/06/obama-the-post.html

[ConfidentConservative]

Obama’s crowd starting early to Educate the “shirts”?

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

Middle schoolers today may support abolition of Presidential term limits in a few years.

[tacticalogic]

His picture will be everywhere.

Invest in companies that manufacture darts.

[GoCards]

My thought exactly. Everyone must have a apicture of him in their home framed in gold. SCARY. Better not be in my books.

[Nevermore]

I would find this particularly distrurbing because, as I recall that speech, it was full of innuendo and outright lies. Find example for our children.

[Brown Deer]

The selections, “Dreams of My Father”...

It's nice to see that this school district is making it mandatory for it's young students to read books written by domestic terrorist bomber Bill Ayers.

[ConfidentConservative]

Oops! didn’t post the link!

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/14/parent-angered-obama-speech-middle-school-english-text/

[EveningStar]

Link

[ConfidentConservative]

;) Thanks.

[mass55th]

So now Zero’s ghost-written speeches are being touted as his own in textbooks.

[itsthejourney]

Isn't it interesting that a school textbook company is so prophetic it knew that a little known junior politician would be running for POTUS? Amazing how they were able to gather his (or Ayer’s) writings and include it in their book with enough time to get it in textbook form, send it out for state approval, get school board approval and teacher evaluation, then print them in time for summer shipment to schools. They were so sure of this virtually unknown they they didn't stop at a few pages in their book but also put include him in a cd for government and speech classes with his speech at the ‘04 convention. Oh, and according to their site the cd is already in it's 14th edition.

Isn't it interesting that Ayers and Hussein have access to untold dollars through the education based Annenberg Challenge and that educators from all over the country signed support in a recent petition in support of Ayers. It's also fascinating that Annenberg keeps popping up everywhere in this election from Acorn to Africa to Harvard to Factcheck.com where the msm “verifies” and educates the sheeple on anything election related.

[itsthejourney]

Ah, even more interesting is this little known politician would have caught the eye of the publisher not for the 2008-09 year but for the 2007-08 year. I’ll say it again that Annenberg has it’s hand in this publishing company.

Folks, someone very powerful has been planning this election for decades.

[eaglestar]

I’m torn on the thought of banning partisan politics in textbooks by teachers and at the schools.

There’s a school here in Florida facing a lawsuit right now for banning Obama pins from being worn. It fosters an us vs them gang mentality that will only lead to problems meaning fights & bullying.

[ConfidentConservative]

Fine and good IF both sides are represented. It was NOT in this case.

[sassy steel magnolia]

good catch! Why are we not seeing more dirt/info on Annenberg? We want to know more!!! We need an indepth report on this PDQ by Fox and Drudge and other conservatives. This whole textbook thing is very creepy and apparently not just affecting this school district but others. Wake up America! Don’t become a zombie!