Posted on 03/21/2013 12:02:57 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative
CORPUS CHRISTI -- Many parents check their children's school work to make sure they're getting good grades, but how often to you check the content of those lessons? One mother of a child in Flour Bluff ISD says when she did, she was shocked that lesson taught her son to blame the United States for the 9/11 attacks.
Kara Sands posted the test on her facebook page and it began to spread like wildfire. The test covers content watched on a video in class. What bothered her most is question #3 on the test. It asks why the U.S. may be a target for terrorism. Her son chose the correct answer - 'decisions we made in the United States that negatively impact people elsewhere.'
"I'm not going to justify radical terrorists by saying we did anything to deserve that, over 3,000 people died," Sands said. She contacted her son's principal and teacher, both met with her and contacted the video's distributor, Safari Montage.
Representatives say they stand behind the video, but have already changed the corresponding quiz that may have caused confusion.
Sands tells us the quiz opened her eyes to the content in lessons taught at the school. Her biggest concern is curriculum called CSCOPE.
Click here to read Flour Bluff ISD's response to the parent's concerns: 9/11 Curriculum, CSCOPE Curriculum
One worksheet on the Bill of Rights names food and medicine as rights, not personal responsibility. "He got marked wrong, because it is, it is our responsibility for shelter, its our responsibility for food for medicine, its not the government's responsibility," Sand said.
Flour Bluff officials say Sands is the only parent to complain about the test specifically, but her post on facebook now has 1,662 likes.
Several parents plan to meet next week and Sands says school board members Shirley Thornton and Wade Chapman have requested the concerns be brought up in the next school board meeting. The agenda for the March 28th meeting is not yet posted to confirm the item.
Sands says parents need to get involved.
"When I teach my children that you have to work hard and you have to earn a living and they go to school and learn something different I absolutely take issue with that," Sands said.
I don’t know why decent people have allowed this take over of education and leftist indoctrination of children to continue year after year after year. Anyone I talk to claims “my kids school is not like that”.
According to the MAP shown, blue states “have seen the light” and rejected Common Core. Looks to me like they replaced it with something worse in CSCOPE.
How is it that the Texas state board of education, after the great book and curriculum “victory” of a couple of years ago has now LOST so badly with CSCOPE beinge adopted?
Did you see question ONE? What was the name of the rescue dog? Who cares? Just stupid questions. If this is what they are teaching why bother sending kids to school? We are doomed for certain. They are learning nothing of value that I can see.
And if they force the districts to stop using this poison, the next one will be even more subtle.
People, get your kids out of those pestilent hell-holes before it’s too late.
Makes you wonder where these kids are getting indoctrinated if everyone’s school “isn’t like that”...
Sounds to me like “I’m going to provide an excuse for why I’m shirking my duty to oversee the education of my child.”
The map shows that VA (along with the 4 other “blue” states) *rejected* Common Core Curriculum.
As I understand it, what is happening in Texas is that although Texas rejected CCC, CCC has, nevertheless, stealthily infiltrated Texas schools through CSCOPE.
“How is it that the Texas state board of education, after the great book and curriculum “victory” of a couple of years ago has now LOST so badly with CSCOPE beinge adopted?”
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Perhaps, one answer (although I would be interested in more closely “following the money.”
http://www.txcscopereview.com/2013/texas-children-for-sale/
The following article by Alyson Williams parallels what is happening in Texas, except in Texas our school superintendents are the culprits. Texas Education Service Centers (ESCs), produce and sell CSCOPE, an unapproved instructional material, and the superintendents buy it.
WHY? Because the superintendents need a framework set in place in each Texas School. A technology framework so that all Texas schools are linked and the superintendents can control what is being taught throughout the states.
The irony of all of this is that the superintendents are working with the federal government –are at least they are pursuing the common core standards designed by Linda Darling Hammond who was instrumental in the creation of these standards.
The Texas Superintendents are working on their own, against the directive of Governor Perry, are preparing to fill the CSCOPE framework with common core standards. What is the reason that superintendents are working against the state education system? Why do superintendents in Texas want the federal government to take over our schools?
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Examples of CSCOPE indoctrination on steroids:
Complaints about CSCOPE have been many, though. The most common complaints are probably that the curriculum is riddled with cultural relativism and downright leftist assumptions, particularly in social studies. Critics also say that CSCOPE coursework is short on facts and way too long on giving students opportunities to give their uninformed opinions.
Below, The Daily Caller presents 10 of the most egregious examples of the curriculum’s inadequacies and absurdities.
1. Islam is awesome
In a unit of high school world history, the online material students are given is essentially a paean to the greatness of Islam and its founder, Mohammed.
One portion involves open-ended discussion of the merits of the hijab — the face and body covering worn by many Muslim women (and under threat of arrest in Saudi Arabia and Iran). Perhaps high school students think the hijab is “freeing because it prevents others from making them into sexual objects.” Or perhaps they think the hijab suggests that “women need to be obscured so as not to arouse male desire.” Either way, it’s fine.
The widespread and ordinary mistreatment of women in Islamic countries — particularly Arab ones — is ignored. Texas high schoolers don’t learn, for example, that Jordan and other Islamic kingdoms have laws that pardon rapists if an arrangement can be reached for rapists and their victims to get married.
2. Christianity is a cult
Another portion of the materials on Islam lists several specific lessons that Muslims take from the example of Islam’s founder, such as “Be respectful of other religions.” Strangely, there does not appear to be any such lesson focused on, say, Moses or Jesus Christ.
Instead, the materials in another world history lesson inform students that Christianity is a cult that parallels the death and resurrection in the story of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the dead. The same material takes pains to point out that early Christians were accused of incest, cannibalism and other atrocities.
3. Communism is awesome
An illustration in a CSCOPE high school world history handout shows a figure with a trekking pole climbing steps made out of money. A chart immediately to the right concerns “big ideas” in 18th- and 19th-century economic thinking. At the bottom of the chart is free-market capitalism, where “all people strive to fulfill their own needs and wants,” and where government control and planning are low.
In the middle is socialism, where “the big things” in society (e.g., “telephones, roads, airports”) are “owned by the people.” “Can you think of other big stuff that should be covered?” the chart asks. (Note the loaded verb, “should.”)
At the top of the chart is communism, which the CSCOPE creators innocuously describe as “the idea of living together in a ‘commune’ where all people work together for everyone.” The chart manages to insult the Marxist vision of communism as well, by suggesting that government control and planning is highest under the system.
There is no mention of the nearly 100 million people who died in the 20th century under various self-described communist regimes around the world.
4. Hey kids! Let’s make communist flags
“Imagine a new socialist nation is creating a flag and you have been put in charge of creating a flag,” read the instructions from an activity that directs sixth graders to design a socialist or communist flag. “Use symbolism to represent aspects of socialism/communism on your flag.”
In the same lesson, students are also instructed that socialist utopian Robert Owen wanted to “give every child born into the world an equal chance to live and grow and to lead a happy life.”
No mention is made of the two socialist utopias Owen attempted to create, or how they ended up disastrously failed and disease-ridden.
5. The Boston Tea Party was a terrorist attack
A CSCOPE high school world history lesson plan depicts the Boston Tea Party, the famous protest against taxation without representation, as an act of terrorism.
“A local militia, believed to be a terrorist organization, attacked the property of private citizens today at our nation’s busiest port,” the part of the curriculum pertaining to the Boston Tea Party reads. “Although no one was injured in the attack, a large quantity of merchandise, considered to be valuable to its owners and loathsome to the perpetrators, was destroyed. The terrorists, dressed in disguise and apparently intoxicated, were able to escape into the night with the help of local citizens who harbor these fugitives and conceal their identities from the authorities.”
6. Terrorism: what do you think?
The broader world history lesson that calls the Boston Tea Party as an act of terrorism is entitled simply “Terrorism.” “What is it that terrorists hope to achieve?” it asks students. “What are the long term goals of terrorism?”
There is substantial discussion concerning Guantanamo Bay. The lesson explains that the United States government holds “known and suspected terrorists” at the American military base in Cuba. The lesson flatly asserts that “prisoners are being held without legal council [sic],” thus grossly simplifying a very complex issue of constitutional and international law, not to mention misspelling counsel.
Additionally, the lesson asks whether the prohibition in the Bill of Rights against cruel and unusual punishment should be extended to “non-citizens (or prisoners).” This question is ludicrous on many levels. Non-citizens are most certainly protected under the Bill of Rights. So are prisoners. “Enemy combatants” is likely the phrase the writers of the lesson were grasping for, but it appears nowhere in the lesson.
Finally, hilariously, the lesson — which must have been initially created around 2008 — notes that “President Obama has now ordered Guantanamo to be closed within a year.” Hope and change!
7. Christopher Columbus was an eco-warrior
A third-grade social studies lesson removes vast swaths from Christopher Columbus’s journal entries to make it appear that the explorer was a Darwin-esque environmentalist.
“This is so beautiful a place, [with] species so new and dissimilar to that of our country,” Columbus writes in the cherry-picked CSCOPE version. “The diversity in the appearance of the feathered tribe from those of our country is extremely curious. A thousand different sorts of trees, with their fruit were to be met with, and of a wonderfully delicious odor.”
The writers omit large portions of the journal in their effort to transform Columbus into a tree hugger. Gone are multiple references to God and Christendom, for example. Also left out is the part where Columbus says he is arbitrarily detaining seven native inhabitants so he can parade them in front of the King of Spain.
8. CSCOPE writers pointlessly disparage Paul Revere
A high school social studies lesson on the Bill of Rights allegedly portrayed students to “identify which amendment would apply” to a dozen hypothetical situations. For some bizarre reason, in #9, the CSCOPE curriculum creators decided to have police kick in the door of American patriot Paul Revere’s home to search for illegal drugs.
9. Help Ban Ki-moon and his U.N. cronies prevent a Malthusian population catastrophe
A document used in science courses on environmental systems is a letter with mock United Nations letterhead. Addressed “Dear High School Ambassador,” the letter explains that world population is approaching “seven billion people.” Secretary General Ban Ki-moon “would like you to participate on an international roundtable to discuss the issues.”
The letter asks students to take “a position whether to support or oppose the pending resolution that the world must achieve zero population growth by the year 2060.” Students should also consider “alternative measures to limit impact of growth.”
Nowhere in the document is there any suggestion that more people might be a good thing. The notion of more human beings in the world is presented in an inherently negative light.
10. Murder and extortion were just “protest strategies” used by the Black Panthers
A question on a CSCOPE history exam allegedly listed four groups: the NAACP, Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Black Panthers. The exam then asks: “Which of the above used protest strategies unlike the other groups to achieve equal rights?”
The credited answer is the Black Panthers. Members of the militant socialist organization tortured and murdered 19-year-old Alex Rackley. Nine police officers were killed in confrontations with the group. The Black Panthers also funded their activities by shaking down bar owners and petty criminals in Oakland.
“And if they force the districts to stop using this poison, the next one will be even more subtle.”
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Exactly. Determined radical leftist fascists, aren’t they.
Snip
AUSTIN- State Sen. Dan Patrick, in coordination with the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC), announces significant changes to the CSCOPE curriculum management system. The TESCCC has worked with Patrick, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, and the State Board of Education (SBOE), to address concerns raised at a recent committee hearing on the CSCOPE system. The two parties have agreed to several immediate as well as forthcoming changes.
The changes that take effect immediately include:
In addition to these immediate transparency and quality control changes, CSCOPE will also undergo structural, governance, and other changes, including:
Finally, CSCOPE is notifying all participating school districts that lessons are not intended to be taught verbatim, and the Governing Board generally recommends that local districts utilize CSCOPE lessons solely as a resource. Until CSCOPE lessons can be reviewed through a collaborative process with the SBOE and TESCCC, districts are strongly encouraged to review all lessons at the local level, to ensure that lessons are appropriate for their students.
End snip
The best response to efforts at propaganda and lies starts with the truth. You can be offended all day, but unless you disseminate the truth, you still lose.
In public schools, children quickly become aware if someone is lying to them by overtly lying, or lying by omission. This motivates them to want the truth, but they don’t know where to look to find it.
At the local level, the best response is to go underground, with “micro-publishing”, to provide an “illegitimate” education of the truth. Importantly, once children know they have been lied to by their teachers, they will never trust them again, and will actively pursue truth, and despise the lies.
The leftists condemn such truth-seeking as “cynicism”, as if that is a bad thing. Because for the left, it is. They cannot tolerate a bright light on their nest of cockroaches and filth.
It begins with one child, discreetly giving pamphlets to others.
This is the most frightening thing I think I have read... probably ever.
How can this possibly be and how can it be done without parents attacking the schools? Have they no idea or care for what is being taught their children?
I am resigned that we are doomed. This can’t be reversed quickly enough to make a difference. Only about 5 years of this are needed and it seems to have been going on for some time now.
Witness the “man-on-the-street” poll yesterday by Hannity... Question, “Would you support exporting jobs and manufacturing for products that might damage the environment to China?” The answer was generally an enthusiastic, “YES, of course, it is a good idea and the right thing to do.”
Do any of these people even begin to think and wonder how stupid they really are? Of course not. That would presuppose they think logically at all. Instead they are merely parrots.
Let the bodies hit the floor.
Why try to fix CSCOPE? Why not jut shitcan it? That is what needs to be done.
Attempting to fix it is like trying to make a Tiger into a house cat after it ate its last three owners.
This kind of stupidity is what passes for leadership and management?
Why? Fix the in place system and make it work rather than starting over from scratch with new systems, people, etc.
Some things are not worth fixing. CSCOPE is clearly created and managed by a group of highly untrustworthy people who will not change.
The Texas Board of Education passed a very good, traditional and conservative curriculum a couple of years ago in spite of the raucous protests of the libs who once controlled it. CSCOPE is the bitter response of the libs to circumvent the approved curriculum and books.
Ours hasn't....yet.
Exactly!! That's what I called and asked Sen Patrick's office right after his big, "sweeping changes" charade. They didn't have an answer.
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Neither did computers when I was in school. Some group/company etc has to compile, write, publish, distribute, etc the materials for use in the classroom. It can't be done with each district.
This system can be excellent if more attention is applied to the content. Now I understand that all humans won't agree on content but some consensus would be used.
This “system” sucks. Read the teachers forum.
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