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See what they’ll be teaching in the Chicago public schools
The Daily Caller ^ | 4/21/2014 | Chuck Ross

Posted on 04/21/2014 2:27:46 AM PDT by markomalley

Chicago public schools are set to introduce a new Afro-centric curriculum, according to a closely-guarded copy obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The curriculum covers kindergarten through tenth grade and is designed to align with Common Core. It includes a web link to TheAfrican.com, a website whose publisher decries “fake-Jews” and calls the United States a “Zionist-occupied enemy territory.”

The site also claims that the world will end sometime this year and that President Barack Obama is “merely another trick of [the beast of the 4th Kingdom].”

The new Chicago curriculum was announced last December.

“CPS has taken great pride in developing a yearlong, interdisciplinary African and African-American studies program that will enrich the understanding and appreciation of African and African-American history and culture to help build stronger and more cohesive student communities,” said Chicago Public School chief executive Byrd Bennett in an announcement of the curriculum, dubbed IAAAS.

CPS began developing IAAAS after a push last year from groups that wanted to implement a state law passed in 1990 that required public schools to offer one unit on African-American history.

But CPS went above and beyond, implementing the curriculum across all core disciplines, which include literacy, mathematics, science, social science, the arts, physical education and health.

“The law said it had to be one unit devoted to the history of African-Americans,” Annette Gurley, CPS chief officer of teaching and learning told the Chicago Tribune in 2013. “What we’ve done is we’ve taken it throughout the year for all subjects, not just one subject.”

But some of the subjects, including those discussed at TheAfrican.com, are heavily controversial. The Chicago curriculum topic discussed at TheAfrican.com is “The Black Athena,” a book written by historian Martin Bernal. Sixth and ninth grade Chicago students will discuss the book and an accompanying full-length Youtube documentary.

In the work, Bernal claimed that ancient Greeks stole much of its civilization from Egypt, which, Bernal asserts, was populated by blacks. The Chicago curriculum entertains rebuttals to Bernal’s theory but skews heavily in its favor.

Ron Fritze, a historian, the dean of Athens State University, and author of the book “Invented Knowledge,” says that Bernal’s theories are not historically accurate and have no place in Chicago schools.

“As a historian and an educator, I am very troubled by the notion of [students] in Chicago city schools spending five weeks on Bernal’s ideas,” Fritze told TheDCNF.

“His ideas are outliers of scholarship and have been largely discredited among other scholars,” said Fritze, noting that few scholars from Egypt or even China and Japan subscribe to Bernal’s theories.

Fritze says that while most of Bernal’s critics had proven expertise in Classical studies, ancient history, and Egyptology, most of his supporters were not specialized in those fields.

“But they were people who found his ideas to be politically attractive,” said Fritze.

Chicago fifth graders will be exposed to another controversial and widely-criticized theory in Ivan van Sertima’s “They Came Before Columbus.” Van Sertima, who taught at Rutgers University, theorized that Africans populated the Americas well before Columbus.

But critics largely panned the work. In a 1977 New York Times book review, archaeologist Glyn Daniel called van Sertima’s work “ignorant rubbish” and labeled it “myth and folklore.”

Fritze is critical as well.

“I and most historians of exploration consider ‘They Came Before Columbus’ to be very wrong in its contentions about African voyages to the Americas,” he told TheDCNF.

Nevertheless, the IAAAS curriculum provides a unit on the work that includes links to seven-part Youtube video series.

Laid out in the curriculum are pictures with arrows drawn to help guide teachers’ lessons. One asks, “Is the water under the ‘boat’ telling us that these people traveled over the ocean from a place with pyramids?”

CPS initially denied TheDCNF’s request for a copy of the curriculum, made last year, citing the fact that the curriculum was still a preliminary draft.

But last December, Byrd-Bennett made a presentation using slides taken from the IAAAS curriculum. State open records laws require officials to release records of preliminary drafts when those records have been discussed in a public forum.

The Chicago curriculum does focus heavily on well established history and events — including discussions on slavery, the histories of black inventors, the civil rights movement and President Obama.

But other sections also delve into controversial areas. The eighth grade literacy section unit, titled “Being an Advocate to Social Justice,” directs students to the website for the American Civil Liberties Union. It also includes a poem titled “Racism is Around Me Everywhere,” cartoons from the website LeftyCartoons.com, and it encourages discussion of Attorney General Eric Holder’s infamous “nation of cowards” quote.

The ninth grade literacy section encompasses a study of the Pan African Movement. Teachers are encouraged to engage their students in debate over voluntary segregation. “Have someone read the following resolution, Resolved: voluntary segregation promotes growth in a diverse community. Teams then participate in a graded formal debate.”

Tenth graders are introduced to “critical race theory,” which holds that institutional racism and white privilege are pervasive throughout society.

A request for comment from Chicago Public Schools was not answered.


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; US: Illinois
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1 posted on 04/21/2014 2:27:46 AM PDT by markomalley
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To: markomalley

Afro-centric curriculum???????

In other words “hate whitey” indoctrination curriculum.


2 posted on 04/21/2014 2:39:53 AM PDT by DH (Once the tainted finger of government touches anything the rot begins)
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To: markomalley

Seems as if the Black Panthers are writing the curriculum for Chicago. To be “fair and balanced”, the KKK ought to write their version of history. This is a blatant move to recruit race revolutionaries in the public schools. Are voters in Chicago nut?


3 posted on 04/21/2014 2:42:50 AM PDT by txrefugee
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To: markomalley

“Ignorant Rubbish”. Says it all


4 posted on 04/21/2014 2:44:08 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: markomalley

Fostering diversity, the enemy within works thier magic


5 posted on 04/21/2014 2:51:08 AM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: DH

“Afro-centric curriculum??? In other words “hate whitey” indoctrination curriculum.”

The government is at a loss as to how to turn the permanent unassimilated underclass into productive Americans, and nonsense like this shows that 1) they’ve completely given up, and 2) they’ll just figure out some way to make money out of their misery.


6 posted on 04/21/2014 3:58:13 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: ronnie raygun

“Fostering diversity, the enemy within works thier magic”

They’ve given up on that; an increasing number of black children have no interaction with whites whatsoever.


7 posted on 04/21/2014 4:01:26 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: kearnyirish2

“Afro-centric curriculum”.........

Tells me all I need to know.

Aren’t those unfortunate young people already dumb enough? They want to brainwash them to the point they live in a completely different world. That is really SAD! Their plight is already going to be difficult just being IN Chicago, following that plan it will only be that much worse.

Another stupid idea coming down from the “Brain Palace”


8 posted on 04/21/2014 4:07:23 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: markomalley

“and that President Barack Obama is “merely another trick of [the beast of the 4th Kingdom].”

Well, they got that one right.


9 posted on 04/21/2014 4:30:28 AM PDT by goldi
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To: Progov

“Aren’t those unfortunate young people already dumb enough?”

That is why they can do this there; nobody would allow this nonsense with people who might potentially have a future. These urban districts are simply labs for liberals, since there are no parents that would oppose the people who take their broods off their hands for most of the day.


10 posted on 04/21/2014 4:31:25 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: DH

If they want a Africa-centric program, simple solution.

Ship the entire Chicago Public School administration and teaching staff off to Africa to teach and work in the rural school systems there. No neo-colonial executive perks.

Also, all administrators will be assigned assistant teaching positions under the supervision of existing African teachers and all teachers will become assistants in available administrative jobs.

While they are all gone, fill their positions in the Chicago schools with a mix of African teachers and Americans with NON-EDUCATION degrees.Throw in a few plumbers, farmers, owner-operator truck drivers, etc.

Subcontract the administrative functions to Wal-mart and Fed-Ex.

Throw in a few Parris Island Drill Instructors to whip the “School Resource Offices’ into shape.

School system lawyers and all “community organizers” and NEA staff and teachers union folks will be assigned to work with the opposition political parties in the various African countries.

This entire program will be called....

Reality 101!!!

(BTW, Thomas Sowell & Mike Rowe will direct it all)

[ain’t fantasy FUN!]


11 posted on 04/21/2014 4:59:09 AM PDT by BwanaNdege
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To: DH
"afro-centric"

This kind of "education" has been around for decades. I believe it's been tried in some Milwaukee schools and other schools across the country. For some reason brain dead libs believe this kind of nonsense will inspire black kids. I've never read any report about the results of this kind of dopey instruction. File it under ideas so stupid only libs could believe they work.

12 posted on 04/21/2014 5:06:20 AM PDT by driftless2
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To: kearnyirish2

unassimilated and unassimilable. You can’t teach kids with IQs in the 75-80 range and who resist any kind of instruction.


13 posted on 04/21/2014 5:09:52 AM PDT by driftless2
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To: BwanaNdege

PS Sorry if this all sounds a bit like Pol Pot. We’ll just have to make sure we omit the forced starvation and shots in the back of the head parts of THAT program.

That’s why all the Chicago “educators” will answer to their African counterparts.

At the end of the one year Reality 101 project, competitive exams will be held for the positions in the Chicago school system. The following people may apply:

Former Chicago teachers.

Replacement Chicago teachers.

Prospective administrators can apply to ManPower Temps, Walmart or whom ever gets the contract for school administration.

Unfortunately, the passports and return airline tickets for the former school board members have been “temorarily misplaced”. They will remain in Africa and be enrolled in Reality 201

All African teachers and rural administrators are encouraged to apply. If they win the competitive exams they will be granted H1B visas and round trip airfare for each year served.


14 posted on 04/21/2014 5:15:45 AM PDT by BwanaNdege
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To: All

How many “Africans” go to school in Chicago?


15 posted on 04/21/2014 5:22:31 AM PDT by Boonie
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To: driftless2

“You can’t teach kids with IQs in the 75-80 range and who resist any kind of instruction.”

They’d need a massive overhaul of their environment to get it done, and that would never be permitted. Too many whites (and others) make very lucrative livelihoods out of the misery of blacks; the poverty industry is an entity unto itself. If healthcare is 1/7 of the economy, the “poverty industry” is at least as large.


16 posted on 04/21/2014 5:40:05 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: markomalley
The Chicago curriculum does focus heavily on well established history and events — including discussions on slavery, the histories of black inventors

Will the 'Afro-centric' curriculum explain how and why their fellow Africans collaborated with the slave trade and why such practices endure(d) beyond the end of the US Civil War?

Will the 'black inventors' segment emphasize the black or the inventor, especially the science behind innovations? Or will it be more of the whitey-tried-to-steal-and-suppress?

17 posted on 04/21/2014 5:40:45 AM PDT by relictele (Principiis obsta & Finem respice - Resist The Beginnings & Consider The End)
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To: markomalley

Knowing this state, I figured it’d be on how wonderful it is to be queer.


18 posted on 04/21/2014 5:43:56 AM PDT by Marathoner (When Obama fails, freedom prevails)
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To: kearnyirish2

The only solutions to the problem of the black underclass would be anathema to many people including many conservatives. Sterilization, deportation, segregation....those are a few, and no “reputable” conservative elite would agree with those actions. Remember John Derbyshire got kicked out of NRO for writing the truth.


19 posted on 04/21/2014 7:23:06 AM PDT by driftless2
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To: markomalley

Well, at least we can take comfort in the observation that the Chicago Public Schools will be just as incompetent in teaching an ‘Afro-centric curriculum’ as they are at teaching anything else.


20 posted on 04/21/2014 7:42:54 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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