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FRIENDSWOOD — Parents of some junior high students are upset they weren't notified about a school presentation on Islamic culture, an omission that violated school district policy. The parents' letter-writing campaign stems from a May 22 presentation at Friendswood Junior High, where two Muslim women gave a 30-minute presentation about Islamic life as part of a yearlong study of respect, tolerance and culture, The Galveston County Daily News reported Saturday. The guest speakers discussed Muslim culture, including topics such as food, religion, dress, beliefs and famous Muslims. School district spokeswoman Karolyn Gephart said principal Robin Lowe had "best intentions," but...

TIPP CITY, Ohio — When 83-year-old Edmund Jackson uses a hand trimmer to clip the grass, one of the 22 pieces of shrapnel in his right arm dances under the skin of his wrist. ---- snip ---- The schoolbook program is designed to spark greater interest in history by giving students an emotional connection to it and showing them it’s made by real people like themselves.

"I don't want to read anymore of this!" My son angrily threw his history book on the ground. When he cooled down a little, I asked him what was wrong, and he told me in tears about The Trail Of Tears. He couldn't take it. He didn't want to face the fact that our blessed Nation could do something so wrong. He couldn't believe that a lot of our Founding Fathers had been slave owners that had written about freedom while benefitting from the fruits of slave ownership. He was shutting down before my very eyes as to the love...

I was sorting out some papers over the weekend ... and came upon one of my favorites. It's a page out of an "Activity Book" published by Harcourt Brace, now called Harcourt Education. This page is entitled "Rights & Wrongs" and comes from the Harcourt social studies textbook "United States in Modern Times." The heading for this page says: "In the late eighteenth century many people complained that the Constitution did not list rights of the people. So the authors of the Constitution decided to write a Bill of Rights. These first ten amendments to the Constitution state simply and...

CARY – After closely examining the immunization records and marriage and birth certificates of the eighth-grade “immigrant” with a magnifying glass, Brent Lueck asked him the important question. “You’re from Ireland,” he said. “Are you a Catholic?” Lueck said he was worried that the “immigrant” might try to subvert America in the name of the pope. “I’ve got some issues with you, some loyalty issues.” It was just one example of the mock prejudice faced by about 120 eighth-grade students Friday at Cary Junior High taking part in a simulation of immigrant arrivals and experiences at Ellis Island. Millions of...

If history matters to you, then voters should pick Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton and Republican Fred Thompson as their parties' presidential nominees. That's because they are the choice of America's social studies teachers. In a miniconvention sponsored by Pearson, the education and media giant, Clinton, the former first lady viewed as the most experienced in the field, was first with 41.9 percent, followed by Sen. Barack Obama with 34 percent and John Edwards at 12.3 percent. On the GOP side, Thompson, the actor and former Watergate prober, won 23.2 percent, followed by Rudy Giuliani at 20.5 percent and surging Mike...

U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and former U.S. Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee are the top choices for the 2008 Democratic and Republican nominations for President of the United States, according to the nation's first Presidential "Primary" of voters at the National Council for the Social Studies annual conference in San Diego. Sponsored by Pearson, more than 700 of the nation's social studies teachers flexed their voting muscles and put the principles they teach about every day into action by casting their votes. Senator Clinton won her party's nod with 41.9% of the vote. Senator Thompson was...

Thanksgiving's coming and you're concerned that your third-grader doesn't know much about the Pilgrims. Join the club. Educators in North Jersey and across the nation say social studies have been given short shrift in today's classrooms -- neglected in the drive to spend more time preparing for math and reading tests mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Just 27 percent of high school seniors were deemed "proficient" in civics and 53 percent had "below basic" knowledge of U.S. history, according to a federal report last year. Anecdotal evidence of a lack of civic knowledge seems to...

SEATTLE – A letter from the Seattle School District is raising some eyebrows about Thanksgiving and how it should be handled in the classroom. The letter tells school district staff that the holiday is seen by many Native Americans as a "time of mourning." It all started three years ago when some Native American parents voiced concerns about how Thanksgiving was being observed in Seattle Schools. "In terms of what they were seeing in some of the use of the feathers and those things because those are of spiritual and ceremonial significance to us," said Willard Bill, Seattle Public Schools....

School's 'Holocaust' Experiment Upsets Parents Dad: Son Cried Over Becoming Jew For Day POSTED: 5:53 pm EST March 29, 2006 UPDATED: 9:02 am EST March 30, 2006 Several parents in Apopka, Fla., are upset over a surprise school "Holocaust" project that some say tormented children, according to a Local 6 News report. Local 6 News reported that eighth-graders with last names beginning with L through Z at Apopka Memorial Middle School were given yellow five-pointed stars for Holocaust Remembrance Day. Other students were privileged, the report said. Father John Tinnelly said his son was forced to stand in the back...

Few things make liberals more uncomfortable than being confronted with the racism of politically correct minorities. Two weeks ago, I wrote about Autum Ashante, the precocious 7-year-old black nationalist poet, who said white people are "devils and they should be gone." If this daughter of a Nation of Islam activist father had instead been an Aryan supremacist child of a Klan activist, she'd still be all over the network news and pages of pop culture magazines (as a pair of white nationalist teen pop singers, Lamb and Lynx Gaede, have been since last fall). But with rare exceptions, nobody wanted...

Remember how much media attention those racist white nationalist teen singers received last fall? (Indeed, they're still getting press. Here they are in the most recent issue of GQ.) Well, here's a little experiment with race, double standards, labeling, and MSM bias. My column today is about Autum Ashante, a 7-year-old racist black nationalist poetry "prodigy."

Autum Ashante, the 7-year-old poetry prodigy whose work sparked an uproar in a Westchester County school district, made no apologies yesterday, saying she did the right thing. "I feel good about the response," Autum said of the firestorm engulfing the Peekskill City School District, where her recitation of a poem at a high school and a middle school offended students. "I know it was the right thing." The schools sent recorded phone messages to 3,000 parents last week apologizing for Autum's poem, "White Nationalism Put U In Bondage," which accuses Christopher Columbus and Charles Darwin of robbing blacks of their...

Poet, 7, Sets Off Racial Controversy Performance Upsets Adults and Students -- for Different Reasons By ADRIENNE MAND LEWIN March 14, 2006 — - A 7-year-old New York poet has fired up adults following a racially charged performance at a middle school. Autum Ashante, who is home-schooled and lives with her father in Mount Vernon, was invited by a music teacher to present her poetry during a Black History Month program at Peekskill Middle School on Feb. 28. She has written her own poetry and performed in front of audiences since she was 4. Before reciting a poem, Ashante asked...

NEW YORK -- Autum Ashante, a 7-year-old black girl who caused a stir at two Westchester schools by reciting a poem she wrote about white nationalism, received support from some New York City leaders on Tuesday. First, she stood on the City Hall steps with Councilman Charles Barron, who denounced what he described as attacks and harassment since Autum spoke last month at a middle and high school. Barron said he planned to ask Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office to look into whether the girl's free speech rights were violated. Later, she had an appearance scheduled with the Rev. Al...

The Associated Press's Ben Feller has written an article entitled "School Textbooks Tackle the Clinton Impeachment." For people who think of tackling as the kind of head-on tackling seen at football games, tackling is the wrong word. Mr. Feller's article indicates that the school textbooks are obfuscating (making obscure or confusing) instead of "tackling." The kind of contribution to the Hillary in 2008 campaign that will not be officially reported, because it is not money or property, but will be appreciated by the Clintons, each of whom indisputably misled the American people. One more scandal involving the Clintons. (If Hillary...

My daughter attends public school in Berkley, Michigan. Today, she came home today with a U.S. Marines T-shirt. She won it in her Social Studies class. 'How did that happen?' I asked. She expalined that they had a special guest in their class today. It was her teacher's brother who is a Marine Sgt. with 9 years in the Core. I think he was there to commerate the 230 birthday today of the Marines. His main topic was about 'What's REALLY going on in Iraq.' He started off by saying something like, 'I don't want to tell you that the...

NEW YORK, Oct. 23 (JTA) — The state of California is on the brink of a major election that involves neither Arnold Schwarzenegger nor Clint Eastwood. The candidates are textbooks and other teaching materials that will influence what schoolchildren across the state — and across the United States — will learn for more than a decade. With a debate under way over evolution and intelligent design in science textbooks, a less-publicized battle is being waged over the content of social studies and history materials — some of which are pro-Islamic, anti-American, anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic. California is in the final...

Government teacher Nareg Keshishian never expected a parent to complain when he advised his Advanced Placement class he planned to show a documentary on media bias in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But a parent did, telling the principal of Glendale's Hoover High School that the documentary "Outfoxed," which alleges right-wing bias at Fox News, was one-sided and that Keshishian wasn't presenting the "facts" about the attacks in a fair and balanced way. "When they come up with a documentary showing the bias in CNN, I will happily air it. I want to bring to the students'...

Mark Felt was the topic du jour in an honors philosophy class at Catonsville High School last week, reported the Baltimore Sun, which noted that "most of the 12 juniors in the class said it was unethical for Felt to talk to Woodward." Felt's job, said one student, was "to go to his superiors." Another student said, "if it was truly to benefit society, he wouldn't have kept his name secret." A student named YinYin Yu, 16, opined daringly that Felt's info was beside the point since all politicians behave badly at some point: "They don't have ethics. They have...

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.

February 22, 2005 -- 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. Deputy Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina, who has a nephew serving in Iraq, plans to personally contact Pfc. Rob Jacobs and his family, said department spokeswoman Michele McManus Higgins. Continued

Middle School Students Encouraged to Send Demoralizing Letters to Soldier Pfc. Rob Jacobs is a soldier based ten miles from the North Korean border. His home is in New Jersey. Therefore, it was not a surprise that he was excited when he received letters from sixth-grade students at JHS 51 in Park Slope; near Prospect Park in Brooklyn. But, that was before Pfc. Jacobs opened and read the letters. Monday, David Andreatta of the New York Post reported that these letters were “strewn with politically charged rhetoric, vicious accusations and demoralizing predictions that only a handful of soldiers would leave...

February 22, 2005 -- 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. Deputy Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina, who has a nephew serving in Iraq, plans to personally contact Pfc. Rob Jacobs and his family, said department spokeswoman Michele McManus Higgins. "She knows how difficult it is to have a loved one in a war zone," Higgins said. Jacobs is stationed 10 miles from the North Korean border and who has been told he may be...

The American Jewish community has neglected to properly educate its youth about Israel and the Jewish state in the public opinion war that takes place before students even make it to college, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations warned on Sunday. "We have found the major battleground to be in the high schools. We find that we are losing our youth in the high schools," declared Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the group, which represents 52 American organizations, on the concluding day of the organization's annual trip to Israel. "We take our kids for granted."...

Recently, a group of Hudson High School students and parents have charged that some teachers at HHHS, specifically in the Social Studies department, are teaching with a liberal bias and stifling the conservative students' opinions. In addition, these students have criticized the administration for violating their commitment to allow students their First Amendment rights. This issue began with the creation of a Conservative Club at Hudson High School. The co-presidents of the new club, Chris Bowler and James Mellilo, hung posters around the school associating themselves with the High School Conservative Clubs of America (HSCCA), and included the Web site,...

No Child Left Unbrainwashed By Edgar B. Anderson FrontPageMagazine.com | July 1, 2004 As countless numbers of immigrants continue to pour into the United States, the Left has been trying to destroy any patriotic thoughts these new Americans might develop toward their adopted country. One can see an example of this phenomenon by perusing the textbooks used in the nation's English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) programs. High Point, Success in Language-Literature-Content, Level B, is an English-as-a Second Language literature anthology textbook published by Hampton-Brown and intended for middle and high school students whose English vocabulary and reading level is at the sixth...

<p>Social studies textbooks used in elementary and secondary schools are mostly a disgrace that, in the name of political correctness and multiculturalism, fail to give students an honest account of American history, say academic historians and education advocates.</p> <p>"Secondary and college students, and indeed most of the rest of us, have only a feeble grasp of politics and a vague awareness of history, especially the political history of the United States and the world," says Paul Gagnon, emeritus professor of history at the University of Massachusetts.</p>

Militant Islamists in the United States and their allies have set their sights on our American children. They seek to provide an education similar to that taught in the controlled regimes of the Arab world. So far, American textbook suppliers are more than willing to accommodate them. It is well known that the Palestine Authority, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab world use propaganda in their schools to support Islamic hegemony and stir up sentiment against Israel and the West. Students in the Middle East are taught to distrust Christians and Jews and are then taught to apply...

Friday, February 06, 2004 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Taunts, tears follow race lesson Education expert says instructor had good intentions but method `misguided' By J.M. KALIL REVIEW-JOURNAL Stacey Gough picks up her 9-year-old daughter Amber at Manch Elementary School on Thursday afternoon. The mother is perturbed about a librarian's decision to separate students according to their race as part of a Black History Month exercise.Photo by John Gurzinski. Parents say an elementary school instructor's outlandish technique for teaching children about segregation has fostered fear and confusion among students rather than a fundamental understanding of racism. Officials at Manch...

Jihad Against U.S. High School StudentsBy Lee KaplanFrontPageMagazine.com | December 19, 2003 On Dec. 4th, 2003 the ¡°Wheels of Justice Tour¡± appeared during school hours on the grounds of Ukiah High School in Northern California. What was this tour? It was the PLO, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and other leftist groups such as International Answer packaged to teach your 15 year-old child that the Israel must be dismantled and the US must get out of Iraq to aid the comeback of Saddam Hussein. Passing themselves off as objective ¡°peace¡± advocates, the tour group spoke at Ukiah High to three...

<p>Mallory Sutika was serious last April when she sat down with a No. 2 pencil to take the social studies MEAP. But around her, it was a different story.</p> <p>Some students slept. Some made designs with their answer sheets. Some didn't show up at all.</p>

Minnesota is adopting new social studies standards, which will replace those of the discredited Profile of Learning. These standards will specify, for the first time, what Minnesota students must know about American and world history. Is it any surprise, then, that they are the subject of controversy? The new standards' most vocal critics hail (predictably) from the educational establishment. Recently, 32 history professors from the University of Minnesota grabbed the media spotlight with a blistering 13-page letter to Education Commissioner Cheri Pierson Yecke. The letter -- which sums up many critics' complaints -- expresses "grave concerns" about the standards, and...

Arab World Studies Notebook lobs Muslim propaganda at teacherse-mail letter of 8 October 2003 from The Textbook League's president,William J. Bennetta, to Stuart Elliott, of Wichita, Kansas 8 October 2003 Dear Mr. Elliott: I have been reviewing schoolbooks and other instructional publications for about eighteen years, and during that time I have developed three general observations. Writing an analysis of a good publication is enjoyable and usually is easy. Writing an analysis of a weak publication is typically a more difficult task, requiring much explication of the publication's failures and follies. Writing an analysis of a patently fraudulent publication is...

Pop quiz: Which description best fits Thomas Jefferson? A. Founding Father; third president of the United States elected in 1800; and author of the Declaration of Independence, adopted in 1776. B. Statesman, author, inventor, architect, but also slaveholder and member of the landowning elite. The answer depends on whom you are asking. History students are more likely to answer A. Social studies students would gravitate toward B. The hypothetical test question illustrates two approaches that are fighting for prominence in schools around the country. Traditional history classes would pay more attention to Jefferson's leadership, carefully placed within a framework of...

<p>An F in social studies? For Pennsylvania? Vaughn Dailey, a social studies teacher at Peters Township Middle School, couldn't believe it.</p> <p>"That's particularly tragic," he said, "for the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution."</p> <p>But according to a report released this week by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Pennsylvania's standards for how to teach U.S. history to pupils in kindergarten through 12th grade are so disorganized and convoluted that they are little more than "a particularly ineffectual version of 'Trivial Pursuit.' "</p>

<p>The Pentagon yesterday ordered a review of how it recruits military chaplains, particularly Muslim clerics endorsed by two groups with ties to radical Islam.</p> <p>Pentagon officials yesterday informed senators of the review as Sens. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, and Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, announced upcoming hearings on whether the radical Wahhabi sect has infiltrated the U.S. military chaplain corps.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON — Emphasis on multiculturalism and cultural diversity is getting in the way of proper history and civics educations, particularly the teaching of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and its aftermath, say some education experts who are demanding teachers refocus their classes.</p>

<p>ITHACA -- The Ithaca school district in 2003-04 will present its pre-K through eighth grade students with a revamped social studies curriculum that emphasizes world cultures and preparation for state tests.</p> <p>The school board Tuesday night voted to adopt the new curriculum, which was the subject of eighth-grade teacher Andrea Volckmar's six-month sabbatical this past year. During that period, she researched state standards and different curricula, and gathered input from teachers to develop a tighter, more focused social studies program.</p>

Social Studies instruction is a boring, muddled, content-free mess, writes Chester Finn in a fine tirade. For a long time, this field's decline resembled that of the Roman Empire protracted, inexorable and sad, but not something one could do much about, even as evidence mounted that youngsters were emerging from high school with scant knowledge of history, geography, civics or economics. Evidence also mounted that the movers and shapers within social studies had little respect for Western civilization; a disposition to view America as a problem for mankind rather than its best hope; a tendency to pooh-pooh history's factual highlights...

<p>Not every teacher is like the one in Maryland who told her class that Sept. 11 happened because America is "bossy." "That's what my teacher said," one of her pupils told the Washington Post. "She said it's because we have all the weapons and we think we can boss other people around." Nor is every education historian like Michael Apple, who characterized "The Star-Spangled Banner" in the Teachers College Record as a "strikingly militaristic song."</p>