MICHIGAN DEPT OF ED TO BAN "AMERICA" AND "AMERICAN" FROM SCHOOLS

[gardenweasel]

more liberal academic shenanigans...

"At the Detroit News, an op-ed about the latest unbelievable example of multicultural insanity, as the Michigan Department of Education decides “it’s ethnocentric for the United States to claim the entire hemisphere:” Keep ‘America’ in Michigan schools.

Censoring the word “America” from our own schools is something Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden would never have thought possible. Michigan has done it without a whimper.

In perhaps a well-intentioned, but pernicious example of political correctness, the Michigan Department of Education is attempting to ban “America” and “American” from our public schools. Even though the word “America” appears in the department’s own civics and government benchmarks, the department’s style protocol for the Michigan Education Assessment Program requires that “America” and “Americans” be expunged from our testing and grade level expectations. Last week, the department ordered that our hard-working teachers not utter the words.

We’re all ‘North Americans’

The Department of Education asserts that “Americans” includes Mexicans, Canadians and others in the Western Hemisphere, so referring to U.S. residents as Americans is inappropriate. In the department’s view, “America” happens to include South, Central and North America. Accordingly, when referring to the colonial period, the state bureaucracy requires teachers to refer to “the colonies of North America” or “North Americans.” After the American Revolution, the nation is called the United States (not of America).

The state’s edict would be laughable if it were not so disgraceful. Instead of focusing on better teaching methods and educational resources to help our hard-working teachers and parents, the Department of Education spends its energy on confusing, misleading, historically inaccurate and counterproductive wordplay.

UPDATE at 5/24/06 2:53:16 pm:

The Michigan DOE responds: State is not Removing “America” from Classroom Instruction in Michigan.
LANSING -The Michigan Department of Education is not taking the word “America” or “American” out of the classrooms of Michigan.

In an opinion piece crafted by Michael Warren in today’s Detroit News, the former State Board of Education member incorrectly states that the Michigan Department of Education has “ordered that our hard-working teachers not utter the words.”

No such edict has gone out to school teachers across Michigan, nor will one, said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan. He explained that an independent association of Social Studies educators has discussed the issue of official U.S. documents or titles, but that any recommendations regarding changes in school curriculum have not even made it to his desk for review.""...

lol...and more liberal academia below...

 

[AR182]

i have a better idea for these schools.....

why don't they try to improve their school systems instead....

the u.s ranks below most countries in educating our young people...

unbelievable what is going on !!

 

[smurphy]

Technically, they are geographically correct. ....But it makes no sense because the entire world (not just us) refer to people of the United States as 'Americans.' There is no other term to represent us - at least none that I've heard.

 

[gardenweasel]

STAMFORD CT SCHOOL BOARD VOTES NOT TO OBSERVE VETERAN`S DAY....


`The school board voted 8 to 1 Feb. 28 in favor of opening on Friday, Nov. 10, to cut one day off the end of the year in June. Friday is the holiday this year because Veterans Day falls on a Saturday.

School board President Susan Nabel said students should get a lesson in civics and history instead of a day off.

"We all felt the real meaning of Veterans Day has been lost for students for quite a few years," she said.

Board members also felt it was more productive to have an extra school day in November rather than June, she said.

According to the board, seveal veterans' groups were apprised of, and supported, the change.

Schools in Connecticut aren't required to take the day off. There are other districts that don't observe the Veterans' Day holiday either. And, part of me can see the sense in actually learning about wars our veterans served in and the sacrifices they made on a day when kids would otherwise be either at home goofing off or on an extended weekend getaway with their families.

However, here's another way of looking at it:

If learning about a holiday is a better way to celebrate than taking a day off, veterans say school should be in session on all holidays, including Labor Day, Columbus Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

"How can you have that one school holiday stricken from the school calendar and not the others?" said Rubino, who will have two sons at Toquam Magnet Elementary School in the fall. "You could imagine the outrage if they tried to remove Martin Luther King Day and say, 'We are going to come to school and talk about who Martin Luther King was.' "

Indeed. Ask Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton what they would think of that one! At my daughter's school, they learn about Veterans' Day in the weeks preceding the holiday. So really, how much is being accomplished by abolishing the observance?"".....

you see this stuff growing subtly in the weeds around the periphery of what`s left of our culture.....

schools in the sf bay, and articles in the media about the schools, have repeatedly been using this "north americans" crapspeak for about a year....



anybody ever hear of "gramscian methodology".....take control of the educational system in stealth mode, and then slowly start to change the parameters of what is acceptable, and brainwash the kids without letting the parents become aware of what's going on....

shockingly, in the michigan case, a journalist found out about it and actually wrote an article about the topic for a newspaper....(amazing)

this crap goes on every single day in the u.s. educational system without a peep from the msm...

we owe this journalist thanks...yeah,i said that..

what`s really scary is that i don`t think this is just typical "bush derangement syndrome"...

i worry that it`s out and out anti-americanism.......i hope not...

i guess it`s cool if the rest of the hemisphere is o.k. with being named after some guinea pirate...

iin future posts,i`ll irefer to african americans as "african north americans"....

i think i pissed enough people off for one night.....



"

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Personally I wish they let the Patriot Guard do their thing --then fine them--also I'd like to see a military draft enacted of just members of ACLU


Legislation to Bar Protesters From Military Funerals Heads to Bush's Desk

Thursday , May 25, 2006




WASHINGTON ? Demonstrators would be barred from disrupting military funerals at national cemeteries under legislation approved by Congress and sent to the White House Wednesday

The measure, passed by voice vote in the House hours after the Senate passed an amended version, specifically targets a Kansas church group that has staged protests at military funerals around the country, claiming that the deaths were a sign of God's anger at U.S. tolerance of homosexuals.

The act "will protect the sanctity of all 122 of our national cemeteries as shrines to their gallant dead," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said prior to the Senate vote.

"It's a sad but necessary measure to protect what should be recognized by all reasonable people as a solemn, private and deeply sacred occasion," he said.

Under the Senate bill, approved without objection by the House with no recorded vote, the "Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act" would bar protests within 300 feet of the entrance of a cemetery and within 150 feet of a road into the cemetery from 60 minutes before to 60 minutes after a funeral. Those violating the act would face up to a $100,000 fine and up to a year in prison.

The sponsor of the House bill, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said he took up the issue after attending a military funeral in his home state, where mourners were greeted by "chants and taunting and some of the most vile things I have ever heard."

"Families deserve the time to bury their American heroes with dignity and in peace," Rogers said Wednesday before the Hosue vote.

The demonstrators are led by the Rev. Fred Phelps of Topeka, Kan., who has previously organized protests against those who died of AIDS and gay murder victim Matthew Shepard.

In an interview when the House bill passed, Phelps said Congress was "blatantly violating the First Amendment" rights to free speech in passing the bill. He said that if the bill becomes law he will continue to demonstrate but would abide by the restrictions.

Sen. Pat Roberts, a Republican from Kansas, said the loved ones of those who die have already sacrificed for the nation and "we must allow them the right to mourn without being thrust into a political circus."

In response to the demonstrations, the Patriot Guard Riders, a motorcyle group including many veterans, has begun appearing at military funerals to pay respects to the fallen service member and protect the family from disruptions.

More than a dozen states are considering similar laws to restrict protests at nonfederal cemeteries. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against a new Kentucky law, saying it goes too far in limiting freedom of speech and expression.