Minnesota's proposed Social Studies standards...this is really sick....

[grannylib]

A couple of excerpts from a story in the St Paul Pioneer Press
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/living/education/7146028.htm%3Cstrong%3E

The state is developing grade-specific standards in social studies and science. The current draft was written by a committee of teachers, parents and business representatives selected by Yecke. The science committee meets next Saturday to discuss the public input its document has received.

Critics of the social studies standards say the proposal includes too many standards, represents a conservative bias and contains standards that are age-inappropriate.

One criticism is that Presidents Reagan and Eisenhower get multiple mentions but Kennedy and Johnson do not receive any. Another is that controversial events like the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II are omitted.

This week the state teachers union, Education Minnesota, sent a letter to Yecke listing its concerns.

Thirty history professors from the University of Minnesota also have sent a letter voicing opposition, saying that, among other weaknesses, the standards "offer a fundamentally incomplete and unbalanced portrayal'' of world history.


"The majority of parents and the public want to see history standards that reflect the greatness of the country,'' she said.

"I don't believe in the hate America agenda, and it would be inappropriate to have that agenda in our standards.''

[LibDemAlways]

1. Social studies should not be a course in fiction.

These attempts to rewrite history are pathetic. Typical right wing agenda though. When the facts don't support your point of view, ignore them or spin them.

[Wickerman]

2. I never thought I would consider homeschooling, but this stuff is bad...

They ignore Johnson (hell, students need that - whoever wrote this for MPR can't even spell Baines), and Vietnam. Vietnam changed the course of this country like nothing in this century. We blotted out a significant portion of our young male population. Society made tremednous changes and welearned to question our govt.

"You wind up with things like JFK being ignored, Jimmy Carter not being acknowledged, Lyndon Banes Johnson and the Great Society not being acknowledged, and you wind up with Ronald Reagan being mentioned three times," says Seeba. "I think any fair-minded Minnesotan would find that that's an incredible imbalance, and it's simply not good history."

Seeba says the proposed standards skip over the decades of the 1960s and '70s, ignoring the Vietnam War and Watergate. Education spokesman Bill Walsh says there are omissions in the proposal, because it's a first draft.

"We've heard a lot of testimony about beefing up the counterculture of the '70s, the Vietnam War study," says Walsh.

http://news.mpr.org/features/2003/10/31_mccalluml_standardsflap/

[SoCalDem]

3. Teachers will just have to supplement

This has always happened.. Whoever runs the show, gets to rewrite history..

Have you seen A&E , Discovery & TLC channels lately?? They were the reason we GOT cable, and now they are thinly veiled propaganda channels:(..

Textbook choice has been a "must have" for the conservox for years.. They win the little races that no one wants to run for, and those are the very ones that get to choose the school curriculum and books..

Dems all over need to start challenging them for those elected offices, if they ever want a say in what their kiddies learn at school :(

[Ellen Forradalom]

4. "Hate-America agenda"? Is that inflammatory or what?

Just because a few people pointed out that their history curriculum FORGOT TO MENTION JFK AND LBJ? My aren't we sensitive.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. I'm Not Worried....

I went to Central Florida schools (not a hotbed of liberalism) from seventh grade to grad school and I can honestly say that the lions share of my teachers were left of center with some being further left than others....

I can remember my eighth grade science teacher criticizing Nixon's mining of Haiphong Harbor as provocative and illegal...

Conservative folks usually don't go into teaching cuz they are chasing the money so we will be fine...

[NicoleM]

6. In theory,

my kids would be learning history from these people. I say "in theory" because I will make sure, one way or another, that they know all about American history, the good and the bad. But how many other people are going to do that?

This is how they're going maintain their death-grip on our country--by indoctrinating our kids that conservatives are the source of all that is good about America, and liberals all hate America.

[markus]

18. You have to watch what your children are taught

I was particularly impressed when my daughter's fifth grade teacher in Fargo, ND (who is known to be a social studies "buff") explained the concept of impeachment this way: Nixon was, and Clinton should have been.

Uh, excuse me? Can someone with so little recollection of historical events in their own lifetime be allowed to teach young children (never mind the inappropriate political slant of the statement).

The Big Lies on AM Radio and cable television are one thing. It is rather like pornograpy: distasteful, but probably something adults to must have it should be allowed access to.

But taking the Big Lie mentatlity into the classrooms is just fundementally eveil.

[MnFats]

7. Pawlenty's wonderful new education commissioner,

cherie peterson yecki (some now pronounce it "Yucky," was heavily lobbied by the gov to come to minnesota. she has herself never actually taught in a public school classroom setting, and if I recall correctly, has never actually worked in ANY public school.

When Pawlenty was trying to get her to come here, she had another job offer she was considering (this is true): Jeb Bush wanted her to come and run Florida's schools.

This tells you something, no?

Minnesota has always had great public schools. I think the vast right-wing conspiracy is trying to destroy public education so they can indoctrinate young people in their own camps. Oh, that way they don't have to worry about teaching the developmentally disabled, those with emotional problems etc....

[rock]

8. "want to see history standards that reflect the greatness of the country"

She must really be proud to be a patriot American who's willing to lie to reflect the greatness of this county... NOT!

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. How is omitting the internment of Japanese-Americans conservative biased?

That took place under a Democratic administration.

[dflprincess]

11. Because....

It happened and it should not have. We will admit the FDR was wrong, Earl Warren (I believe he was governor of California at the time) was wrong and William O. Douglas (who upheld the interment camps when it got to the Supreme Court) were all wrong, wrong, wrong. It is a shameful moment in American history that we will own up to. The conservatives want to pretend it never happened.

[JHB]

16. It interrupts the "America Good. America ALWAYS Good in ALL THINGS"...

...narrative the conservatives are trying to tell in place of actual history lessons.

[Devlzown]

10. How can they ignore JFK and LBJ?

The Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War made the 1960's one of the most pivotal times in American history. This is SOCIAL studies? I thought Minnesota was a fairly liberal state.

[denverbill]

13. Obviously, they must have 'hated America'.

They were Democrats, and Yecke doesn't support the hate-America 'agenda'.

Fucking nazi-cow.

[JHB]

14. Well, it's easier to roll those things back...

...if kids never know they existed in the first place.

[Devlzown]

21. More propaganda from the people

who think "1984" was a how-to manual. I guess the Republicans will start a new CCC program to get us out of our current depression. They'll hire people to re-write history books and edit national monuments.

[JHB]

12. "Hate America Agenda"?

Funny, when I was in school back in the Bad Old Days, Americans took pride in teaching our kids about our history "warts and all" and it was the opressive Soviets who edited their history books so that children were taught a glorious narrative of the "greatness of (their) country."

I have only one word for Yenke and her ilk: "comrade".

In fact, it's probably quite appropriate for Minnesotan DUers and other protesters to refer to her as "Comrade Commissar Yenke" in all speach and correspondence on this issue.

(yes, I know that the supposed "warts and all" was itself heavily sanitized by the time it got to me, but the princple remains. Better (and easier) to take a close look at something sanitized than to rediscover something that was virtually erased.)

[dflprincess]

15. I was speaking to a Social Studies teacher this weekend

He was telling me that these standards have are set up so younger kids would be taught stuff that is really beyond them and older kids are going to be taught the sort of things you learn by rote and will not be required to do much thinking. I think the whole idea is to get kids to turn off social studies completely. Which, of course, means they won't take much interest in what the government is doing because that stuff is "boring".

As I recall, Yecke was recommended to Gov (and Bush Stooge) Pawlenty by someone in the Bush* administration. She'd pretty much run Virginia's schools into the ground appointed, she was pretty much considered another Bush* plant so they moved her out here to do a number on us.

[Lindacooks]

17. I am so embarrassed to be from this state.

If it ever was liberal and progressive, it's totally turned around now. I can no longer say I'm proud to be from Minnesota.

[Heddi]

19. I took AP US History in High School back in 1994

And we spent MUCHO time on Columbus, the Revolutionary War, civil war, Teapot Scandal, etc, blah blah blah.

There was ONE page in the book dedicated to WWII. ONE PAGE.


Everything PAST WWII was summarized in two pages.

we never even studied things that happened past 1930, as far as I remember.

So as far as "American History"---we only studied the things that made us look great--this wonderful new country that overthrew its mean old imperialistic British rulers, and how we sacked them mean, ungodly natives and gave them smallpox for their own good (we never learned about that in school, but I did learn about it on my own).

When it came to actual AMERICAN Imperialism--not a word. Do you know that the book didn't even MENTION Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Didn't mention Dresden, or Hamburg? DIdn't mention the Vietnam War? Didn't mention Nicaragua or Grenada. Didn't mention Jimmy Carter.

It DID, however, Mention RONALD REGAN as being a great president who pulled the country out of the bad times of the 70's and allowed money and prosperity to rain down on our country like manna from heaven.....

[bleedingheart]

20. I think US history should be a three year course

there is much too much to discuss over one school year with kids.

We should not omit information nor should we highlight only specific presidents.

Unfortunately the right-wing is taking notes from Joseph Stalin's playbook on teaching school kids.

[mzmolly]

22. Oh my gosh. I feel like I'm gonna have to teach my daughter

history and social studies at home so she is actually 'educated'. *sheesh*