I remember how it was -- JR
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
Vigilance Is Not Optional: Be Wary of Your Local Public Schools
Parents once looked forward to having their children reach the age of five. At that time, children enter kindergarten, usually a half-day session either in the morning or in the afternoon.
At age six, children enter the first grade with school hours, something on the order of 8:00 a.m. to 2:15 or 2:30 p.m. Parents did their business while ensuring that the children were dropped off and picked up at appointed times.
There was little or no concern about what transpired during the school day as long as nothing happened out of the ordinary. Every now and then, somebody skinned a knee during recess. Or someone got ill during the day and had to go home. Most days, however, were uneventful. Your little ones were learning the ABCs, simple arithmetic, American history, and a few things about society in general.
Vigilance is Mandatory
Today, obviously, everything portrayed above represents a bygone era. Depending on your school jurisdiction, county, and state, you have to be vigilant about your child's education. Dropping your child off for kindergarten can be a potentially hazardous event. The indoctrination that takes place, even in subtle ways, has an accumulative effect.
In first grade, second grade, and so on, there's no telling what the orientation of the teacher happens to be. Are they present to help children grow, think, and be curious about the world? Or are they in place to indoctrinate? Many in the teaching ranks today feel justified in what they do and that it is their mission.
A parent sending his or her child to public school doesn't equate to that parent losing their fundamental right to know what the child is being taught and to have a say in the curriculum. Indeed, throughout American history, parents have maintained some semblance of control via PTA's, attendance at school board meetings, and direct parent-teacher conferences.
Courts and legislative bodies have recognized the rights of parents to maintain control over their children's education and to have a vital input as to what takes place on a daily basis. Even in the face of that, progressive activists have targeted schools, starting with elementary schools, as incubation labs where social change will occur as a result of indoctrinating young minds.
The Key to Our Future
Activists and parents alike know that our country’s children represent our national future. The values children adopt at an early age directly impact how our culture evolves and what kind of society we will pass on to succeeding generations.
Protecting our children from the curriculum designed to brainwash them in largely Socialist ways has become an everyday battle across the country. Those on the Left have no qualms about seeking to replace your influence and your rights as a parent with their viewpoints and what they regard as their collective, sacrosanct mission.
It's not enough to simply fight against these zealots; they must be defeated. There can be no compromise with those who will pull out all the stops to turn your sweet little child into one of their Marxist Socialist soldiers.
Combat Readiness
How do you prepare for such a battle? Long before your student is ready for kindergarten, visit the classroom. What do the charts, posters, and graphics on the wall tell you? Attend PTA meetings. Search for websites, podcasts, forums, zines, and any other online sources of information maintained by or for parents who recognize the importance of staying vigilant.
Determine in advance if your school district, board of education, school administrators, and principal represent a system and an administration that you can trust. If you have any doubts, then perhaps it's time to take significant action. Consider homeschooling. If you have the means, consider private school. If you can relocate to a more palatable school jurisdiction, that could be your best alternative.
Affiliate with other parents who see the same dangers that you do. Become vocal at school board meetings. Generate momentum by having three or four parents in a row speak up who are aghast at the Leftist techniques in vogue. This is a battle that you must win, that we all must win, and from which we cannot shirk. Most parents feel the same as you do. That, in itself, is comforting.
As Certain as Death and Taxes
Give your child a decent chance to grow up healthy and happy because this is for sure: The Left zealots will not quit; it is their objective to brainwash every child in America forevermore, and they regard you as the enemy.
To let down your guard is to imperil the child's future.
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Columbia University Postpones Fundraiser After Staff, Students Take Pro-Hamas Stance
Columbia University has canceled a major fundraising event after some of its staff and students engaged in anti-Israel, pro-Hamas activities on campus.
Columbia Giving Day is a 24-hour online fundraising event held annually that was scheduled to take place on Oct. 25 this year.
“After careful consideration and consultation with University and alumni leadership, we decided that this is not the appropriate time to move forward with Columbia Giving Day,” Columbia spokesperson Samantha Slater said in a statement, according to CNN. “It is postponed for the time being, and a decision on rescheduling will be made in the near future.”
According to a notice by Barnard College at Columbia University, a rescheduled date “during this calendar year is not anticipated.” Last year’s Columbia Giving Day raised close to $30 million.
Columbia’s decision to cancel the fundraising comes after it and other universities such as Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) faced severe backlash from powerful donors for allowing anti-Israel, pro-Hamas statements and demonstrations by students and some faculty.
On Oct. 8, the first day after Hamas attacked Israel, Joseph Massad, a tenured professor of Middle Eastern studies at Columbia University, published an article at the pro-Palestine blog The Electronic Intifida, hailing the “stunning victory of the Palestinian resistance” against the “cruel colonizers.” He called the storming of Israeli checkpoints by “resistance fighters”' from Palestine “astounding”
On Oct. 13, a petition at Change.org called for Mr. Massad's “immediate removal” from Columbia’s faculty.
“Massad’s decision to praise the abhorrent attack encourages violence and misinformation in and outside of campus, particularly putting many Jewish and Israeli students on campus at risk,” it said.
“Moreover, many students have expressed that they feel unsafe in the presence of a professor who supports the horrific murders of civilians," it said. The petition has so far gathered over 59,000 signatures.
Earlier this month, university officials shut down the campus to the public after an Israeli student was attacked while hanging up posters of Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas.
University President Under Criticism
In an Oct. 18 statement, Minouche Shafik, president of Columbia University, urged staff and students to “avoid language that vilifies, threatens, or stereotypes entire groups of people,” warning that such speech “will not be tolerated.”
In a recent speech, Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at the Columbia Business School, sharply criticized Ms. Shafik for not controlling pro-terror groups on the campus.
“President Minouche Shafik of Columbia University, you are a coward,” he said. “We are waiting for you to eradicate all pro-terror student organizations from campus.”
“Last week we had thousands of students chanting pro-terror songs that are sung right now in Iraq, in Libya, in Yemen, in Afghanistan. … They were celebrating the rape of teenage girls in a music festival in the name of resistance. They were celebrating this. And the president of the university is allowing the pro-terror student organizations to march on our campuses.”
“If my amazing 2-year-old daughter was now 18 years old, I would never, never send her to Colombia. Not because it's not a great institution—it's an amazing institution—but because I know that she will not be protected there because the president of the university allows pro-terrorists to march on campus.”
At Harvard, multiple student organizations co-signed a letter insisting that the Israeli government is “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence," including Hamas massacring over 1,400 Israelis. This led to backlash from alumni members and donors.
The Wexner Foundation, a nonprofit founded by billionaire Les Wexner and his wife, Abigail, broke ties with the university. A building at the Harvard Kennedy School is named after Mr. Wexner, who donated funds to construct it.
In September, UPenn allowed a literary event to be held on campus that its leaders admitted would feature “several speakers who have a documented and troubling history of engaging in antisemitism by speaking and acting in ways that denigrate Jewish people.”
UPenn defended its hosting of the event, stating that “as a university, we also fiercely support the free exchange of ideas as central to our educational mission. This includes the expression of views that are controversial and even those that are incompatible with our institutional values.”
After the Hamas attack earlier this month, the event came under spotlight and many donors were furious that the university allowed the program to take place.
In an Oct. 15 open letter to UPenn President Liz Magill and Chairman Scott Bok, venture capitalist David Magerman announced that he refuses “to donate another dollar to Penn” and that he is “deeply ashamed” about his association with the university.
Other UPenn donors such as private equity billionaire Marc Rowan, hedge fund billionaire Cliff Asness, and former U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman have also vowed to stop donating to the university.
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‘Pure hate’: Jewish academics quit Australia's National Tertiary Education Union
A growing number of Jewish academics are quitting Australia’s major tertiary education union in protest at the union’s anti-Israel stance, while dozens of others have demanded the union withdraw what they describe as anti-Semitic statements.
In a resignation letter to the National Tertiary Education Union, one member wrote: ‘This decision by the union is unacceptable and shameful. It is a pure hate against Israelis and Jews. I am immediately withdrawing my membership from this anti-Semitic union.”
In a separate letter to the union sent on Tuesday, 18 Jewish academics from all of Australia’s major universities told the NTEU that it will “lose any moral authority” to speak on human rights if it does not address the crimes of Hamas.
The signatories, one of whom was lawyer and Canberra University professor Kim Rubenstein, pointed out that some individuals they had contacted to sign the letter explained they had already resigned their longstanding memberships of the NTEU “due to feeling disenfranchised by the NTEU’s position over the years on Israel and Palestine”.
Professor Rubenstein told The Australian she had not yet resigned from the union because it did valuable work in its core function, “but that’s an option for me going forward if I feel this is something that’s not resolvable”.
Last week, Sydney University academic Fiona Gill, a senior lecturer in social sciences, quit as branch secretary of the union because of its “refusal to publicly condemn war crimes”, understood to be a reference to the Hamas attack of 7 October.
“The seeping of external political factionalism and arguments into the branch has resulted in an increasingly dysfunctional, divided and conflictual environment which is detrimental to the achievement of the base goals of our union,” Dr Gill wrote in her resignation letter.
Dr Gill’s resignation came as the union’s Sydney University branch president Nick Riemer promoted anti-Israel material on X and condemned “our gutless political ‘leaders’ cowering behind Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’”.
Dr Riemer, a linguistics academic, is a leading member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to isolate Israel who has been active in recent pro-Palestinian protests in Sydney.
The signatories to Tuesday’s letter expressed dismay that the union leadership was advocating members attend protests that were “likely to agree with only one group of members’ perceptions and views (especially with chants of ‘free Palestine from the river to the sea’ – ie, the destruction of Israel”.
They asked that any further statements by the union should unequivocally condemn the massacre of civilians within Israel by Hamas. The signatories expressed their desire to meet NTEU national president Alison Barnes and ACT secretary Lachlan Clohesy via Zoom to discuss the issue, but Mr Clohesy wrote back saying Dr Barnes was at an overseas conference “and will not be available until 9 November 2023 – at that point, I will be able to discuss your letter with Alison”. Mr Clohesy did not respond to questions from The Australian about why Dr Barnes was unavailable for two weeks to discuss the issue.
A spokesman for the NTEU referred The Australian to the union’s official statement but declined to answer questions, including how many members had resigned over the union’s stance.
The Australian understands that at least four members of the Victoria University branch of the NTEU alone resigned from the union after it passed a motion expressing “unwavering solidarity with Palestine and … an immediate end to occupation and apartheid”. The same motion was passed by the RMIT and La Trobe NTEU branches. The union had also urged members to attend a Rally for Palestine event.
One Jewish academic wrote to the union submitting his resignation, saying: “A targeted murder of over 1000 civilians, the beheading of babies, the killing of babies, children, women, men and older people is terrorism, it is not fighting for freedom.”
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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