Ignorance and Apathy: The history departments at many schools need a serious upgrade

The joke is told about a poll taker who asks about ignorance and apathy in the country. “I don’t know, and I don’t care,” says the respondent.

The consequences of that attitude are playing out across America.

There are two questions most reporters never seem to ask when it comes to mass demonstrations like the recent ones over the Israeli-Hamas War. One is whether they are spontaneous, or are they organized and subsidized by outside entities? Second, have large financial gifts from foreign entities and left-wing organizations compromised some universities that fear losing money should they speak up in ways that might offend the donors? Failure to ask these questions contributes to public (and student) ignorance and apathy.

Valerie Richardson of The Washington Times is an exception among journalists. She writes: “The same U.S. universities that increasingly are seen as breeding grounds for antisemitism have taken billions of dollars in previously undisclosed donations from the Middle East.”

This connection between donations and influence is claimed in a lawsuit by the Lawfare Project on behalf of Carnegie Mellon University student Yael Canaan. She says she has been the target of “pervasive anti-Jewish discrimination.” Canaan linked her allegations to the half-billion dollars donated to the university by Qatar since 2021.

Richardson writes about a report by the Network Contagion Research Institute which showed that “universities reported more than $13 billion … in gifts … from foreign sources” between 2014 and 2019. Kenneth Marcus, president of the Brandeis Center, told the newspaper, “What they want is influence.” Shouldn’t that be obvious?

During her recent controversial testimony before a congressional committee, Harvard President Claudine Gay claimed the school has “strict policies” on which gifts and contracts it accepts and that donors do not influence its policies. Is she saying that antisemitism is home grown? If so, what does that say about the biases of the professors who are transmitting ignorance and what some might consider propaganda to their students?

China has infiltrated American universities by making large donations that support “ Confucius Institutes” which promote Chinese language and cultural programs. In 2019, there were a hundred such institutes. Today, there are reportedly fewer than five. Schools commonly “cited the potential loss of federal funding and external pressures as contributing to their decision to close” their institutes.

However, some critics say the institutes that remain are being used as part of a larger effort to advance the interests of the Chinese Communist Party, which include spying and the theft of intellectual property, stealing U.S. military secrets and harassment of Chinese students and others who are critical of the Beijing regime.

Three years ago, a Jewish organization conducted a first-ever survey in all 50 states to discover what adults under 40 know about the Holocaust. The survey, conducted by the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, found “sixty-three percent did not know that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and over half of those thought the death toll was fewer than 2 million.” While more than 40,000 death camps and ghettos were established during World War II, “nearly half of U.S. respondents could not name a single one.” One in 10 respondents did not recall ever having heard the word “Holocaust” before.

Deliberate ignorance and false teaching about events here and in the Middle East and China, along with the refusal of American media to pay serious attention to the connection between foreign donations and university policies and teaching, plays into the hands of those who do not wish America well.

Clearly the history departments at many schools need a serious upgrade and a lot of reporters could use a crash course in history at a university that refuses donations from foreign entities that have agendas.

https://patriotpost.us/opinion/103115-ignorance-and-apathy-2023-12-26

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Leftmedia Smears Homeschooling as Dangerous

The Washington Post recently ran an anti-homeschooling propaganda hit piece titled “What home schooling hides: A boy tortured and starved by his stepmom.” The article, which is part of a series the Post is running to smear homeschooling, notes the tragic story of a young 11-year-old boy whose repeated abuse by his stepmother eventually led to his death.

The obvious culprit and perpetrator of this crime is the boy’s stepmother, and she is now in prison as a result. The boy’s father was apparently not present, as he is also doing time in prison, but the article does not make clear whether his incarceration is related to the crime against his son.

The Post covers this heartbreaking story at the outset but then takes a rather twisted turn with the following loaded statement: “Little research exists on the links between homeschooling and child abuse.” What? It sure seems that the conclusion the Post wants to infer is that homeschooling is to blame for this boy’s death.

The biggest reason behind the young boy’s abuse and death had to do with his broken home life. But the Post avoids that glaring factor.

Interestingly, after observing that “little research exists” to link homeschooling and child abuse, the article then goes on to state, “But the research also suggests that when abuse does occur in home-school families, it can escalate into especially severe forms — and that some parents exploit lax home education laws to avoid contact with social service agencies.”

Does the research exist or doesn’t it? This game of sleight-of-hand “journalism” is played to inject an entirely unrelated study from 2014 as “evidence” to support the Post’s preconceived conclusion — the strong implication that homeschooling is more dangerous for children than public schooling.

If it weren’t so serious, it would be laughable, but the Post notes for the study that of more than two dozen children treated for torture from five different states, “17 victims [were] old enough to attend school, eight were home-schooled.”

Once again, homeschooling is the Post’s implied villain. Logically, one could just as easily point out that more than half of the 17 victims old enough to attend school went to public or private schools. So, we can now blame public or private schools for the abuse these children suffered?

Absent other specific criteria, that statistic is as meaningless as suggesting that more victims were from states with colder climates than warmer ones. Correlation is not causation, no matter how hard the Post plays like it is.

The real reason for this anti-homeschooling hit piece is the fact that homeschooling has become an increasingly popular option for parents, especially since the COVID pandemic, when the vaunted public school system across much of the country bowed to the increasingly extreme and illogical demands of teachers unions rather than parents.

Furthermore, COVID opened many parents’ eyes to the reality of what their children were being taught. In many instances, they saw that their children were being indoctrinated in leftist ideologies like critical race theory. Schools also pushed the gender-bending nonsense of “transgenderism,” which resulted in preferred pronouns and accesses for “transgender”-identifying students to use the bathroom and locker room of their choice. Some schools are even pushing pornography. And don’t forget about all the ridiculous masking rules.

At the most basic level, schools are failing to educate children adequately. And then schools are dropping testing standards because they are “racist.”

Parents have every right to be upset and out of genuine concern for their children’s education and well-being pull them out of public school and homeschool if possible. Far from damaging their kids, the data overwhelmingly shows that homeschooled children test well ahead of their public school contemporaries.

The Washington Post, by contrast, would have readers think that government and public school officials have more love and concern for the welfare of children than their parents. However, the fact of the matter is that stories of parental abuse are far from the norm, as parents naturally have a greater love for their children than even the best teachers.

So why the spate of hit pieces against homeschooling? The Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Hennessey says it’s simple: follow the money.

“The lockdowns and lockouts of 2020 dealt a reputational blow to the education blob — that quasipublic syndicate of teachers unions, government bureaucracies, brand-name credentialing institutions and their media allies whose mission is to keep taxpayer money flowing to public schools. Most of that money is linked to students, many of whom left during the plague year and haven’t returned. Now the crisis is over and the blob wants its monopoly back.”

https://patriotpost.us/articles/103062-leftmedia-smears-homeschooling-as-dangerous-2023-12-21

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Maryland county claims school board can create seat only illegal immigrants can vote on

A Maryland county claims under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, it can create a school board seat that only illegal immigrants can vote for, according to reports.

The Washington Times reported that Howard County officials appeared before a federal court of appeals last month and defended its current process of having a school board seat occupied by a student, in which only public school students are allowed to vote for.

Some Howard County residents are challenging the practice on the basis of it being unconstitutional discrimination in voting, particularly against the county general electorate and students at religious schools who cannot vote for the student seat.

An attorney for the challengers, Michael Smith, told the publication it is a "zero-sum game." He explained that empowering students to choose one of the eight school board members takes away power from the general electorate.

"You have 12.5% of the voting authority of that board that’s removed from registered voters," Smith said.

Eight counties in Maryland have a student serving on their respective board of education. In Howard County, officials argue the selection of a student is more of an appointment because, despite students casting a vote for their student candidate of choice, the board and school officials narrow down the candidates.

A county attorney, Amy Marshak, explained to the publication that the election is not just a popularity contest. "While students do vote, they do it as part of a very limited process," she said.

The case has been through several courts at this point.

A lower court sided with the county and determined the process violates the First Amendment religious rights and 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause of those students who are shut out of voting.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, though, questioned the decision, asking if a vote is not being taken, is it really an appointive process?

The appeals court also argued if it is not an appointment, but it is an election, the process gets tangled with voting rights guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.

"You’ve got this additional seat that is not subject to the one-person, one-vote rule," Chief Judge Albert Diaz reportedly said. "That’s a problem."

The seat held by the student does not have the power to vote on the budget or personnel matters, though plaintiffs in the case say a student board member was able to cast the decision-making vote to close school longer because of the pandemic.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/maryland-county-claims-school-board-create-seat-only-illegal-immigrants-vote-reports

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