9/11 education should 'avoid placing blame,' leave out 'gruesome' details, Leftist students say

Students from the University of Florida recently shared their opinions on how 9/11 should be taught

9/11 education should "avoid placing blame" and leave out the "gruesome details" of that fateful day so as not to lead to extreme nationalism, according to some college students.

Students from the University of Florida spoke with Campus Reform recently to share their opinions on how 9/11 should be taught.

Among their suggestions was to avoid the discussion altogether of who was responsible for the terrorist attacks. Others said the idea of American exceptionalism shouldn’t be mentioned at all in lessons.

According to one student, American exceptionalism is "rooted in a lot of colonialist and imperialist notions of how we should treat other people."

Another student suggested that a lot of young people who adopt the "dangerous mindset" of American exceptionalism risk growing up to be "extremists and really nationalistic."

Their comments come after less than two weeks after the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) posted a video on YouTube that trains teachers to teach students about American exceptionalism during lessons on the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/9-11-education-should-avoid-placing-blame-leave-out-gruesome-details-college-students-say

*****************************************

California Requires Aztec Prayer in Schools, Parents and Civil Rights Group Sue

Parents in California and a civil rights group are suing the state over its imposition earlier this year of a novel public school curriculum that reportedly has students praying to Aztec gods.

“The curriculum’s unequivocal promotion of five Aztec gods or deities through repetitive chanting and affirmation of their symbolic principles constitutes an unlawful government preference toward a particular religious practice,” Frank Xu, president of Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, said in a statement.

“This public endorsement of the Aztec religion fundamentally erodes equal education rights and irresponsibly glorifies anthropomorphic, male deities whose religious rituals involved gruesome human sacrifice and human dismemberment.”

Paul Jonna, a partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP and Thomas More Society special counsel said in a statement: “The Aztecs regularly performed gruesome and horrific acts for the sole purpose of pacifying and appeasing the very beings that the prayers from the curriculum invoke.

“The human sacrifice, cutting out of human hearts, flaying of victims and wearing their skin, are a matter of historical record, along with sacrifices of war prisoners, and other repulsive acts and ceremonies the Aztecs conducted to honor their deities.

“Any form of prayer and glorification of these bloodthirsty beings in whose name horrible atrocities were performed is repulsive to any reasonably informed observer.”

The case, Californians for Equal Rights Foundation v. State of California, was filed Sept. 3 in the Superior Court of California, County of San Diego, by attorneys from the Thomas More Society, a national public interest law firm.

Californians for Equal Rights Foundation is a nonprofit civil rights organization headquartered in San Diego. It was founded after the defeat of Proposition 16 in 2020, which if passed, according to Ballotpedia, would have repealed the 1996 Proposition 209. Prop 209 provided that government and public institutions may not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to persons on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public education, and public contracting.

The other plaintiffs are Eric Gonzales, Steve Houbeck, and Jose Velazquez, all of whom are parents who now have or had children enrolled in public schools in California, according to the legal complaint.

In addition to the state, the other defendants are the California State Board of Education, California State Department of Education, Tony Thurmond in his official capacity as state superintendent of public instruction, and Linda Darling-Hammond in her official capacity as president of the state Board of Education.

The legal complaint details the California State Board of Education’s approved Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, which includes a section on “Affirmation, Chants, and Energizers.” Among these is the “In Lak Ech Affirmation,” which invokes five Aztec deities. This pagan prayer addresses the deities both by name and traditional titles, recognizes them as sources of power and knowledge, invokes their assistance, and gives them thanks.

The prayer invokes the names of five beings worshiped by the Aztecs as gods or demi-gods, specifically Tezkatlipoka, Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtli, Xipe Totek, and Hunab Ku.

According to the legal complaint, the state Board of Education appointed R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, a co-author of the 2019 book “Rethinking Ethnic Studies,” to chair a committee tasked with developing an “ethnic studies model curriculum” (ESMC). In his book, Cuauhtin “demonstrates an animus towards Christianity and Catholicism—claiming that Christians committed ‘theocide’ (i.e., killing gods) against indigenous tribes.” In March, the Board of Education approved the ESMC.

The curriculum also includes the “Ashe Affirmation,” which “invokes the divine forces of the Yoruba religion four times—honoring this divine force and seeking assistance for the school day,” the complaint states. Yoruba is “an ancient philosophical concept that is the root of many pagan religions, including Santeria and Haitian vodou or voodoo,” according to the Thomas More Society. It reportedly has 100 million believers worldwide in West Africa, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guyana, and in Caribbean nations.

“Our clients have both a religious and civic objection to the Aztec prayer, and they do not want their children chanting it, being asked or pressured to do so, or risking ostracism if they refuse,” Jonna added.

“Under both the California and United States Constitutions, they have the right to expect all branches of the state government, including the State Board of Education and the Department of Education, to respect this choice. Furthermore, all Californians have the right to expect that tax-supported public schools will not aid or promote this religion.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, couldn’t be reached for comment over the holiday weekend.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/california-requires-aztec-prayer-in-schools-and-civil-rights-group-sues_3984497.html

****************************************

‘I won’t have a bar of it’: Minister slams national curriculum draft over ANZAC Day stance

ANZAC day is when Australians remember their war dead

Education Minister Alan Tudge has slammed the draft of the national curriculum, which suggests students should be encouraged to contest the importance of ANZAC Day, saying he “won’t have a bar of it”.

Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge has attacked proposed changes to the Australian curriculum, slamming the idea that Anzac Day should be “contested”.

Speaking on triple j Hack on Tuesday night, Mr Tudge said he was concerned the draft curriculum painted “an overly negative view of Australia”, taking particular umbrage with the changes to how Anzac Day is referenced.

Under the proposed draft curriculum, Year 9 kids would learn “the commemoration of World War I, including different historical interpretations and contested debates about the nature and significance of the Anzac legend and the war”.

“In relation to what occurred in 1788, the arrivals of the First Fleet, people should learn about that, and they should learn the perspective from Indigenous people at that time as well,” Mr Tudge said.

“However, there’s things that I don’t like, such as the way that Anzac Day is presented, for example.

“Instead of Anzac Day being presented as the most sacred of all days in Australia, where we stop, we reflect, we commemorate the 100,000 people who have died for our freedoms, it’s presented as a contested idea … Anzac Day is not a contested idea, apart from an absolute fringe element in our society.

“The word contested itself is used 19 times throughout the curriculum – it’s asking people to, instead of just accepting these for the things which they are, such as Anzac Day, to really challenge them and to contest them.”

Mr Tudge has been a vocal opponent to the proposed curriculum changes – particularly in Year 7 to 10 history – and has also slammed the curriculum’s failure to mention Captain James Cook.

Other changes to the history curriculum include “contested debates about the colonial and settler societies, such as contested terms, including ‘colonisation’, ‘settlement’ and ‘invasion’.”

The final revisions to the Australian curriculum will be provided to education ministers for consideration and endorsement by the end of this year, with an updated version to be available for 2022.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/education-queensland/anzac-day-is-not-contested-says-education-minister/news-story/7c4ca43e7d0c91f916e499a8d97ddd35

***********************************

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)

*******************************