I remember how it was -- JR
School Assigns Seventh Graders to Read Novel Glamorizing Illegal Immigration
A Virginia parent says his seventh grade daughter was assigned to read a book meant to “elicit sympathy” for illegal immigrants.
At the end of January, Michael Erickson’s daughter and her classmates were assigned the 2007 novel “Crossing the Wire” by Will Hobbs.
The novel promotes a “leftist-leaning philosophy that we should just open up the borders and take whoever we want,” Erickson told The Daily Signal during a phone interview Tuesday.
Erickson’s daughter, whom he prefers not to name, attends Katherine Johnson Middle School in Fairfax, Virginia, about 20 miles west of Washington, D.C.
When he learned about the reading assignment for English class, Erickson did some research on Hobbs’ novel, which tells the story of 15-year-old Victor Flores and his harrowing journey north from Mexico to cross the border into America.
The novel depicts Flores’ goal as to find work and support his impoverished family. The boy hops trains, stows away in vehicles, and walks miles in the desert.
In his initial email Feb. 1 to his daughter’s English teacher, Erickson said, he took issue with the reading assignment because the novel relays this message: “Mexicans should be allowed to flood over the borders and into America, and we should feel sorry for them.”
Erickson told The Daily Signal that the purpose of the class is to “examine story development, and character development, and structure, and plot.” He added that the course itself is “laudable, just the selection of the book was … outside of what I felt was appropriate.”
Perhaps his daughter and the rest of the class could be “assigned an alternate book assignment to read that is more appropriate?” Erickson asked the teacher.
In reply, he received an email the following morning from the middle school’s principal, Tammara Silipigni, informing him that an assistant principal, Michele Johnson, would talk with him over the phone about the situation.
When Erickson spoke with Johnson Feb. 2, the father requested that the English class be assigned to read a different book.
The assistant principal told him that it was possible for his daughter to be assigned another novel, Erickson recalled, but that the rest of the class would continue reading “Crossing the Wire.”
When he asked Johnson whether other parents would be informed about the novel and given the option of their child reading a different book, Erickson said, the assistant principal said no.
The public school’s curriculum and what’s taught to students are “shrouded in secrecy,” Erickson told The Daily Signal.
Even when his daughter was doing virtual learning at home during the pandemic, Erickson said, her school lacked “transparency on what our children were being taught, which is a real sticking point with me, because except by accident, parents … are never provided an opportunity to understand what their kids are being indoctrinated in and taught, etc.”
Erickson filed a formal complaint with Fairfax County Public Schools, asking that Johnson Middle School reconsider the assignment.
Just before publication of this report, Silipigni emailed Erickson Thursday morning and told him that his daughter’s English class had been shifted to a writing assignment while his request for reconsideration of the book assignment moves forward.
Johnson Middle School did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment on Erickson’s account of what happened.
Illegal immigration remains a hotly contested issue for Americans as the Biden administration transports into the nation’s interior tens of thousands of migrants who cross the southern border unlawfully.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol reports that monthly arrests at the border number in the hundreds of thousands, “a 30-year high,” former State Department official Dan Negrea and James Carafano, vice president for national security and foreign policy at The Heritage Foundation, wrote in a recent commentary. (The Daily Signal is the multimedia news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
Unless “media attention is brought to bear” on what is occurring in public schools, “then nothing changes and nothing is affected,” Erickson told The Daily Signal.
“Everybody’s complaints or objections [are] shooed away to the side,” he said, and the schools “continue to storm forward doing whatever they want.”
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Ethnic Studies is Anti-American Racist Nonsense. American History IS Black History
Kevin Jackson
Once, I accidentally discovered a black history book in my school’s library. It must have been a “God-thang”, as we say in the vernacular.
As I thumbed through that book, I was overwhelmed at the things blacks accomplished. But as I read, I never felt slighted that my school wasn’t teaching me “black history”. I already felt empowered as an American; yes, a black American. And to see things specific to how blacks helped form America made me even more proud.
I would have loved to learn more specifically about the history of blacks in America. Nevertheless, I understood that my history classes were glimpses of history. Perhaps these stories were told from a particular perspective that favored whites. But such is history.
It was white men who discovered what would become America. And while their tactics were questionable by today’s standards, their actions built the best country in the world.
These days however, Leftists look at history in retrospect. They teach about an oppressive America, created by colonializing indigenous peoples. To this I say, “Who gives a sh*t! America is the best country in the world…period.”
Whatever got America to this point is ok by me. All countries have their bugaboos.
In a few hundred years, America has demonstrated its ability to overcome all our ills. Regardless, Leftists want to focus on America’s supposed ills, while wholly ignoring all the great things this country has given the world; like the mosaic of our people.
As Politico reported:, school districts have been attempting to divide America along racial lines.
In 2006, Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican American studies curriculum was relatively unknown. The program — a series of middle and high school classes highlighting Mexican American contributions to U.S. history and culture — had shown promise in lifting Latino students out of lower test score brackets and boosting graduation rates. Only a handful of detractors had shown up at school board meetings to grouse about the curriculum’s race-focused teachings.
Again, I have no problem with having Mexican kids learn about their historic contribution to America. The problem is the indoctrination these ethnic studies programs teach.
The article showcases the real agenda of these programs:
Then, Jonathan Paton, a Republican lawmaker representing Tucson at the time, got ahold of a recording of labor organizer and Chicano rights icon Dolores Huerta telling an auditorium of Tucson High School students, “Republicans hate Latinos.” Suddenly, GOP lawmakers in Phoenix were decrying “Raza Studies,” as the program was known, as a plot to indoctrinate children with ideas about white people as racists and people of color as their victims. (“Raza” is Spanish for “race,” though the teachers who adopted the name said the intended translation was more akin to “the people.”)
A legislative panel ordered school administrators to defend the program at the state capitol in Phoenix, with one lawmaker accusing the district of running a “sweatshop for liberalism.” By 2008, lawmakers were setting their sights on banning TUSD’s Mexican American studies program altogether with a bill to prohibit classes from teaching beliefs that “denigrate American values.”
“Organizations that spew anti-American or race-based rhetoric have no place,” Russell Pearce, a Republican representative who sponsored the first attempt to outlaw the classes, said at a 2008 hearing. “We ought to be celebrating unity as Americans and not allowing, with taxpayer dollars, these organizations.”
Thank God Russell Pearce noticed what Leftists have been trying to hide for some time. Leftists are divisive racists. And like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, they do it all in the name of unity. As if we’re too dumb to catch on.
https://theblacksphere.net/2022/02/ethnic-studies-is-anti-american-racist-nonsense/
************************************************Wait, What? Colleges Now Offering Counseling If You Heard Free Speech?
The Colorado State University (CSU) has 17 different departments to those “affected by a free speech event” that seeking help, they said.
These indicators learn, “If you happen to (or somebody you recognize) are affected by a free speech occasion on campus, listed below are some assets…” The signal then lists 17 departments/assets that each the scholars and college can contact if they’ve been triggered by free speech on CSU’s campus.
The following are on the list of where these so-called affected students can reach out for help are the Dean of Students, Office of Equal Opportunity, Multicultural Counseling, Incidents of Bias Reporting, the Office of Equal Opportunity, the Vice President of Inclusive Excellence, and a Victim’s Assistance Hotline.
CSU is validating the self-victimization of young adults and encouraging students to fear free speech and think of it as dangerous. Instead of preparing its students for the real world, the university is teaching its students that different opinions are negative things and instead of being intelligent confronted and/or dealt with, they should instead seek counseling.
This image was initially posted to Instagram by Turning Point USA’s local chapter. The conservative student organization accused the school of intolerance with the caption, “And we haven’t even had an event yet gotta love the intolerance of @coloradostateuniversity”
Back in October, CSU sent out an email threatening to arrest the unvaccinated students if they are caught on school property without first submitting proof of vaccination or being approved for a vaccine exemption.
In a statement with Fox News, CSU spokesperson said that “CSU is committed to Free Speech as both a legal protection and a foundation of the robust debate that is core to higher education, we also recognize the power of speech to impact people deeply, and we are committed to supporting all of our students. The sign is a list of some of the many resources available to our students. It is not related to any event in particular, but rather is intended to share resources knowing that protected speech will always, and must always, be part of higher education.”
https://theinformedamerican.net/wait-what-colleges-now-offering-counseling-if-you-heard-free-speech/
***********************************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)
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