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Pressing political viewpoints on kids in school...


GarfieldJL

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Seriously, I for one don't think it's appropriate for teachers to try to press political viewpoints on students especially young children however it appears this is what is starting to happen now. If someone tried to teach the Bible in a public Elementry school in the US they'd get suspended at the very least. However, it's okay to teach people left wing ideology?

 

http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_3_ed_school.html

 

It's hard to find anything on the topic online though it aired tonight in the news. Trying to incorporate left-wing ideology into school math classes to press upon children liberal beliefs.

 

Seriously Math class doesn't need to be politicized.

 

 

This organization's home site:

http://www.radicalmath.org/browse_category.php?cat=Data%20Analysis

http://www.radicalmath.org/main.php?id=SocialJusticeMath

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Ok, first off please drop the political bias for a second. You start out with the title "Pressing political viewpoints on kids in school... ", a title I assumed to be about pressing -any- political view onto kids. Then I read it to find you raving about "left-wing" and "liberals" and how they are effecting our children. For one, left-wing and liberal are not the same thing in case you never realized that. You would have been better starting with:

 

"Seriously, I for one don't think it's appropriate for teachers to try to press political viewpoints on students especially young children however it appears this is what is starting to happen now. If someone tried to teach the Bible in a public Elementry school in the US they'd get suspended at the very least. However, it's okay to teach people political and opinion based ideology?"

 

You may not have meant it, but I got a small feeling that this is pointed at the teachings of left-wings and liberals and leaving the right-wings as the ones that are right. Again, you might not have meant it but I got the subtle feeling from the wording.

 

----------

 

Now, onto the actual topic.

 

The idea is interesting and I would have gladly welcomed it into my math class to make it more interesting. But I would only support it if the math figures being presented were unbiased facts.

 

You do have a point about it brainwashing kids. The Nazi's used math equations and other such things in schools to brainwash German children into hating Jews and believing that the physically and mentally impaired are not human. Putting figures of society in classes, especially ones that are probably biased, is no way to teach kids/teens outside of a political class or something of the sort.

 

But, now this is only first glance, the idea does seem interesting. You go to school to get ready for real life, so why not learn about -actual- life in the process? Lets say for a second that the facts are checked by many different people before being taught and are almost completely unbiased to any one source:

 

Prisons, racial profiling, death penalty

Poverty, minimum/living wage, sweatshops

Housing, gentrification, homeownership, loans

War, defense budgets, military recruiting

Public Health: AIDS, asthma, health insurance, diabetes, smoking

Educational access, funding, testing, achievement gaps

Environment: pollution, hunger, food and water resources

Welfare, TANF, single mothers

Immigration

 

As far as I can tell, those are all real-life things that people deal with everyday. Sorry, but thats the truth. Now, if you teach kids in school about these real life problems, teach them the good and bad and the figures behind each one does that not give kids a good look at what life is like without a good education, without a job, without looking out for your health? Could it possibly inspire kids to stay in school, not abuse their life, not attempt to ruin the lives of others because they are aware of what their actions can do?

 

Now, this coming from someone who's favorite subject was history, what really is the problem with putting things that are in english/history all the time and placing them into math? I learned about the good and bad, the causes and effects of the World Wars were in history and it gave me a better look at the world because I was seeing the world for what it truly is and what it was outside my own life. Math is boring as hell for a lot of us, so why not add a bit of history into it to spice it up? Maybe present day history, as this thread is about, could also be placed into math to make word problems more interesting than:

 

"Alex went to the store to buy 3 apples. She only has 5 dollars, and each apple costs 1 dollar. How much money will Alex have when she leaves the store?"

 

But, as you pointed out, this also falls heavily onto the teachers themselves. I read the some of the first link you posted and I will agree with you that some of the teachers are a little fanatic and too biased to really be trusted to teach this. But, 1 teacher does not make an entire idea stupid. 1 idiot president does not make the idea of Democracy a failed idea. This could actually be taught and to be quite honest I had some math lessons that dealt with current and past history and history classes and dealt with a lot of math.

 

And besides, even if the schools do nothing at all to "brainwash" kids to follow political views their parents or the TV will tell them what to believe anyway. I doubt putting a few figures into some math classes will amount much compared to how much some parents force into their kids minds.

 

But, then again, if it is presented too forcefully then it would indeed be a form of brainwashing instead of real-life based math equations.

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Well, more teachers are liberal than conservative, and the NEA is a quite liberal organization, so it's not surprising that we'd be seeing a more liberal bias among teachers. That being said, I don't think elementary and secondary education should be politicized at all, though obviously you're going to see some politics in say, history or Civics/government classes.

 

It's a teacher's job to teach a given subject or grade level, not to recruit kids to a political party.

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In my experiance it was left wing political viewpoints that were always pressed, but I'm sure right wing teachers would be just as guilty of doing this. Regardless of their opinion their job is to teach maths so teach maths, their wards don't need to hear about why the war is wrong, why Islam is evil or whatever bug's up their ass at that particular time.

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However, it's okay to teach people left wing ideology?

Left wing ideology!

What the hell is that? :)

 

 

 

Seriously Math class doesn't need to be politicized.

How the hell do people politicized Mathematics in classes?

 

Mathematics is about: quantifying, analysing structure; through algebra, measurement of space and shapes; through geometry and the change of motion and the motions of physical objects in the universe; through calculus.

It is understood through the use of abstraction of ideas through the imagination and logical reasoning, from counting, calculation, the observance of patterns in abstract structures, the relationships in abstract structures and the use of abstract structures to comprehend complex structures, in the universe. :)

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Pressing any political viewpoint in elementary or intermediate schools is wrong. This is a time for learning so that the student can make their own educated decisions in the future and not a time to be misled to the right or left.

 

There is nothing wrong with someone leaning to the left or the right of the political spectrum, but it should be because the persons own personal conviction make them that way and not because they were taught that way. A good teacher can have a powerful role in a young child’s development into adulthood and with that power come the responsibility to teach the ability that allows the student to make their own informed decisions and not have the teacher make them for him/her 10-20 years earlier.

 

Once in high school the politics will seep into the classroom from literature, history, current event and science. Then in my opinion the teacher’s job is to be more of a moderator to the discussion and not allow the more prevalent side to walkover the minority. The teacher’s input into the discussion should be mind provoking and come from both sides of the political spectrum. To me a teacher and parents job is to prepare the student to solve problems in the real world and not just to program their own beliefs into that child.

 

I was lucky most of my teachers that did not put their political views into the classroom. College was a different story, but then it was teacher pushing us to the right. The reason they were to the right was my degrees are in accounting/finance.

 

Left wing ideology!

What the hell is that? :)[/Quote]

 

It is the same thing as the liberal elite. It is made up words or phases used in an attempt to disparage people that do not agree with the political views of those on the right.

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Left wing ideology!

Left winf has often been associated with liberalism. Right wing is more associated with the conservative ciew of things.

 

I don't know if this is relevant but I am under the impression that kids are more observant and perceptive than we give them credit for. I suppose it doesn't count but growing up, my parents treated me like a mini adult, no baby talk, the same for my brother. There were times when my mom would explain something and he would go away and think about it and then come back and ask a question.

While it may be evident, there are some things in the stories kids read that imply certain themes, some that may have a political basis. It would imply that the authors are clever with their word usage and the like. Yeah I know that the kinder stories teach them sounds and the like but if you at stuff for the upper grades, then...

Also there are some teachers who interoduce the concept of current events. They ask the kids to bring in a current event and ask them to explain it in their own words and what they think it means. Personally I think kids nowadays are getting gipped in their education.

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Usually it is a liberal viewpoint that gets pushed by teachers. This is just due to the tendancy of educated people to be liberal as opposed to conservative.

 

I would agree that political indoctrination of students in elementary and middle schools is not ethical... however, at high school level, I think it's not so bad. Most all students in high school have no interest in politics, so maybe being introduced to some politics would be a good thing for them and for America.

 

What we need next is a thread discussing the ethics of sending children to church and indoctrinating them there to a certain religion and the conservative politics that go along with it. Why is it right to force religion and conservatism on kids in church, but any politics in school are unacceptable?

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Most all students in high school have no interest in politics, so maybe being introduced to some politics would be a good thing for them and for America.

 

You'd be surprised, almost everyone I know has a political view but then again, I do go to a grammar school - maybe that makes a difference.

 

People should have the right to decide what they will. I'm certainly not where I am on the political compass because anyone in school told me to be there (or at least, I don't think I am) and to be perfectly honest, I think post people aged 15 and upwards can make their own decisions and see the fallacies/truths in any argument the teacher gives. But then again, the truly excellent teachers will never betray their political alignment, especially not if they're dealing with such politics-centric subjects as History, Religious Studies, or Bioethics - to name a few.

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It all goes back to the hallowed American tradition of teaching our children WHAT to think, not HOW to think. If you ask me, the entire education system needs to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up. Case in point: The US is generally at the head of the pack in Elementary-level educatin, but is pretty far down the list for middle/high school compared to Europe.

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You'd be surprised, almost everyone I know has a political view but then again, I do go to a grammar school - maybe that makes a difference.

 

Sure they all have their views on the issues and the most well-known candidates (like Hillary and Obama), but if a high school student is really educated in current events and modern politics, that's another thing. How many students know that much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how much it causes anti-Americanism? How many students know about the Gonzales scandal? The issue over GITMO? Earmarks in Congress? And so on.

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How many students know that much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how much it causes anti-Americanism? How many students know about the Gonzales scandal? The issue over GITMO? Earmarks in Congress? And so on.

 

I'm from the UK so US domestic issues generally don't reach us here :). But as for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, any person who studies GCSE History under OCR will have studied it and written two essays on it to count as 25% of their overall mark. I get the impression that the political system is... simpler here than in the USA (a bill is proposed, the commons debate, the commons vote, the lords debate, the lords vote and then it's passed backwards and forwards for days on end unless the commons force the Parliament Act on the lords and overrule them - of course in Mr. Blair's parliament has consisted of the media debating policy before parliament :p - this is, obviously, a somewhat simplified version but perhaps it goes some way to explaining why the people I know are far more politically minded than the people you are referring to).

 

Wow... that was a long bracketed clause.

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Mandate that at the begining of every class, the teacher states his political bias up front and admits that it is the responsiblity of the student to do indepedent research on the topic and not rely SOLEY on his word.

 

There. Once that happens, I'll be fine with whatever left-wing and right-wing bias peopel throw at each other.

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How many students know that much about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how much it causes anti-Americanism? How many students know about the Gonzales scandal? The issue over GITMO? Earmarks in Congress? And so on.

 

The real question is how many voting age American's know about the Gonzales scandal, GITMO, or earmarks in Congress? For that matter how many even know even know who their Congress person is?

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What we need next is a thread discussing the ethics of sending children to church and indoctrinating them there to a certain religion and the conservative politics that go along with it. Why is it right to force religion and conservatism on kids in church, but any politics in school are unacceptable?

 

Indeed we do

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I for one don't think it's good. It should'nt be pressed because it should be an option instead. Years ago i learnt about all that left wing and right wing stuff and i purposly ignored it. Ignorance? Possibly. But for me it's the same as not reading the news for a week. All those massive problems in the world seem to disappear and the world for me becomes a much more cushty place to live in. I think if i was forced to learn politics in school, id be insane right now. You only have to look at how many doors this thread has opened already to see how many will open if it gets taught in schools.

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Mandate that at the begining of every class, the teacher states his political bias up front and admits that it is the responsiblity of the student to do indepedent research on the topic and not rely SOLEY on his word.

 

That wouldn't make any difference because we're not talking high schoolers or college students. Even then there are colleges where professors grade people based on whether or not they agree with the Professor's political stance.

 

When I was in elementry-high school I wasn't taught what to think, I taught how to think for myself. I don't mind the idea of trying to make classes more interesting, but there are ways to do that without pressing ideologies on them.

 

This isn't a problem in only American Public Schools, this happens in public schools all over the world. More extreme examples of pressing ideologies could be found in the Middle East.

 

There are conservative teachers out there, but not many simply because it is hard for a conservative to get a degree in Education when they don't have the same ideology of the Professors.

 

There are games out there like Number Munchers which to a young kid would be rather fun, it teaches math, and there is no political agenda being incorporated.

 

 

Has anyone besides Fox News reported on this on television? I have been a little busy recently to check the other News Corps television airings.

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Has anyone besides Fox News reported on this on television? I have been a little busy recently to check the other News Corps television airings.

OK, just stop it for the last time. You seem to find -some- way in any thread to bring up new stations, especially Fox News. We get it. You watch Fox. Everytime an article or event is talked about in the world we don't need to hear about how much a station has reported it. But maybe I'm the only one getting irritated about this.

 

What if this education system was taught differently though? Not a political bias up front, but with actual facts in schools outside of history class? I'd explain it again, but I already attempted my best shot on my first post.

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OK, just stop it for the last time. You seem to find -some- way in any thread to bring up new stations, especially Fox News. We get it. You watch Fox. Everytime an article or event is talked about in the world we don't need to hear about how much a station has reported it. But maybe I'm the only one getting irritated about this.

 

I was asking an honest question, this is a very important topic. I'm wondering if anyone else heard about this from another media source, because if not then to me it's scary.

 

Reasoning:

As was pointed out in either this topic or the one concerning religious schools, the Nazis used something similar to brainwash children as well. Many dictatorships do similar things to ensure children are loyal to them. Hamas does things like this so kids want to grow up to be suicide bombers. Young children are easily impressionable, as pointed out by Canderous in KotOR 1.

 

While literature would be a lot harder to find stuff without some leaning one way or the other, things like Math there is absolutely no excuse for something like this.

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I was asking an honest question, this is a very important topic. I'm wondering if anyone else heard about this from another media source, because if not then to me it's scary.
If you're honestly that curious then read other news.

 

And I don't even know what I'd be looking for in the news. Should I be checking CNN daily to see if they're covering the scholastic movement to socialism and the impending doom therein?

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Seems a lot of liberals fall into education (course of least academic resistance, apparently :xp: ). Reminds me of the expression....People who can't do, teach, and people who can't teach, teach teachers. Chances are that many conservatives end up in more lucrative fields like engineering, law, medicine and business. That's not to say that there are NO good teachers out there, just that a lot of the intellectual deadwood tended to end up in easier programs like education. Crazy libs...:xp::p

 

@ET--perhaps do a net search on political bias in the classroom. Some people in schools have gone sooo apesh*t over Gore's global melting flick that they're forcing kids to watch it outside of classes like science or current events.

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Chances are that many conservatives end up in more lucrative fields like engineering, law, medicine and business. That's not to say that there are NO good teachers out there, just that a lot of the intellectual deadwood tended to end up in easier programs like education. Crazy libs...

Hey! I'm in Engineering.. you've besmirched my pristine name with 'Conservative' good sir :xp: hehehe... ;)

 

If you're honestly that curious then read other news.

QFT.

 

Indeed. You've got to explore other, non-partisan, sources. While I read CNN, I can't deny that it's Liberal overtones (and far too much Paris Hilton coverage :rolleyes: ) are not that hard to cipher. I'd suggest Associated Press & BBC to get some other views on world events. It definitely balances out my opinions on what's "really" going on around the world.. ;)

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Hey! I'm in Engineering.. you've besmirched my pristine name with 'Conservative' good sir :xp: hehehe... ;)

 

My apologies :rolleyes::p You must be that odd lib whose actually trying to make an "honest living". :xp:

 

 

Indeed. You've got to explore other, non-partisan, sources. While I read CNN, I can't deny that it's Liberal overtones (and far too much Paris Hilton coverage :rolleyes: ) are not that hard to cipher. I'd suggest Associated Press & BBC to get some other views on world events. It definitely balances out my opinions on what's "really" going on around the world.. ;)

 

Actually, Associated Press and BBC have liberal overtones. Still, nothing wrong w/checking many sources to get a more complete picture. Don't feel too bad, though, FOX got caught up in the bimbo storylines (Paris, ANS) like the rest of them. I do believe this is the age of infotainment. :(

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My apologies. You must be that odd lib whose actually trying to make an "honest living".
LOL! :lol:

 

Actually, Associated Press and BBC have liberal overtones. Still, nothing wrong w/checking many sources to get a more complete picture.

Really? I honestly couldn't tell, perhaps they're better in covering it up.. hehehe..

 

I would definitely welcome some other, preferably neutral, sources if anyone can provide them. I'm always reading the news and I'd enjoy getting a viewpoint that doesn't have a lobbying group attached to their pocket :)

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I would definitely welcome some other, preferably neutral, sources if anyone can provide them. I'm always reading the news and I'd enjoy getting a viewpoint that doesn't have a lobbying group attached to their pocket :)

I can't think of anybody but both Daily Show and Colbert Report. Sounds stupid, but they are both commentaries mocking both sides and some of the liberals for comedy. I don't trust them as a news source, but seeing the same news all day on different news channels mocked is satisfying at times. Although, I will admit, they tend to mock the right-wing (particularly Fox News) more than the left-wing, but I still watch it for amusement and the chance to see a more lighthearted view of current day media.

 

But as far as -real- media goes, I am yet to personally find a neutral news source.

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