MUSKEGON, Mich. – We’ve always known that teachers unions are very political organizations, and many of their more radical members are active in left-wing causes.
That’s their right, as long as they pursue their activities after school.
But more and more American K-12 teachers are bringing their politics into the classroom, brazenly acknowledging their effort to indoctrinate and recruit a new generation of radical, anti-American students.
“The long period of self-censorship among educators regarding class and labor issues may no longer hold,” wrote radical educator Rob Linne in his book “Organizing the Curriculum.”
“We cannot claim to be teaching for social justice if we ignore the class warfare being waged all around us. Bringing labor into the arena of K-12 education will undoubtedly meet political resistance, but an increasing number of educators are motivated to take up the challenge.”
That frightening approach to teaching is what motivated Education Action Group to publish a new book titled “Indoctrination: How ‘Useful Idiots’ are Using Our Schools to Subvert American Exceptionalism.”
You can watch a short promotional video for the book by clicking here.
The book, authored by EAG Chief Executive Officer Kyle Olson, with assistance from staffers Ben Velderman and Steve Gunn, is available on Amazon.com.
It explores dozens of examples of radical public school teachers and their politically active unions taking liberty with our children by teaching left-wing philosophy as fact.
It also illustrates how radical left-wing think tanks around the nation are producing and distributing special lesson plans that attack the fundamentals of American society and plant the seeds of class warfare in young minds.
In his foreword for the book, FOX News contributor and former Clinton advisor Dick Morris bemoans the fact that educators are willing to brainwash young minds before they have the ability to fully understand and judge issues on their own.
“We have become accustomed to hearing American history and politics misinterpreted by leftist university professors,” Morris writes. “But (now) we see the insidious indoctrination at the elementary and secondary levels. At least university students can think for themselves. (The book) explains how 7- and 8-year-olds are taught to embrace an atheistic, leftist philosophy virtually from the time they enter school.”
I, Tomato
The book clearly illustrates that teachers unions want to create a future class of organized labor activists or sympathizers.
A curriculum produced by the radical California Federation of Teachers is called “ Golden Lands, Working Hands.”
To reverberate with its adolescent audience, the lesson features a rap video with the lyrics, “The age of railroads meant mass transportation, but did rich men make the trains of our nation? Psych! It was the working people who laid the tracks. And see who did the work and got the job done. While lazy lone ranger was out havin’ fun.”
After the minimum wage line, the cartoon character in the video falls in the grave he just dug for himself, then a pig rises out of a pile of money bags. There is nobody in the video defending the “pig” who invested the money to build the railroads and create the jobs. That would have destroyed the whole purpose of the lesson.
Younger students are not immune from these very political “lessons.”
There is a popular story/lesson plan for young children titled “I Tomato.” The main character, a tomato plant, tells readers about the loving care it received from various migrant workers, and how it was mistreated by being sprayed with pesticides.
The story gives full credit for food production to the field workers – “Juana, Dolores and Rajib; Finoy and Carlos, Connie, Lupe, Marcos and Jose Manuel – it is to them I owe my life and you owe your tomatoes.”
That’s great, but what about the investor who risked his savings to establish the farm, hire the workers and provide the necessary materials to grow the tomatoes? No mention of him. But the kids do get a union promo at the end of the story:
“Many farm workers belong to a union,” the story says. “Do you know what a union is? If you were a worker, would you want to belong to a union? How can you find out if your fruits and vegetables were picked by union workers?”
The book also discusses Chicago teacher Kati Gilson, who taught her preschoolers about her 2011 trip to Madison to protest the collective bargaining policies of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. She also taught them new words like “strike,” “collective bargaining,” and “negotiate.”
“My preschoolers understand what a protest march is and why it is important,” Gilson wrote.
“As we gear up for what looks like a big battle it is important for us to teach our children and families why we are taking a stand.”
Is this what we pay school taxes for?
What would the Black Panthers do?
Many radical teachers obviously want their students to disapprove of the United States and mistrust their government.
One chapter in the book explores the growing pattern of teachers leading elementary children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the Earth, instead of America. One educator, Rosalie Tyler Paul of Maine, wrote a piece calling for everyone to reject love of country and embrace globalism.
“We can see that the nation is not the parcel most in need of our loyalty and allegiance,” Paul wrote. “The purpose and courage we need can be found better in Earth citizenship that in nationalism.”
Wayne Au, a former Seattle high school teacher, wrote about teaching his students the story of the violent Black Panthers and their “Ten Point Program,” and encouraging students to develop their own lists of political priorities, based on modern issues.
One successful student wrote, “We want the mask of capitalism lifted and economic classes disbanded,” and “The enslavement of the middle of the lower classes by the bourgeoisie must end.” Au praised the student’s work for its “relentless attack on corporate America.”
Even school math lessons are not immune. One chapter of the book refers to “The Guide for Integrating Issues of Social and Economic Justice into Mathematics Curriculum,” by Jonathan Osler.
In his guide, Osler suggests giving a lesson about mathematical averages using casualty numbers from the war in Iraq. He suggests teaching probability by having students explore the probability that a police traffic stop will target a person of color. He also calls for a geometry lesson based on “environmental racism” that would require students to “determine the density of toxic waste facilities, factories, dumps, etc. in the neighborhood.”
Way to go, Mr. Osler. Instead of teaching a generation of youngsters to appreciate their nation and the freedom they have to make their lives better, you want to create an angry bunch of revolutionaries who are determined to destroy the very system that makes it possible to work for change.
As one blogger who reviewed our book wrote, “Olson shows that kids are being taught everything but what parents are sending them to school to learn. This is a solid book, but it’s shocking in what it uncovers.”