Imagine watching Fox News one night and your high school child walks into the room and proceeds to tell you that “Fox News lies!”
That happened to Nick Benson, a Californian who had two students enrolled at Barstow High School in San Bernardino County.
“How do you know that,” Benson said he asked the boy. “My teacher told me,” was his grandson’s response.
An editorial cartoon Barstow high school students read in “World History” class
Sure enough. His grandson’s “World History” teacher, Jim Duarte, fed a steady dose of radical left wing propaganda to his students, disguised as classroom assignments. It was like students were receiving their news from a slightly more sophisticated source than The Daily Show.
Last week Benson provided Education Action Group with several assignments that Duarte handed out last school year, when Benson’s grandson was in his class.
The articles and editorial cartoons students were expected to review were ridiculously slanted to the Big Labor/socialist point of view, as were the leading questions on classroom worksheets.
On one such worksheet, students read an article on how Fox News supposedly “pushed” a “falsehood” that government workers make more than their private sector counterparts. Says who? Media Matters, far-left reactionary outfit that based its public/private comparison on a “study” published by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank largely funded by Big Labor.
Duarte’s efforts to sell his personal political beliefs to students are all-too-familiar. Throughout the nation, we’ve been hearing teachers union leaders openly calling for instructors to preach pro-union and anti-American philosophy to their students, some as young as preschool age.
And many teachers seem to be heeding the call. For example, hundreds of Oakland teachers signed a pledge sheet a few weeks ago to use precious class time to teach their students about the noble “Occupy” protesters and the evil corporations on Wall Street.
Propaganda presented as fact
Duarte led his students to believe that U.S. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) wants to sacrifice Medicaid and Medicare in order to prevent tax increases for the rich. Students read an editorial cartoon of Ryan dressed as a witch doctor, with a knife raised above his head, poised to slay Medicare and Medicaid on an alter.
Needless to say, nobody was on hand to defend Ryan or explain his true positions on Medicaid and Medicare.
Students read an article about Utah legislators proposing an increase in the food sales tax while decreasing the sales tax. Students were then expected to submit the following answers on worksheets (underlined): “Lawmakers in Utah are “digging a deeper hole” for the poor by raising the food tax, and this allows the rich to pay less in sales tax on everything else.”
On the very same work sheet, students also read an editorial cartoon of two people labeled “unions” walking a gang plank. Student then are required to provide the following answers (underlined): “Because so many states are now in a recession, caused by corporations (banksters and Wall Street), states controlled by Republicans are going after public sector unions and collective bargaining rights.”
Another worksheet required students to fill in the following answers (underlined): “Republicans have tried to keep young people and minorities from voting, and are trying to weaken the union. … Millionaires, who could pay more in taxes and not suffer but are paying less, are hurting states and public schools.”
I’m sure you get it by now. Duarte is a dedicated union member and socialist Democrat, and he has every right to be so. But is he really being paid to share his personal political views with his students, without presenting the other side of the argument?
We may never know, because detailed messages left for the Barstow schools superintendent and principal were not answered. The same can be said for Duarte, who did not receive or chose to ignore our message seeking comment.
The district responds
When Nick Benson complained to the school, he received a written reply from the Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services, Teresa Healy, who seemed satisfied that Duarte mixed his anti-conservative tirades with actual world history lessons.
“A review of Lesson Plans for March 2, 2011 shows that the lesson included a handout that where students reviewed an article from the Huffington Post regarding misinformation in the media – specifically referring to Fox News – and included a review of World War I ideas and relates these to World War II.”
Obviously the school administration is too politically naïve – or too politically supportive of Benson’s efforts – to do anything about him.
Healy’s written reply also contained a thinly-veiled warning for Benson:
“…the district respectfully requests that you refrain from any publication of this document or any portion thereof. We trust you will appreciate this serious concern and avoid any potential legal ramifications that could result.”
Benson obviously wasn’t scared, because he turned the letter over to us. And why should he be scared?
He asked a public school to investigate the conduct of a public school teacher who is paid with public money, and received a response from that public school.
Why shouldn’t be able to make that response public?
This sadly will not be the last example I expose. But the more we do, the more we can root out the indoctrination being perpetrated in our government schools.
To learn more about what is being taught in America’s government schools, purchase “Indoctrination: How ‘Useful Idiots’ Are Using Our Schools to Subvert American Exceptionalism.”
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