Teach Your Children Well . . . . And Know They Love You . . . .

It warms The Gadfly's heart to know that some of our young people were taught properly what it truly means to get a "quality" education.

Observe:

Hundreds of students throughout suburban Denver protested a conservative school policy proposal by walking out of classrooms Tuesday. Following a policy trend that’s gaining traction nationwide, the Jefferson County School Board in Colorado plan would restrict history education to subject matter that “promote[s] citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights.”

According to the curricula proposal, students would only be taught lessons depicting American heritage in a positive light, and effectively ban any material that could lead to dissent. Under the proposed policy, a review committee would regularly read instructional text and course syllabi to ensure that educational materials do not stray from subject matter that complies with the policy.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/09/24/3571362/student-protest-denver/



It really is a hallmark aspect of the conservative movement to try and stifle the open and honest discussion of America's past.  They want to highlight the good, which of course there is plenty, but they so desperately want to sweep the bad that we've done under the rug as if doing so will make it seem that it never occurred to begin with.

Don't teach the children that slavery ever happened.  Don't teach the children that native Americans were exterminated on a level approaching that of the Nazi's elimination of the Jews in WWII.  Don't teach the children that workers in this country at one time were treated like pieces of human shit and used like disposable rags and that child slave labor was acceptable.  Don't teach the children that women were viewed as second class citizens until the mid 20th century.  Don't teach the children that there are big corporations that view war as a profit making opportunity.  Don't teach the children that 97% of climate scientists are of the view that global climate change is real and caused by human activities.  Don't teach the children that the right wing, fundamentalist religious nuts in this country think that WW3 is their ticket to Armageddon and a seat at God's banquet table.

Because apparently, if you simply do not teach these truths, they just never happened -- it's all just a big liberal conspiracy of myths dear readers.  Voila!  And of course, by not teaching the truth about any of those transgressions, you almost certainly guarantee they will be repeated.

That dear readers is your right wing world view in a nutshell.  Reality denial in all of it's psychotic glory.

Good for these young people for standing up and speaking out against conservative ratfuckery.  We'd be much better off as a country if the adults in their communities had the moral and intellectual courage to do the same.




----TFG