Newton (Boston) High School reprints PLO textbook material

[Mediocrates]

A Newton South High School student in Massachusetts was alarmed recently when she received what appeared to her to be blatant anti-Israel propaganda from her World History teacher. This incident brings to the forefront once again the reality that, even at the pre-college level, the narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is frequently contorted to reflect ideology rather than history, scholarship, and fact.


The high school’s World History teacher, Jessica Engel, had given a student a section on Palestinian women from the Arab World Notebook, which described the fact that “Over the past four decades, women have been active in the Palestinian resistance movement.”


What was their treatment at the hands of the "brutal Jewish state", for doing nothing more than ‘resisting?’ “Several hundred have been imprisoned, tortured, and killed by Israeli occupation forces since the latest uprising, ‘Intifada,’ in the Israeli occupied territories.”


The problem with this type of simplistic analysis as part a history curriculum, of course, is that it presents a one-sided, highly-biased view of the facts on the ground in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza, completing ignoring some critical aspects of the conflict, namely, that “resistance” is a euphemism for terrorism, and that when Palestinian women are detained and arrested by Israeli defense forces it is a result of their actions, often successful, to murder Jews as part of the campaign to extirpate Israel.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Ar...cle.aspx/10909

[Ziggy]

Our schools, unfortunately at every level, are awash with the Engel's ilk. I recall telling my son, if and when a teacher used her/his position to disseminate their personal political agenda, he could leave the room politely. We, my wife and I, always stayed on top of it - whether it was, in particular antisemitism but other agendas some teachers felt was their calling or cause to pollute impressionable minds.

The big-lie has become a tactic used by some educators along with others, not just recently but for decades.

[Kachah]

Teachers will never grow up. Any education system - and public in particular - will always be awash with these lefty-looney charachters. The family is supposed to provide political and social orientation, not the freaking school - but the importance of family has been crushed and made almost irrelevant in the modern society. So - whatever the teacher said.

[Ziggy]

Teachers will never grow up. Any education system - and public in particular - will always be awash with these lefty-looney charachters. The family is supposed to provide political and social orientation, not the freaking school - but the importance of family has been crushed and made almost irrelevant in the modern society. So - whatever the teacher said.

It's worse now than it ever was back when our son was in school. Parents have to, indeed, take the fore teaching their children basic mores... and to stay abreast of their children's lives, outside and inside school. In my day, teachers were always right... which, of course they weren't. Today, it is not a given... we have to be aware of that which are children are being taught. The only way is to become involved with the school or at least, go to parent teacher meetings. Nothing is a given... we listened to our son and his friends, finding many of their criticisms or insights of their educational overseers were bang-on. This is not to say, they didn't double-shuffle us at times, they were young and also, knew how to push the envelope.

The schools are awash, absolutely, with leftist-loonies: parents have to be vigilant and not only know their child but their teachers, as well. It can be quite a sobering experience with the latter, as well as your own child. I have to add this; the importance of family has been crushed... it is looked upon as a useless social appendage. Then again, it is up to us, those whom believe firmly in the family to be pro-active and take on those of a collectivist mindset. Those believing it is their absolute right to shape our children in the collectivist 'spirit' - the leftists like to call 'the global village'.

[Kachah]

The schools are awash, absolutely, with leftist-loonies: parents have to be vigilant and not only know their child but their teachers, as well. .

No point , you see, in government-run system it does not matter - they are all the same. Statistically, of course, there are and always will be aberrations one way or another, but the system employed by the government to staff and maintain public schools will produce remarkably consistent results and they can only be bad ones.

It's the same story: family influence must be limited because there are real morons out there but we cannot discriminate so they become common denominator and everybody who is not a moron suffers. Considering the level of immigration from the 3rd world this "common denominator" level slides down at warp speed and so it goes on.

My daughter was invited by her teacher to come to the anti-Iraq invasion rally in 2003. She refused. The teacher gave her a lecture basically telling her that 1. President Bush and Prime Minister Howard are murderers and 2. Everybody goes, do you want to be the only one who doesn't? I was infuriated, went to talk to the principal. The teacher apologized but I still remember her looking at me with the primal hate.
The school was an elite girls' private, one of the most expensive in the country. It's a miracle there are still remaining normal people among the school teachers.

[Ziggy]

Stay firm, you stand up for your principles, this is more than many parents, or everyday folks do. Your story regarding your daughter's school is, let's just say, nauseating but not surprising. I agree with your slant on teachers; let's pray for more miracles in that profession and everywhere... "common-denominator" you said it; you are bang on. No wonder the world is insane, inane and simply moronic. Farmboy mentioned about something being in the drinking water - he has a valid point: A Brave New World!