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Thursday, 01 November 2007
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An article exposing incidences of teacher activism in schools and universities.
Failing Grades
Front Page Magazine, Alan W. Dowd, October 11, 2007
Once upon a time, schools emphasized the “three Rs”—reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. But recently a “fourth R” seems to have entered the schoolhouse—radicalism. And teachers are increasingly the source of the radical ideas being peddled in America’s schools.
“When you go into a class where you’re supposed to learn about government or geography,” as high-school junior Sean Allen puts it, “you expect to learn what the truth is.” But as Sean learned in 2006, some teachers don’t teach the truth.
When Sean signed up for “Accelerated World Geography” at Overland High School in suburban Denver, he probably didn’t expect diatribes against the United States, capitalism or President George W. Bush. Nor did he expect to be thrust into the middle of a national debate over the limits of academic freedom. But that’s exactly what happened.
“Sean had told me the teacher was pretty radical,” his father, Jeff Allen, recalls.
How radical? Sean’s teacher, Jay Bennish, used a geography class to declare capitalism “an economic system at odds with humanity.” He called the United States “the most violent nation on earth.” He said Bush’s 2006 State of the Union “sounds a lot like the things that Adolf Hitler used to say.”
Remember, this is a geography class—for tenth-graders.
Sean’s dad couldn’t believe what his son was reporting. But in this case, hearing is believing. Sean had started recording lectures to help in note-taking. When he played Bennish’s rant for his father, the elder Allen called the principal to let her know what was going on in the classroom.
Almost a week later, still awaiting a response from the principal, Allen sent syndicated columnist Walter Williams an email detailing the situation. “I didn’t think unless I had the backing of someone like a Walter Williams that the school would take any action,” Allen says.
Williams wrote a column on the brewing controversy. Then, a local radio station aired the recording and interviewed Sean, as did Fox News Channel.
Along the way, Bennish was suspended but ultimately reinstated. “The intent was not to bust the teacher,” Allen explains. “The intent was to get the teacher to teach what he was hired to teach. Kids look up to teachers, they respect teachers.”
Sean says 90 percent of the student body supported him, but he did receive threats and enrolled in another school. He also received hundreds of supportive emails from all across the country—and even from troops in Iraq.
“Sean has gotten a lot of support from our troops,” according to his father. “One soldier even sent him a flag and a letter of appreciation. That makes it all worth it.”
Sean, who later returned to Overland High School, hopes his ordeal shows parents and students that the biased brand of education we have come to expect at America’s universities is seeping down to the high-school level. “It’s a huge problem in high school,” according to Sean. “By the time you’re in college, you’re sort of numb to it or you just go along with it.”
David Horowitz agrees. “The kids are already brainwashed by the time they get to college,” according to Horowitz, who was one of the founders of the so-called New Left that helped radicalize college campuses in the 1960s. He is now one of the most ardent critics of the far left, launching a family of organizations that promote academic freedom and serve as watchdogs against political indoctrination in the classroom. One of those organizations is Parents and Students for Academic Freedom (PSAF).
“It is much, much worse at the K-12 level because the kids are so young,” he argues. “It’s unbelievable what they are being allowed to do at K-12 schools.”
Continue reading at front page magazine
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