Arvada Colorado School Board Longs to Spin History

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: crazyewok

But what "Right" agenda is the story suggesting?

Looks more like a "Left" jealousy problem.

Teachers calling in sick and what not.

It's that horrible disobedience thing again (not just a liberal concept). I like how Americans stand up for things they believe strongly in, I would hate to have that bred out of us.

Organized workers can lead to positive change. Solidarity is not so bad either...

a reply to: xuenchen

The thread is about American history.

karmicecstasy correctly suggested that my previous title was incorrect.

originally posted by: gentledissident

originally posted by: LDragonFire
a reply to: burdman30ott6ATS doesn't want this video posted so you can search youtube "LAUSD Ends Controversal Zero Tolerance Policy"

Why do you say ATS bans this video? It's OT, but it's good news.

I'm not sure what the problem is the video won't embed and even the direct link leads to nothing, could be a problem with youtube...

originally posted by: xuenchen
Is there any evidence of an actual proposal?

If you consider a proposal listed and linked to the September 18, 2014 School Board Meeting that is on their website as "evidence of an actual proposal", then yes. See here

originally posted by: gentledissident

Who here was also taught an altered history in school?

Every human being living in every corner of the Earth.

"Education" is relative, the history of all events are different based on perspective and agenda.

Civil War history is different if you attend school in the South or North, in the same country for example.

God Bless,

a reply to: gentledissident
Good thread gentledissident. I wanted to post earlier but didn't have the time. I personally would have included more information, but as you noted, anyone can do a quick search and pull up a lot of information.

I am with most in opinion that this proposal is dangerous and should not go forward. It should also be noted that teachers protested last week for the same reason in addition to rejection by the board for a reward of a pay raise for their performance (not at issue for the thread) and teachers, students, and community opinions/thoughts being ignored by the school board.

The positive side to the story ... teenagers being politically aware and active!

originally posted by: AllSourceIntel

originally posted by: xuenchen
Is there any evidence of an actual proposal?

If you consider a proposal listed and linked to the September 18, 2014 School Board Meeting that is on their website as "evidence of an actual proposal", then yes. See here

Still not seeing any actual proposals.

Confusion lurking.

originally posted by: xuenchen

originally posted by: AllSourceIntel

originally posted by: xuenchen
Is there any evidence of an actual proposal?

If you consider a proposal listed and linked to the September 18, 2014 School Board Meeting that is on their website as "evidence of an actual proposal", then yes. See here

Still not seeing any actual proposals.

Confusion lurking.

I am not sure how you don't, you will have to navigate the webpage. I tried linking directly to the pdf , (and here for editied proposal crossing out second para) but ATS is having trouble formatting it, so I linked to the main page.

Agenda Item Details

Meeting
Sep 18, 2014 - Special Meeting-S/D Session

Category
Discussion Agenda

Subject
Resolution: Study Committee on Common Core Standards, PARCC assessments and AP U.S. History

Type
Action

Recommended Action
to discuss the proposal to establish a Board study committee on Common Core Standards, PARCC assessments and Advanced Placement U.S. History; and, to determine next steps on the proposal.

estimated time: 9:00 p.m. (estimated duration: 30 minutes)

PRESENTING STAFF:
none

PURPOSE:
For the Board of Education to discuss the proposal presented by Board member Julie Williams to create a Board study committee on Common Core Standards, PARCC assessments and Advanced Placement U.S. History.

BACKGROUND:
On September 4, Ms. Williams agreed to bring an action plan for Board discussion to create a Board study committee.

Please open the attachment below to review the action plan proposal.
JW PROPOSAL Board Committee for Curriculum Review.pdf (21 KB)
JW PROPOSAL Board Committee for Curriculum Review-NewkirkEdits Accepted.pdf (65 KB)
Policy Review List of Existing 9-18-2014.pdf (75 KB)

ETA: Ah, now the link is working

a reply to: gentledissident

I don't know about altered, but watered down, yes.

But then high school history is expected to be watered down, it's a survey class, just like the 100 and 200 level college history classes are, although they do go into a little more depth than high school did.

Do you expect high school history to address the ways in which the Treaty of Versailles affected China for example, and set up Europe and Germany for a repeat performance with WWII?

You don't really get any meat until the 300 level courses and above.

That being said it should still be accurate history. Yes our founding fathers were rebels and, at least to the English, terrorists but then, history is written by the victors, how much of our accepted world history is actually propaganda and how much is accurate?

Edit to add: Common Core is a joke to begin with and I would pull my children from ANY school that was using it, especially for History and Math.

a reply to: AllSourceIntel

There it is.

Thanks.

originally posted by: xuenchen
a reply to: AllSourceIntel

There it is.

Thanks.

You are welcome. I am not sure which of those proposals is the most recent, or which one is moving forward, nor do I know how discussion on the matter went in the meeting. I can't find a recorded version of the meeting, it seems they only stream them live, their personal, ustream, facebook, twitter, youtube pages don't have the recordings.

originally posted by: LDragonFire
a reply to: burdman30ott6



Can you show me examples of liberal groups changing history being taught in public schools?

Well, considering that 96% of teacher union's collective $67.7 Million in direct political contributions since 1990 have gone to Democrat candidates (SOURCE: www.opensecrets.org... ) I would argue that the liberals have a veritable stranglehold on what is actually being taught. The claims of liberal bias and flat out liberal revisionist history have existed for decades, and on a large stage. Just the idea of rejection of American Exceptionalism (a tennant platform and openly stated position of rejection we've heard Obama, himself support) is itself revisionist history.

Education is the ultimate investment in the future of the country. Red states have the worst education in the country, and conservatives are known for cutting education budgets, sometime to fund tax breaks for the wealthy like whats happening in Kansas.

There's a lot more going on there than simple politics, but a lot of it is granted protected status and isn't discussed because it violates the ideology of political correctness. I think it's prudent to say that the states with the highest rates of poverty and the most rural areas lack the degree of school funding the states with metropolises do primarily thanks to reducedproperty values and a much smaller pool of municipality property taxes. It's a demographical issue, not a political one (but that hasn't stopped politicians from forcing it into the political spectrum by trying to make it a race issue.)

Our future depends on education, are we going to teach or indoctrinate? Zero Tolerance, a conservative initiative from the Reagan era has basically turned our schools into prisons, or a failed school system to prison railroad.

You need to study your history. The Zero Tolerance policies you're refering to involved street crime and had nothing to do with schools whatsoever. In the 90s, the school system (led by the same 96% Dem contributing national education folks) decided it was a good idea to apply a policy generated in the national war on drugs to dealing with school behavior. Reagan had nothing to do with it whatsoever. IN FACT, Dianne Feinstein was the first politician to carry it to the national level, advocating a zero tolerance nationwide policy regarding guns and violence in schools in her 1994 Improving America's Schools Act. Do you want to claim Feinstein is a conservative? If you do, please give me a moment to throw some plastic sheets across my keyboard to block the uproarious laughter spit that is certain to ensue.

Part of the difficulty with this thread is that none of us knows what's being taught to the students now. How can you know if the changes are good, bad, or otherwise without knowing what is being changed away from?

originally posted by: ketsuko
Part of the difficulty with this thread is that none of us knows what's being taught to the students now. How can you know if the changes are good, bad, or otherwise without knowing what is being changed away from?

I asked three high school freshman girls, who just finished eating pizza in my daughter's room, to send me an email about what they're learning.

Band- Marching and Music

World Human Geography- Countries, the States, Human Population (My teacher is a coach, and it seems like he doesn't care about teaching at all.) ​

Stage Craft- How to do scale drawings & ect.

Algebra 1: 1-step equations, combining like terms, distribution property,

Biology: Population, Biomes, Plant Reproduction, Symbiosis

Reading: We're doing vocabulary words everyday, and we're reading a novel.

French: We're learning numbers, pronouns, verbs

Computer app: Learning how to make flyers, key components to Microsoft Word

Orchestra: Ballet stuff

Guitar: Christmas Music

Chorus: Song in another language, "Like I Like To Say Like"

Financial Literature: The 5 foundations of financing

That's all we can think of for now.

They said they wont' be learning history until next semester.

Conservatives are just trying to get in on the liberal progressives action! I constantly have to reverse the history that my kids are taught in school, and I'll tell ya, it's a job! I have to show them what is BS lies and propaganda and what is the truth.

a reply to: gentledissident

Schools should be a place where children are taught HOW to think.

Not WHAT to think.

My 2 cents.

originally posted by: gentledissident
The Ministry of Truth is back at it.

A new conservative school board majority here in the Denver suburbs recently proposed a curriculum-review committee to promote patriotism, respect for authority and free enterprise and to guard against educational materials that “encourage or condone civil disorder.”

Source
The board says it's had conservatives before, but nothing like the three who are trying to bring back the good old days. In high school in the eighties, I was taught a watered down patriotic version of American history. I was eventually taught a more accurate history in college by a Chinese professor.

Are you a social conservative who condones this? If so, why?

Who here was also taught an altered history in school?

Did this professor teach you about the civil war? Was Lincoln a hero or was he villian?

a reply to: guitarplayer

I don't remember him taking sides. I remember laughing with him about the bumbling idiocy of homo sapiens. I was relieved to meet another who saw humanity as a tragedy.

We used the books The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society. They're pretty straight forward. Rights groups contributed.

Also, this textbook does not shy away from giving the history from the angle of African Americans and Native Americans. Unlike traditional history textbooks this one encompasses a large amount of history, specifically details of darker times in American history.

a reply to: gentledissident

I saw this story yesterday - I think it's an amazing story if only because some of the motives behind this are so incredibly transparent

But gentledissident, you left out my favorite part of this story :-)


Love these kids - and their folks

In Colorado, a Student Counterprotest to an Anti-Protest Curriculum

“A lot of those words were more specific and more pointed than they have to be,” Mr. Witt said. He said that the school board was responsible for making decisions about curriculum and that the review committee would give a wider spectrum of parents and community members the power to examine what was taught in schools. He said that some had made censorship allegations “to incite and upset the student population.”

But on Tuesday, those allegations were more than enough to draw hundreds of students into the sun. They waved signs declaring, “It’s world history, not white history,” and talked about Cesar Chavez and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Leaders of the walkout urged others to stay out of the streets and not to curse, and sympathetic parents brought poster board, magic markers and bottles of water.

History is difficult enough to first sort out and then teach without people twisting it to serve their own politics. We all know the history we've been taught as kids has been edited and reinterpreted enough already - time for this nonsense to stop

Our schools should not be indoctrination camps


P.S. gentledissident - S&F :-)

a reply to: Spiramirabilis

It does seem obvious to me that the three on the board are interested in maintaining the status quo and avoiding the collectivism required for equality. It looks like the proposal is endorsed by the Koch brothers.

I'm glad the teachers and kids are protesting. I wasn't going for that angle, though. Besides, threads about protests get ugly. No need to drag the kids into one.