School district apologizes for "Jews are evil" assignment

The foundational philosophy of Common Core is to create students ready for social action so they can force a social-justice agenda. Common Core is not about students who actually have a grasp of the intricate facts of a true set of what E.D. Hirsch would call “core knowledge.” Common Core is about, as David Feith would say “an obsession with race, class, gender, and sexuality as the forces of history and political identity.” Nationalizing education via Common Core is about promoting an agenda of Anti-capitalism, sustainability, white guilt, global citizenship, self-esteem, affective math, and culture sensitive spelling and language. This is done in the name of consciousness raising, moral relativity, fairness, diversity, and multiculturalism.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/04/common_core_nationalized_state-r…
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You are correct, I forgot about the release of the Next Generation Science Education Standards.

I still think it is important to note that the standards are owned and copyrighted, which mean changes will not be made at the state level. Nothing can be altered/subtracted by the states/schools (such as when concepts are introduced), and only a small percentage of material can be added. There is more than a little embedded pedagogy in the CCS, such as in the aforementioned science standards for middle school-

MS-ESS3-5. Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century. [Clarification Statement: Examples of factors include human activities (such as fossil fuel combustion, cement production, and agricultural activity) and natural processes (such as changes in incoming solar radiation or volcanic activity). Examples of evidence can include tables, graphs, and maps of global and regional temperatures, atmospheric levels of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, and the rates of human activities. Emphasis is on the major role that human activities
play in causing the rise in global temperatures.]

But the fact is that CCS has us headed for a national curriculum and mandated national standardized testing, of which a by-product will be jumping through CCS hoops in order to qualify for federal education dollars.

Here are some articles that provide more information about where all this is leading:

A call for national curriculum- Note: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is investing $20million to develop a national curriculum aligned to the CCS in partnership with the Pearson Foundation. The testing process would be via PC. Makes you go hmmmmm?

Problems with Common Core assessments

Americans Deserve to See Federal Role in National Tests

This CCS stuff is a bit of a rabbit trail, but I think the underlying issue is all the experimentation going on in education. It really is not that difficult to have a list of skills that students need to learn, and allow teachers to use their expertise to guide learning and help students master those skills, and report to the school and to parents their assessment of student progress. With all the federal hoops and special interest groups and teacher’s unions sticking their fingers into every pie, I don’t know how teachers get anything done.

As for the assignment in the OP, I agree that role playing devil’s advocate can be valuable, but it requires some discernment to use these exercises correctly. Convincing a teacher that you are loyal to the Third Reich reminds me of Apt Pupil, and gives me spiny shivers.

[Susan R] This CCS stuff is a bit of a rabbit trail, but I think the underlying issue is all the experimentation going on in education. It really is not that difficult to have a list of skills that students need to learn, and allow teachers to use their expertise to guide learning and help students master those skills, and report to the school and to parents their assessment of student progress. With all the federal hoops and special interest groups and teacher’s unions sticking their fingers into every pie, I don’t know how teachers get anything done.

[Crystal]

Because it was brought up above by paynen-

You mentioned that logic and critical thinking skills are lacking in the current education-especially among conservatives. I wonder, could you point to some ways to teach oneself these topics? I feel as though my education in these areas is lacking and just didn’t know where to start in teaching myself-and then my children. My sister on the other hand was born with a very logical mind. She can talk circles around me and I am still trying to figure out what I said that was illogical. LOL Feel free to PM me if anyone wanted to as I know that it is off topic for this thread.

Crystal,

I used the series called “Critical Thinking” by Anita Harnadek:

Book 1: http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Thinking-Book-Reasoning-Arguments/dp/089…

Book 2: http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Thinking-Problem-Reasoning-Arguments/dp/…

There are also teacher/answer books for these if you want them (you will probably find them very helpful if logic is not one of your strong suits). I found these to be excellent, but as with any secular source, they are not perfect. There are a couple places where it seems that when she is teaching about things that should be questioned, she is referring to things about God and religion is well. However, these books are not hostile to Christianity, and those places are minor and easy to teach around. (Actually, whenever I found something like that, I went over it with my kids, since they will be faced with many skeptics in their lives, and they need to know why God’s word transcends our thinking. Also, I expect them to evaluate even what comes from the pulpit when they are listening, and compare anything they hear with scripture.)

There are many exercises in these books where you learn about propaganda being used, and also there are exercises where she wants arguments for or against something, and in the very next exercise, the student was supposed to refute the arguments they used. All of these were very good at getting the students to think, which is the point of the exercise. My oldest is in her 2nd year of college, and she has already thanked me for making her do all that work in my Critical Thinking class.

You probably don’t want to start with these if your kids are not yet in 7th grade or so, but there are other books that are good for elementary students that will get them to have to think hard, and lead into something like these books.

Logic, reason, critical thinking et al left our schools when God was taken out and replaced by Darwin, the Big Bang, humanism etc. So basically, CCS and its forerunners have been in place ever since our schools went secular, and made man’s fallen reason the standard and authority. The only real change is going multicultural, politically correct etc. in these times as opposed to “the good ole days.” The reality is that all we have done is exchange one set of humanism - which exalted this nation’s history, traditions, and way of life - for another.

And who has always supported taking the influence of Christianity out of schools (as well as the mass media and the public sphere in general)? Why the Jews. Jews are personally offended by Christianity, and - for example - see even so much as having to abide Christmas carols (that actually mention Jesus) and Easter pageants as a most horrible form of persecution and attack on their rights and identity as a people.

So while this lesson was clearly offensive to Jews, let us not forget that Jews have contributed heavily to the decades of political activism - as well as to the shaping of our mainstream culture through their disproportionate influence in Hollywood and media - that have created the climate where such an outrageous lesson as this could be taught in the first place. And please note: very little attention has been paid to this because it was a PUBLIC school, and Jewish leaders still very much support using public schools as a powerful agent of secular humanism to oppose Christianity. But had this lesson been taught in - say - an evangelical or fundamentalist Christian private school as part of the A Beka curriculum or similar, it would have been an intense national scandal with weeks of front page and headline news coverage with the ADL and the other various leaders, politicians and organizations from that community leading the charge.

I know that it is not a popular sentiment to express in a Christian landscape that is so shaped by premillennial dispensationalism and the religious right (the fact that Jews are so influential in and many respects lead the neo-conservative movement that now runs the Republican Party often masks the fact that Jews vote Democratic in numbers similar to blacks and even higher than Hispanics) but - with the exception of Messianic Jews and other Jewish believers in Christ - Jews are not our allies. Quite the contrary, they’re on the other side (which is why this talk of “Judeo-Christian” is a self-delusion as Jews certainly do not believe in or advocate it … in fact Jews truthfully prefer Islam to Christianity … it is permissible for a Jew to pray inside a mosque but not a church). Always have been, and until Romans 11:26 is fulfilled always will be.

Let the Jews fight their own battles, especially the messes that they have created by joining forces with - and in many cases funding and leading - the anti-Christian forces in this country and in Europe only to have those forces turn on them (including the Muslims that Jewish groups fought tooth and nail to allow to immigrate to western countries so that there would be another interest group to use to play the “religious pluralism” card to help undermine Christian institutions and influence). We’ve got problems of our own that need to be tended to.

That sound anti-Semitic to anyone? Sorry. Read what what the New Testament says about Jews who rejected Jesus Christ and tell me how I am wrong. Our own little version of political correctness doesn’t change what the Bible plainly teaches.

Please lay a shred of evidence that anything your saying is historically true, and then give your reasoning for personally attacking God’s chosen people, do it academically and intelligently (with sources), Otherwise leave and continue to be ignored.

Be that as it may, Bro. Job, the Jews have been the world’s punching bag far too often, and IMO no group of people deserve to be targeted and wiped out of existence because of their religion or heritage. I’d consider a devil’s advocate scenario about wiping homosexuals from the face of the earth to be just as ridiculous for the classroom setting and the lesson objective.

Crystal- for elementary and middle school, we use The Fallacy Detective http://www.fallacydetective.com/products/, and for high school we also use workbooks from The Critical Thinking Co - http://www.criticalthinking.com/series/052/index_c.jsp

Both provide proof IMO that one can teach logic without being offensive or inappropriate.