News flash! Leftists are indoctrinating your kids!
Posted by Richard on March 3, 2006
Some people wondered why I didn’t jump right on the geography teacher story, since it happened right in my back yard. Frankly, when I heard the first news story Wednesday evening, my reaction was, "Another teacher spewing anti-Bush, anti-American rhetoric — ho hum."
For those who’ve missed the story: Overland High School (Aurora, CO) sophomore honors student Sean Allen grew tired of the frequent leftist rants from geography teacher Jay Bennish, so he recorded 20 minutes of one such rant on his MP3 player and played it for his father. The next thing you know, Sean was on radio station KOA’s Mike Rosen show (follow that link to listen to the rant itself or the Rosen show segment), and then Fox’s Hannity & Colmes. And the story’s been all over the news, talk radio, and the blogosphere ever since.
The Bennish rant is the usual leftist stuff: Bush’s State of the Union speech was "eerily like" a Hitler speech, the U.S. is a mass-murdering imperialist aggressor nation, capitalism is "at odds with humanity, at odds with caring and compassion, and at odds with human rights," the U.S. has committed thousands of "terrorist attacks" on Cuba, yada, yada, yada.
Keep in mind that Bennish is supposedly teaching geography — and that when these kids graduate (if they do), most of them won’t be able to locate Cuba or Iraq on a map.
On Thursday, about 150 disciples of Jay Bennish walked out of class in support of his "free speech" rights. I wonder how many of them would support the "free speech" rights of a teacher whose lectures included "deport all the Mexicans" or "Cindy Sheehan is a traitor" or "we should nuke Mecca"?
I was especially amused by the kid who told the reporter, "Mr. Bennish is just telling us the truth! [pause] And he always says it’s his opinion!" Riiight.
Sean Allen hasn’t returned to the school because he fears reprisals, and he may have to transfer. Bennish was put on leave with pay "to take some of the pressure off of him" while the school district investigates. He’s hired David Lane, who is Ward Churchill’s attorney, to file a First Amendment suit in federal court. I wonder if Lane would file suit on behalf of a teacher whose lectures included "deport all the Mexicans" or "Cindy Sheehan is a traitor" or "we should nuke Mecca"? (Actually, he probably would, if only for the publicity.) (UPDATE: Apparently, yes.)
Conservative Thinking has lots of quotes. Slapstic Politics has links to all the local news stories, audio, and video (with updates here). And of course, Michelle Malkin (who was in Denver) has been on top of the story. In fact, she transcribed the whole rant, if you’d rather read it than listen.
I guess I’m surprised that so many people are surprised. As Tom Sowell said, this is neither new nor unusual:
This kind of indoctrination is by no means restricted to Overland High School. School teachers, at all grades, often use their classroom for environmental, anti-war, anti-capitalist and anti-parent propaganda. …
Public education propaganda is often a precursor for what youngsters might encounter in college. UCLA’s Bruin Standard newspaper documents campus propaganda. Mary Corey, UCLA history professor, instructed her class, "Capitalism isn’t a lie on purpose. It’s just a lie," she continued, "[Capitalists] are swine. . . . They’re bastard people." Professor Andrew Hewitt, chairman of UCLA’s Department of Germanic Languages, told his class, "Bush is a moron, a simpleton, and an idiot." His opinion of the rest of us: "American consumerism is a very unique thing; I don’t think anyone else lusts after money in such a greedy fashion." Rod Swanson, economics professor, told his class, "The United States of America, backed by facts, is the greediest and most selfish country in the world." …
No, it’s not just all the Ward Churchills on college campuses. The high schools are full of Ward Churchills, too. Wake up, parents! In the teachers’ unions, the Kerry Democrats make up the right wing! If you’ve got kids in the public schools and this bothers you, you’d better get your kids out or get yourself actively involved. As Dr. Sowell says, it’s up to parents to help uncover this pervasive indoctrination and demand that it stop:
… At the K-12 schools, parents should show up at schools, PTAs and board of education meetings demanding that teachers teach reading, writing and arithmetic and leave indoctrination to parents. The most promising tool in the fight against teacher proselytization is the micro-technology available that can expose the academic misconduct.
Yeah, get your kid a small recording MP3 player.
flicka said
“I was especially amused by the kid who told the reporter, “Mr. Bennish is just telling us the truth! [pause] And he always says it’s his opinion!” Riiight.”
I see that you also picked up on this little tidbit….
It continued,
She”has taken Bennish’s classes for the past two years and praised his approach to teaching. When studying China, his class learned about sweatshop labor. When they read about Japan, students learned about the Japanese imprisoned in American concentration camps, she said.”
I would suggest that a way to prove if Bennish is biased would be for the school board to ask this young woman what she learned from him about China pre-“capitalist” sweatshops(anti-Wal-Mart,is my guess!),or the WWII Japanese POW camps,or what Japan was doing in China before WWII.
Her answers maybe enlightening as to whether his rants constitute indoctrination.
Anyway I am in agreement that the NEA and liberal teachers NEED some “chilling”!!