The definition of indoctrination and education is:
Indoctrination - To instruct in a doctrine, principle, ideology, etc., especially to imbue with a specific partisan or biased belief or point of view.
Education - The act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.
Many today are completely oblivious to how biased are schools, media, entertainment industry and culture as a whole is. Perhaps in a later post, I will document these a little more... I believe that everybody has an agenda, even those who say they don't, have one. I describe these things because I recently went to a meeting in which I happened to receive extremely grim knowledge about how some at least 10 of our public schools in Arizona (specifically the school district TUSD) is currently indoctrinating high school and middle school kids in Marxist/Stalinist propaganda. Many people already know about the situation with La Raza/Ethnic Studies program.
What I am about to relate, is taken directly from what John Ward, a former history teacher and now is a senior auditor for the state of Arizona. He wrote this a few years ago in the Tucson Citizen but it is fairly similar to what he described when I heard him speak. Note, that I will include more info, into what he talked about during and at the end. -
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"And here's Ward's 2008 essay from the Tucson Citizen, "Guest Opinion: Raza Studies Gives Rise to Racial Hostility." Also at Grizzly Groundswell, "Tucson Teacher Exposes "Raza" Studies In TUSD":
As a former teacher in Tucson Unified School District's hotly debated ethnic studies department, I submit my perspective for the public's consideration.
During the 2002-2003 school year, I taught a U.S. history course with a Mexican-American perspective. The course was part of the Raza/Chicano studies department.
Within one week of the course beginning, I was told that I was a "teacher of record," meaning that I was expected only to assign grades. The Raza studies department staff would teach the class. "Their were four of these radicals which were assigned to his classroom"
I was assigned to be a "teacher of record" because some members of the Raza studies staff lacked teaching certificates. It was a convenient way of circumventing the rules.
I stated that I expected to do more than assign grades. I expected to be involved in teaching the class. The department was less than enthusiastic but agreed.
Immediately it was clear that the class was not a U.S. history course, which the state of Arizona requires for graduation. The class was similar to a sociology course one expects to see at a university.
Where history was missing from the course, it was filled by controversial and biased curriculum. "The first thing that these Marxists discussed in class was a poem that one of them wrote and then had the class try to replicate their poem. Which was basically a 5 min rant about how the U.S. was a greedy capitalist Eurocentric nation and according to Ward, the class that he was in was 100% Mexican-American. He said that the radicals tried to foster a family type of relationship within the class for the first six months as a way to get the kids to see how they were decedents of a "great race" the Aztlans (Aztec) who were invaded by Europeans and then were basically forced into slavery."
During the 2002-2003 school year, I taught a U.S. history course with a Mexican-American perspective. The course was part of the Raza/Chicano studies department.
Within one week of the course beginning, I was told that I was a "teacher of record," meaning that I was expected only to assign grades. The Raza studies department staff would teach the class. "Their were four of these radicals which were assigned to his classroom"
I was assigned to be a "teacher of record" because some members of the Raza studies staff lacked teaching certificates. It was a convenient way of circumventing the rules.
I stated that I expected to do more than assign grades. I expected to be involved in teaching the class. The department was less than enthusiastic but agreed.
Immediately it was clear that the class was not a U.S. history course, which the state of Arizona requires for graduation. The class was similar to a sociology course one expects to see at a university.
Where history was missing from the course, it was filled by controversial and biased curriculum. "The first thing that these Marxists discussed in class was a poem that one of them wrote and then had the class try to replicate their poem. Which was basically a 5 min rant about how the U.S. was a greedy capitalist Eurocentric nation and according to Ward, the class that he was in was 100% Mexican-American. He said that the radicals tried to foster a family type of relationship within the class for the first six months as a way to get the kids to see how they were decedents of a "great race" the Aztlans (Aztec) who were invaded by Europeans and then were basically forced into slavery."
The basic theme of the curriculum was that Mexican-Americans were and continue to be victims of a racist American society driven by the interests of middle and upper-class whites.
In this narrative, whites are able to maintain their influence only if minorities are held down. Thus, social, political and economic events in America must be understood through this lens.
This biased and sole paradigm justified teaching that our community police officers are an extension of the white power structure and that they are the strongmen used "to keep minorities in their ghettos."
It justified telling the class that there are fewer Mexican-Americans in Tucson Magnet High School's advanced placement courses because their "white teachers" do not believe they are capable and do not want them to get ahead.
It justified teaching that the Southwestern United States was taken from Mexicans because of the insatiable greed of the Yankee who acquired his values from the corrupted ethos of Western civilization.
It was taught that the Southwest is "Atzlan," the ancient homeland of the Aztecs, and still rightfully belongs to their descendants - to all people of indigenous Mexican heritage.
As an educator, I refused to be complicit in a curriculum that engendered racial hostility, irresponsibly demeaned America's civil institutions, undermined our public servants, discounted any virtues in Western civilization and taught disdain for American sovereignty.
“Ward described that after the class he told the radicals that basically they were totally out of line and that he didn’t want them in to teach any longer. They simply laughed because they knew Ward had no influence on the decision and Ward knew as well. So he took his case up with the principle.”
When I raised these concerns, I was told that I was a "racist," despite being Hispanic. Acknowledging my heritage, the Raza studies staff also informed me that I was a vendido, the Spanish term for "sellout."
The culmination of my challenge to the department's curriculum was my removal from that particular class. The Raza studies department and its district-level allies pressured the Tucson High administration to silence my concerns through reassignment to another class during that one period.
The Raza studies department used the "racist" card, which is probably the most worn-out and desperate maneuver used to silence competing perspectives.
It is fundamentally anti-intellectual because it immediately stops debate by threatening to destroy the reputation of those who would provide counter arguments.
Unfortunately, I am not the only one to have been intimidated by the Raza studies department in this way.
The diplomatic and flattering language that the department and its proponents use to describe the Raza studies program is an attempt to avoid public scrutiny. When necessary, the department invokes terms such as "witch hunt" and "McCarthyism" to diminish the validity of whatever public scrutiny it does get.
The proponents of this program may conceal its reality to the public. But as a former teacher in the program, I am witness to its ugly underbelly.
Arizona taxpayers should ask themselves whether they should pay for the messages engendered in these classrooms with their hard-earned tax dollars.
The Raza studies department has powerful allies in TUSD, on its governing board and in the U.S. House of Representatives and thus operates with much impunity.
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This pretty much gives a summary of what I heard John Ward speak about. It included quite a lot more but it's hard to recall all of it. However I did get to see first hand the type of books they used in the classroom. A lady brought two of the books to that social event I went to (which was a Young Republican meeting that I joined that night). The whole speech had everyone in the room (including me) literally in shock, at what Ward described. In stunning detail, he explained how they taught Marxism, Communism, Stalinism and Maoism. It's beyond belief and it is still being taught to impressionable students. Nevertheless the type of books which are being used is really all the evidence that someone would need to put against these extremists. I looked through both books and both are truly beyond the pale, dripping in Marxist rhetoric and propaganda. The books talked about killing the Gringo. Rise up Mexico and Resist the invader! Resist, Resist, Resist! Capitalism is a greedy evil by the Europeans. Kill them! Fuck them all! And other Marxist/Stalinist/communist propaganda was just a taste of what was included in the books. I was looking through it and on the cover of one of the books am Che Guaevara and Fidal Castro and this is being taught at about 10 schools--it still is to this day. Even to third graders but I think mostly to high school
Really tolerant, peaceful--and certainly not treasonous material huh?
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