Horowitz Targets Toddlers
Horowitz Targets Toddlers
Right-wing activist David Horowitz has been leading an aggressive effort “to limit what teachers may discuss and to bring more conservative views into the classroom.” Now he’s taking his ideological campaign to elementary schools, middle schools and high schools. The Christian Science Monitor reports:
“The last six months [have] been kind of a watershed for the academic-freedom movement,” says Bradley Shipp, national field director for Students for Academic Freedom, a group founded by conservative activist David Horowitz in 2003. “It is going to filter itself down to the K-12 level.”
It’s an important battle front, proponents say, because younger students are more impressionable.
Online groups like ProtestWarrior.com are already equipping youngsters with the materials they need to fight against “the liberal, bureaucratic, public school indoctrination machine.”
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I don’t like wingers like Horowitz but his larger point is valid. Some teachers use the classroom as their person soapbox. They should stick to the facts.
June 9th, 2005 at 3:37 pmNice use of the word “some,” Mysteryman. Let me give that a try:
Some religious conservatives, like Matthew Hale and Osama bin Laden, kill people. Therefore we should have a national campaign to intimidate and repress religious conservatives.
June 9th, 2005 at 3:59 pmHey kids! Do you suspect your parents might be liberals? Turn them in to your teacher or other authority figure to get candy and fun prizes!
June 9th, 2005 at 4:09 pmWhat say we have the schools teach our children, and leave the indoctrination to the parents and churches? Horowitz et al seem to be afraid that children might mess up and have an independent thought during the few hours they spend in school.
June 9th, 2005 at 4:11 pmI like that one, Tom.
June 9th, 2005 at 4:11 pmJudging by my independent thoughts when I was in school, perhaps they SHOULD be scared! I’ve heard teachers/instructors who have leaned towards either side give their views in classes, some more validated than others, and guess what? I formed MY OWN opinion based on what facts were available. Butt out Mr. Whorowitz.
June 9th, 2005 at 4:23 pmIf someone were to start a campaign to “Introduce more liberal ideas into the classroom, down to the K-12… because younger students are more impressionable” Horowitz would be all up in arms (which is a permanent state for him anyway).
June 9th, 2005 at 4:25 pmSo, when does mandatory enrollment of children in the Spies take effect?
June 9th, 2005 at 4:30 pmI love how “academic freedom” equates to limiting what can be taught.
June 9th, 2005 at 7:19 pmI teach history. For years I kept my own opinions out of my classroom, however, I’m now of the opinion that I do a disservice to my students by withholding my view on both past and current events. I encourage students to question my positions and challenge them if they’re so inclined. These discussions are what lead to the real “meat and potatoes” of history. Without them, all we’re left are the soundbites recorded in the history books.
June 9th, 2005 at 8:03 pmPerhaps truth, facts, objective historical analysis, independent of any outside interference…. has a “liberal bias”?
June 9th, 2005 at 8:35 pmHorowitz should immediately be made head of the Ministry of Miniscule Thoughts.
June 10th, 2005 at 10:40 amJim the history teacher, I applaud your position on bringing opinion and critical thinking to the classroom. Even if the students disagree, it creates a far better person in the end, able to defend and more deeply understand thier own views as well as give them insight into differing opinions. Good work!
June 10th, 2005 at 11:53 amThis “critical thinking” nonsense is what got into trouble in the first place. School is where children sould be taught FACTS, period.
June 10th, 2005 at 10:36 pmhad a little 6-yr-old girl tell me recently that she “goes for” Bush because her “Kindergarten teacher said so.” It’s already started.
June 11th, 2005 at 1:33 amThis “critical thinking� nonsense is what got into trouble in the first place. School is where children sould be taught FACTS, period.
Comment by floyd alvis cooper
Floyd,
You are kidding right? LMAO@Floyd.
Tell me, Floyd. What “facts” led people far more intelligent than you to conclude that the sun revolved around the earth for so many years. Shut up, Floyd. You are too stupid to have the right to speak. You should be imprisoned for heresy, like Galileo.
June 11th, 2005 at 2:53 amChildren are easy to propagandize, as in Hitler Youth, or Soviet Young Pioneers. But attempts to propagandize children often cause a reaction formation in the man or woman as it did with Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The crypto religious left is forming Solzhenitsyn types too, powerfully independent personalities. Things rarely turn out the way people think they will and the crypto religious dogma of Soros and other leftists will produce reactions-already produce them. The left has many beliefs, a faith that will not go unchallenged by such people.
June 11th, 2005 at 8:14 amThe crypto religious left is forming Solzhenitsyn types too, powerfully independent personalities. Things rarely turn out the way people think they will and the crypto religious dogma of Soros and other leftists will produce reactions-already produce them. The left has many beliefs, a faith that will not go unchallenged by such people.
“The crypto religious left .” Wow! That’s a cool neoligism! It ain’t worth jizzum. But it’s cool!
June 11th, 2005 at 4:16 pmNeologism. You try and type with a qwerty when you are used to a dvorak.
Why are we being overrun by all these white nationalists and John Bircher wackos? Everybody get their tin foil hats out!
June 11th, 2005 at 4:19 pmyou are a little one with little jizzum. Buck u little fish dick. Big one-really u fool-lol…
June 11th, 2005 at 6:04 pmAnd academic freedom is a bad thing, why? Too many professors /do/ use the classroom as their soapbox; if you doubt it, spend ten minutes reading through the archives of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, http://www.thefire.org Professors and universities too often use their influence to promote or even require compliance to an official orthodoxy, which is contrary to academic freedom whether the orthodoxy in question is leftist or rightist. Dispositions theory in particular leads to this, as it is a system to grade students based on their political beliefs as well as their academic performance, which is simply unacceptable.
October 5th, 2005 at 6:15 pmThis is the reason I am going to homeschool. So my son won’t run into hateful people like the ones who have posted on here. Now if I wanted my son to grow up to be some kind of liberal drone with no original thought of his own, I would send him to public school. But since I happen to love my son and want the best for him, he will not be thrown to the wolves. Public school is where knowledge goes to die!
October 14th, 2005 at 7:46 pm[...] “Horowitz Targets Toddlers” screams the headline of a blog post by Judd Legum at ThinkProgress.com — a mouthpiece for the American Progress Action Fund, which is an adjunct of the Soros-funded propaganda mill Center for American Progress. [...]
November 11th, 2005 at 3:02 pm[...] Horowitz Targets Toddlers – Think Progress Right-wing activist David Horowitz has been leading an aggressive effort “to limit what teachers may discuss and to bring more conservative views into the classroom.†Now he’s taking his ideological campaign to elementary schools, middle schools and high schools. The Christian Science Monitor reports: “The last six months [have] been kind of a watershed for the academic-freedom movement,†says Bradley Shipp, national field director for Students for Academic Freedom, a group founded by conservative activist David Horowitz in 2003. “It is going to filter itself down to the K-12 level.†[...]
December 2nd, 2005 at 8:06 am[...] “Horowitz Targets Toddlers” screams the headline of a blog post by Judd Legum at ThinkProgress.com — a mouthpiece for the American Progress Action Fund, which is an adjunct of the Soros-funded propaganda mill Center for American Progress. [...]
October 5th, 2006 at 3:35 pm