By Laura Armstrong
Columnist
When I wrote recently about the radical group MALDEF (the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund) sending one of their activists over to Osborne High each week to guide a student club, I wasn't surprised to get an immediate e-mail from a big-time, left-leaning, inside the beltway PR firm, The Raben Group, whose attorney wanted to "chat" about what MALDEF's trying to accomplish down here in little old Cobb County.
I was surprised, however, that no Osborne faculty or parents weighed in, even anonymously, and I still await answers to follow-up questions sent to school board members and Superintendent Sanderson. Questions like, "Why would a school district open itself up to an organization with a history of suing other districts and states for such 'rights' as bilingual education?"
They're still working on those questions, I guess.
Meanwhile, I've been reading with concern about a trend that's gaining ground in U.S. teachers colleges and is related to Osborne's social activism and the far-left's political assault on education. It fits right in with millions of illegal aliens who've dropped in for their K-12 years (and who aim for in-state tuition at universities as well).
It's called social justice teaching.
Though social justice sounds positive, it's actually code for the opposition of American traditions like free market economics and individualism. Steeped in the all-too-familiar-these-days rhetoric of America as systemically oppressive, racist, sexist and classist, its leaders are people like Bill Ayers, the Weather Underground bomber-friend of Barrack Obama.
Ayers, a self-proclaimed "street-fighting communist," is inexplicably an esteemed education professor for the University of Illinois-Chicago and editor of the textbook series, "Teaching for Social Justice."
A primary goal of SJT is advocating the redistribution of wealth and power by revolutionary means, if necessary. Examples will alarm you, if you Google the topic. Think Ward Churchill radical. Think Marx. Think indoctrination. The bottom line is, teacher candidates are required to take courses featuring some of the most anti-American social ideas in history.
On one teacher's Web site I found, for example, young teachers were giddy after a colleague held a mock trial in her fourth grade class for Christopher Columbus, charging him with crimes against indigenous people. It was a "vehicle for liberation" they gushed, while "encouraging students to critically examine white oppression … in search of opportunities for social action."
That's fourth grade.
Similar baloney is now part of the curriculum at most teachers colleges. Tainting even math, it enjoys the full support of mainstream professional educators and organizations, and has become a nightmare for moderate or conservative teacher candidates. They say if they don't "commit" to SJT, professors won't pass them, and some have even had to sue their schools for imposing a political litmus test.
I'd love to know what our current crop of school board candidates and teachers think about SJT and its implications. Also whether they approve of MALDEF's access to Osborne students who need English and math, not political organizing credentials.
In this election year, wouldn't it be great if parents started asking?
lbarmstrong3378@comcast.net
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MALDEF, the communist ideology-based organization, weighed in on Cobb's Code Ordinances last summer and managed to intimidate the Commissison Chairman so that nothing was done to correct the Code which would have allowed for enforcement of the multiple illegal families occupying single-family homes. It follows suit that MALDEF would target our innocent youth. The sad reality is that we have so many gutless school officials who are brain-dead in political corrrectness. As for the parents? If parents reading this article don't see the danger in the dangerous brainwashing that MALDEF disseminates, then God help their kids because I don't see County officials having the guts to stop this intrusion into our schools.
Federal vouchers would solve this problem overnight. In the meantime, parents should make whatever sacrifices necessary to send their children to private schools, or home school them.
This is what happens when parents hand off authority for raising their children to public schools...so they can have two incomes, drive truck-like SUVs so Mom is safe, and live in a house big enough for 10 in days past...resulting in latch-key children that not surprisingly have no respect for their parents.
The MALDEF mantra All of the laws should be enforced equally, regardless of race, religion, and/or national origin. That is with the exception of hispanics, and they should be above the law and exempt from the law. And the only purpose that a tonto gringo serves is to pay taxes to support the superior and noble hispanic. Anyone who disagrees with this philosophy is Xenophobic and a Racist. Pancho All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others. George Orwell, Animal Farm, ch.10, 1945
Wake up and smell the coffee people. I was an American refugee in 1981 from Miami Florida. I could not find a job because I was not bi-lingual. Miami is now referred to on the national news as "Little Havana". How sad that our government allowed the exodus of Cubans from Cuba to ruin and claim Miami as their own. You can no longer live in Miami if you only speak what should have been designated as our national language "English". Only in America would the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many.
You think if someone from the local Minutemen chapter wanted to speak to the students he'd be welcomed? Naw, we don't want those "racists" talking to our kids, right? But, if you're a racist with the right skin color [brown or black] well, come on in!
And if the public only knew what the Saudi Islamo-facists are doing on college campus under the "smoke screen" of Middle Eastern Studies it should send chills up one spine. Both issues defined apathy. Not everyone can preform brain surgery but anyone can be a parent!
It doesn't suprise me that no parents weighed in on this subject. They're to lazy or involved with day to day life to get involved. Here In Orygone I,m amazed to find the number of people who don't see this INVASION as a threat!
Thank you for bringing this taxpayer injustice to light. The test scores at Osbourne are dismal, yet socialist groups such as MALDEF are given free reign in a public school? We have our economy in serious trouble and these open border wacos need to understand that they are responsible for a large part of our problems. Our citizens no longer care about their demands and causes.
All the more reason to try to homeschool if you can.
This is why I moved out of Cobb County. My son's second grade teacher only allowed the celebration of Kwanzaa because she considered Christmas a racist holiday. To color in people they could only use brown crayons or they were seriously chastised. These things went on for several years before I had enough. Thank you for exposing these awful and insidious methods being used to brainwash our children with "politically correct" Communist attitudes just as the Soviets removed the influence of parents and tradition from the minds of their children so they could become slaves to the government.
I was a dumbed down Colorado Hick in the early '60's; but the slings & arrows of outrageous fortune forced me to smarten up, for my my well being & survival was at stake. David S. Schneider-Citizen Peoples Repubic of Denver, Co
Try this for a social justice math problem: There are 18 million illegal aliens in the United States. Each illegal alien costs one US taxpayers 1800 dollars in social services, education, medical care, law enforcement, imprisonment, and deportation. If each illegal is given amnesty and US legal immigration rates are allowed to remain at current levels, How long will it be before the US becomes a third world country? Bonus Question 1: How much money do the Republicans allow US companies save in deflation of wages and non-payment of benefits by hiring illegals? Bonus Question 2: How many illegally registered voters do the democrats gain by pandering to these people? Bonus Question 3: Why won’t American politicians do what is right for US citizens?
Keep up the great work Laura! I need to educate myself on this Social Justice Teaching. Thanks for keeping me informed!
columbus should not have been charged for crimes against indigenous people, in their mocked up trial. the people who should have been charged where the Spanish. When Columbus sailed for the Queen of Spain, they thought he would never make it, so they empty their jails for Columbus's crew.
Yes, Laura, It would be great if American parents starting asking. But alas, that would mean that American parents would have to care first. Nothing bothers most of them apparently, since this stuff has been going on in one form or another for over twenty years now. The liberal/progressive/communists(Communists!!, yes that's what they are)are well on their way, in the Universities, in the field of law, and in other areas--to comleting the destruction of the United States as a great and free country.
We have lived in the Osborne school district for 22 yrs.; never had children attend school in Georgia. All the negativity surrounding Osborne, Birney and Smitha has severely impacted the resale value of homes in our area. No one wants to send their children to these poor performing and possibly dangerous schools. People have to move or send their children to private schools to get a decent, safe education. Could the very group of students the MALADEF is seeking social justice for, be the cause of these poor performing schools? Maybe the Raben group could mentor the gang members, delinquents, truants etc. to be law abiding citizens, teach them English. We tax payers do not owe these "anchor babies" whose parents have broken the laws, anything. They owe us. I suggest the school board candidates hold several public forums and give us solutions to this problem which has now gone on too long. Keep the MALDEF out of the schools.
First, I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the members of MALDEF, and did not find them radicals, but mearly advocates for their target population. I teach at a Cobb middle school that has a large hispanic population and these children need mentors, teachers, and others that they can look to for acceptance and support. If MALDEF is serving in that role, they are making our school system better, not worse. Did the writer attend one of the meetings at Osborne to see what they were teaching? Has the writer ever worked with students who are of hispanic heritage? I doubt either one. Please do not judge a group or volunteers based on what you have heard, sit in on a meeting or meet with MALDEF officials first. By the way, I am a white republican, so don't claim I am a left-leaning teacher!
Ms. Armstrong; In response to your request for information for "what our current crop of school board candidates and teachers think about SJT and its implications" I will be happy to be the first to share my thoughts on the issue with you. Having witnessed such activities at the university level, your article truly concerns me. It seems that the tenants of community service are being replaced by teachings of "social activism". The moral, religious, and ideological formation of our public school students at the elementary and middle school level should be left as the exclusive domain of the parents and religious institutions which they choose to attend. Even at the High School and college level, such topics should only be broached when a counter balancing viewpoint is also made available, allowing the student to form his or her own opinion without the burden of undue bias. One of the key tenants of Marxism is to control the media, the military, and the educational system. Social Justice Teaching is just global Marxist theory, and Liberation Theology, wrapped in a different package. As a candidate for the Cobb County School Board, Post 5, I will oppose this type of ideological infiltration at every possible opportunity. Al Meyer Candidate for Cobb Conty School Board Post 5
The insidious plot to open America's borders and to move to Socialism takes another step forward. It is incredible to me that the Cobb school system has allowed this. MALDEF enters the door with statements that they are here to assist young people of Hispanic heritage in advancing their education. It is another infiltration by foreign countries. The destruction of America has come because of extreme self loathing on the part of many who have enetered the teaching profession- brainwashed people brainwashing our children. I am happy to say that as a former employee of Cobb County schools, the teachers I met were very nice people and not of this state of mind.
I will be homeschooling my child after this school year has ended.
Go ahead & give district 4 in Cobb County(including Smyrrna) to Mexico, & be done w/ it!
The teacher above is clear proof of the problem in our school system. Maldef has called our own state representatives and senatores bigots for enforcing federaly mandated laws ! The teacher above has no clue and that is why eeryone should storm osborn high and find out that the childrens test scores are low because of the fools running the place. I ask everyone to reseach the laws of Georgia to see if there is one like California 1954 fires communists and socialist taechers by having them sign a swarn oath to the country.
It is painfully obvious that the "teacher" at Osborne didn't do his/her homework. I doubt even further that she is a "republican" -- she's one of those bleeding-hearts who has fallen for the propaganda and placed the chidren in her charge at serious risk of anti-American propaganda. I'd be willing to bet she knows that several of her hispanic students are illegal. They can't speak English so they can't learn, and whether she wants to admit it or not, these non-English-speaking illegals are costing American taxpayers billions of tax dollars. She should forget any pay raises for the next 50 years--that is, if the North American Union (the Western Hemisphere's version of the EU) has nullilfied our Constitution and sovereignty!
Ms. Armstrong is way off base. There are many groups that participate at schools, some that are faith based. I am surprised that helping students is not a top priority. I guess you rather have money being taken from the band, as happened at Harrison versus teaching some leadership. If anglos don't want to take the lead and show leadership to students, someone should. If teaching student leadership is activism, then that is what America needs. We area AmeriCANs not American'ts.
If I had the power I would close every government school in America and make it illegal for government to operate schools (indoctrination centers) for children. I'll bet "teacher says" is a proud member of the NEA! The kids think the people who run schools are idiots and it seems they are right.
Why are people who can't speak English here? They are here for jobs! If the employers of this (particularly builders) country were to just hire and pay wages like they should - illegal immigrants would not be a problem. Too many people have made money off the back of these immigrants. Everyone is profit motivated and now the lower American socio-economic classes suffer. Who's fault is that? The people that have profited speak English and have the same colored skin as the people who are complaining. But don't talk about them. Let's just put them in political office and hope they do something because they look like you! Don't force them to hire people who have legal papers that can be verified!