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Omaha Schools Impose Racial Sensitivity Indoctrination Using “Stimulus” Funds
In a move that blends a very old controversy about “political correctness” indoctrination in public schools with more recent controversies about abuses of federal “stimulus” funds for politically-tinged projects, the Omaha Public Schools have required faculty and staff members to read and “open a dialogue” about a racially-didactic book that was purchased using federal “stimulus” money.
The text instructs teachers to avoid race-neutral “color blind” classroom policies in favor of ensuring that racial differences are “recognized and esteemed.” But recognition and esteem are limited to non-white races, as the book insists that “white is a culture” that is “privileged” and therefore suspect.
OPS insists, of course that the book is intended only to “open a dialogue”. But the book is filled with quizzes and tests that ensure that teachers hold the proper political views. If they don’t, they are instructed to report “what they will do to ‘align yourselves with the values expressed’” in the book.
The project is unfortunately not an aberration, as it comes on the heels of similar efforts to ensure that public school teachers hold left-leaning ideological positions:
Paul Peterson, director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University, and a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University, told the Herald that in general, cultural proficiency is part of an agenda pushed by people “who think that we should have a teaching force that has a certain political perspective.”
It is also questionable why “stimulus” funds were used. At the same time that Congress debates about whether we need more spending or less, it is worth looking at what the last round of “stimulus” was actually spent on. To the degree that portions of “stimulus” funds were diverted to purposes that are at best tangentially related to saving or creating jobs, it is valid to wonder how the next round might similarly be diverted into a partisan gravy train.
At a minimum, someone at OPS has a lot to answer for.
21 Responses to “Omaha Schools Impose Racial Sensitivity Indoctrination Using “Stimulus” Funds”
your reference is a glenn beck website? how did this get in here? is no one minding the door? can someone look in to some sort of doorman for this?
No one complained when Ron Beasley linked to Newshoggers, so STFU.
Just because you disagree politically with a source doesn’t automatically make their reporting false.
So Logan, is “STFU” going to be the new substitute for any pretense of civil dialogue in your posting now?
I am just returning what is given. Don’t like it? Don’t do it.
No more double standards where non-progressives have to be nice, timid, and apologetic and the progressives get to be vulgar and abusive bullies without consequence. You guys can either ask that everyone, including people on your own side, be civil or you can deal with the fact that everyone else can be equally as uncivil as those you applaud whenever they feel like it.
Sorry, but I am annoyed at the CONSTANT double standards from most of the progressives around here. Regardless of whether it is the “proper” or “civil” thing to do, inevitably I am going to react to it. Deal.
Are you referring to what you could call a “‘diversity’ training manual,” this far-left PC-BS screed?
http://www.corwin.com/books/Book232580
http://www.omaha.com/article/20110710/NEWS01/707109937
If so, I’m surprised that some of the stimulus money wasn’t also misspent on this, and misspent on “training” teachers and students:
http://www.campbelljones.org/the_culturally_proficient_school_42864.htm
PC-BS…
Logan I have to agree it would be more effective to link to a more reputable website. And yeah the liberals on here link to heavily biased websites all the time, but it’s the “two wrongs don’t make a right” thing.
I wouldn’t be surprised if “stimulus” money were used to attend this nonsense, too. (It’s similar to that stupid manual in the Omaha story.) Does anyone remember this nonsense?
http://www.whiteprivilegeconference.com/
It’s ridiculous enough that they play games like that, but it’s worse when public money is misspent on such idiocy and worse yet if the kids are exposed to it.
(It makes me think of something more specific, “nuclear education” in the 1980s. I.e., Reagan, USA, the West are evil.)
They never let up, do they?
funny, it’s a book without a name.
is this like one of those intelligent design biology books or is it like the history books that defends slavery and rewrites history to Bachman’s version. Nah, that was Beck’s doing….
“I am annoyed at the CONSTANT double standards from most of the progressives around here” – Logan
Based on the bulk of your posting here I’d say you’re annoyed progressives even exist. Besides, if you were really as concerned about “double standards” as you say, you wouldn’t indulge in them so regularly. As for the Omaha public schools, somehow I doubt the students will suffer any ill effects from learning a little bit about racial sensitivity.
I don’t agree with the belief that teaching students (or teachers) to hate and resent white people is the same as teaching them “racial sensitivity”. In fact, I think your spin is positively Orwellian.
DaGoat, the report was not coming from the Blaze as original reporting, but rather only linking to an Omaha World-Herald article. I think the claims that it is all just a Glenn Beck invention are merely expressions of the usual partisan bigotry and lack any substantive reason for their suspicions.
logan
who but you saw “to hate and resent white people” anywhere in a book whose name you can’t produce?
is it a double standard to disagree with your blatantly paranoid assertions?
“I don’t agree with the belief that teaching students (or teachers) to hate and resent white people is the same as teaching them “racial sensitivity”. In fact, I think your spin is positively Orwellian.” – Logan
What’s with the blather about teaching people to “hate and resent? It’s hardly a state secret that white people have historically enjoyed more privileges and opportunities than black people. Making a big stink about something like this does smell pretty Beckian.
Yet the original story doesn’t have nearly the hyper-conservative spin that Logan puts on it. Logan quotes nothing but an opinion from a rep of the extremely conservative Manhattan Institute. Notice that the conservatives don’t mention that it wasn’t exactly a fortune spent on the book. I think that shows where he is coming from.
Her is the original article.
Omaha, which I have lived for ten years, is a great city, not perfect.
This is a heavy republican city, so disspell any notion of the lefty stuff. Yes, we went blue for Obama and our Mayor is a democrat but that’s pretty much where it ends. Our congressman is the very conservative, Lee Terry.
So making this political is petty. Racial sensitivity isn’t a bad idea, in fact it is a good one.
I believe and trust that our teachers and administrators that come from our community will use common sense. They are good people that take their jobs very seriously.
So much for the dream.
Logan I think you would have been better off linking directly to the Omaha Herald article than going through the Beck site, which filters the original article through very partisan glasses. It’s like when the liberals here link to ThinkProgress talking about a NYT article, what they are emphasizing is ThinkProgress’s take and not the actual reporting. I would much rather hear your take (or Ron Beasley’s take) than Blaze or ThinkProgress. Guess we’ll have to disagree on this.
I’ll add – there is a real story here that unfortunately is getting overshadowed by the bickering. This is a waste of stimulus funds besides being a very questionable action by the Omaha school board.
I linked to the article originally as well as the book’s publisher site.
It is exactly as DaGoat has said — a waste of funds and questionable action (to say the least!). PC-BS is correct and also awfully sparing.
DaGoat, I actually did originally consider just linking to the World-Herald directly, but I thought it would be an interesting expose’ to link to the Blaze and contrast the howl of progressive commenters to their total silence when someone links to Newshoggers or ThinkProgress. Mission accomplished.
“STFU”
That’s some productive dialog you’ve got going on there Logan.
Of course, referring to teaching people about cultural differences (gasp!) as teaching “to hate and resent white people” pretty much cuts off the dialog to begin with. Great job, OP.