Wednesday, June 26, 2002
"T is for Terrorist"
Just eight days after September 11th, Richard Rothstein, an education columnist for the New York Times, reminded his readers that "[a] big need is for [classroom] materials that help explain terrorists' motivations."
The Education Development Center has already issued a 35-page curriculum, available in both English and Spanish, entitled "Beyond Blame." Despite its title, the villain of this document is -- you guessed it -- the United States of America.
Alfie Kohn, better known for his opposition to all forms of student achievement testing, offered his views of the matter in "Teaching About September 11th" for Rethinking Schools:
The historical record suggests that the United States has no problem with terrorism as long as its victims don't live here or look like most of us. In the last couple of decades alone, we have bombed Libya, invaded Grenada, attacked Panama, and shelled Lebanon - killing civilians in each instance. We created and funded an army of terrorists to overthrow the elected government of Nicaragua and when the World Court ruled that we must stop, we simply rejected the court's authority. We engineered coups in Iran, Zaire, Guatemala, and Chile (the last of which coincidentally also took place on Sept. 11). . . . We are not the only nation that has done such things, but we are the most powerful and, therefore, arguably the most dangerous. . . . Schools should help children locate themselves in widening circles of care that extend beyond self, beyond country, to all humanity.
In the interest of "hearing both sides" New York State's education commissioner Richard Mills referred educators seeking information to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination website. Chester Finn noted in his article, "Teachers, Terrorists and Tolerance" for the December, 2001 issue of Commentary (not available for free) that the president of that organization praised the terrorist group Hezbollah as "the heroic resistance."
While it is always good to understand the motivations of others, it would also seem worthwhile to educate children on the virtues (instead of merely the vices) of their home country, the United States of America.
|posted by Jim on 6:56 PM|
Link
. . .
|
. . .
|
