By: Diane Benjamin
h/t a reader
See what District 87 wants to take out of the BHS Student Handbook: https://district87.community.diligentoneplatform.com/document/efa9682b-a2e4-467a-ae98-88d95f946fc3/
First page:
“Productive citizens” is crossed out in favor of this:
.
District 87 doesn’t want your kids to know about freedom and liberty. They don’t want your kids to know about American exceptionalism. They don’t want your kids to know this country was the first and only country founded under the principle that citizens can govern themselves. They don’t want your kids to know people have come to this country for many decades to escape government oppression.
They are teaching your kids there is nothing different about American culture and the rest of the world.
Americans are not members of a global society. Education is now about erasing history.
School boards cannot be unchallenged again early next year. Petitions will need to be filed this fall to run for the board. People who know this philosophy is dangerous need to get elected. Decide to run and start networking. The 80+% who don’t bother to vote in local elections are endangering education. Evidently, people have to be shamed into caring about what is being taught in public schools.
Page through the handbook. This isn’t the only change.
Chronic absenteeism at BHS is 37.5%: https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/School.aspx?schoolId=170640870250001
Evidently, the section on truancy is never enforced.
Look at the other lines crossed out on the first page. No wonder truancy is high. Does the teachers union approve of these changes? If they don’t speak up, the answer is yes.
I love how the GPA requirements keep dropping to qualify as an “honors” student. Everyone’s a winner! Way to lower the bar guys!
ok….c’mon now…this is a HUUUGGEEE stretch. We are a global community, like it or not…..how can you say Americans are NOT part of a global community? Look around….we’re currently sticking our nose in every other countries business as we speak and have been doing so for decades. Because the handbook says we are part of a global society that somehow translates into education being about erasing history and that district 87 doesnt want kids to know about liberty and freedom? I typically enjoy your content but this is just flat out stupid.
Public education in the United States should be focused on producing productive citizens of the nation in which they reside, not “citizens” of some nebulous “global society”.
“The objects of this primary education determine its character and limits. These objects would be, To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business; To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts, in writing; To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties; To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either; To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor, and judgment; And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed. To instruct the mass of our citizens in these, their rights, interests and duties, as men and citizens.” -Thomas Jefferson
The board and superintendent are also trying to remove the following from their required Curriculum content:
“Character education must be taught including respect, responsibility,
fairness, caring, trustworthiness, and citizenship in order to raise students’ honesty, kindness, justice, discipline, respect for others, and moral courage”
Immoral, low character, global citizens. This is what your property taxes and sales tax dollars are going towards. This is the state of “public” education in Bloomington.
https://district87.community.diligentoneplatform.com/document/8c974fee-a2ee-4cf6-b888-7b82478c3a15/
So it’s the schools job to teach respect, responsibility, fairness and caring? I think that falls on the parents. Seems like every time something falls on the schools, everyone complains about it and how it’s a waste of time and money, and then when they remove that from the schools, it’s suddenly some big conspiracy to corrupt our kids. I think teachers and staff can still teach kids to be respectful people without it being a part of the curriculum
You are correct that those things need to be taught at home. But they also should be reinforced, not Un-taught, or purposely perverted, at school. The issue is not so much dropping those things as what they’re being replaced with and why.
You’re also probably correct that this is not part of some big conspiracy. Individual actors seeking one-upmanship in virtue signalling without regard to the best interests of our children or country adequately explains a lot of what is wrong with our public education system. But that does not mean it’s not still harming the children or that it does not still need to be stopped.
Yes, SERIOUSLY we are a global community and we are all God’s children. Depending upon whether you believe that you not if I say it, it must be true. That said in this global community that we are all God’s children, we are Americans and many of us are quite thankful for the freedom this culture of independence demands. If we do not stand for the freedom that Amercan culture provides, the whole world turns into a shithole of feudalism type living of which I doubt you’ll be spewing your drivel at that point.
I like how they crossed out “We will manage the District’s resources and spending as responsible stewards for our taxpayers and community.” I admire their honesty.
It’s gotten to the point where when people ask me what I did for a career before I retired, I am almost embarrassed to say that I was in public education. Public schools were not the woke wastelands that they are today. We would never ever have permitted it! Schools were a place where kids could come from dysfunctional households and learn what normal behavior means. Now it is the opposite. Also embarrassed to say that I graduated from Illinois State University. It is a freakshow today. The only way that education can survive today in America is through private school systems and homeschooling. The private schools just need to be careful not to fall victim to the pressures of the woke community. Conservative Christian values always have provided, and will continue to. provide a successful path forward. But we must stand fast for our values. JK