Members of the Oakland Education Association, the union representing teachers in the Oakland, CA., Unified School District, held a pro-Palestinian “teach-in” on Wednesday for children ages 4 to 18, presenting anti-Israel and antisemitic materials to classes.
Once again we see public education as the banner carrier for indoctrination---not education.
Once again we see why public education is miserably failing.
Be informed, not misled.
Local news TV 2 reported, "Dozens of Oakland public school teachers took part in a pro-Palestine teach-in on Wednesday despite a warning from the district that the curriculum was not approved."
The local Fox News station said, "'From Gaza to Oakland' teach-in was organized by several members of the Oakland Education Association, who said it was a chance to expose students to diverse viewpoints and teach them about the human tragedy in Gaza."
One storybook published for probably K-3rd or 4th grade shows an adult with a child with the message on the picture reading, "'I' is for Intifada, Intifada is Arabic for rising up for what is right if you are a kid or a grownup."
One slide from the curriculum (above) describes Israeli “attacks on Gaza,” which were conflicts started by Hamas attacks against Israeli civilians. The current conflict is included as an “attack on Gaza,” though it began with a horrific terror attack on Israel.
Another image from the curriculum, shared on local Fox affiliate KTVU-2, featured a Jewish caricature with the arms of an octopus, a common image in antisemitic propaganda, including in Nazi Germany. Other books and materials described “Zionist bullies” and praised so-called Palestinian “resistance,” which has included terrorism against Jewish and Israeli civilians.
KTVU reported:
The webinar leads off with a video of Bay Area protests against the war in Gaza, including protesters carrying a “genocide” banner, followed by several conversations with pro-Palestinian activists.
One activist, who went by Violette, said Israeli militia displaced her Palestinian grandmother in 1948 when the state of Israel was founded.
Other speakers denounced the Israeli government and even encouraged students to boycott companies based in Israel.
The New York Times reported that the teach-in’s organizers claimed the curriculum was “’a corrective’ to mainstream education materials that take a pro-Israel view. … Much of the recommended content came from pro-Palestinian advocacy groups.”
The East Bay Times reported that 100 teachers participated in the one-sided, incendiary event, despite complaints from the Jewish community that it would stoke antisemitism, and despite admonishments from the school board that it was unauthorized.
"This is just the beginning," said Judy Greenspan, a long-term substitute teacher at Oakland’s United for Success Academy, a middle school on 35th Avenue. “No district has a right to try to muzzle a community or to stop our students from seeing a more rounded picture of what’s going on.”
A coloring book for students from transitional kindergarten to third grade tells the little ones, “A group of bullies called Zionists wanted our land so they stole it by force and hurt many people. Zionists have never let us go back to Palestine, even though we still have the key to our home.”
Takeaway
Once again, the Left is trying to muzzle and censor the right by claiming the truth is the deception, and the deception is the truth.
Nailah, a 10th-grader at Skyline High School who declined to provide her last name, said the phrase “Free Palestine!” is commonly heard among students, while her teachers often offer pro-Palestinian asides during class.
“I feel like the bare minimum you can do before you talk about it to a bunch of students that are impressionable is to do your research,” said Nailah, who is 15. “It got irritating because a lot of people don’t know the basic stuff about Hamas or what’s going on in Israel.”
Fiona, another 10th-grader, said the large number of Israeli students at Skyline makes the politics more fraught.
“I feel like a lot of students want to tell the administration when teachers talk about it, instead of telling the teachers themselves or wanting to discuss it in class,” Fiona said.
Clearly, the kids fear retaliation from the activist teachers.
Greenspan, an educator who helped organize the teach-in, said the union had assured teachers that retaliation by the district “would not be tolerated” and that more activities, demonstrations, and student-led activities were likely to follow Wednesday’s teach-in.
Despite that, school board president Mike Hutchinson told The Bay Area News Group on Monday that those who went through with the teach-in might face discipline from the board, including termination.
“I don’t want to draw this direct line of, ‘If you engage with this on Wednesday you’re losing (your) job,’ but it’s just like any other job. You can’t show up and do whatever you want and not face any consequences (for) that,” Hutchinson said.
I'm certain that statement will be strongly challenged because the public education complex has been doing what it wants to do without consequences for the past couple of generations.
Even to the point they now argue that they know better than the parent what the child should be taught, strongly suggesting the child belongs to the state, not the parent.
The battle for the minds and hearts of our kids continues.
May God help us.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.