After another paragraph or two of evaluation Franklin noted that it was during the Vietnam War when he was in this teachers classroom: “This all occurred during the height of the Vietnam War and despite the teach-ins, sit-ins and anti-war rallies just outside his room, he never acknowledged them.” Apparently, this teacher was not one of the “cool” teachers who openly discussed the events going on around them and the political viewpoints.

Years later Cory Franklin, then a newspaper writer as he is now, was contact by this teacher after a column he had written. They had a good conversation and stayed in touch from that time.

Franklin then gets to the real heart of what makes a good teacher:

I asked about the Vietnam War, why he studiously avoided mentioning it in class. I told him many students were disappointed he didn’t express his opinions, or more accurately, the opinions we wanted him to have. He was, in fact, quite erudite about Vietnam. But he felt it wasn’t his job to insert his political views into a class teaching a coherent story of American history, not contemporary events. It would inflame passions unnecessarily and could only get in the way of what students should be learning. Anyway, who could say at that point how history would judge those contemporary events? Better to let the whole thing gain perspective. Those interested would learn the facts and lessons in due time.

Well said as I have had to debate this before.

The curriculum suggested for a T4SJ educator has already been covered here, and it centers around A Plan Book for Social Justice Teachers.

This plan book offers space for daily planning, neat quotes to share with your students, and points of emphasis on a daily basis.

• Weekly planning pages packed with important social justice birthdays and historical events
• References to online lesson plans and resources related to those dates
• Tips from social justice teachers across the country
• Inspirational quotes to share with students
• Thought-provoking essential questions to spark classroom discussions on critical issues
• Reproducible social justice awards for students

The “List of Resources” by themes is very interesting (link). Some excellent topics and ones any teacher should use in balance with what some might call, I don’t know, traditional historical resources. You know, the Constitution, George Washington, Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, World War 2, ect.

T4SJ, however, is not interested in balance or objectivity and this is my main problem with the movement.

What I pointed out the other day I will admit is a very radical meeting of T4SJ proponents. Traditional Social Justice teachers focus on inequality and racism, which are important themes. Only for them, they teach that EVERYWHERE and EVERYTHING (White related) is about racism and injustice. They educate kids about White Privilege, as titled here “Teaching Against White Privilege and Other Atrocities” (This is from a list of Conferences presentations by one of T4SJ’s most important advocates). I know what they think “White Privilege” is as I sat in a seminar once. I refuse to teach it and “other atrocities,” enough said!

These educators agree with this statement made by one of their own: “Howard Zinn saw no contradiction between teaching and activism. In fact, for him they were inseparable.” (source). Meaning, your job as a teacher is not about education, it is about activism and indoctrination. That is also a big reason why I loath most aspects of T4SJ.

Now am I saying that T4SJ educators are radicals who hope that one day we can, for example, replace Capitalism with Marxism or Socialism? I sure hope not, but the US Social Forum doesn’t help T4SJ’s case.

Here is another interesting resource for T4SJ educators and proponents. (Note: I just love the hammer and sickle logo, you know like Stalin and the Communists used. Do they know that under Communism more people have been murdered than there were by the National Socialists — Nazis?)

We have Environment Justice, Human Justice, ect., and it all sounds great, who would not want justice? Great, but I am for “Equal Justice.” What do I mean by Equal Justice, I mean the complete opposite of T4SJ. Instead of explaining it here for you, I will point you to a lecture by Thomas Sowell, The Quest for Cosmic Justice. Dr. Sowell is an African-American professor of economics and author of a lot of books, and frankly is a lot smarter than I. Cosmic Justice addresses, in a unique way, the proponents of Social Justice.

Hope this helps some of you who can’t seem to wrap your head around my point. If not, I am sorry I do not know what more I can do for you.

Part of his rant:

I want to start off by saying that the young man who spoke a little while ago was one of my students. That made me so proud, because you know, our people have strong leaders for years and years to come. As a [Spanish] militant com barrio [ph] – a revolutionary Mexican organization here — we understand what the camarade’s [ph] saying. This is not just about Mexico. It is a global struggle against imperialism and capitalism.

But we know that all that is happening within the context of where we now stand — this stolen, occupied Mexico. And the message that we bring is that we want to bring a little bit more of a revolutionary context to this. Why is it that these people, these frail, racist white people, want to keep us out of this country? It’s not simply that it’s the color of our skin. It’s not simply that they want to exploit us. I’ll tell you why. It’s because on this planet right now, 6 billion people, at the forefront of the revolutionary movement — is La Raza.

When you hear from our commandantes, Fidel Castro Ruz, Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Brazil, Equador, you name it, we have nine, nine left of center governments in Latin America right now. And they know something that one young Argentine, Che Guevara, said. It was called the domino theory. And he knew that every single country would go revolutionary, one after the other, after the other, after the other.

So what do they fear? They know that every single country, they know that we will no longer fall for these lies called borders. We know that an El Salvadoran, a Guatemalan, a Nicaraguan, an American — there’s no damn difference. We are all one people.

So, with that in mind, we see ourselves, all of us here, as the northern front of a Latin American revolutionary movement…

Sanchee High School is a “Social Justice” institution that supports the political activism and indoctrination that instructors such as Mr. Gochez clearly preaches. Once again, the message is consistent and clear.

From the school’s website:

http://www.blog4history.com/wp-admin/post-new.php#titlediv

School of Public Service & Social Justice

We are committed to developing socially conscious members of society who positively contribute to their community. We work to provide students multiple career pathways by offering sufficient information, experiences and support to make informed post secondary decisions as well as prepare students to graduate from Santee Education Complex with certificates and/or Associate degrees in hand.

The link can be found here: http://www.santeefalcons.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=46518&type=d&termREC_ID=&pREC_ID=59286

In the book Teaching for Social Justice: A Democracy and Education Reader (New Press, Spring 1998), which I bought and read, Ayers and other teachers and professors outline Best Practice methods for teaching social justice. (There are also numerous books, groups, associations, and conferences today that deal with Social Justice and take their lead from Ayers and Howard Zinn.)

Here are some of the highlights:

Ayers in his “Introduction” proclaims, “The teachers [of social justice] … reject the old objectivist approach” to teaching and replace it with the values of social justice where all around us are nothing but injustices such as racism, sexism, classism, ect. Lots of “isms” which the teaching of Social Justice seem to use. All around us, according to this view and this instruction method, is inequality and oppression. As I have already pointed out here and here, their goal is not objectivity or neutrality in the classroom. They are the disciplines of Howard Zinn and believe that objectivity is irresponsible when faced with the supposed racist and oppressive society we live in. Remember, it is so bad here in the United States, in terms of injustice, that people from other countries are flocking here?

Everything, every topic, seemingly falls under the umbrella of “Teaching for Social Justice.” For example, Environmental Justice is a large part of it as well as Economic Justice, and this ultimately leads to the teaching of socialism and the redistribution of wealth, energy, and resources. William Ayers clearly states it is their goal to educate through “collective action” and for the good of the collective. All under the guise of teaching for “social justice and democracy.”

The book also talks openly about the “Progressive” origins of the movement going back to the Progressive Education Association of the 1930s. The book is filled with nuances of “collective undertaking” and social reform for the greater good. The themes of socialism and progressivism are right there, openly encouraged and acknowledged. No conspiracies, as conspiracies are “secret” designs and not out in the open. This is a movement for “change,” and one we can believe in.

Anyway, this led me to a book I received recently The Long Shadow of the Civil War Southern Dissent and Its Legacies, By Victoria E. Bynum.

In the Introduction of the book Bynum quickly points out the focus of her book and the “three central questions” that are addressed:

1) How prevalent was support for the Union among ordinary Southerners, and how was it expressed?
2) How did Southern Unionists and freedpeople experience the Union’s victory and the emancipation of the slaves during the era of Reconstruction and beyond?
3) What were the legacies of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the South’s White Supremacists counterrevolution in regard to race, class, and gender relations and New South politics?

Which are very important questions and still very relevant. The shock waves of the Civil War are still felt today. The economic and social conditions of Black Americans was impacted by the failure of Reconstruction, the legacy of Jim Crow, and the dependency created by the White guilt welfare state of the Johnson Administration’s “Great Society” (and beyond) a tragedy that increased the number of single mother households that devastated blacks for generations and sentenced so many single mother black families to poverty.

Anyway, a great read and a solid study, and more importantly a timely one that relates to the continued reflection on the meaning of the American Civil War.

From their website:

Have you ever handled a document over 150 years old? The American Civil War left behind a vast paper trail of soldiers’ letters and diaries, as well as newspapers and periodicals; all of these documents provide accounts of crucial events of the era, enabling historians to piece together the events that shaped America’s past during this defining time.

Today, these documents are widely and easily accessible online, thanks to historic preservation, the advent of online research portals such as Best of History Web Sites, and educational institutions such as American Public University. APU educates people on the importance of preserving these documents by providing quality higher education including History and Military History degrees. In many cases, these online documents are the next best thing to handling the originals.

Dr. Steven E. Woodworth, Professor of History at American Public University, and Tom Daccord, Educational Technology Specialist at Best of History Web Sites, will discuss researching and handling original Civil War documents through the Internet and how they apply it to their own projects.

For more info…

First off, I wish I had a budget I would order a ton of materials from this resource. But I would be remiss if I did not mention that this publication, which goes out to thousands of teachers, had a one-page dedication to “Howard Zinn” and numerous materials including his book A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present. Now, they can promote whoever and whatever they want. Not my point. Two things, are they promoting Zinn’s propaganda or are they simply being wise marketers and pitching the right thing to what is probably the right crowd? Why not a page dedicated to William Bennett’s America: The Last Best Hope, or something equivalent? Zinn’s book is the only one to get the special treatment. I don’t know, you decide. Makes me want to start my own resource for teachers that does not promote one thing over another.

So this goes back to past discussions on Howard Zinn’s materials and books in the classroom and how they are used. Remember, Zinn’s books are propaganda and the work of an activist with limited historical accuracy. [See here, here and here.]