Legitimate historians of communism rightly regard it as a twisted religion - twisted because it created none of the good things that come from religion but horrificly amplified all of its evils. Bigelow's curriculum is communism. Communism should be declared a religion and the CPUSA given tax exempt status.
The left raises the bogeyman of some kind of immanent takeover by the religious right. This is totally implausible because the religious right first and foremost acknowledges itself to be religious. In our age, religion automatically invites skepticism as to the verity of the writer, speaker, teacher, etc. Bigelow and the left, however, cloak their fanatical religion in a facade of "science", calling their tales of devilish capitalists and their duped disciples heroically resisted by enlightened 60 year old social studies teachers and their 15 year old, angelic students rightly being guarded from the corruption of earthly powers "factual". Were communism elevated to its rightful status as a religion, then bigelow would have to preach to people who want to practice his religion. Instead, he and his minions wrongly (constitutionally and morally) annoint themselves the right to establish their religion in the schools and use the coercive power the government has been granted (in order to educate - not indoctrinate! - students) to reward ritualistic adherence to their religion and punish deviation from it.
Before responding that this has nothing to do with Bigelow's book, realize that it does. This book is fundamentally a book of "revolutionary" communist curriculum. A review that points that out is a perfectly legitimate interpretation of the materials contained within. The people who "believe" in that ideology hide behind charges of "paranoia" and overtly misrepresent the book as somehow being a book that has something to do with education. It has no place in a government institution. Buying this to use in the schools is the equivalent of buying Dianetics and using it in the school. It is the equivalent of teaching that the Koran factually identifies Jews as pigs. It is the equivalenty of teaching as fact that black people have the mark of Cain and are thus doomed to perdition.
This book is a crime against the constitution and the ideology contained within a crime against humanity. That it sometimes pretends to represent the highest ideals of humanism is a disgusting hypocrisy. |
| [....]I highly recommend this book for teachers who seek to raise issues of cultural awareness, racism, sexism, poverty and injustice in their classroom RS articles are written for teachers and most of them are written by practicing teachers, not university professors. The popularity of the journal and book is that the editorial staff works hard to push its writers to weave in the voices of their students in their writing. You hear writers thinking through their teaching and inviting readers to take young people seriously. The journal and the book take on hard issues like standardized testing, school descrimination, vouchers, multicultural inclusions, globalism, the civil rights movement, assessment, colonialism, homelessness, and gay/lesbian rights. These issues are addressed through varied academic disciplines whereby reading, writing, math, group work, technology, film, activisim, and lots of student reflection are used to explore these issues. So students not only develop an understand the issues, they also develop academic skills. Many teacher education programs in this country have find RS and the book very useful for preparing perspective teachers to meet the needs of growing multicultural, economically diverse communities of students who so much want what they are being taught to be relevant and useful in their lives. Finally, the book is loaded with curriculum ideas, lesson plans, poetry, varied resources useful for mostly social science, history and humanities courses. If you're serious about social justice teaching, you won't be disappointed in this book. |
