Help my baby sister argue with teacher

[tkulesa]

My baby sister (who isn't really a baby anymore) is a senior in a Catholic high school with a neoconservative history teacher.

The history class this year is Modern American History. The Neo-con teacher is making them read all kinds of books about how Clinton destroyed America. My sister, bless her brave little heart, wants to come prepared to refute all this non-sense with real facts and documentation.

I sent her a long list of links to sites online. But, I'd like to know what sites you find the most authoritative.

She wants sites that not only dispute the criminality of Clinton, but show the criminality of the republicans. Brownie points for sites that clearly document the unethical and/or illegal behavior of GWB.

Can you recomend any sites?

Please remember that this is geared towards high school students so clear, concise, and plain language is best.

Thank you.

[IrateCitizen]

1. I would more suggest that your sister lodge a formal complaint

The Neo-con teacher is making them read all kinds of books about how Clinton destroyed America.

This teacher has no right to impose his/her political views on the students. It would be one thing if both sides were being considered, but it doesn't sound like anything he/she is forcing them to read could really be considered as history as much as it is partisan political invective.

This kind of person has no business being in front of a classroom, regardless of political leanings.

[ComerPerro]

4. Depending on the books

It would be a very good idea to lodge a complaint.

One Angle:

Many of these right wing books have no sources, footnotes, or anything like that. Therefore, they are not based on fact and have no educational merit.

[TLM]

5. If it is a Catholic high school ....

that means it is a private school and they can hire any wingnut they want.

[Iris]

7. yes, but that also means if parents, who pay the tuition, complain,

they can fire him faster than the secretary at the local high school could pull out his personnel file.

Try to get your parents to complain. There are many history textbooks out there that this man could choose which are written by scholars who know how to do real research. If he wants to assigns something like this for oral book reports or something, that might fly, but I still doubt that these books have any scholarly value.

[SharonAnn]

26. The parents, school administrators, and parish churches

might not want this taught in their school and they can "shut it down" in a New York Minute if they want to.

[MassDem4Life]

15. LOL, save your Ire

this is done ALL the time especially in high school and college, and usually the other way, as a majority of teachers and proffessors consider themselves to be liberal.

[Iris]

19. what contemporary "liberal books" were you forced to read in college?

Sorry, but I don't buy your argument. Most accredited schools have curriculum guidelines. They aren't going to allow teachers to assign just any old book.

[LoneStarLiberal]

2. Could You Provide The Names of Some of the Books?

Tasks like this are best undertaken when you can offer specific refutations or alternatives. Could you provide the names of some of the books?

[tkulesa]

6. Names of books

I have asked Stephanie (little sis) to send me the names of the books so I can look them up. I'm sure someone has debunked some of them.

As soon as I have a list, I'll certainly post it to see if anyone is familiar with any of them.

[TLM]

3. Well you can always go to the old standby

how many indictments where there in the Clinton white house vs the Regan white house?

[tkulesa]

8. Inidictments

Do you have a url for a site that documents the indictments for various recent administrations? I would love to present this information. I've seen this mentioned, but no clear documentation or references.

[gratuitous]

9. Not to mention convictions

After seven years of relentless, open-ended investigations, and $100 million spent tracking down every scurrilous rumor, the Republicans nailed Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy for taking some football tickets, even though nothing was ever put forth that Espy returned a quo for that quid.

Every other allegation: Zip. Zilch. Nada. Bupkis.

December 24, 1992: Just before leaving office, George Bush pardons a whole raft of felons from his and the Reagan administrations, including Cap Weinberger, whose trial was scheduled to start some 10 days later. Evidence would have been produced that Bush, rather than being "out of the loop" as he claimed, was quite closely involved in the Iran/contra arms-for-hostages swap.

A terrific book on the subject is Joe Conason and Gene Lyons' book "The Hunting of the President."

[AmandaRuth]

10. i don't have a link

but google the felonious elephant site.

[Iris]

11. Here are some links to some textbook publishing companies

The last one is a company that is specifically geared towads Catholic schools. Have your sister take them to her teacher and principal and tell them she wants to be taught from actual textbooks, not political propaganda pieces.


http://www.phschool.com/social_studies/

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/fybh/index.html

http://www.arnold.ca/

http://www.sadlier.com/

[JHB]

12. Refuting books & sites

sites:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/ ....particualrly the archives http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/clinton.html and http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/bush.html and http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/lost.html

http://www.salon.com Search "Whitewater"


Books:
The Hunting of the President (Conason & Lyons)
Blinded By the Right (Brock)
Fools for Scandal (Lyons)
The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk (MacDougal and Harris)

Not on Clinton, but...

I Volunteer to Kidnap Ollie North
http://www.expertwitnessradio.org/essays/e1.htm

And I agree with others: this guy sounds like he's not so much teaching recent history as haranguing the class with his pet political peeves, and he should be required to present a more balanced view.

[Rainbowreflect]

13. Please keep us updated on how it goes.

Maybe she can help inform some people.

[ignatius]

14. This is one of the best websites showing in chronological the "evil"

GWB.

http://wage-slave.org/scorecard.html

Also scroll through the LBN sites, print the story on the WH strong arming the EPA to lie about air safety in NYC immediately after 9-11.

Go through the archives on this site..it is loaded with so many excellent posts..this will truly be the "keeper of the records" during the evil that has darkened the world.

Buzzflash and Rense also have some excellent articles.

[tkulesa]

22. Excellent Site!

That's a damned effective site. I'm adding that to the stuff I'm sending.

Thank you.

[onecitizen]

16. Personally, I really like..........

Conceptual Guerrilla. It might be a little too something(don't know what) though for high school. But it really explains the "right".

[0rganism]

17. Here's a good chronology of the Clinton smear campaign, A-to-Z

http://www.netmagic.net/~franklin/frankly.html

In particular, look at

http://www.netmagic.net/~franklin/MT00.html

Notice how the wingnuts went on the attack from the time Clinton took office, about even the most ridiculous and trivial things, and haven't stopped now that he's gone.

[RamboLiberal]

18. I think your sister or your parents should be complaining to the school

But I'd certainly encourage your sister to research on the web. I'd also recommend that she look in to one of the Republicans biggest crimes, Iran/Contra.

She might try this book:
Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up
by Lawrence E. Walsh

[CBHagman]

20. Anything by Haynes Johnson, for starters.

Check out "Sleepwalking Through History" for an account of the Reagan years, particularly the bipartisan investigation of Iran-contra.

The magazine the Washington Monthly is always worth checking out, including back issues. www.washingtonmonthly.com

www.pbs.org should have links to "Frontline," which is an investigative program. They cover a wide range of topics, including international and domestic politics. It might be useful as a research tool and/or a discussion starter.

I'd have to know, however, what sort of books the teacher is having them read. Are they by scholars or by pundits who basically publish a spew session as an "analysis" of the Clinton era? Anything Regnery Press, for example, ought to be confined to the local John Birch Society or Young Republican meetings, NOT the classroom.

Let us know how things go!

[mitchum]

21. Shouldn't those neo-con books only be used in remedial reading classes?

[tkulesa]

23. You would think.

The few times I've seen one of these books the reading level seemed kind of low. Maybe 4th or 5th grade level of literacy.

There aren't any actual facts in them to make the books worthwhile. So I would think they could only be used for reading classes.

That would mean exposing students to the insults and bad language. That's not the kind of stuff you usually want to use with students. But I suppose anything is good if it gets people to read.

[Iris]

24. That's been my point in several of my posts here.

These aren't academic books.

In most remedial reading classes, the reading material is supposed to be something that the individual reader would be interested - just something to get them reading, which means in a lot of cases, it's something most people wouldn't care about.

[tabasco]

25. I agree that a complaint may be in order

HS education should not be an indoctrination. College is a different story. By the time a student gets to college, they should be more prepared to recognize and consider biased professors. But HS should be as objective as possible. If the school administrators do not agree, I would yank her out of there.