E Wayne Ross

The film Sir! No Sir, which coming to Vancouver’s Fifth Avenue Cinemas in July, reveals the untold story of the GI movement to end the war in Vietnam.

This is the story of one of the most vibrant and widespread upheavals of the 1960s – one that had a profound impact on American society, yet has been virtually obliterated from the collective memory of that time. This hidden history combines fast-paced archival footage with thoughtful interviews, “perfectly timed with new doubts about the Iraq War” (Variety).

See the trailer for Sir! No Sir here

Read Rich Gibson’s review of the film here.

Friday » June 16 » 2006

Gay guarantee for provincial curriculum
Contract assures same-sex couple will have unprecedented influence over B.C. curriculum

Janet Steffenhagen
Vancouver sun

Friday, June 16, 2006

British Columbia is giving a same-sex couple an unprecedented role in a review of the provincial curriculum to ensure respectful teachings about sexual orientation from kindergarten to Grade 12.

A six-page contract, signed by the Education Ministry and obtained by The Vancouver Sun, guarantees Peter and Murray Corren a significant voice in the revision of classroom lessons to recognize gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people and the creation of a new social-justice course — to include teachings about sexual orientation — for Grade 12 students.

The parties have agreed to seek mediation in the event of a dispute and have acknowledged the contract is legally binding.

Many educators welcomed the agreement, saying it will make B.C. a North American leader in teaching respect for diversity. But most admitted they don’t know what the changes might look like in practice.

Independent schools that receive government funding insisted they wouldn’t be affected by the deal, even though they are required by law to teach the same curriculum as public schools.

“As far as we’re concerned, this agreement applies to public schools only,” said Doug Lauson, head of the Federation of Independent School Associations and associate superintendent of Catholic schools in Vancouver.

The ministry would not confirm that directly. Spokeswoman Corinna Filion said in an e-mail Thursday the ministry can’t speculate on what curriculum revisions will result, but added “it’s not anticipated that any change would impact the ability of an independent school to continue teaching courses from a faith-based perspective.”

Most independent schools in B.C. are faith-based.

Attorney-General Wally Oppal played down the changes in announcing them earlier this month, saying it was “a classic case of much ado about little or nothing.” The government’s news release at the time focused on the new social justice course, which will be an elective available for interested schools but won’t be required learning.

He did not release the contract and the Correns said at the time it was intended to be confidential.

This week, Murray Corren said the anticipated changes to the curriculum, along with tougher limits on parental rights to remove their children from classes teaching “sensitive content,” are far more important than the new elective course.

He said the deal was a major victory after a lengthy human-rights battle to have gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people reflected in the everyday curriculum.

“It’s very significant,” Murray Corren, a Coquitlam literacy teacher, said of the agreement. “We wouldn’t have worked for 10 years to sell out for something as minor as just a simple elective course. But when the ministry came to us with this proposal … we were more than happy to reach a settlement with them.”

The Correns, who were among the first same-sex couples to be wed in B.C., agreed as part of the deal to drop their human-rights complaint, which had been headed for a lengthy hearing this summer before the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

Asked what he hopes the six-page contract will produce, Corren replied: “Fair and appropriate reflection of non-heterosexual realities in the curriculum.”

Or, as he put it earlier in documents filed with the tribunal, he wants schools to teach: “Queer history and historical figures, the presence of positive queer role models — past and present — the contributions made by queers to various epochs, societies and civilizations and legal issues relating to (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) people, same-sex marriage and adoption.”

The ministry has agreed to consult regularly with the Correns in developing guidelines for the curriculum review and setting priorities.

The Correns say the subjects that require urgent attention are social studies for K-7, health and career education for K-9 and — to a lesser extent — English-language arts for K-7.

Other members of the public, along with education stakeholders, will have opportunities to comment on the proposed changes but won’t have the same guaranteed input.

Murray Corren said it’s only right that he and Peter are widely consulted about the changes. “I can’t tell you how many hours, days, weeks, months and years of our personal time that we spent on this. And I didn’t see anybody else running in to participate with us, to support us. Nobody.

“I even asked my own school district to intervene and they refused.”

The Correns will receive no financial remuneration as part of the deal.

Curriculum experts said the deal with the Correns is highly unusual but commendable.

“I’m very supportive of the intent of the agreement and I think that the curriculum revision with regards to issues of diversity including sexual orientation and gender identity is really path-breaking and important,” said Wayne Ross, an education professor at the University of B.C.

He said he is unaware of any similar agreement that guarantees a private party an “explicitly designated seat at the table in terms of curriculum development that’s going to affect an entire province.”

But he said he understands why the Correns were given a designated role in light of their human-rights complaint and believes the ministry will still have final say.

Charles Ungerleider, who is also a UBC education professor and was the NDP’s deputy education minister when the Correns began their battle 10 years ago, said he applauds the Liberal government for signing the deal.

“It’s a reasonable solution to the issue,” he said. “I would have been receptive to this as deputy minister.”

Ungerleider said gay, lesbian and transgendered students have a tough time in school — “it’s getting better, but it’s by no means an easy time” — and the changes anticipated by the deal can be expected to improve their lot.

Furthermore, he said the Correns’ goals are a reflection of Canada’s social-justice values.

“In effect, they are advocating for all youngsters and a better society for you and me.”

Penny Tees, president of the B.C. School Trustees’ Association, said she hadn’t read the contract but was confident it reflects an intent from all involved to improve public education.

Shawn Wilson, chairman of the Surrey school board, said the agreement “is working towards something that needs to be done.”

Although the Surrey board was previously involved in a lengthy court battle to stop the introduction of books featuring same-sex families into kindergarten classes, he said the board has never objected to the discussion of such issues in senior grades. He was unaware that the K-7 curriculum was also under review.

The harshest criticism of the contract came from Xtra West, a gay and lesbian newspaper in Vancouver that accused the Correns of settling too soon for too little. “I want the government to liberally sprinkle queer content throughout all the course material where we are now conspicuously absent,” Robin Perelle said in an editorial.

jsteffenhagen@png.canwest.com

– – –

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

– The ministry will amend policy to ensure parents can choose alternative delivery for “sensitive” subject matter in three courses only: Health and Career K-7, Career 8-9 and Planning 10. The amended policy will be given to the Correns on July 15 and they will have until Aug. 1 to comment.

– The ministry will draft guidelines for the K-12 curriculum review and give the Correns a copy by Aug. 1. They will have 30 days to comment.

– The Correns will provide a list of groups with expertise in sexual orientation and homophobia and the ministry will solicit feedback directly from those organizations.

– The ministry will give the Correns a draft of Social Justice 12 before releasing it publicly and will “make revisions as appropriate” in light of their response.

– The deputy education minister will meet the Correns every six months until Sept. 1, 2007 to ensure timely and adequate implementation of the terms of the agreement.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

Copyright © 2006 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.

The Associated Press reported earlier this week how New Jersey National Guard recruiters woo educators with helicopter rides and freebies.

They ride Black Hawk helicopters, fire mock assault rifles in combat simulators and can learn what it’s like to drive a Humvee. Some are so excited they want pictures of themselves holding guns. But these enthusiasts aren’t about to join the military. They’re principals, teachers, coaches and mentors—people who New Jersey military recruiters believe hold the key to getting more high school students interested in the armed forces.

Unfortunately, the strategy seems to be working.

With the military struggling to meet recruitment goals nationwide, New Jersey’s National Guard has seen an increase in enlistment in the two years since the inception of its “Educate the Educator” program.

Guard officials say by educating the educators, they gain valuable allies in recruiting students whose parents are often concerned their children will be sent into battle. “It’s always the first thing I hear: “Iraq, Iraq, Iraq,'” said Sgt. Steve Lawrence, a Guard recruiter. “The parents are afraid.” In light of the fact that about 2,500 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war, seems to me there’s good reason for fear.

And military recruiters are notorious liars, see this for example.

In the USA, under the No Child Left Behind Act, high schools that receive federal funding are required to turn over students private information to the U.S. military for recruitment purposes! Schools are NOT required to inform students or partents that they are giving students’ private information to the military.

YOU CAN PROTECT YOURSELF! Sec. 9528 of the No Child Left Behind Act gives you the right to OPT OUT. This means that you can turn in a form, signed by your guardian or parent, which states that you do not want the military to have access to your private information. This will remove you from the list your school hands over to the military – but only for the school year during which you opted out. To keep your name and information out of the military’s hands you must opt out each and every school year!

Sign a petition to keep the military from accessing student’s private records.

Find more info at: Military Free Zone and War Resisters League

Today’s The Detroit News editorial, “Take the bias out of history teaching”, illustrates that the Florida legislature is not alone in its ignorance of what history is or what a consistitutes a “balanced” approach to teaching issues that may be controversial.

The News believes that asking students to “analyze how ownership and use of automobiles in the United States has contributed to natural resource scarcity and global warming” amounts to “political indoctrination.”

The paper also argues that the inclusion “world population change, urbanization, the suburbs, land use policy, food and energy, plants and animals — even the West Nile virus,” in the state geography standards amounts to “environmental indoctrination.” The News admits that global warming is an “important public policy issue” but argues that it has no place in the social studies curriculum.

(The paper does allow that “Discussing or debating environmental issues might make sense in a science class.”)

The News also does not believe that the Cuban missle crisis should have a part in the study of the Cold War and that asking students how events like the Great Depression “affected different groups of people in different ways with respect to migration, economics, social justice and politics” makes for a slanted curriculum.

It’s clear that like the Florida legislature (and other right-wing groups such as the so-called social studies Contrarians), The Detroit News is not interested in the social studies teaching that encourages students to actually think about issues that affect their world.

This is another example of the incredibly shrinking political spectrum in the US and it does not bode well for democracy or free throught in American society.

June 13, 2006
The Detroit News
Take the bias out of history teaching
Does Michigan want to teach kids to despise autos?

The State Board of Education must decide today whether it is in the education or political indoctrination business.

The proposed curriculum for high school social studies students sounds like it was put together by environmental and political ideologues.

Certainly, social studies is always going to be a controversial subject because Michiganians will have conflicting values about what events and concepts should be emphasized.

Still, in the wake of the controversy that erupted when a state education consultant nearly achieved the elimination of the words “America” and “American” from social studies classes, you’d think the education bureaucracy would be a little more careful about what it proposes to require that all high school students know — especially since students only get two years of social studies.

First, American history will begin for students in 1890, not during the country’s founding years of the 1770s or even the Civil War of the 1860s. The feeling apparently is that students should have learned the basics in elementary and middle school.

But students always need history refreshers, and more sophisticated analysis of historical periods. The start of high school social studies seems like a golden opportunity for more in-depth teaching about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and others. They help bring alive the abstract governmental and constitutional principles the state wants kids to learn in high school civics.

There’s worse: The state that put the world on wheels will teach school students about the environmental evils of the automobile.

Michigan’s education leaders want students to “analyze how ownership and use of automobiles in the United States has contributed to natural resource scarcity and global warming.” In addition, the geography part of the standards obsesses about world population change, urbanization, the suburbs, land use policy, food and energy, plants and animals — even the West Nile virus.

Global warming and the environment are among a variety of important public policy issues that the proposed curriculum deals with, says Martin Ackley, the press spokesman for the Michigan Department of Education. It has an impact on the nation, he says, and students need to understand these issues.

Discussing or debating environmental issues might make sense in a science class. Otherwise, the social studies approach smacks of environmental indoctrination.

Other issues come in for a political slant as well. America’s Cold War victory is downplayed by emphasizing the U.S.-Soviet confrontation up to the Cuban missile crisis. Students are asked to look at major 20th-century events like the Great Depression and the “Conservative Revolution” through the lens of class warfare — how they “affected different groups of people in different ways with respect to migration, economics, social justice and politics.”

Another favorite: “Explore how the relationship between America’s emphasis on democratic values has conflicted with other nations’ concerns for cultural autonomy.”

Good teachers, of course, can always compensate for a slanted curriculum. But why should they have to?

The State Board of Education should stop the political indoctrination and provide a more balanced approach to American history and government.

Earlier this year, staff at the Kentucky Education Department approved curriculum changes for pre-K through grade 12, which added the use of C.E. (Common Era) and B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) to traditionally used time designations B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, for the year of our Lord). For example, a date would have read 500 A.D./C.E.

The common B.C./A.D. system is based on the supposed year of Jesus Christ’s birth — a date posited by the monk Dionysius Exiguus in the year 525. Years after Christ’s birth go up; those before it are counted backwards. Supporters of common era notation promote it as a religiously neutral notation suited for cross-cultural use, although some Christians were the first to use the term.

The proposal quickly came under attack from a conservative group, the Family Foundation of Kentucky, which accused state officials of trying to strip religious references from the state’s public schools.

As reported by forward.com, at a public hearing in early June, “Christian groups turned out dozens of supporters who demanded that the board remove the secular references from a draft set of curriculum recommendations.

The executive director of the Central Kentucky Jewish Federation, Daniel Chejfec, was reportedly greeted with laughs and heckles when he said that stripping the secular abbreviations from the board’s documents would send the message that “anybody who is not a Christian is not welcome in this state.”

“Go home!” one woman shouted, according to Louisville’s Courier-Journal.

Some of the politicians and pundits lining up behind the conservative groups have accused the board of education of attempting to dictate which notations are used. But board officials say the document in question uses both options. Meanwhile, many of the religious activists driving the controversy say that only the Christian terms should be used.”

Today’s Lexington Herald-Leader reports that the Board has reversed its decision and won’t recommend use B.C.E., C.E. time designation along with the traditional Christian dating

The Herald-Leader also reported that the Kentucky Education Department received more than 900 comments by phone, letter and e-mail from concerned citizens who were overwhelmingly against the change. Some of the comments came from opponents in other states, including Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.

My experience with the public schools in Louisville, as a parent of an elementary-school age student, bore out the basic assumption that Christianity is at the center of the public school curriculum in Kentucky (unfortunately not an anomaly in The States).

For example, when my son was in the third grade at a public school on Louisville’s west side, a lesson on “the calendar” required him to cut out and past a yellow star in the center of a piece of construction paper to “represent the birth of Christ” and then to paste hash marks to the left and right representing years BC and AD.

When I discussed this lesson with his teacher and brought up the topic of BCE/CE, the response was initially a polite version of the “go home” comment mentioned in the Courier-Journal article. But ultimately it became clear that the teacher was ignorant of religiously neutral alternatives to BC/AD as well as the historical/political contexts that have shaped construction of calendars.

Clearly religious intolerance has become a serious threat to the core principles and goals of social studies education.