Selling Globaloney in the Schools
Brock, David
David Brock SELLING GLOBALONEY IN THE SCHOOLS Now that their issue is dead, the nuclear-freezers have turned their attention to Central America—and to propagandizing American schools. And with...
...the Nicaragua Solidarity Committee...
...The newsletter unabashedly endorsed the work of CARC, which was described as possessing "a wealth of materials for teachers K-12...
...Now the number's down to about 10 percent...
...Now I must pay them a minimum wage and I don't make so much money...
...Rather than debate, we aim to resolve global issues through dialogue and resolution," Berman says...
...that the rebels are all Communists...
...Pledge of Allegianceis translated into a different language each day...
...The newspaper has also published a global curriculum supplement on peace education, which shows that Minnesota's ideological approach to Central America is not an anomaly...
...aid to El Salvador is used to improve people's lives...
...Hmm . . . but then we have to stop the Communist threat...
...But most of the professional global educators seem to have an expressly political purpose...
...Refusing to give special weight to your own country's welfare or to your own countrymen is quite another...
...I am 20 years old...
...In many globalized curriculums, Dick and...
...Of her political views of the Nicaraguan situation, Trechsel says, "We [the project] are on the side of the people...
...the Guatemala Solidarity Committee...
...Of the 132 entries, the only material listed in the directory that does not follow the pro-Sandinista, Marxist-Leninist revolutionary line is something called "Special Reports, Gist, Current Policy and Horizons," a U.S...
...Gary Prevost of CARC's Nicaragua Solidarity Committee is a member of the SWP and served as the party's 1982 state campaign treasurer...
...And the peace curriculums usually fail to present a balanced view of the Soviet Union, teaching students that, as Ryerson wrote, "our difficulty with the Soviets is essentially a problem in our heads...
...CARC was founded in 1983 by "Minnesotans concerned about the war-like posturing of the U.S...
...But it ends up being a threat to education, not education...
...24 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 1988 a play which depicts the trial of four American nuns charged with helping incite a "revolution of love" in the country...
...The global center newsletter reminds teachers of their "important" responsibility to expose students to the "alternative press" and suggests CARC's library as a good source...
...Send in the Marines: A Chronology of U.S...
...The Minnesota department of education, spurred on by a state-funded project called "Minnesota in the World and the World in Minnesota," declared in 1986 that between 1990 and the year 2000—the "Global Education Decade"—all of the public elementary and secondary schools in Minnesota should introduce a "global perspective" to the disciplines they teach...
...In March, for example, CARC's founding director, Anne Winkler, spoke at the SWP on "Cuba's Revolution Within a Revolution," A poster promoting the event pictured Uncle Sam about to be cut off at the knees by a machete-wielding Fidel Castro...
...The unit also includes background information from a Salvadoran "union federation" called FENASTRAS, another FMLN front group...
...Nancy Trechsel, one of the project directors, says she has sent dozens of students to Nicaragua in exchange programs where they "work on chlorination systems for the city of Leon...
...He'd been violated, `greased,' they call it...
...The concept of international education is at least a decade old, having grown from the findings of a U.S...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 1988 25 lined "First-graders say `da' and learn about kids in the Soviet Union...
...intervention in the region...
...Let's examine, in some detail, how this issue is approached in Minnesota's schools, where one of the nation's most comprehensive global education efforts is underway...
...In one of the six stories in the book, an American sailor decides to become a conscientious objector after encountering "a young sailor lying on the floor, sobbing...
...Some guys grab one of the smaller recruits, shove a 'grease gun' up his rectum and go...
...But global education is underfunded...
...John Cogan, exercises its influence mainly through the publication of a quarterly newsletter which goes out to every school principal in the state...
...In the section on El Salvador, students read The intent of Educators for Social Responsibility was to move the nuclear freeze campaign into America's classroom...
...CARC rents, loans, or sells these and other materials to teachers and students...
...that human rights are not always worth supporting...
...and Elsa Statzner, author of another CARC curriculum...
...CARC officials also work closely with Minnesota's Socialist Worker's Party...
...The reading level is too high and it was all political...
...It cited this statement in the Michigan department of education's Guidelines for Global Education: "Global Education leads to the implementation and application of the global perspective in striving for just and peaceful solutions to world problems...
...The move was endorsed by the state board of education and by Gov...
...On Central American issues, Minnesota's educators have come to rely almost exclusively on a local left-wing organization called the Central America Resource Center (CARC...
...A Spanish language class would include study of politics and culture in Spanish-speaking countries...
...Last summer, a study by the Commission on Global Education, underwritten by the Rockefeller Foundation, said that standard courses in schools, from history to geography to biology to physics, should be "infused with, a global perspective...
...If this . . . interpretation means that, whenever there is a conflict between the United States and one or more other countries, a U.S...
...Brock Robinson, who "has video tape on health care in the new Nicaragua...
...Understanding requires knowledge of, and respect for, differences and similarities of the world's people, the process of development, and how goods, services, and ideas are exchanged...
...After finishing our own training classes, we taught adults and children alike to read...
...Though Wangan says the state strives for "balance" in such controversial matters, an examination of how the schools deal with Central America shows that Minnesota has fallen far short of that professed goal...
...Among the group's professed goals is: "to strengthen our society's ability to pass on to our young an understanding of those traditions and values of our heritage which undergird our democracy and the principles and commitments that sustain it...
...1987 Minnesota teachers' tour of Central America which focused on curriculum development for the public schools...
...A review of the governors' report shows that global education is indeed an elastic term: in addition to such offerings as world history and foreign languages, other global curriculums included current events classes, sister-school projects with foreign countries, international business courses, nuclear-war education or "peace" studies, and state-sponsored "international events...
...and Mary Spiering, who "emphasizes alternatives to U.S...
...But more importantly, the directory has gained the imprimatur of the state department of education as Minnesota's only resource guide on the subject of Central America...
...Before the revolution over half the people couldn't read...
...Charles Clements, who "spent a year providing medical services in the opposition-controlled area of El Salvador...
...But this document, Wangan says, "is not usable...
...Paul and Leon, Nicaragua...
...The FMLN believes that the only way to bring change to El Salvador is to fight for it...
...Minnesota's reliance on CARC not only debases educational standards, it also teaches students to accept the crudest falsifications of international issues at face value...
...The 135-page book is advertised as "all you need to read to know about what's going on in Central America" and recommends books, articles, and audio-visual materials to help teachers present current information about the region...
...This activism has upset some educators' groups, including the National Council for the Social Studies, which convened a panel in 1987 to examine global education...
...As far as Peterson was concerned, she says, her class had already heard "the truth," the same truth now wafting through classrooms across Minnesota—and who knows where else...
...A world history class would become "global," for example, by studying Africa in as much detail as Europe...
...T en-year-old school children in 1 New York City are studying their candy bars...
...And with the help of Minnesota's department of education, they're starting to make progress...
...presidential commission in 1979 that found American students sorely lacking in foreign language skills and the ability to understand cultures other than their own...
...Initially [global education] was supposed to emphasize foreign language and world history and ethics," Pickus says...
...Jane books become Juan and Maria books...
...But it has, been pushed most strongly by private groups that generate global curriculum materials and market them to school districts and individual teachers...
...One exercise on nuclear conflict proposes students act out the following: "To fully impress the President of the United States with the magnitude of his intended action, he is not to be permitted to resort to nuclear defense until he has killed one of his own aides with a butcher knife, so as to remove the missile firing codes from a capsule previously implanted in the aide's chest cavity...
...Mary Turck, a CARC board member...
...Its educational outreach director, Mary Swenson, says that through the group's speaker's bureau, its curriculum directory, lending library, and teacher training—all promoted and in part even paid for by the state of Minnesota—CARC reached over 10,000 students in the last school year...
...Implementation of a global curriculum is left to individual school districts...
...Before the revolution I owned many large coffee plantations and made a great profit...
...The group says "serious global educators" are "change agents . . . that influence development of attitudes...
...Similar concerns were raised in Colorado by an analyst for the U.S...
...It includes the study of nations, cultures and how they change, and on the individual's responsibility in this change process...
...Congress against contra aid...
...The activities of CARC in Minnesota show how vulnerable the education world is to committed political cadres accomplishing their task through emotional manipulation, indoctrination, and exploitation of school children...
...In one exercise, students are instructed to see "the United States and the Soviet Union as rival street gangs...
...And finally: "I am a priest, Father Rodriguez...
...After parents raised a fuss about the imbalance of the conference, CARC was not allowed as a sponsor of a semiannual Minnesota Council for Social Studies conference in March 1988 that attracted several hundred...
...The small man, the guy who can't or won't fit in, falls prey to the larger man . . ." ogan, the university center director, explains CARC's influence this way: "CARC has a very strong leftist bias...
...T n addition to Wangan's office 1 at Minnesota's department of education, teachers look to another organization for guidance on curriculum matters and in-service training: the University of Minnesota College of Education's Global Education Center...
...It specifically recommended the CARC directory, as well as other "resources" including the North American Coalition on Latin America, a pro-Castro group...
...This document goes on to condemn Minnesota corporations like Pillsbury, Cargill, and 3M by name, denouncing them for making "huge profits off the labor of workers in El Salvador...
...26 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 1988...
...It describes a young man and an older woman in dialogue...
...critiques of the curriculums have focused on how these issues are treated as well...
...Amigos" consists largely of a "Nicaragua role play" in which students recite the dialogue of various characters...
...to "speak to 30-50 classes" on anti-war topics...
...Better understanding of the world is one thing...
...One of the prime movers behind AEGIS is Dr...
...The educational establishment—groups like the National Education Association, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the American Association of School Administrators, the National School Boards Association, and the Parent-Teacher Association—has warmly embraced the concept of global education...
...studied...
...to "set up counter recruitment tables in 5-10 high schools...
...ESR's intent was to move the freeze campaign into America's classrooms, according to writer Andre Ryerson...
...the "High School Organizing Packet," published by the War Resisters League...
...Browsing through CARC's library one will find publications like "Real War Stories," a comic book published by the Central America Committee for Conscientious Objectors...
...They should just "give up blaming" and "find a Russian and get to know her or him...
...The global center newsletter also endorses what is known as "glocal" education, "thinking globally and acting locally...
...According to the National Council on Foreign Language and International Relations, there are thirty-five so-called "magnet" high schools across the country that specialize in global education...
...Rudy Perpich, who called it a "chance to explore the world...
...The girl's father is Larry Weiss, a former captain of the Weather Underground...
...Among them are: the above-mentioned Gary Prevost, of the Nicaragua Solidarity Committee, who "has traveled to Central America, Cuba and Grenada...
...Later, it is suggested that students "don't need to understand the global political situation or the details of the arms race...
...In 1985, the official spokesman in the upper Midwest for El Salvador's Marxist FMLN guerrillas, Guillermo De Paz, served as CARC's treasurer...
...In fact, CARC and ESR are not the only local group taking advantage of Minnesota's global curriculum for political purposes...
...Military Aid and Strategy in Central America," a "listing of U.S...
...The panel said of the statement: . . . it may be taken to suggest that global education promotes taking up a certain point of view for judging international conflicts—namely, the "global" point of view...
...In a section on liberation theology, the guide says: "The government and military in many Central American countries do not like liberation theology because they think that speaking out against the government for human rights abuses or organizing to demand better wages makes people `Communist.' " The study guide was distributed to all the schools in the state for a nominal fee under an arrangement with the Minneapolis Star & Tribune, which published it in a "global education supplement...
...And they want the church to help them work for better living conditions...
...It's common on Navy vessels...
...Friends for a Non-Violent World runs a "youth and militarism" project that works to inject its view on military questions into the schools...
...The term does not refer to a course or courses, but rather to a new way of teaching existing courses...
...When I hear `global perspectives,' I'm usually a little nervous...
...patriarchal model for U.S...
...More than 100 of the directories have already been distributed by the state, according to CARC's Anne Winkler, and CARC has sold another 1,000 copies to school districts across the country...
...State Department document described as "giving the current administration line...
...The U.S...
...I am very proud of that...
...It would teach a lesson that, on its face anyway, seems at odds with the special loyalties and commitments that characterize communities...
...Revolution and Intervention in Central America," "contemporary Marxism" published by Synthesis Publications...
...There is no doubt that CARC, too, is having an important effect in Minnesota's classrooms...
...By way of explanation, Wangan says: "I know there is not a one-to-one ratio of left and right in there...
...They were like sheep...
...CARC board members regularly speak at SWP "militant forums...
...Last winter's issue focused on Central America...
...The student, Martha Weiss, moved to Nicaragua with her parents for nine months to teach in a Sandinista school...
...I n some schools, no doubt, global 1 education, is the province of serious local educators out to combat ignorance and parochialism...
...Is any one person or culture 'right' or `wrong...
...Bill Onasch, a member of CARC's speakers' bureau, is also an SWP member...
...According to CARC's November 1987 newsletter, its library has "become a popular place for many high school students and their teachers...
...Department of Education says that more than thirty states have mandated tougher foreign language requirements and fifteen have increased world history and geography courses in the last five years...
...The laboratory's materials for teachers discuss the "political socialization of young people" and suggest that "visibility lends credibility to a position regardless of what it is...
...What would happen," their teacher asks, "if there were a dock strike in Africa or big forest fires in Canada...
...It didn't have the facts...
...CARC claims a membership of 1,000 and an annual budget of $100,000...
...Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak either for or against these women?'" So students have two choices: favoring revolution and opposing the nuns' execution or questioning revolution and coming down on the side of killing the nuns...
...in a survey by New York University's Herbert London of every major school district in the country, all respondents claimed to have formal or informal courses on nuclear- weapons issues...
...The second curriculum unit recommended by the College of Education's newsletter is called "Indian Family Life," which is based, according to the preface, on CARC information...
...But with the Reagan Administration's embrace of detente with the Soviets, it was only natural that the political agenda of global education would begin to shift, taking up more contentious issues like Central America...
...The potential problem with all this was summed up simply by former Education Secretary William Bennett, in a response to the Kerr Commission report:- "When I hear 'geography' and `history,' I'm pleased...
...co-sponsors events with the SWP's Pathfinder's Bookstore...
...and Salvadoran governments believe that the FMLN will make El Salvador "Communist" if its revolution is successful...
...It is the work of the Minnesota/Leon Project, which runs a sister-city program between Minneapolis-St...
...representatives of "Vets for Life...
...Robert Pickus, president of the World Without War Council and an early backer of global education...
...The state's global education newsletter says the "Amigos" unit will "help children understand their roles as global citizens by introducing issues of poverty and human rights...
...A November 1987 memo from the state department of education stated that an "international or global perspective means viewing the world and its people with understanding and concern...
...At the request of the state department of education, the Traveler's Society organized and conducted a January...
...Like CARC, the group runs a speakers' bureau and publishes materials for use in the classroom...
...Since global education is a "world view," a "highly nationalistic" person would not make a good global educator, the materials warn...
...CTIR has worked its programs into the ,course offerings of many school districts in the Western states," the report concluded...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 1988 23 The state's reliance on CARC not only debases educational standards, but also teaches students to accept the crudest falsifications of international issues at face value...
...The report criticized the global education approach for detracting from American students' "ability to understand the role and meaning of democracy in world history...
...Thus the students see there is a world in their candy bars...
...she presented it herself twice at Jefferson High School in Bloomington, Minnesota (a Minneapolis suburb...
...war against the progressive movements in El Salvador and Guatemala...
...The global perspective brought into physics would be a discussion of nuclear war...
...The latest newsletter from Minnesota's global education center, Winter 1988, touts as "impressive" and "commendable' the activities at Minneapolis's Longfellow Elementary School in relation to a trip one of Long-fellow's students recently took to Nicaragua' with her parents...
...Amigos" is the title of a recommended curriculum unit aimed at elementary school students...
...W hat is this organization that has come to play such an important role in Minnesota's attempts to encourage global education...
...Current events classes are used to support Marxism-Leninism in the Third World...
...Throughout the current decade, the movement gathered steam as both federal and state education officials—citing such statistics as the fact that 40 percent of high school students cannot locate Japan on a world map—touted reforms to require more study of foreign languages, world history, and geography in the...
...Compiled by Bob Erickson, the director of the state's Global Studies Resource Center, the supplement focuses exclusively on the "peace education" views of Todd Pierson, head of the Minneapolis-St...
...I paid my workers only about a dollar a day...
...One of these is Educators for Social Responsibility, a Cambridge-based group with 15,000 members nationwide and a $500,000 annual budget...
...Students who understand that the lives of millions in Central America and in the U.S...
...The students get credit for "being globally aware," Peterson says...
...A flyer distributed by the group to Minnesota students stated that it was trying to "identify 10-20 youth contacts for Twin Cities area schools...
...In anticipation of the global education decade, many Minnesota school districts have begun experimenting with the concept "in the last half dozen years," says Wangan...
...The junior and senior classes at Annandale High School in Annandale, Minnesota, recently spent a day in a discussion of Central America...
...In chemistry, it would be toxic waste," explains ESR's Shelley Berman...
...The Minnesota Council of American-Soviet Friendship, the local chapter of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, a group founded by the Communist Party USA, has also gotten into the act...
...On questions of international relations, the Cunningham report found the CTIR materials "profoundly dovish...
...In Prairie View, Illinois, students in a mathematics class learn about currency by examining not only American dollars but also Japanese yen and Mexican pesos...
...and the Traveler's Society, a local group founded by Mary Shepard, a CARC board member and a founder of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM...
...One, in April 1987, was a Central America forum co-sponsored by CARC and attended by about seventy-five teachers...
...If there are few resources available, do you ignore the area altogether or give students access to what is there...
...We've been focusing on current events, first the nuclear issue, then South Africa, now Central America...
...The newsletter explains that before their departure last year, Pam Costain visited every Longfellow classroom to speak about the trip and collect supplies to equip the Sandinista school in Nicaragua, a school named, Costain averred, "like all Nicaraguan buildings, for a martyr of the revolution...
...A democratic outcome is never even considered...
...Watch Out for the Trojan Horse," a CARC publication revealing that "most [U.S.] economic assistance grants are false gifts...
...At CARC's suggestion, the Annandale students prepared themselves for the event by reading Faith Adams's tendentious state-sponsored Central America "study guide...
...Issues are more than facts," the newsletter said...
...Paul, students learn about Central American politics in a Spanish language class taught by Miriam Peterson, who has invited CARC-affiliated speakers into the classroom...
...Some examples: "My name is Antonette...
...According to its promotional materials...
...At the same time, a parallel and sometimes overlapping movement in education circles—often with radically different objectives—has also been gaining strength, under the rubric of "global education...
...The state's role," says Roger Wangan, the director of international studies for the state department of education and Minnesota's global education guru, "is to help interpret what global education means...
...We went to all parts of our country—even to the mountains and Atlantic Coast—to teach people how to read...
...the man says...
...It was a hit or miss proposition...
...The state department of education produced, for example, a twenty-page Central America study guide for junior high and high school students under the direction of Roger Wangan's office...
...At the end of the trial, the curriculum instructions say, "The judge can either condemn the four women to death or say something like, 'This is a serious case...
...Pierson also appeared last March at the Minnesota Council for the Social Studies conference as the sole speaker on: "How does a teacher present a balanced and informed picture of the Soviet Union when so much misinformation and bias abounds...
...Minnesota's global education apparatus is run through two state-funded organizations: the state department of education and the University of Minnesota College of Education's Global Education Center...
...Endgame: A Special Report on the [U.S.] Military Strategy in Central America," published by the North American Coalition on Latin America, as well as that organization's "The Real War," which "exposes U.S...
...Before the triumph the people did whatever I told them without question...
...Her mother is Pam Costain, the founder of Women Against Military Madness and new director of CARC...
...Among thespeakers were Anne Winkler, mentioned above...
...For example, the library sponsored a workshop for high school debaters during the 1987-88 school year, when Central America was the national high school debate topic...
...Gee...
...Pickus's World Without War Council publishes a mainstream directory of Central America resources for teachers that is available at no charge...
...Robin Lindberg, a member of the local group, spoke to a class of first-grade students at St...
...Vets for Life, composed of "vets opposed to the Reagan administration's policies toward Central America" who "share their Vietnam experiences through prose and poetry and relate it to the current Central American situation...
...policy in the region and to write letters to the U.S...
...The literature of another group pushing global education, the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Portland, Oregon, is even more explicit in its activist mission...
...foreign policy...
...p to now, most global curriculums have concerned U.S.-Soviet relations, especially nuclear-weapons issues...
...When teachers request information on developing a Central America curriculum, the department mails them a copy of the $10 CARC directory at state expense...
...His scorching 1986 report found that CTIR "boldly proclaims its quest for a 'new world order' and dismisses those who resist the creation of this new age millennium as `miseducators.' " The report highlighted the relativistic or value-neutral stance of the global curriculum, where political systems and cultural practices are not more or less virtuous, only different...
...Paul Chanter of Educators for Social Responsibility...
...A report last year by the National Governors' Association found that almost every state has recommendetho local school districts some type of global education...
...The other sections were run by Joel Mugge of the Center for Global Education at Augsburg College, who spoke against U.S...
...Some members of the guerrilla movement have been tortured and killed for trying to overthrow the government...
...Judy Rohde, who was a "member of National Education Association's delegation to Cuba as guests of the Cuba Teachers Union...
...The American Federation of Teachers, in a July 1987 report entitled "What Must Be Taught," called forteaching world history with an emphasis on Western civilization...
...California has initiated a statewide global education project, including funds for new curriculum materials and teacher training...
...Most appeals like the governor's report proceeded from an essentially conservative premise, urging the reinstatement of curriculum requirements scotched in the 1960s movement for "educational democracy" that gave students more control over what they David Brock is a writer for Insight magazine...
...Guide to U.S...
...Written by Faith Adams, a member of the CARC speakers' bureau, the guide says of the conflict in El Salvador: The FMLN promises to give land to the people who work the soil, to provide education and medical care for everyone, to guarantee decent wages for a day's work and to ensure basic human rights...
...What all the courses have in common is that they "show the diversity of cultural patterns" in a world that is "a series of interrelated systems," the report said...
...She estimates more than 1,000 students were reached last year by her group...
...Jorge" says: "I am 50 years old...
...are impacted by foreign policy decisions will hopefully want to influence these decisions and will care enough to insist that the government be accountable to the people...
...The AFT document served as the basis for the founding of a new group called the Alliance for Education in Global and International Studies (AEGIS), a consortium of education organizations, both national and local, concerned about the political tilt of the global curriculum...
...We accept the government in Nicaragua as the legitimate elected government...
...efforts to compete in the world economy...
...CARC is an umbrella group for the local chapters of five national networks: the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES...
...One of these is called "Identifying Unstated Assumptions: El Salvador," written by a Minnesota elementary school Spanish teacher...
...offensive military operations and U.S.-financed wars in the Third World...
...A practical impetus for such education was emphasized by a group of Southern governors in a 1986 report that called American students "internationally illiterate" and endorsed international studies as a way to bolster U.S...
...The center, run by Prof...
...and the...
...It is also the only such directory available through the state's Global Studies Resource Center, Minnesota's repository for "the most upto-date collection of global curriculum materials available nationally...
...corporations supplying arms to Central America" published by National Action/Research on the Military Industrial Complex...
...Dick Bancroft, a member of the CARC speaker's bureau...
...Nonetheless, CARC's education outreach director, Mary Swenson, coordinated two of the five sections on Central America, one a slide show, the other a presentation of its "Indian Family Life" curriculum...
...A look at the membership of the bureau reveals the same sort of bias exhibited in the CARC directory...
...I just read that human rights in El Salvador are so bad that we might have to stop giving aid to that government...
...and "El Salvador: Platform and Proposal for the Formation of a Provisional Government of Broad Participation," a document produced by the Marxist FMLN guerrillas of that country...
...We haven't gotten to the Israeli-Palestinian issue yet," says Wangan...
...ESR, for example, was founded in cooperation with its namesake, Physicians for Social Responsibility, which 22 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 1988 played a leading role in the nuclear freeze campaign of the early 1980s...
...Trechsel says "Amigos" is in use at about eight local schools...
...and Indian Concern for Central America...
...Behind the Line in El Salvador," a report from Oxfam America by Dr...
...According to a list of CARC periodicals, they stock exclusively far-left publications, including Barricada, the official newspaper of the Sandinista junta...
...This 1980s reform movement can be said to have been at least moderately successful: the U.S...
...Many have also instituted the global approach in fulfilling a statewide high school requirement that all students take one year of "Contemporary World Studies" to graduate...
...In an essay in Commentary (June 1986) Ryerson dissected curricular guides and described efforts by the NEA, ESR, and the Union of Concerned Scientists to make their concept of peace education mandatory...
...Shortly before the triumph, I worked with 100,000 other volunteers on the literacy crusade...
...Pledge of Resistance...
...and promotes SWP events in its monthly calendar...
...When one student complained about the one-sided picture of the Central American conflict presented in class, he was told the other side would be allowed to speak only if the student himself could arrange for a speaker...
...I guess human rights will have to wait...
...T he main section of the state's 1 newsletter recommends three specific Central American curriculum units, two of which are described as "widely used high school curricula that foster critical thinking skills...
...A class on military history turns out to be an all-out attack on the American military without a mention of the Soviet Union...
...military intervention" in Central America...
...In addition to relying heavily on CARC, the state of Minnesota also develops some of its own curriculum material suggested for use in the schools...
...At Como Park Senior High School in St...
...The global center newsletter recommends that teachers consult CARC's speakers' bureau when teaching courses on Central America...
...and to "educate teachers, counselors, youth ministers and others who work with youth...
...Amigos" also implores students to take "action," suggesting "protesting U.S...
...CTIR's Teacher Resource Guide suggests teachers ask students: "Do we sometimes havea tendency to define our values and behaviors as 'right' or 'correct' and determine that others' values and behaviors are 'wrong' or 'weird...
...Then the woman responds, "Wait a minute...
...Discussion of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, for example, focuses on death and destruction without supplying any political or military context...
...It seems almost too obvious to point out that a host of organizations other than CARC produce free materials on the Central American conflict, including the AFL-CIO, Freedom House, the Puebla Institute, and Prodemca...
...ESR has distributed curriculum materials urging students to "break the law" to "ban the bomb...
...Such exercises are by no means unique to the nation's cosmopolitan centers...
...citizen should always support the resolution that is best for the world as a whole, it is obvious how global education, on this interpretation, would be controversial...
...The CARC directory is the only resource that existed-at the time...
...CARC sponsors lectures by prominent SWP activists...
...Minnesota regularly sponsors global education teachers' conferences...
...Peterson says shehas encouraged students to participate in protests against U.S...
...Anthony Park Elementary School on "Soviet culture and peace" issues...
...The link to global education, she says, is that "everyone in the world needs clean water...
...and Jim Shapiro, a member of CISPES...
...Concern necessitates assuming responsibility for the needs of all people and commitment to finding just and peaceful resolution to global issues...
...In recommending CARC to teachers, Minnesota's global educators never identify CARC as anything but an apolitical clearinghouse for information about Central America...
...The CARC directory carries endorsements from the National Network of Teachers' Committees on Central America (which has distributed it to schools nationwide) as well as a national group called Educators in Support of ANDES, a Salvadoran labor front group for the FMLN...
...Among the recommended documents are: "Back in Control: The CIA's Secret Propaganda Campaign Puts the Agency Exactly Where it Wants to Be," published by Common Cause...
...Not exactly an eloquent mandate, but harmless enough...
...government in Central America" to serve as a "communications center for anti-war activists concerned about abuses of U.S...
...According to the group's literature, it organizes tours which "take participants to societies in the midst of dramatic change," and "helps them develop fresh approaches to . . . regional conflicts and personal biases...
...that the war in El Salvador is an East/West conflict...
...In January 1986 CARC produced a directory of Central America "classroom resources" for grades K-12in response to "teachers' repeatedly expressed needs for up-to-date, substantive resources for teaching about Central America...
...We need more discussion...
...For example, New York's Department of Education has urged principals to "integrate a global perspective" into their curriculums...
...Military Intervention in Central America and the Caribbean," published by Latinamerica Press...
...ESR currently has contracts with school districts in New York, Boston, and Portland to develop "conflict resolution" curriculums...
...He wishes to thank Katherine Kerston, a concerned Minnesota parent, who provided much of the documentation for this article...
...In this view, merely studying Central America is not enough...
...As to CTIR's influence, the Cunningham report noted that some 500 teachers per year have completed CTIR programs over the past decade and that 6,000 copies of CTIR's curriculum had been sold...
...A July 7, 1987 article in the People's Daily World lauded the Minnesota Council's work at the school in an article headThe activities of CARC in Minnesota show how vulnerable the education world is to committed political cadres...
...The Commission, chaired by former University of California president Clark Kerr, found that 1,300 schools already have a formal "global" component to their curriculums...
...world history becomes "galactic" history...
...The answer: The manufacturers might not have enough chocolate to make the bar or enough paper for the wrapper...
...ESR has already succeeded in convincing such states as Oregon and cities like New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles to require that nuclear war be discussed as part of the public school curriculum...
...Now they want to read the Bible themselves...
...The courses designed to combat ethno-centrism leave students acentric, having no morals or values at all...
...Department of Education, Gregg Cunningham, who examined the activities of the Center for Teaching International Relations (CTIR) at the University of Denver, which conducts teacher workshops, provides consulting services to public schools, and publishes global education materials...
...The project's newsletter is distributed to high school guidance counselors across the state, according to coordinator Patty Wright...
...You are assuming: that the U.S...
Vol. 21 • December 1988 • No. 12
