Correspondence
bureau; and Jim Shapiro, a member of CISPES. At CARC's suggestion, the Annandale students prepared themselves for the event by reading Faith Adams's tendentious state-sponsored Central America...
...The point is that the classroom should not be a political battleground, as the left would have it, but a place where a range of intellectually respectable viewpoints can be considered...
...47...
...interests there might be...
...Most were simply confused: "It was more confusing after the symposium than before," was a typical response...
...She solicited materials...
...Brock's piece didn't mention that Mrs...
...Incidentally, Mrs...
...She asked questions...
...Brock and the editors of TAS...
...Well, yes...
...Both the speakers got their ideas across, but Kathy Kerston made me feel even more strongly for the contras...
...In my view, this would exclude the grossly propagandistic materials produced by the Cenral American Resource Center, whch have no place in any school...
...Brock did appear at that discussion...
...government is pushing what we think is right on a country that doesn't want our help...
...As for Mrs...
...She then contacted Mrs...
...What she found, she told me, was that the people at the Central American Resource Center (CARC) were kind, helpful, considerate, full of information—and distinctly left-leaning in their orientation...
...She was, in fact, one of the two main presenters...
...She really wanted to present a balanced perspective on all this...
...I was in favor of the contras in Nicaragua before the symposium...
...Kerston evidently reached a few young souls, because most of the students who weren't simply confused by the whole thing wrote something like this: "After the symposium the situation is much clearer...
...Another victory for a committed political cadre accomplishing its task through emotional manipulation, indoctrination, and exploitation of school children...
...It's true that all of those who were mentioned by Mr...
...But that, of course, is what one would expect from a leftist organization...
...I am against the Nicaraguan government and what they are trying to do...
...Brock one other thing...
...She received a very small quantity of written materials, few brochures, few pamphlets...
...Isn't it...
...She told me that her goal in organizing the event was to present to her students a perspective on Central America that was "balanced, fair, and as objective as possible...
...After the Annandale discussion on Central America, my newspaper, the Annandale Advocate, conducted a little poll of the students who participated...
...She contacted other social studies teachers...
...And it's true that the students were given Faith Adams's tendentious state-sponsored study guide...
...Kerston had been recommended to her as a member of an organization that would offer a view of Central American politics that more closely coincided with those of the Reagan Administration, and presumably of Mr...
...At CARC's suggestion, the Annandale students prepared themselves for the event by reading Faith Adams's tendentious state-sponsored Central America "study guide...
...All of it, without question, was leftist in its orientation...
...But it's also true that there's more to the story than that...
...Sort of...
...From Mrs...
...I would hardly applaud a similar effort by an opposing group of political ideologues out to promote their own agenda in the schools, which the odd letter from Annandale, Minnesota, seems to be proposing...
...Clearly a victory for CARC, that one...
...Annandale High School, located in the center of a tiny town in central Minnesota, about one hour northwest of the Twin Cities, is particularly fortunate to have a senior high social studies teacher named Beth Sviggum...
...She wanted, she told me, to present "both sides of a very complicated story," and Mrs...
...Most Annandale students—indeed, most adults in this nation—couldn't find Nicaragua on a map, let alone explain what the U.S...
...From CARC, she received a list of "about thirty" resource persons and potential speakers, and vast quantities of brochures, pamphlets, study guides, and the like...
...Brock's piece, I contacted Miss Sviggum to ask her a few questions about what actually happened...
...She contacted state education officials...
...Almost nothing, in short, to counteract the leftist materials of CARC and its various associates...
...Most have, at best, only the dimmest notion of the ideological struggles that divide earnest people in Central America, and here in the U.S...
...But Mrs...
...Kerston was also one of the speakers at that discussion...
...This whole exercise strikes me as a profound failure of the right to fight its own battles...
...Kerston, our teacher received a list of exactly two resource people and potential speakers, neither of whom could make it to the event...
...What this young social studies teacher hoped to accomplish through her Central America discussion was simply to give her students some rough idea, some small notion, of the world beyond the Annandale (continued on page 47) 9 CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 9) City Limits...
...After hearing both sides, I was much more in their favor...
...I'm certain it was a simple oversight by the author, but Mr...
...Kerston neglected to tell Mr...
...She is one of those all-too-rare teachers whose competence, skill, dedication to her profession, and commitment to her students are an actual inspiration to many of us who live here...
...Kerston, I fail to see why her efforts to bring some sense of context and balance to the discussion of Central America in her local schools should cast aspersion on the information she provided me for my article...
...She was the organizer of the day-long discussion of Central America last February...
...What had they learned from this experience...
...A few (very few) said something like this: "Before I went to this, I was all for the contras, but now I think the U.S...
...She was right all the way...
...Kerston for a countervailing viewpoint...
...John D. Fisher, Editor The Annandale Advocate Annandale, Minnesota David Brock replies: The purpose of my article was to highlight the impact a group of committed political ideologues can have on classroom curriculums, particularly in schools that are in the thrall of the loosely defined "global education" concept...
...And she set about accomplishing this in a sensible and rational way...
...After reading Mr...
Vol. 22 • March 1989 • No. 3
