We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Sick-Outs and Walk-Outs: Students and Teachers Escalate Fight Against Censorship of History

Click here to access article by Deirdre Fulton from Common Dreams.

It's wonderful to see students actively opposing education in the form of indoctrination in an area best known through ruling class media for a school massacre. I very much doubt that you will see coverage of these protests on your corporate TV broadcasts this evening. Instead, they will cover the protests in Hong Kong which meets with the ruling class's approval because they are directed against one of the latest targets of the Empire--China.
The actions are in response to a proposal from the conservative, five-member school board to establish a committee that would review the district's Advanced Placement history course in order to ensure its materials "promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights" and don't "encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law." Conservatives nationwide have claimed that the AP history course is "revisionist" and overly focused on the "negative" aspects of American history.