TRI In The News
Public Education, Political Indoctrination
From One News Now
Original article available here
A Virginia middle-school teacher is in hot water for assigning his eighth-grade class to dig up dirt on the four Republican presidential candidates that could be used to benefit the Obama campaign.
Several parents called Fairfax County's Liberty Middle School to complain when Michael Denman assigned students in his Civics honors class to do "opposition research" to find "weaknesses" and information that could be used to discredit the GOP candidates. They were then required to map out how to exploit those weaknesses and research how to send their work to the Obama campaign. But according to John Torre, a school spokesman, the students were never instructed to actually send their results in for the president's benefit.
John Whitehead of The Rutherford Institute says the parents' grievances are justified.
"I think before schools even get into this area, they should get parents' permission to be talking about politics or attacking a particular politician," he suggests. "So [it's] not a good area, not a good idea. Again, the idea of schools is to educate, not indoctrinate."
Whitehead points out that students, especially those of middle-school age, can be easily influenced by their teachers.
"If a teacher says a particular candidate is a bad guy, not a good guy, and the other guy is a good man, or whatever they get into, kids are going to believe their authority figure," the attorney contends. "It's not a good idea. That's why teachers need to present all points of view on politics if you're going to get into that area."
A Fairfax County School District policy specifically states that "employees shall not involve their schools in political campaigns … or attempt to indoctrinate students with their personal political beliefs."
According to Fox News, Torre says the school's principal has met with Denman and told him students should have been given the choice to research candidates from either party.
