School Propaganda: A Warped Discussion Of Liberals vs Conservatives in High School Government Class

by TexasGOPVote on April 1, 2010 at 3:48 PM

 

Texas is fortunate enough to be a state in which the State Board of Education (SBOE) is elected, giving students' parents and other tax-paying citizens a voice in the public educational system, as opposed to most other states. According to Phyllis Schafly,

In most states, the liberal education establishment enjoys total control over the state's board of education, department of education and curriculum committees.

One of the duties of the Texas SBOE is to "designate and mandate instruction in the knowledge and skills that are essential to a well-balanced curriculum" and to deter such actions like the one exemplified by Schafly below:

For years, liberals have imposed their revisionist history on our nation's public school students, expunging important facts and historic figures while loading the textbooks with liberal propaganda, distortions and cliches.

But how can the SBOE, or school for that matter, intercede when a teacher hands out teaching documents that do not comply with pre-approved teaching guidelines and doesn't allow the papers to leave the classroom?

Roosevelt High School (NEISD) teacher Barbara Geerdes did just that when she passed out the handout, "Philosophical Differences Between Liberals and Conservatives," (shown below) to her AP U.S. Government class.

A student in Barbara Geerdes' AP Government class grew concerned over the teacher's repeated politicization of the classroom and managed to get one of the documents out and brought it home, where he could show it to his parents. Geerdes' handout made it to the State Republican Executive Committee's quarterly meeting Saturday, March 28th, where it was discussed. According to a source that has recently followed up with the father of the student:

The Dean of Students responded that the teacher admitted that she has been distributing handouts all year without required pre-approval from the head of the social studies department. She has been giving these out to all of her classes, not just the AP class. She has always collected the handouts at the end of the class period and has never allowed the handouts to be taken home.

Just by simply glancing at the papers below, it becomes clear immediately just how biased they are with a picture of an angel next to a section discussing liberals and a picture of a devil next to a section discussing conservatives.

The handout starts off by saying, "Philosophical differences... separate liberals and conservatives. The greatest areas of disagreement concern human nature, reliance on tradition, and individual freedom." The handout continues on, calling conservatives pessimists who think people are "tainted by original sin" and liberals optimists who think people are "basically good." It says that liberals allow people a great amount of liberty, while conservatives feel people must be controlled, restrained, and guided for their own best interests. (What?!) Throughout the handout, "liberal" is likened with the word "constitutional" while "conservative" is likened with the word "authoritarian." At the end of the discussion, there is a chart for students to fill in, reiterating the statements made about liberals and conservatives.

The statements are completely fallacious and clearly intended to deceive the students. What student would want to admit to being conservative after reading this? The handout had no author listed or any sources. Barbara Geerdes could very well have written the entire discussion herself. Furthermore, she knew that what she was doing was wrong- why else would she not allow the papers to be taken home?

The principal and Mrs. Geerdes have failed to respond to repeated attempts to contact them in order get their side of the story.

How can the Republican Party possibly compete with this kind of secretive indoctrination? Barbara Geerdes has been teaching for 16 years- who knows how many hundreds, or even thousands, of students she has brainwashed with this twisted liberal propaganda?! And how many other Barbara Geerdes-like teachers are out there?



 

 

 

 

Tags: 
State Board of Education
SBOE
no transparency
propaganda
liberal concoctions

Comments

Submitted by J'hn1 on April 6, 2010 at 1:43 PM
I suggested to Michelle Malkin that she have a rewrite contest based on Kathleen's copy (front page only).

Any high traffic Conservative site would do, but in general it would be easier if it was clearer to read to make diametrical points of each of Barbara's claims.

PDF with cut paste enabled?

Thanks

Submitted by TexasGOPVote on April 6, 2010 at 1:51 PM

Sorry, these documents were sent into TexasGOPVote in pdf format. The documents were not obtained in any other format.

Submitted by Antares on April 6, 2010 at 3:26 PM
If someone has the full version of Acrobat, do an optical character recognition on it.

Submitted by You need glasses on April 6, 2010 at 9:40 PM
You are kidding right. Just enlarge the page and it is very clear. Of course I had no problem reading it even in the small sie as is posted on this web site. You aren't looking for a reason to ignore it by chance?

Submitted by Katherine Sanchez on April 9, 2010 at 3:33 PM
At the begining of the semester we actually had bets as to what political party she was part of. What is the relevance? She has never bene bias. I am the editor in chief of the yearbooka nd have been a journalism student for four years, I know bias when I see it.

Whenever we have a discussion in class about a bill that needs to be passed or even a supreme court ruling, Mrs. Geerdes always brings up facts. She uses oyez.com as well as other materials to show both sides of ANY issue as well as show proven facts and precedent for any discussion. She is one of my favorite teachers. What the Texas GOP is doing to her is disgraceful to the Republican party as well a disgrace to a fantastic educator.

Submitted by Anonymous on April 9, 2010 at 10:28 PM
You need to return to typing class and learn which keystrokes invoke the spell checker.

Submitted by wsorrian on April 9, 2010 at 10:48 PM
You can't possibly be serious that you think this woman is not biased. I have serious doubts about your claim of betting on her party affiliation. I have met very few high school kids (or kids of any age for that matter) that question the party affiliation of anyone. Rarely do they refer to a teacher as an "educator"....they call them teachers. This leads me to believe you are yet another incarnation of a "concern troll" if you are not the teacher herself.

As for this document the message is clear. Liberal = Good, Conservative = Bad. I could cite so many glaring lies in that document, not the least of which is the charaterization of conservatives as "they feel people need to be controlled for their own best interests". If that were true why would they be so adamant about the dangers of the healthcare takeover being an infringement on personal liberty. Which it is, but I will elaborate on that later. Conservatives believe in self-governing - self-regulating - with as few goverment imposed regulations as possible to insure the greatest possible personal liberty. That has always been the case and at one time was a mutual belief held by both liberals and conservatives. Her delusional assertion alone is an egregious lie and warrants the harshest punishment allowed by civilized society. That being her immediate and unconditional termination from teaching forever and in all institutions. It is one thing to voice your opinion. It is entirely different to deprive people of their opportunity to make their own educated decisions by lying uncontrollably and passing off opinionated propaganda as though it were undeniable fact.

How about the conservative desire to scrub, or at least counter, liberal bias from education and media? How would that be "satisfied with the status quo"?
 
And how about my personal favorite, the last paragraph? Where it states (paraphrased) that liberals believe people will wisely use liberties given to them, but those dastardly conservatives....well they just want have those more "educated" and "better equipped to govern" restrain the masses. This is completely backwards from the truth.
 
The leftist meme, for that last 4 decades, has been how they're so much more enlightened - so much more educated - than those dumb knuckle-dragging hillbilly Klansmen. (a.k.a. conservatives.) How they are better fit to govern because they will end the racial and religious divisions, as well as all other perceived (real or otherwise) injustices. Is it liberals or conservatives wanting to tell you what to eat and drink? Is it liberals or conservatives wanting to ban hunting and fishing? is it liberals or conservatives telling you when where and how you are to get your healthcare? All for your own good, of course..

These are not the only examples where this document takes a conservative view and switches it with a liberal view to make it seem as though the liberal point of view is more righteous. Nearly every single one is switched this way or is a complete distortion of the facts. The distortions being more negative than reality for conservatives and the liberal stance is completely white-washed of it's obvious flaws and detrimental connotations.

In all this, how can you say that your teacher (if that is really the case) is not biased? Or at best, COMPLETELY misinformed?

Submitted by Anonymous on April 10, 2010 at 12:23 PM
Kathleen is likely a troll. It is glaringly obvious how bias Geerdes is. When I was in high school, teachers were pretty open about their beliefs, probably because they knew most of their students were liberal and didn't care. They surely didn't bet that students were going to go home and tell their parents. I was in a private high school and it was obvious most of the teachers were liberal. I remember after Bush was elected in 2004, my English teacher said she couldn't state who she voted for but said it rhymed with "marry," or something to that effect, and she would shake her head yes when people said "Kerry." 
If she was so clear in trying to be not biased, she should use legitimate definitions of conservative and liberal. Or back it up with what conservatives and liberals and have done in their tenure as lawmakers (actions speak louder than words) 
Bravo wsorrian, let's see if the troll comes back.

Submitted by wrenhal on April 10, 2010 at 4:00 PM
How about a FOIA request to the school to receive copies of EVERY one of her handouts she has used that were not previously approved in class.  Have the parent of student make the request and have a student verify whether that is all of them. 

Submitted by Jeremiah on January 10, 2011 at 11:22 PM
You people are offended when you look in the mirror, huh? This document may not be classroom worthy, but it very succinctly restates every quasi-philosophical position I've ever heard from conservatives. Basically, "we are born with original sin, sin is evil, therefore man is evil. man created government and government taxation is theft. therefore government is evil." If these concepts offend you, I propose you get on the side of history and become a classical liberal like Thomas Jefferson and his pals.
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