http://www.citypages.com/databank/26...ticle13267.asp
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by Brett Stursa
May 11, 2005
Aaron Campbell gets excited when he talks about how the use of trenches defined the combat of World War I. Between working at Gander Mountain and practicing rugby, the 16-year-old Minnetonka High School student is learning history that once was unavailable to him. Campbell says his European history class, which covers the neo-classical age through the Great War, is "awesome" because he's learning from a perspective not uniquely American.
"It's a lot better than learning about the Revolutionary War for the 10th time," says Campbell, a junior.
Campbell's history class is one of about a dozen that Minnetonka High School offers through its new affiliation with the International Baccalaureate program. The IB classes, with their intercultural focus, are at the center of a fierce debate incited once parents got wind of the program's cost and philosophy. They question the need for IB in a district that already has Advance Placement, a successful college-level curriculum, and wonder why the district is spending $46,000 for a new program in the midst of cutting $3.2 million for the 2005-2006 school year. The debate grew more contentious when parents began claiming the program is propaganda for the United Nations, giving kids an anti-American, anti-Christian education.
The accusations are not lost on Susan Campbell, Aaron's mother. "I'm a Christian," says Campbell, "so I was very concerned about the controversy." So concerned, in fact, she asked her pastor about the program. "He's really sharp, and he said it is anti-Christian," she says, with resignation. "I guess I have to accept that as his opinion."
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The petition gives seven reasons why the program's elimination is needed, one of them being that "the International Baccalaureate rejects the Judeo-Christian values held by the majority of families in our district and instead promotes the atheistic Secular Humanist principles of multiculturalism, pacifism, one-world government, and moral relativism."
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I found that last part particularly disturbing. I can understand an objection to a one-world government, and maybe multiculturalism in a "We like other cultures but we don't want to lose ours" kind of way, although I'm sure that's not what these idiots were thinking of.
Particularly Scary Quotes:
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The anti-Christian critique was brought to the forefront during a January school board discussion about the required reading for the "Theory of Knowledge" course. Objections were raised about including Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World without the inclusion of a book to counter it.
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I"m curious, just what the fuck would a book to counter The Demon Haunted World say? "Hey kids, believe everything you hear. Authority is supreme, and if someone better than you says something, you better get down on your knees and suck his dick to his satisfaction."
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From Borowski's view, the program is anti-American in the sense that it teaches students that the United States is equal to other countries. "My fear is that my kids are going to be taught America isn't better than any other country in the world," Borowski says.
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Next they'll be selling Chinese wares at Wal*Mart! ...oh, wait
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But most of the concerned parents simply don't trust the district's counterarguments, and they complain about the heavy hand of the district's superintendent, Dennis Peterson.
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Which is exactly the point of the Theory of Knowlege class, to teach kids to look at arguments critically rather than just blindly distrusting them because they disagre with your moronic beliefs.
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