California to start teaching communism to high school students?

[GoldenArm9]

New York Sun Editorial
April 4, 2008
With businesses and individuals fleeing California (http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=California) for states with lower tax burdens, the senate in Sacramento (http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Sacramento) is taking up a pressing issue: allowing the Communist Party access to the state's public schools. Sure enough, a Democratic state Senator from Long Beach (http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Long+Beach+State+49ers), Alan Lowenthal (http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Alan+Lowenthal), who is a longtime professor of "community psychology" at Cal State Long Beach (http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=California+State+Universi ty-Long+Beach), has introduced a bill to allow Communist groups to use space in the schools and to allow Communists to teach in the schools.
As originally framed, the bill would have even removed the section of the California Education Code that states, "No teacher giving instruction in any school, or on any property belonging to any agencies included in the public school system, shall advocate or teach communism with the intent to indoctrinate or to inculcate in the mind of any pupil a preference for communism."
The language of Mr. Lowenthal's bill as it currently stands states, "Though communists who attempted to harm the United States (http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=United+States) and collude with her enemies during the Cold War were prosecuted for their actions, many innocent persons suffered due to nothing more than their personal political convictions or relationships." It claims that the existing bans on Communists in the schools are "inconsistent with constitutional protections of free speech, political affiliation, and the right to remain silent."
We heard about the bill in a wire from K. Lloyd Billingsley of the Pacific Research Institute (http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Pacific+Research+Institut e), a free-market think tank out on the Coast. Mr. Billingsley describes the bill as the "Communist Rehabilitation and Revisionism Act," and notes, "Communism itself has not exactly been swept into the ashcan of history where it belongs. A Communist regime still exists in the planet's most populous nation, China (http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=China), which operates espionage rings in this country. A Stalinist with nuclear weapons holds sway in North Korea (http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=North+Korea). Cubans must endure a hereditary Communist dictatorship."
We wouldn't want to make too much of the communists on the Coast. But we wouldn't want to make too little of it either, nor fail to remark on the ironies, either. The Lowenthal bill has the backing of both of California's two major teachers' unions, the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers. We miss the great anti-communist labor leaders, like Irving Brown, Jay Lovestone, Ronald Reagan (http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Ronald+Reagan), Albert Shanker (http://www2.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Albert+Shanker), and Lane Kirkland. They would have said something.

[kingBENGAL]

thanks for the article...whats your opinion? I dont think theres anything wrong with it, it goes along with foreign studys

[GoldenArm9]

thanks for the article...whats your opinion? I dont think theres anything wrong with it, it goes along with foreign studys
Whats wrong ?...sorry but we can't have an ideology taught to our students that goes against everything this country stands for ...

[dust]

there is nothing wrong about educating students about communism. when they start pressing the beliefs we could have a problem, but until then, it is a good thing for students to be well rounded about different cultures, religions, and styles of government.

[warsteiner138]

I thought America was already pretty much communist with high taxes, medicare and social security.

[jamiethelanky]

I thought America was already pretty much communist with high taxes, medicare and social security.
And the poor being dumped on...

[jamiethelanky]

I am to be convinced that community psychology is communism, but no political group should teach/preach in schools.

[Danno]

And the poor being dumped on...
happened in the USSR, and they were trying to be communist ;)

[kingBENGAL]

Whats wrong ?...sorry but we can't have an ideology taught to our students that goes against everything this country stands for ...

Im going to take a guess and say you don't read much...right?

[jmccracky]

I have no problem with students learning about other forms of government. Why should I?

I can't believe the amount of people that say horrible things about science and education as if they are evil. :rolleyes:

[RICHMONDBENGAL_07]

Let the book burnings begin...off to the gulog in siberia for the rest of you captilist pigs!!!!
















Do I really need to mention there's sarcasm included?...

[GoldenArm9]

"War between Capitalism and Communism is inevitable...in order to win we will need the element of surprise, but the(AMERICAN VOTERS) Bourgeoisie will have to be put to sleep(WITH APATHY) so we shall begin by launching the most spectacular peace movement(DIVERSITY) on record. There will be electrifying overtures (OBAMA SPEECHES)and unheard of concessions.(TEACHING COMMUNISM IN SCHOOLS).. stupid and decadent (CAPTIALIST COUNTRIES LIKE AMERICA), they will rejoice to cooperate in their own destruction." Demitri Manaillsky from the speech at the Lenin School of Political Warfare 1931

[tbone77]

http://www.craphound.com/images/redscarecomicusflag.jpg :sarcasm:

http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/uploaded_images/KingCommunistHighlander-782355.jpg :sarcasm:

Gee sounds like misinformation to me. Let's take a look at some other descriptions of the bill and see what it really is...

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_8749719
The Long Beach Democrat has introduced a bill that would scrap statutes allowing teachers and other public employees to be fired for being members of the Communist Party.

The measure, scheduled to be considered Wednesday by the Senate Education Committee, also would drop a requirement that representatives of organizations seeking to use school facilities sign a form stating they do not have communist affiliations.

This legislation would simply drop old laws that were adopted at the height of the Red Scare following World War II and that have been found unconstitutional by the courts...It would delete "membership in the Communist party" as a reason for firing a public employee, a Cold War-era prohibition intended to root out communists. However, the law would still allow a teacher to be fired for trying to give students "a preference for communism."

[RICHMONDBENGAL_07]

"War between Capitalism and Communism is inevitable...in order to win we will need the element of surprise, but the(AMERICAN VOTERS) Bourgeoisie will have to be put to sleep(WITH APATHY) so we shall begin by launching the most spectacular peace movement(DIVERSITY) on record. There will be electrifying overtures (OBAMA SPEECHES)and unheard of concessions.(TEACHING COMMUNISM IN SCHOOLS).. stupid and decadent (CAPTIALIST COUNTRIES LIKE AMERICA), they will rejoice to cooperate in their own destruction." Demitri Manaillsky from the speech at the Lenin School of Political Warfare 1931

1931, really, paranoid much!.....Yes the country that collapsed under communist rule in 91, ushering in democracy for the first time in it's history is plotting their grand master plan now. I can see now, Putin thinking "I've got them right where I want them".....BWAAHAAHAAHHHHHHHHHHH!....BWAAHAAAAHAH!!!!!!! !:huh:

Your watching too much Austin Powers<_<

[jamiethelanky]

"War between Capitalism and Communism is inevitable...in order to win we will need the element of surprise, but the(AMERICAN VOTERS) Bourgeoisie will have to be put to sleep(WITH APATHY) so we shall begin by launching the most spectacular peace movement(DIVERSITY) on record. There will be electrifying overtures (OBAMA SPEECHES)and unheard of concessions.(TEACHING COMMUNISM IN SCHOOLS).. stupid and decadent (CAPTIALIST COUNTRIES LIKE AMERICA), they will rejoice to cooperate in their own destruction." Demitri Manaillsky from the speech at the Lenin School of Political Warfare 1931
Barack Obama is as much a communist as I am a New Zealand cricketer called Herbert. His politics would be deemed right wing in any nation outside the United States.

[warsteiner138]

On a side note; do you Bengals fans(fpr the most part) feel better off if we were note getting a dollar after paying .02% on the dollar from the federal reserve.

I know we can not go back to the gold standard but there has got to be a better way; and I am not talking about the "amero".

[barryllium]

Just to set things straight, here - there is absolutely nothing wrong with communism on paper. Every government that has instituted communism has failed to do so without a dictatorship and/or corrupt government/upper class. Communism, on paper, is not a system of government but an economic system - it is the antithesis of capitalism. Teaching communism is highly beneficial in the same sense that black must be taught to understand white, left taught to understand right. There is absolutely nothing wrong with teaching communism - it is a fundamental economic system that has a significant history in this world. Too many people fail to disassociate communism from the governments of the countries that have tried to implement it.

[Danno]

Just to set things straight, here - there is absolutely nothing wrong with communism on paper. Every government that has instituted communism has failed to do so without a dictatorship and/or corrupt government/upper class. Communism, on paper, is not a system of government but an economic system - it is the antithesis of capitalism. Teaching communism is highly beneficial in the same sense that black must be taught to understand white, left taught to understand right. There is absolutely nothing wrong with teaching communism - it is a fundamental economic system that has a significant history in this world. Too many people fail to disassociate communism from the governments of the countries that have tried to implement it.


Agreed. There is nothing wrong with learning about communism, socialism, or for that matter ANY type of government. And communism does look great on paper, but like you said, its been bad in implementation. All of this should be taught so people can make decision for themselves :thumbsup:

[thefo0]

I took a Communism course at my Catholic High School in Cincinnati. It was taught as a history course and we learned about the theory, governments and other forms of radicalism. I'm pretty sure that noone came out of it a Communist.

But, if it is intended as anything more than a history course (i.e. recruitment to the philosophy), I am just as against this as I am religion in public schools.

[tbone77]

On a side note; do you Bengals fans(fpr the most part) feel better off if we were note getting a dollar after paying .02% on the dollar from the federal reserve.

I know we can not go back to the gold standard but there has got to be a better way; and I am not talking about the "amero".

Continental currency was a paper currency issued by the Continental Congress, after the Revolutionary War began in 1775.
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeqg1oh/collectn/34732-o.jpg

With no solid backing and being easily counterfeited, the continentals quickly lost their value, giving voice to the phrase "not worth a continental"?

The painful experience of the runaway inflation and collapse of the Continental dollar prompted the delegates to the Constitutional Convention to include the gold and silver clause into the United States Constitution so that the individual states could not issue bills of credit.

I guess we'll see if history repeats itself and we return to the gold standard. Why don't they teach you about this stuff in history?

GA9 you don't mind if we hijack your thread do you? :smirk:

[philhos]

I took a Communism course at my Catholic High School in Cincinnati. It was taught as a history course and we learned about the theory, governments and other forms of radicalism. I'm pretty sure that noone came out of it a Communist.

But, if it is intended as anything more than a history course (i.e. recruitment to the philosophy), I am just as against this as I am religion in public schools.

Exactly. 100% spot on.

[jmccracky]

Exactly. 100% spot on.

Exactly. Thread should be closed now. How can we get more logical than that? Bravo!:rock-:

[philhos]

Exactly. Thread should be closed now. How can we get more logical than that? Bravo!:rock-:

:thumbsup: