James Corbett, California hate monger
While teachers use the notion of “academic freedom” to justify purely hateful conduct, it’s time for the community and parents to demand them to shut up and do their jobs. At issue now is the behavior of history teacher, James Corbett, at Capistrano Valley High School in California. An enterprising student, Chad Farman, a Christian recorded this hate monger’s remarks on politics, Christianity, and other social values which clearly have no place being crammed down impressionable students’ ears. One factor in the education debate that receives way too little attention is the extent to which public education with its blatantly secular curriculum and constant accommodations to the political positions of NEA and AFT, the nation’s top two teachers’ union have become institutions of liberal indoctrination not classical liberal arts schooling.
While Corbett’s lawyer attempts to dismiss the criticism by stating, “The purpose is not to indoctrinate, but simply to provide a basic starting point to provoke discussion.” there is nothing in Corbett’s remarks which attempt to frame his remarks as talking points to generate debate by prefacing his remarks with qualifiers like, “Some would argue….” “What do you think about those who would argue……” “How do you feel about contentions like…?” The tapes speak for themselves. This authoritarian teacher speaks in condescending sneers setting the tone that anyone who’d dismiss his dogma could only be an absolute moron with statements like:
“What country has the highest murder rate? The South! What part of the country has the highest rape rate? The South! What part of the country has the highest rate of church attendance? The South!”
“People — in the industrialized world the people least likely to go to church are the Swedes. The people in the industrialized world most likely to go to church are the Americans. America has the highest crime rate of all industrialized nations, and Sweden the lowest. The next time somebody tells you religion is connected with morality, you might want to ask them about that.”
“….Conservatives don’t want women to avoid pregnancies. That’s interfering with God’s work. You got to stay pregnant, barefoot, and in the kitchen and have babies until your body collapses. All over the world, doesn’t matter where you go, the conservatives want control over women’s reproductive capacity. Everywhere in the world.”
”I love Rush Limbaugh. A fat, pain in the ass liar. And, boy, is he a liar”
“How do you get the peasants to oppose something that is in their best interest? Religion. You have to have something that is irrational to counter that rational approach….When you put on your Jesus glasses, you can’t see the truth.”
Is this what parents are paying their taxes to support? Where in the local curriculum is material in the context of a world history class something that amounts to the kind of radical ravings one would expect on Keith Olbermann’s program?
Given this came from what was supposed to be an advanced placement class, highly capable students should be given the opportunity to explore controversial issues and to debate all sides of the issue, but clearly when a teacher uses his position of authority in such a declarative condescending manner where anyone who would counter his position is morally and intellectually inferior, such behavior is unacceptable PERIOD!
Political manipulations and dogmatic positions out of step with historical fact and prevailing scientific wisdom are being thrust into the classroom making the quest for knowledge and truth the first casualty.
While James Corbett represents an all out assault on rational debate from the radical left’s ideology, the doctrine of liberal values presented as tenants of secular humanism pervade almost all aspects of instruction whether it is found in the attempts to cleanse all reference to or perceived support of traditional Judeo-Christian values or openly indoctrinating students to accept the leftist values regarding “diversity” and “multiculturalism” where not only are these concepts advanced but the specific behaviors are mandated. All the while, except when bashing traditional values or conservatives, all discourse must be conducted in the most politically correct terms. Put this together and it translates into absolute indoctrination from a system which professes a sense of neutrality.
There are threats from the right as well. The teaching of evolution is a matter of scientific theory, but in teaching evolution, science teachers must assert the difference between that which is “theory” and established fact. Further, while intelligent design, as one possibility, is not science. Science instruction should be honest to concede that scientific inquiry is a method. There are some questions science cannot answer and many compelling questions reside outside the realm of scientific knowledge. A scientist can document electrons orbit around protons and how charged particles behave. A scientist cannot argue how these particles came into existence in the first place.
Mr.Corbett’s systematic abuse of his students cannot be tolerated and argues for more parental involvement and monitoring of what’s going on in their children’s classrooms. Further, this case offers more evidence the extent to which public schools have become institutions of social indoctrination for the values of a left wing society where their mission is to serve the interests of all citizens.
The combination of the corruptive values our students are being brainwashed to accept and lack of competent, challenging world class curriculum which prepares students with the knowledge base and skills to function in an evermore competitive world supports the need for top-to-bottom educational reform. That our students place toward the bottom of the technologically advanced world in so many performance categories including math and reading scores with poor knowledge of scientific principles shows the work to be done.
Meanwhile, parents need choices. As school districts’ cost per pupil keeps skyrocketing but results continue to plummet, alternative forms of education, private, parochial, and charter schools as well as home teaching continue to produce outstanding results. Families should not be compelled to accept second class education when good options are available. Vouchers, tax breaks, grants, and refunds should be provided parents who opt out of failing public schools.
Let the public school compete in the open market of ideas for survival. That they hold a government supported monopoly only serves to perpetuate their mediocrity and potential for the kind of abuse the Corbett case reflects.
Our society can and must do better. Our leadership in science, technology, engineering, and commerce is at stake. The next generation is entitled to something better.
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