AZ charter school’s ‘Tea Party’ history book claims whites envied the ‘freedom’ of slaves [View all]
One of Arizona’s oldest public charter schools is under fire from the Americans United for Separation of Church and State for using textbooks that actively promote religious interpretations of American history.
According to the group, Heritage Academy uses two books by controversial anti-communist author Cleon Skousen — The 5,000 Year Leap and The Making of America — that “push ‘Christian nation’ propaganda and other religious teachings on impressionable, young students,” according to Alex Luchenitser, the associate legal director for Americans United.
“Our purpose is not to convert students to different religious views,” Heritage founder and Principal Earl Taylor told The Arizona Republic. “It is to show them that religion influenced what the Founders did.”
Principal Taylor insisted that the books are balanced by other selections, including Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ The Communist Manifesto. However, both of those books are taught as historical documents — testimony from a particular historical moment about a specific worldview — whereas Skousen’s books are used as textbooks containing material the students are supposed to learn.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/14/az-charter-schools-tea-party-history-book-claims-whites-envied-the-freedom-of-slaves/
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Oh, I'm sorry, it's ok we're teaching lies to our students because... it's balanced by facts??!?
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