A concerned Portland parent writes to the Multnomah County Republican Party about a revolution in education within the Portland Public Schools.  As the schools teach a history focused on race, gender and oppression, they raise a generation that is no longer a united America, but a seething mass of conflicting groups.  Deliberately-engineered ignorance of American history is a threat to us all.  If, after reading this "Letter from Kate," you are interested in meeting with other concerned parents in Portland to work for reform, let us know.

[Text of the e-mail:]

Thanks for talking with me, James.  And thanks for standing up to the parade sponsors; they caved so quickly, one wonders if they didn’t concoct that e-mail themselves.

If you know of any other folks with kids in Portland Public Schools who are upset over the politicization going on in school, please introduce us!

Here’s some info if you want to know more about what’s going on in the schools:

First, PDFs of the recent school board resolutions on immigration and on “eliminating doubt” from climate curriculum.  One requires staff to tip off felons to investigations; the other gives sweet deals to the enviro publishing enterprises that wrote the resolution.

A key figure is Bill Bigelow (links below), a Portland teacher who seems to have inherited the Howard Zinn publishing legacy.  Their agenda is a melange of anti-border anarcho-socialism, race baiting, and Cylvia Hayes style enviro-cronyism. Portland is just the starting point; their objectives are international.  They’re well funded and well organized.

In Zinn’s own words: “Objectivity is not desirable because...we need to emphasize those things which will make students more active citizens...”  My daughter’s a tough kid, but the day they switched to the Zinn book she came home and started throwing up.  When I bought my own copy I understood why.  At best there’s some boilerplate unoriginality plagiarized from better historians, but interspersed with the harmless vapidity are shocking and completely fabricated grotesqueries alleging inherent white cultural evil and the need to overthrow it, drowned under a heavy gravy of self promotion asserting that you would never know the “truth” if not for Howard Zinn because everything you’ve ever been told before is a lie, etc.  Zinn constantly hammers the word “truth” the way people do when they’re not telling it.  As do the well scripted armies who immediately pop up the second you try to discuss any concerns about this book with the school. 

Also attached is a PDF of the best scholarly article exposing Zinn’s horrible scholarship.  Don’t be put off by the scholarliness; it’s good reading.  It’s called “Undue Certainty” and is written by the Stanford prof who designed the (very good) curriculum that my daughter’s school was using before the Zinn revolution deemed it reactionary.  

Unfortunately, Zinn and Bigelow aren’t just about lousy scholarship; they’re about indoctrination of the next generation of voters.  And you’re paying for it. 

They and their cadre of bullies need to be stood up to, but I can’t do it alone. 

Kate [from SE Portland]

LINKS:

Article about the school board climate resolution:

http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/05/24/climate-change-textbooks/

Article about the spread of the Portland immigration resolution to the suburbs & the shaming of someone who asked questions:
http://www.larslarson.com/portland-school-board-demands-resignation-member-saying-something-completely-reasonable/

Bio of Bill Bigelow & info on his publishing project Rethinking Schools:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/bill-bigelow

https://www.rethinkingschools.org/about/index.shtml

https://www.rethinkingschools.org/about/contact.shtml

350 group & fellow travelers:
https://350pdx.org/
https://350.org/
https://350pdx.org/portland-public-schools-commits-climate-justice/

http://climatejobspdx.weebly.com/
http://350deschutes.org/speaker-bios/ (scroll down for Cylvia Hayes)