Be Careful For What You Wish For

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To the Editor:

I noted in your recent edition that you cried out for Civic Education Be careful for what you wish for.

Civic Education has become another public education attack being fomented by the same “back to the basics” crowd who called for defunding Social Studies classes (partly as being leftist inspired) back in the 80’s when school enrollments were dropping.

The Mass. legislature passed a Civic Ed law a couple of years ago; the promoters gave off a bad smell. I checked into their organizations, which were free market, low tax, small government paper mills. The principals all had right wing pedigrees.

Checking further, the James Madison Institute (if my recollection serves me) has an entire curriculum right down to lesson plans for teachers. The plans pose straw man questions and the plan on Ronald Reagan was particularly vomit inducing.

[Included is a link, bit.ly/36X7bAn, to an article at EducationWeek, headlined, “Chief Justice Warns That ‘Civic Education Has Fallen By the Wayside.’” It begins, “U.S. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. focused on civics education in his annual year-end report on the federal judiciary, saying ‘we have come to take democracy for granted, and civic education has fallen by the wayside.’”]

Jim Tartari, Wellesley, Mass.

Jim: 

Thanks very much for this important cautionary note. We were shocked, but we should not have been. Propagandists for the right wing agenda are everywhere. That’s what happens when you side with money against people: unlimited resources are available.

Ignorance is not the answer, though. We, the people, just need to outfox the plutocrats and their toadies in this field.

We should be able to succeed. They’re only doing it for a buck. We’re fighting for our lives.

— The Editor

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