(11-23-2013, 07:14 PM)Alram Wrote:Quote:UPDATE: Jaci DeClue, a school board member in Dupo, has emailed The Daily Caller claiming that no one in Dupo is required to read a biography of President Barack Obama.
“This book was a donated book in the presidential section of our library that a student checked out and took home,” DeClue told TheDC. “It is not any part of the curriculum or been taught in any of our classes.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/22/obama-...z2lUufZjtG
As soon as I saw the original article was from The Daily Caller, I knew an explanation like this would surface.
(11-23-2013, 06:33 PM)FireIceTalon Wrote:(11-23-2013, 08:14 AM)DeeBye Wrote: It's pretty awful that schools in America are requiring kids to read books about their democratically elected president. That's what the commie countries did in the 80's and it almost won them the Cold War.
This doesn't really make any sense to me. First off, there is no such thing as a "communist country", and secondly, it seems grossly oversimplified to attribute EASTERN-BLOC/State Capitalist countries resolve in competition for global markets against the "west" to teaching their kids about their leaders. Any country teaching its kids about its leaders is not to win any war ("cold" or "hot"), but a type of social engineering to foster nationalism, to teach kids in the context of the 'Great Man' theory of history so they have a particular way of looking at the world that is favorable for the status quo (the skewing and misrepresentation of the historical narrative is necessary for this), and to instill a sort of respect for authority so they are more obedient workers when they enter the job market. Or in short, to keep false consciousness and ideological control of the populace intact. But to directly (or even indirectly) win a war? This seems unlikely.
Anyways, while I think having to read about any leader is in general dubious, there are things we should be much more worried about that are being taught in the classroom. I am much more alarmed that certain localities teach kids Creationism as a science, than I am them teaching them about the life and times of bourgeois politicians.
It was a joke. I was joking.