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These little monsters need to get with the program and stop mouthing libbie unAmerican propaganda. Obviously they were coached by their fairy pinko libbie teacher or their libtard parents.
It's disgusting. Our public schools allowing this kind of subversive thought to invade our young minds. These kids should only be allowed to write pro-America-Pro soldier letters or else face the consequences. Perhaps foster care in a Red state.
BOO YAH!
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WRITING A WRONG
By DAVID ANDREATTA
February 22, 2005 -- The city Department of Education, red-faced over Brooklyn sixth-graders who slammed a GI with demoralizing anti-Iraq-war letters as part of a school assignment, will send the 20-year-old private a letter of apology today.
Deputy Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina, who has a nephew serving in Iraq, plans to personally contact Pfc. Rob Jacobs and his family, said department spokeswoman Michele McManus Higgins.
"She knows how difficult it is to have a loved one in a war zone," Higgins said.
Jacobs is stationed 10 miles from the North Korean border and who has been told he may be headed to Iraq in the near future.
The GI got the ranting missives last month from pint-sized pen pals at JHS 51 in Park Slope.
Filled with political diatribes, the letters — excerpts of which were printed in yesterday's Post — predicted GIs would die by the tens of thousands, accused soldiers of killing Iraqi civilians and bashed President Bush.
Teacher Alex Kunhardt had his students write Jacobs as part of a social-studies assignment.
He declined to comment yesterday on whether he read the rants before passing them along, but said he planned to contact Jacobs soon to explain the situation.
In an accompanying letter to Jacobs, Kunhardt had written that the students "come from a variety of backgrounds and political beliefs, but unanimously support the bravery and sacrifice of American soldiers around the world."
"Support" was not the word that came to Jacobs' mind when he read the letters.
One girl wrote that she believes Jacobs is "being forced to kill innocent people" and challenged him to name an Iraqi terrorist, concluding, "I know I can't."
Another girl wrote, "I strongly feel this war is pointless," while a classmate predicted that because Bush was re-elected, "only 50 or 100 [soldiers] will survive."
A boy accused soldiers of "destroying holy places like mosques."
Even one kid smitten with soldiers couldn't keep politics out of the picture, writing, "I find that many extreme liberals are disrespectful to you."
Uplifting letters from children are dear to soldiers, Jacobs said. He looks at a batch he got from a Girl Scout troop from his hometown of Middletown, N.J., whenever he feels lonely.
At the time the 21 JHS 51 letters were penned, Jacobs, who has been stationed in Korea for nearly a year, was told that he may be headed to Iraq. But no official order for deployment was given.
"If I were in Iraq and read that the youth of our nation doesn't want me to be there and doesn't believe in what I'm doing, it would mess up my head," Jacobs said.
Jacobs said he would welcome a letter from the Department of Education and the teacher.
"I want to think these letters were coached by the teacher or the parents of these children," Jacobs said in an interview from Camp Casey, Korea.
"It boggles my mind that children could think this stuff."
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who is this Jeff Gannon fellow anyway?
 Racks be to MisterJLA
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Jeff Gannon (aka James D. Guckert) is a gay prostitute & a writer who was somehow able to get press passes & access to the President for two years. It took bloggers to uncover the fake reporter who lobbed softball questions to the President.
Fair play!
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Even if no one "indoctrinated" the children (a tenuous proposition, I admit) the teacher needs to be disciplined for not reading the letters in advance before they were sent out.
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O'Reiley covered this last night and made some good points. One, these are sixth graders; so they're just going to be repeating what they've heard their parents or other grown-ups say because they aren't following the news on a nightly basis to form their own opinions. Second, the teacher either didn't read the letters or isn't that great of a teacher. Not because they held an anti-war sentiment but because many of the letters showed that the children had not been properly instructed on how to write letters in general. The instructor should also have made students find facts to support their claims of "destroying holy places like mosques" or "extreme liberals are disrespectful to you" before letting these letters go out. Whatever your own political beliefs, you have to admit that this teacher was a little lax in his handling of this project.
whomod said: I generally don't like it when people decide to play by the rules against people who don't play by the rules. It tends to put you immediately at a disadvantage and IMO is a sign of true weakness. This is true both in politics and on the internet." Our Friendly Neighborhood Ray-man said: "no, the doctor's right. besides, he has seniority."
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Quote:
thedoctor said:
O'Reiley covered this last night and made some good points. One, these are sixth graders; so they're just going to be repeating what they've heard their parents or other grown-ups say because they aren't following the news on a nightly basis to form their own opinions. Second, the teacher either didn't read the letters or isn't that great of a teacher. Not because they held an anti-war sentiment but because many of the letters showed that the children had not been properly instructed on how to write letters in general. The instructor should also have made students find facts to support their claims of "destroying holy places like mosques" or "extreme liberals are disrespectful to you" before letting these letters go out. Whatever your own political beliefs, you have to admit that this teacher was a little lax in his handling of this project.
I have to disagree. My parents wearn't particularly political and yet when I myself was in the 6th grade, me and my friends read the paper, had our own political opinions and even went so far as to make our own little political satire newspaper for our own laughs.
So this notion that these kids were somehow coached or just parroting someone else rings extremely false to me.
"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." - George W. Bush State of the Union speech Jan 28, 2003
"mission accomplished" - George W. Bush May 2, 2003
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Quote:
the G-man said:
Even if no one "indoctrinated" the children (a tenuous proposition, I admit) the teacher needs to be disciplined for not reading the letters in advance before they were sent out.
Or question the relevance of such an assignment if this is the only thing these kids can think to say. If these are their genuine opinions, or those held by their parents (which is not to say that sixth graders are ignorant of the world around them...just ill informed and prone to easy assumption), then are they expect to write about rainbows and butterflies just to make some misguided soldier feel better? What kind of message would this send to the kids?
I'm sure the teacher's heart was in the right place, but c'mon. This war has seen severe opposition the world over...didn't he think it was at the very least possible that there would be kids in the class that would express such an opinion?
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Quote:
klinton said:
I'm sure the teacher's heart was in the right place
I would like to know what aspect of his school's Course of Study this assignment addresses.
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Quote:
Jim Jackson said:
I would like to know what aspect of his school's Course of Study this assignment addresses.
It was in social studies class...And I think looking at a war that your country is currently engaged in - and the men and women who are fighting it - is completely relevant to the program. How could it not be? History is not just the past. It's unfolding as we speak.
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that is very profound klinton! also very true! 
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That's all nice and good, and on its face, I don't dispute this. But as an educator he has to be able to assert and defend that there are educational goals met by his assignment (class letters to soldiers).
Even I, a liberal guy, have to ask: What goal is met by having 6th graders write letters to soldiers?
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Quote:
Jim Jackson said:
That's all nice and good, and on its face, I don't dispute this. But as an educator he has to be able to assert and defend that there are educational goals met by his assignment (class letters to soldiers).
Even I, a liberal guy, have to ask: What goal is met by having 6th graders write letters to soldiers?
If nothing else, it's tying current events into getting practice at writing letters. Curriculi often overlap in primary school.
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That's fine if letter writing is a skill that is defined in the Cirriculum as part of the Course of Study for 6th grade.
Can he make an argument for what the kids were supposed to have learned?
Undeniably, he's at fault for not reading the letters prior to mailing them.
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I think you're being a little too liberal here. I see a man who wants to do something for his soldiers overseas. Wether or not you agree with the war (and, as I'm sure you're aware, I do not), these people are on the front lines regardless of thier personal politics. I feel for the soldiers, I do. War is never 'fun'. Letters from school children is a harmless enough exercise in it's own right, these men and women deserve respect from the homefront.
The problem, as you said, lies in the ignorant assumtion that these kids would not let political opinions that are rampant slip into the text of thier letters. The teacher should have anticipated this and perhaps held an in class discussion to gauge the temperment of the students before traumatizing this poor guy.
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Quote:
klinton said:
I think you're being a little too liberal here.
Here I figured somebody would say I'm being too conservative. 
This is not an assignment I would have given to students were I their teacher. Not to 6th graders. And certainly wouldn't have mailed them without reading them to see what was going into the package to the soldier.
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Quote:
klinton said:
The teacher should have anticipated this and perhaps held an in class discussion to gauge the temperment of the students before traumatizing this poor guy.
I would have figured the teacher, teaching *6th graders*, would have a fairly clear picture of his students' attitudes about the war well before issuing this letter-writing assignment.
And certainly there's no point in him making this assignment if he was going to try to direct the kids' attitudes in the letters. I mean, he can't tell them what to write in these letters. If he does, what's the point?
Questionable assignment poorly handled. And this does not mean that soldiers on the front don't deserve letters from home. But if the letters are coming from school kids, there has to be an educational goal motivating them and there has to be administrative controls in place to assure that the letters reflect more than just base epithets and criticism of a soldier doing his/her duty (irrespective of one's feelings about the war).
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Quote:
Jim Jackson said:
I would have figured the teacher, teaching *6th graders*, would have a fairly clear picture of his students' attitudes about the war well before issuing this letter-writing assignment.
Obviously not.
Quote:
And certainly there's no point in him making this assignment if he was going to try to direct the kids' attitudes in the letters. I mean, he can't tell them what to write in these letters. If he does, what's the point?
Now you're just rehashing my initial argument. I win!
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Quote:
Jim Jackson said:
I would have figured the teacher, teaching *6th graders*, would have a fairly clear picture of his students' attitudes about the war well before issuing this letter-writing assignment.
Quote:
klinton said:
Obviously not.
Of course, both of those points assume that the Teacher is telling the truth when he says: (a) he didn't read them in advance; (b) he didn't encourage the kids to write "anti war" letters.
Given some of the stories we've seen, on this board and elsewhere, of teachers or college professors assigning their students "liberal propaganda," not to mention the multiple incidences of teachers so ignorant of basic decency as to fuck their students, it isn't inconceivable that this teacher knew exactly what he was doing and is only now, having gotten caught, claiming ignorance of the contents of the letter.
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Professional people lie. You trying to tell us something new?
Teachers, doctors, engineers, lawyers...<wink>
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Quote:
the G-man said:
Given some of the stories we've seen, on this board and elsewhere, of teachers or college professors assigning their students "liberal propaganda," not to mention the multiple incidences of teachers so ignorant of basic decency as to fuck their students, it isn't inconceivable that this teacher knew exactly what he was doing and is only now, having gotten caught, claiming ignorance of the contents of the letter.
I'd actually considered that when I was scanning the initial story. If that's the case this man's an ass. If that's what he wanted, he should have encouraged the kids to write to parlament, not some random soldier with no control over the situation.
And that's excluding the fact that he, as an educator, should remain neutral on the issue and allow the kids to form thier own opinions. He is not there to force an agenda, just to present the facts. In a situation like this, with valid arguments on both sides of the issue, it can't be too hard to maintain a balance in the presentation.
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Quote:
Jim Jackson said:
Professional people lie. You trying to tell us something new?
No. Just pointing out an alternate explanation for what happened.
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Quote:
the G-man said:
Quote:
Jim Jackson said:
Professional people lie. You trying to tell us something new?
No. Just pointing out an alternate explanation for what happened.
It just seems there are times that you come down incredibly hard on teachers.
Sure, his statements now may be pure CYA. But you can't prove that, given what we know at this time. All I'm saying is that the guy made a poor pedaogical decision and appears to have followed it up with poor administration.
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Quote:
Of course, both of those points assume that the Teacher is telling the truth when he says: (a) he didn't read them in advance; (b) he didn't encourage the kids to write "anti war" letters.
Given some of the stories we've seen, on this board and elsewhere, of teachers or college professors assigning their students "liberal propaganda," not to mention the multiple incidences of teachers so ignorant of basic decency as to fuck their students, it isn't inconceivable that this teacher knew exactly what he was doing and is only now, having gotten caught, claiming ignorance of the contents of the letter.
Excellent point.
The teacher is a buffoon at best, anyway you look at it.
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Matter-eater Man said:
Jeff Gannon (aka James D. Guckert) is a gay prostitute & a writer who was somehow able to get press passes & access to the President for two years. It took bloggers to uncover the fake reporter who lobbed softball questions to the President.
so he's a "Neo-fascist closet-commie"? 
Racks be to MisterJLA
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Quote:
Jim Jackson said:Sure, his statements now may be pure CYA.
That's all I was saying: that his statements COULD be CYA.
My point about teachers was not that it was more likely given the profession, only that similar things had happened before in the profession.
For an analogy with attorneys, go to that recent Lynne Stewart thread, the one about the attorney found guilty of aiding her terrorist client(s). I pointed out that it was something that had happened previously with attorneys for mobsters and/or drug dealers.
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Quote:
PaulWellr said:
So this notion that these kids were somehow coached or just parroting someone else rings extremely false to me.
You're right Whomod--*cough* Paul. No kid in the world who's that age is impressionable.
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Okay, like what the crap was going through this teacher's mind anyway? How do you just like up and decide to not proof read your kid's stuff before sending it to the troops overseas? I mean COME ON!!!!!!!! The guy's so gonna get looked into and at least get his wrist slapped by the state board of education. Grrrrr........gosh where is this teacher's COMMON SENSE?
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