Thursday, April 4, 2019

Texas Teacher Assigns Anti-Trump Essay as Class Homework - Sara Dogan


by Sara Dogan

Seventh grade assignment characterized the president as “racist” and questioned whether he should be impeached.




A middle school teacher in the public Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District near Houston assigned 12 and 13 year old seventh grade students to read and answer questions on an essay blasting President Donald Trump as “racist,” “insensitive,” and counter to American values as part of a lesson on inferring information from written text.
Even for seventh grade students who are not overly familiar with politics, it is easy to parse the message of the piece which essentially translates as ‘Dump Trump.’  Titled, “Trump Against American Values,” the essay begins, “Throughout Donald Trump’s time in the American spotlight, we have come to see his true colors. From the beginning of his presidency, we have witnessed insensitive remarks toward other racial and cultural groups.”

The assignment goes on to say that “Some of Trump’s policies have gone against what Americans value most, like the freedom of opportunity” and labels the president as “insensitive” for his focus on building a wall on the border with Mexico.

The piece concludes with remarks that could well have been lifted from a campaign commercial for one of Trump’s 2020 Democratic challengers:

“With all of these racist remarks by our president, I think that we as a people need to take a stand and show that we will not accept this kind of leadership in our country.” 

Multiple choice questions follow this political diatribe. One asks, "Which of the following conclusions would the author most likely agree with?" The possible answers include, “Donald Trump should not be president” and “America’s future is in grave danger.”

A second question asks the middle schoolers to complete the sentence, "The reader can infer that ..." The available options include, “Mexican Americans are the major group upset with President Trump” and “The United States will impeach Donald Trump.”

The politically charged assignment was made public by Texas state representative Briscoe Cain, a Republican, who was made aware of it by a parent in his district.

Cain minced no words in calling out the school district and teacher (whose name has not been released) in a post on Facebook:

"This individual has violated the sacred trust that every parent has with the State of Texas when they send their child into a public school," Cain stated of the teacher who assigned the anti-Trump essay. "They have lost the privilege of being in a classroom with Texas children, and forfeit the title of teacher. No teacher should attempt to indoctrinate a child to their ideology, no matter who is in the White House."

The parent who brought the assignment to Cain’s attention is Chris Felder, whose daughter showed him the assignment. Felder also had some choice words about the anti-Trump lesson:

 “This was an assignment my 7th grade daughter received that I found to be very out of place to say the least. This type of non-factual rhetoric has no place in our schools regardless of who the president is,” Felder commented. "My children have experienced great teachers in the classroom, but I have also had to put up with those who see their roles as indoctrinators, not educators."

A statement released by the school district acknowledged that the assignment was inappropriate but did not reveal any disciplinary consequences for the teacher.

“The passage was part of series of 10 passages designed to help students practice inference and point of view…,” explains the statement. “Clearly the teacher did not use good judgment or did not review the materials that she received from an outside source thoroughly. The matter was addressed with the teacher and the materials will no longer be used. The matter has been settled at the campus level, as appropriate.”

While the district may consider the matter “settled,” the anti-Trump lesson was taken from an online database of lessons for schoolchildren. One has to wonder how many other public school educators are using this and similar propaganda materials while parents remain unaware. 


To learn more about the Freedom Center's campaign to halt indoctrination in K-12 schools, please visit  www.stopk12indoctrination.org.  To read the K-12 Code of Ethics CLICK HERE. To order the Freedom Center’s new pamphlet, “Leftist Indoctrination in Our K-12 Public Schools,” CLICK HERE. To donate to the Stop K-12 Indoctrination campaign, CLICK HERE.


Sara Dogan

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273374/texas-teacher-assigns-anti-trump-essay-class-sara-dogan

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