Mom upset over controversial ISIS homework assignment

[HannahT]

I was searching online for a better picture of the assignment paper, and I can't find one. You can't see or read much in the one included in the article. Anyone else find it?

 

[Sistrin]

If that were the case then I would imagine we would have to extend this to cover other things, such as when we cover the sorts of things the Nazis said and did, or examining the issues surrounding slavery and Jim Crow.

I'd hate to think that as a society that we are so afraid of allowing students to think for themselves that we're going to utterly fail to educate them at all.

In order to promote critical thinking skills students would by necessity need to be presented both sides of an issue. Do you actually believe the public school system is going to teach Jim Crow laws were the result of Democrat policy?

 

[HannahT]

Okay. I think I found it HERE!

 

[katherine2001]

The intent of the assignment was to teach students critical and analytical thinking skills using current events.

...obviously a threat to some. If we are going to win the ideological war against ISIS (and others), we better teach our young people to identify exploitative messages...

Unfortunately, some people taught to think for themselves. They'd rather our children to be taught to believe every bit of the speeches given to bring out people's fear and paranoia. The last thing they want is for people to be able to think critically, after all, they might see through all the lies and not believe them.

 

[katherine2001]

If that were the case then I would imagine we would have to extend this to cover other things, such as when we cover the sorts of things the Nazis said and did, or examining the issues surrounding slavery and Jim Crow.

I'd hate to think that as a society that we are so afraid of allowing students to think for themselves that we're going to utterly fail to educate them at all.

Of course I say that knowing full well that it's a little late, we've already been doing this for years.

-CryptoLutheran

Unfortunately, this is exactly what is being propogated. After all, you can't rule people by appealing to their worst fears if they can critically think for themselves. They would see right through those tactics.

 

[TLK Valentine]

Wonder if this was a Common Core assignment.

I suspect that Texas is not a big fan of Common Core...

Regardless, it was a callous assignment, citing the deaths of seventeen United States navy personal in regard to an attempt to humanize a guy reveling in their deaths. This isn't how you teach current events. It is how you indoctrinate.

The structure of the assignment is sound, but the choice to analyze Daesh/Al-Qaeda sources was just asking for complaints.
I'd have done this assignment using quotes from the US side -- excripts from speeches from Bush or Obama, or perhaps some general's statement to the press. If I were looking to present two sides of a conflict, I wouldn't use on that we were currently embroiled in -- I'd go for statements from a past incident; WWII is a good source of material. American vs. Japanese perspectives on Pearl Harbor or Hiroshima, for example...

 

[iluvatar5150]

What the heck is a "juris in education"?

 

[iluvatar5150]

Regardless, it was a callous assignment, citing the deaths of seventeen United States navy personal in regard to an attempt to humanize a guy reveling in their deaths.

How were they attempting to "humanize" Osama bin Laden?

This isn't how you teach current events. It is how you indoctrinate.

You indoctrinate by merely asking people to analyze a passage? I didn't realize you were such an advocate of creating safe spaces for kids protecting them from anything potentially challenging or offensive.

 

[Sistrin]

How were they attempting to "humanize" Osama bin Laden?

Osama Bin Laden, at a wedding, offering a toast to his son and the blushing new bride. Heartwarming.

You indoctrinate by merely asking people to analyze a passage? I didn't realize you were such an advocate of creating safe spaces for kids protecting them from anything potentially challenging or offensive.

Oh, please. Are you actually trying to insinuate words spoken by Osama Bin Laden were the only viable choice available to teach a lesson in analyzing a passage? The very fact he was chosen as the focus point of the assignment is an affront not limited to those who died serving aboard the USS Cole.

But hey, perhaps the Common Core assignment could have focused on Anton Levay, or Mumia Abu-Jamal, or Hugo Chavez, or some other leftist icon. Or perhaps one of the newest heroes for Allah, Abdelhamid Abaaoud? Yeah, there you go. Certainly the words of the mastermind of the Paris attacks racking up a body count of 130 are worthy to be taught to ninth graders.

 

[rambot]

I'm with ViaCrusis here. Know thine enemy, know thyself..kinda thing.

I wonder if these folks have a problem with The Screwtape Letters too?

 

[revanneosl]

I continue to be amazed at the number of people who clearly have no idea what the Common Core is.

 

[TLK Valentine]

Oh, please. Are you actually trying to insinuate words spoken by Osama Bin Laden were the only viable choice available to teach a lesson in analyzing a passage? The very fact he was chosen as the focus point of the assignment is an affront not limited to those who died serving aboard the USS Cole.

How so?

But hey, perhaps the Common Core assignment could have focused on Anton Levay, or Mumia Abu-Jamal, or Hugo Chavez, or some other leftist icon.

Because we all know how much Texas loves Common Core...

 

[TLK Valentine]

I continue to be amazed at the number of people who clearly have no idea what the Common Core is.

Blithering ignorance has always been the most common weapon against education in any form...

 

[com7fy8]

It sounds like an assignment I might give, if I were trying to screen ninth graders for early signs of talent to recruit for F.B.I. profiling.

And answers could alert you to students who have a mindset of a psychopathic sort.

And using something like this for analyzing news could help children to discover how personalities can be involved in causing news; news is not just events, but the result of personalities acting and interacting out of their character.

But I am not sure such descriptive violent thinking is suitable for ninth graders to read and study; also, I would be concerned about who is the personality of a teacher who is maybe influencing my children. I think parents need to be the first to deal with their children about things like sexual matters and violence and the evil in this world.

 

[HannahT]

Did anyone read the paper in question that I linked too? It had a couple of questions about Isis, but also many other subjects too. Keystone Pipeline, President Obama, Bernie Sanders, Drugs Lords, Mexico City Beheadings, etc?

It seems they did the paper using some current events.

 

[keith99]

http://abc13.com/news/mom-upset-over-controversial-isis-homework-assignment/1100149/

HOUSTON (KTRK) --
The mother of a ninth grade HISD student is furious over a homework assignment that instructed students to analyze the words of an ISIS recruiter.

The assignment was given to the 9th grade geography class just days after the terror attacks in Paris.

ABC-13 obtained a copy of the assignment. It instructs students to analyze the point of view of several passages and identify the subject, occasion, audience, purpose and speaker (S.O.A.P)....

Thoughts?

Let's step back a little. ISIS exists and they do try to recruit, often using thing like the internet so these students may eventually come into contact with such a recruiter.

Now a teacher has asked her students to analyze a recruitment pitch, to break it down and see it for what it is.

Oh how horrible letting students see the truth so that they are in a position to resist such deceptive recruitment. Far better to keep students in the dark so that their first encounter with such is when they are the target, oh wait, not it is NOT.

 

[Sistrin]

I continue to be amazed at the number of people who clearly have no idea what the Common Core is.

And you think you are the only people to deal with Common Core?

 

[iluvatar5150]

Osama Bin Laden, at a wedding, offering a toast to his son and the blushing new bride. Heartwarming.

Do you want to take another stab at this or should I just assume that this non-answer means you really don't have an answer?

Oh, please. Are you actually trying to insinuate words spoken by Osama Bin Laden were the only viable choice available to teach a lesson in analyzing a passage?

Of course not. We've got a few thousand years of recorded history from which to draw viable choices. But its lack of exclusivity or monopoly on being a viable choice doesn't mean that it isn't a viable or appropriate choice.

The very fact he was chosen as the focus point of the assignment is an affront not limited to those who died serving aboard the USS Cole.

How?

But hey, perhaps the Common Core assignment could have focused on Anton Levay, or Mumia Abu-Jamal, or Hugo Chavez, or some other leftist icon. Or perhaps one of the newest heroes for Allah, Abdelhamid Abaaoud? Yeah, there you go. Certainly the words of the mastermind of the Paris attacks racking up a body count of 130 are worthy to be taught to ninth graders.

Reading your posts on this forum(not just in this thread), I frequently wonder how much your education centered around textual analysis and critical thinking, because I often find your responses grossly lacking. I asked a couple simple questions and instead of crafting a cogent reply, you've gone off on a silly rant. Perhaps if you'd had the kind of education described in this article, you'd be better able to articulate your position.

 

[Sistrin]

This:

Reading your posts on this forum(not just in this thread), I frequently wonder how much your education...

Is how you know when you have won an argument, when your opponent has nothing to fall back on other than sophomoric personal attacks.

 

[Queller]

In order to promote critical thinking skills students would by necessity need to be presented both sides of an issue. Do you actually believe the public school system is going to teach Jim Crow laws were the result of Democrat policy?

How does determining the subject of a quote, the occasion being referred to, the intended audience, the purpose of the quote, and the speaker of the quote require presenting both sides of an issue?