Bible essay stirs trouble for teacher

onzaga

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i have no children and assume most of you are younger than myself.so it is with great pleasure i find that not only are you all studying the classics but defending them.the way education is portrayed today i'd have thunk y'all were readin' cat in the hat.feeling proud.
 
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Voegelin

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...I've yet to come across a high school student who hadn't been exposed to Arthur Miller's The Crucible. I read it in 10th grade, as did everyone in my high school, as did everyone in the district. Everyone teaches Arthur Miller.

I was exposed to him. Out teachers fawned over Miller. A great man. I am surprised, considering the documentation we now have from the Soviet archives and Venona transcripts, that he is still taught.

Maybe they tell the truth about him today. Do they mention he wrote for the USSR under an assumed name? That the CPUSA was not an indigeous American political movement but directed and heavily funded by the chekisty? That those accussed of collaboration with one of the worst regimes the world has ever seen were, in fact, guilty of collaboration and did work against their own country?

Or is it the same stuff schools were passing off decades ago? We weren't even told the end result of the Salem Witch Trials. The story my English teacher gave us was what happened was typical of the mindset of Christians.

While this teacher may just be passing off what has always been taught, that agenda sure fits in with his, doesn't it? Says something about the reforms needed in education. Students should have the whole story. The history is no longer in question. Our schools should teach it.
 
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Mikedatigah

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The Herald--Everett WA
Snohomish County's online news source
By Melissa Slager
Herald Writer

LAKE STEVENS - The nature of God will no longer be part of an atheist teacher's American literature class at Lake Stevens High School.

Gary McDonald, 60, said he had no intention of swaying students' religious beliefs during a lesson last month . . .

http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/07/02/22/100loc_a1teacher001.cfm


I really don't know why the teacher would be in trouble, unless of course we are living outside the premise those who oppose him espouse....

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.


So... Given the seperation doctrine many hold true to, and this is clearly the only thing written in the Constitution that could be tied into Jefferson's words to the Danbury Baptist, I wonder.... DO WE SIMPLY IGNORE THE SECOND PART IN LEAU OF THE FIRST. One does not cancel the other out. They are one in the same.
 
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Voegelin

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"Do they mention he wrote for the USSR under an assumed name?"

Can you provide a link to support this claim? Even if he did, would that undermine the quality of his writing?

Of course not. But students should know what Miller's history was. Helpful to understand why he wrote what he did. Miller should not be passed off as a great defender of American freedoms and personal liberty without giving an account of his CPUSA/CPSU affiliation. No one can be said to be educated who does not know what recent scholarship has discovered the CPUSA did and the millions each year the NKVD and KGB spent funding it. We spend a lot of money on public education in America. Let's make sure teachers such as this one do not give a false impression of American history.

An account of Miller's pseudonymous writing for the Soviets may be found in Trinity of Passion: The Literary Left and the Antifascist Crusade by Alan Wald; University of North Carolina Press. Documents detailing the funding of the CPUSA by the Comintern and the chekisty are found in numerous recent publications. Yale University has published two books on the subject which contain photocopies and translations of the orginal Soviet communications.

If a major American literary figure were discovered to have been working for a NSDAP front, that would certainly be mentioned in classrooms when his work was read. Miller's associations and work for the CPUSA and CPSU should as well.

From what I read of this teacher, Miller didn't go far enough for him. He wanted an anti-Christian intro to Miller's emotional and truncated account of the Salem Witch trials and its misleading allegory to events in which Miller himself participated .What Miller's play really is is an apology for himself. Students should know that. They should also know the propaganda use the Soviets made of Millers' work. Be an aid in helping them determine the crediblity of those who toss around the term "witch hunt" and who use the Salem trials to denigrate the Christian faith.
 
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SallyNow

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I was exposed to him. Out teachers fawned over Miller. A great man. I am surprised, considering the documentation we now have from the Soviet archives and Venona transcripts, that he is still taught.

I can't say how much of Arthur Miller's life is taught in the average American school, but I learned a lot about him various theatre history and literature courses. Strangely enough, though, we usually focused more on the society of the time and how the plays fit in to the society, what the plays have to say about the society, etc. Who he was, in many cases, didn't matter as much as what he wrote, how he wrote it, the writing techniques used, etc. Great literature can be read without being "influenced" or "brainwashed" into believing the exact same thing the writer thought.
 
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reverend B

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voeglin,
i think many of us are sorry you don't understand the art of one of our greatest playwrights. "the crucible" was written as an allegory to the mccarthy hearings, and it was biting commentary. "death of a salesman" is one of the great tragedies in the american cannon, as is "a view from the bridge". an education is incomplete if these works are not studied, alongside eugene o'neill (arguably another "commie") and clifford odets. of course there is then the genius of marc blitzstein and "the cradle will rock". read about that one. that will get your blood boiling!
LOL!
does our american vision have room for art and artists?
 
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fanatiquefou

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I was exposed to him. Out teachers fawned over Miller. A great man. I am surprised, considering the documentation we now have from the Soviet archives and Venona transcripts, that he is still taught.

Of course they still teach him. He's a pretty firm part of the canon of English literature.
 
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CFISNOWHERESYFORUMS

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...I've yet to come across a high school student who hadn't been exposed to Arthur Miller's The Crucible. I read it in 10th grade, as did everyone in my high school, as did everyone in the district. Everyone teaches Arthur Miller.

Not everyone. :wave:
 
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CaDan

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Maybe they tell the truth about him today. Do they mention he wrote for the USSR under an assumed name? That the CPUSA was not an indigeous American political movement but directed and heavily funded by the chekisty? That those accussed of collaboration with one of the worst regimes the world has ever seen were, in fact, guilty of collaboration and did work against their own country?

According to Wald, he wrote theatre reviews under the pseudonym "Matt Wayne."

It is comforting, I suppose, to explain the history of the American Left from 1930 to 1990 as a shadow play directed from Moscow. Wrong, but comforting.
 
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