The radicalization of teachers is one of the great untold stories of our educational system. The sheer extremism of various programs 'educating' teachers is far beyond what most people realize. Occasionally a particularly outrageous indoctrination program is exposed. But it's really the sheer scope of the indoctrination that has to be tackled. Meanwhile this is what's going on at LAUSD.
The largest public school district in California approved a workshop for teachers containing inflammatory content on Israel with an organization that supports boycotts of the Jewish state.
The voluntary workshop — titled “Learning about Islam and the Arab World” — includes courses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for educators belonging to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), The Israel Group first reported. It was organized by the LA chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FORUSA), an interfaith organization that supports the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, according to its website.
The first session took place on October 14 at the United Teachers Los Angeles development center, with a second portion scheduled for October 21. LAUSD teachers are incentivized to attend the workshop by the prospect of gaining one “salary point” — helping them earn higher pay — if they complete the required assignments.
So there is incentivization. And, as is often the case, Islamic programming rolls in anti-Semitism.
A 40-page primer Cooper reportedly assigned for his lesson calls Israel a “supremacist ethnic state” and “a State of Oppression,” alleges that Palestinians are “at the mercy of the Israeli war machine,” and claims that non-Jews in the country “do not possess equal rights with their fellow Jewish citizens.”
It also accuses Israel of implementing “ethnic cleansing and incremental genocidal policies,”
But don't worry, it was approved by diversity standards.
Shannon Haber, a spokesperson for LAUSD, told The Algemeinerthat “‘Learning About Islam and the Arab World’” was reviewed for multicultural awareness, respect for diversity, dialogue, and non-violent conflict resolution, and alignment to the California History Social Studies Standard 7.2.”
It goes without saying that materials making similar accusations regarding Islamic colonialism would never have been approved. And if they somehow had been approved, the LA Times front page would detail efforts to dispose of them in the most outrageous tones imaginable. But there are different standards when it comes to anti-Israel materials. And we all know that.
LAUSD is huge. And the ability to do this is significant. This isn't Minnesotta. LAUSD is located in an area with a sizable Jewish population. It interfaces with plenty of Jewish schools. And this is why the various measures against BDS, which the media and anti-Israel fellow travelers keep trying to chip away at, are important.