The website “Stop K-12 Indoctrination,” run by the Freedom Center, reported on an alarming story this week emanating from Rock Hill High School in South Carolina. Parents were irate when they found out that a teacher gave students a slide presentation about the history of America’s political parties. In one slide, the teacher included ways to differentiate between a Liberal and a Conservative. She did this by comparing the two and listing a bevy of traits that a liberal or a conservative could be expected to possess. As you may have guessed, she did not exactly do this in a fair and balanced way.
Liberals, the students were taught, can be identified as “tolerant, generous, enlightened, broadminded, lavish, and charitable.”
Conservatives, on the other hand, were known to be “stingy, miserly, regressive, narrow-minded, reactionary, bigoted, prejudiced, and biased.”
Biased!
Anyone want to guess whether or not this teacher has a hair color outside the natural spectrum?
“The slide claims that the definitions were taken from Roget’s Thesaurus. While these may be true dictionary definitions of these terms in various contexts, the slide in question contains the image of three American flags, making clear that in this instance the definitions are being applied to the political realm,” reports Stop K-12 Indoctrination.
Pictures of the slideshow presentation drew outrage on Facebook.
“My son whom is a student at Rock Hill High just sent me this in his US History and Constitution class,” wrote a parent. “She [the teacher] was teaching this to our children. Who do I need to contact to voice my concerns? I am tired of these schools indoctrinating our kids… This needs to stop!”
Another parent told the local news that this sort of biased lesson did not belong in the classroom.
“I don’t think it’s a fair assessment because I am a conservative,” they said. “I wouldn’t be too happy with those being the way to judge me. I would hope that we can take away the division that we have in our country now a days instead of inflame it.”
In a statement for the Rock Hill School District, spokesman Mychal Frost denied that the teacher had done anything wrong.
“The full presentation sought to provide an overview of political parties, and social and fiscal issues that have shaped the American political system,” Frost wrote. “The teacher, on at least two occasions, stressed to students that labels of ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal’ have changed throughout history and each is not synonymous with today’s Republican and Democrat parties. The presentation focused on the basic beliefs of conservatives and liberals, and a follow-up activity asks students to identify conservative and liberal positions on issues and explain why each side takes the position(s) that it does.”
In other words, nothing to see here, carry on.
Imagine if the teacher had written a negative definition for “transgender” or “illegal alien.” Somehow, we doubt the school district would be so quick to brush it under the rug.
