South Dakota’s K-12 standards/curriculum issue will be decided in April. Hillsdale College’s product may already be a done deal. It’s my observation that South Dakota professional educators have not been properly respected during this process of evaluation and hearings. Hillsdale promoters have not provided — nay, haven’t even tried to provide — acceptable answers to many specific concerns voiced by state professional educators.
Since many concerns of S.D. professionals were ignored, it follows that business practices were skirted. Additional issues will likely continue to arise since the Hillsdale curriculum is really complicated. It is a much different animal from what our professionals are familiar. Educators need answers to any and all of their concerns.
As one of the most worrisome known concerns, many age-inappropriate topics exist at several grade levels in the Hillsdale product.
Furthermore, a great many informational topics are scattered throughout mid-level and upper-level Hillsdale history standards. The sheer number of learning topics would overwhelm any single resource book that I’ve ever seen. Will each student in those grades get to carry more than one resource book for class and home? Or, on another track, is internet access a possible solution in connection with S.D.’s use of the Hillsdale curriculum? Professional educators and administrators need answers.
Finally, consider Gov. Noem’s desire and expectation that Hillsdale will serve to promote an improved attitude of patriotism amongst our students. Apparently, the past S.D. curriculum didn’t promote the love-your-country job well enough.
Will someone tell us how Hillsdale curriculum is supposed to do this magic? Is it even desirable to think in those terms?
In the mid-1930’s, Joseph Goebbels designed and distributed communication materials that, using principles of psychology, were designed to generate patriotism and love-of-country. His efforts appear to have succeeded. But in the end, it didn’t turn out well.
(7) comments
This is just common sense.
And this is not just South Dakota common sense. Other enlightened states are doing the same thing.
Alabama educators are requiring Black History Month events to focus more on current Black history (after 1970) and less on old, irrelevant Black History, which isn’t really representative of American Exceptionalism.
Those woke South Dakotans who whine about the history of a few barbaric Indians (whose fleeting story is irrelevant to God’s plan) should be ashamed to defy the Cross.
If we turn on our own Founding Fathers (who historians have found often treated their slaves like part of their families), then we lose the very principles and convictions we need to defeat woke progressivism.
We’re so lucky our Governor brought in Christians to teach our children instead of South Dakota’s woke educators, who diminish the rights of the proud European Christian foundation of our Republic by bowing before the false altar of diversity.
🤷♂️
This is sarcasm, isn’t it.?
Well the good thing is that we as a proud democratic party are making the game changing efforts at removing statues of those that were mean to people 100 or so years ago, and we are renaming military bases that are named for people that were not nice, we are renaming them to less offensive names like Goody Two Shoes Air Base and Rainbows and Gumdrops Marine Base, both excellent names for military bases. During covid we were able to shut down churches, we were able to attack ministers that made any attempts at letting people worship, who do these people think they are? It's actions like this that make a difference, it's actions like this that bring people that are divided, together, because that is what we are after, right? As a democrat, I follow in the footsteps of our great President Joe Biden and by using lines from the speeches he gives, every other person I meet I tell them they are a threat to our country, they are a threat to democracy, whether they are or not. These are the great things our party focuses on, these are the earth moving actions a party like ours does that brings a nation together. Never before in the history of our country has there been more unity, more love, more caring for one another. Never before in the history of the world have we all been safer, have we all been so secure, and we have our great democratic party and our great leader President Biden to thank for all of that.
I guess it makes sense that VoiceforAll’ who loves Putin, would want to honor racist traitors to the United States.
Only a clueless, entitled Wašíču like you, VoiceforAll, could describe the traitorous racists who fought the United States to perpetuate their two and half century tradition of slavery as ”those that were mean to people 100 or so years ago.”
Americans who are not white and christian know what to expect from you Republicans.
And if we forget for a moment, we always have you and Abe and Larry to remind us.
Thank you for your service…
Voice, I see so many Trumpsters like you taking down Old Glory 🇺🇸 and instead flying the Russian flag 🇷🇺.
Senator Romney recently commented on ignorance of you folks who wish to allow Russia to take what they will.
“I think a lot of people don’t recognize that we agreed to defend Ukraine when Ukraine agreed to give up their nuclear weapons some years ago.
We signed an agreement that we would help support Ukraine and defend its sovereignty. That’s important to remember,”
Fortunately, Voice, there are Republicans who remember who the Russians are and why we opposed them all through the long Cold War.
And I speculate there are still enough of them left to unite with Democrats to pursue our interest in helping oppose the Russians bid to reclaim the old Russian empire.
Perhaps these words from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell illustrate my hopeful speculatation when he told the Munich Security Conference that:
“Republican leaders are committed to a strong transatlantic alliance” and that “America’s own core national interests are at stake.”
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