APUSH Provides Contempt for America in Texas High Schools

College Board Partners with Leftist Academia By Bill Ames AUSTIN Texas (Texas Insider Report) The recent implementation of a totally reworked Advanced Placement U. S. History (APUSH) framework has given rise to contentious debate. Mainstream American critics challenge APUSH as being anti-American. The private unaccountable College Board APUSH creators retaliate by claiming that the new framework provides more flexibility to teachers while addressing an alleged whitewashing" of U. S. history.   The debate has raged on and does not need to be repeated here. Suffice to say that the APUSH framework compared with most state and local standards is like mixing oil and water. It is time to end this debate charade and reveal the bottom-line truth. Time to call a spade a spade. Time to cut to the chase. During the 1960s liberal professors began to revise how history is taught in Americas colleges and universities. These liberal professors have demonstrated a solid track record of contempt for American values while indoctrinating students with their warped ideology. There has been a long-term desire on the part of these professors to extend their indoctrination to Americas public schools. One egregious example:

In the early 1990s UCLA professor Gary Nash (right) along with the National Council for Social Studies released new United States history standards. These standards like APUSH focused on Native- and African-American history while de-emphasizing the contributions of western civilization.

The standards were rejected by none other than the United States Senate both Democrats and Republicans by a vote of 99 to 1.

The Senates condemnation concluded with the words Any recipient of federal funds … for standards and curriculum development … should have a decent respect for United States historys roots in western civilization." In order to promote leftist academics agenda the College Board has provided its APUSH framework to give liberal academia yet another opportunity to extend its contempt for America to public schools. A contentious statement you say? Let us develop the story. In 1973 author and journalist John LeBoutillier (right) was a sophomore at Harvard University. His instructor in History 97 class was one Barry Schmidt an admitted radical who sported a full-length beard and a pony tail tied with a red ribbon. LeBoutillier wrote about his introduction to the class in his best-selling book Harvard Hates America.  Schmidt began:

I dont give a s--- about American history. I dont give a damn about facts or dates or any of that other traditional crap.  Hell I dont even know what year the Civil War began. 

As far as Im concerned that type of history just plays along with the right-wing fascists who run this country…..the very people Im dedicated to overthrowing…."

Fast forward to 2014. The college blog Campus Reform posted a video of interviews it conducted of Harvard students just a couple of weeks ago. The single question was straightforward: What is the greater threat to world peace ISIS or America?"

One student answered I think American imperialism and our protection of oil interests in the Middle East are destabilizing the region and allowing groups like ISIS to gain power….We are at some level the cause of it."

Another student answered: As a Western civilization were to blame for a lot of the problems that were facing now.  I dont think anyone would argue that we didnt create the problem of ISIS ourselves…. (Middle Easterners) have a skewed view of us just as a lot of Americans have a skewed view of them of ISIS."

A third student proclaimed: The amount of spending that America has on causes of potential destruction in the world is really outlandish.  Weve been learning about this recently how much America spends on defense mechanisms alone and its really quite astonishing compared to any other country in the world really."

All students claimed that America was the larger threat to world peace. History 97 instructor Barry Schmidt and his successors at Harvard can be proud. Columnist David Limbaugh covering the interviews in his October 10 2014 TownHall.com article Harvard Students Parade Their Academic Poison" wrote

I wouldnt be nearly so troubled by Harvard University students identifying America as a bigger threat to world peace than the Islamic State if it werent representative of the thinking of so many students throughout the nation. But it is."

David Limbaugh (at right) is correct. One needs to look no further for the potential for student indoctrination than the likes of two controversial university professors 911 terrorists sympathizer Ward Churchill and unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers.  Both enjoyed enthusiastic peer acceptance in the academic cocktail party circuit during their presence at the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of Illinois-Chicago respectively. There are many more examples. Liberal professors on Americas college and university campuses make up an overwhelming majority. A 2010-2011 survey of 23824 full-time faculty members at 417 American colleges and universities conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA reveals that over 65 of professors in public and private universities self-identify as liberal or far left. Less than 10 identify as conservative or far right. And those liberal professors doggedly impose their ideology on immature impressionable students. What do the liberal professors and their allies hold in contempt? Start with the U. S. Constitution.  Last week fawning gadfly movie star Gwyneth Paltrow at yet another Hollywood Democrat fundraiser introduced President Barack Obama with the words  It would be wonderful if we were able to give this man all of the power that he needs to pass the things that he needs to pass. Yeah Gwyneth lets just forget the Constitution! Liberals also loathe the Bill of Rights: First Amendment free speech (unless one agrees with leftist dogma) the 2nd Amendment and the pesky 9th and 10th Amendments that reserve undesignated rights to the people and the states rather than to the federal government. Liberals hate the achievements of Western Civilization. They hate Christianity American exceptionalism the free enterprise system personal responsibility patriotism and love of country. Witness the academic movers and shakers who influenced the College Board APUSH framework….. APUSH critic Stanley Kurtz profiled key APUSH contributors in his National Review online article August 25 2014.

Thomas Bender (right New York University) … Bender is a thoroughgoing critic of American Exceptionalism … he is the leading spokesman for the movement to internationalize U. S. history curriculum at every educational level …

Francesca Lopez Civeira (University of Havana) … American power is an object of fear … urges American students be exposed to evidence of the controversial power and presence of the United States beyond our borders…

Suzanne Sinke (Florida State University) … Downplayed the desire of immigrants to find a better life in America … referred to immigrants as migrants …

Penny Von Eschen (University of Michigan) … Relentlessly critical of Americas cultural imperialism" and its economic and military presence in the world …

The profiles of this group of hard-core liberal college professors along with others involved in creating the original framework provide ample evidence that the College Board is complicit in providing leftist academia with a platform at the high school level to extend its contempt for America. Further the College Board has demonstrated that it has no interest in allowing" locally elected and state school boards to challenge its nationalized curriculum….

The conservative-majority Jefferson County Colorado school board concerned about the indoctrination of students taking the APUSH course created a proposal that would:

1. Force the College Board to include instructional materials that present positive aspects of the nation and its heritage.
2. Create a committee to regularly review texts and course plans starting with APUSH to make sure materials promote citizenship patriotism essentials and benefits of the free-market system respect for authority and respect for individual rights instead of encouraging or condoning civil disorder social strike or disregard of the law.

Citizenship patriotism free enterprise?   The College Board indoctrination machine would have none of this. In a terse my-way-or-the-highway" response the CB admonished the JeffCo board warning that schools and districts must do as theyre told. If they dare to disagree with any essential concepts of an AP course (for example if they insist on teaching America the Exceptional rather than America the Evil) the College Board will strip its AP designation from the course. So much for highly-touted local control"! Going forward NO ONE who supports APUSH can honestly claim to be for local control of state and school district curricula. So where does this leave us? The College Board can no longer pretend that it cares about mainstream Americas best interests. Rather it has become a complicit supporter of America-hating leftist academia bent on turning Americas public schools into indoctrination centers that major in oppression imperialism exploitation victimization and racism. Columnist Walter Williams proposes a solution:

Parents should become more involved with their childrens education. They should look at the textbooks used and examine their childrens homework. Parents should show up en mass at PTA and board of education meetings to ensure that teachers confine their lessons to reading writing and arithmetic and leave indoctrination to parents.

The most promising tool in the fight against teacher indoctrination and classroom misconduct is the micro-technology that enables students to secretly record and expose academic misconduct by teachers."

And the aforementioned David Limbaugh adds:

We are looking at the next generation ….. who will be leading this nation into the future.

It is time that responsible parents got off their clueless apathetic duffs and started doing a better job of educating their kids and inoculating them against the infernal indoctrination that academia and our culture are serving to them in mentally lethal doses."

In Texas I believe legislation is required to force school districts to certify TEKS compliance. Our public schools graduate some 300000 kids into Texas society each year year after year. If the College Board and its allies in academia are allowed a platform to teach their radical contempt for Americas greatness the CB agenda will succeed and Texas will forever change. Bill Ames is an education activist and author who lives in Dallas Texas. His book TEXAS TROUNCES THE LEFTS WAR ON HISTORY" (WNAenterprises.com) tells the story of his experience in developing Texas U. S. history standard in 2009-2010. In 2013 he reviewed CSCOPE U. S. history lessons as part of the State Board of Educations Ad Hoc Committee Project and is now involved with the new College Board AP U.S. history framework. He welcomes reader comments at billames@prodigy.net.