Friday, April 30, 2010

While Arizona Americanizes its schools, Washington and California welcome Chinese communists to teach classes

A communist government notorious for human rights violations will implement curriculum in U.S. public schools despite concerns from educators who assure it will lead to the indoctrination of innocent children in the classroom.

Public school districts in Washington State and California have agreed to allow China’s communist regime to conduct “Confucius Classroom” programs supposedly aimed at promoting Chinese language and culture in this country. China provides the curriculum—including instructors and teaching materials—and administers it through a “nonprofit” (Hanban) that’s controlled by the country’s Ministry of Education.

It doesn’t cost U.S. taxpayers a cent, which certainly makes the deal quite appealing to cash-strapped public school districts nationwide. Southern California’s Hacienda La Puente Unified School District and Washington’s Seattle Public School District are among those that have accepted the Chinese government’s offer.

In Seattle education officials are thrilled about the concept of “opening up China” and one of the Confucius offices is housed at a local middle school. The California project has been met with more resistance from educators and parents who assert the curriculum is a means for the Chinese Communist Party to maneuver into free societies under the false pretext of promoting a benign philosophy.

They claim the real agenda is propaganda, such as fostering goodwill and acceptance of the communist regime despite its well-documented record of atrocious human rights abuses. In fact, the vice president of the Society of Confucian Studies of America (Jeanne Meng) said she would be “very worried” if her kids were in a Confucius Classroom because traditional teachings are being used to fulfill a communist political agenda.

Another veteran Society of Confucian Studies official (Victor Wang) says China’s overseas school programs are a common communist tactic that provides benefits that appear harmless to make friends and infiltrate the target group. In this case Western society, Wang points out.

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