September 27, 2005

Far-lefties pushing Gramscism on 5-year-olds in Massachusetts

Here's a test. Is the following report from Massachusetts in 2005, or from the Soviet Union in 1965 and I've just changed the names and locations? You decide:

While the trial of a Massachusetts parent arrested while attempting to secure a promise from school officials to notify parents before teaching about homosexuality in his son's kindergarten class has been postponed until next month, the school district is taking a hard line against such notification.

Paul Ash, the superintendent of schools in Lexington, has announced his instructions to all teachers in the district to give no notice to parents of efforts to teach "diversity" lessons about "alternative lifestyles" – even in primary grades.

In April, David Parker of Lexington spent a night in jail and was charged with criminal trespassing after refusing to leave a scheduled meeting with officials [over the policy]...

What kind of lessons were involved?

...Parker's then-5-year-old son brought home a book to be shared with his parents titled, "Who's in a Family?" The optional reading material, which came in a "Diversity Book Bag," depicted at least two households led by homosexual partners.

The illustrated book says, "A family can be made up in many different ways" and includes this text:

"Laura and Kyle live with their two moms, Joyce and Emily, and a poodle named Daisy. It takes all four of them to give Daisy her bath."

Another illustrated page says:

"Robin's family is made up of her dad, Clifford, her dad's partner, Henry, and Robin's cat, Sassy. Clifford and Henry take turns making dinner for their family."

Answer: no, this is actually from Massachusetts in the United States. If it had been the Soviet Union, Parker would be in Siberia by now, and "liberals" haven't gotten to that point yet.

Posted to MultiCultiCult at September 27, 2005 11:48 AM

Comments

What is "Gramscism"?

Posted by: eh at September 28, 2005 05:18 AM

A reference to the late Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci(1891-1937), who stressed the importance of "cultural hegemony" as opposed to the more dramatic forms of "class struggle".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Gramsci
(...)
His critics charge him with fostering a notion of power struggle through ideas that finds a reflection in recent academic controversies such as political correctness. They find the Gramscian approach to ideas, reflected in these controversies, to be in conflict with open-ended, liberal inquiry grounded in the classics of Western culture. To credit or blame Gramsci for the travails of current academic politics is an odd turn of history, since Gramsci himself (unlike most major 20th century thinkers) was never an academic, and was in fact deeply intellectually engaged with Italian culture, history, and current liberal thought.
(...)
Of course Gramsci, like anyone else of his time, could hardly have predicted the Bizarro World of today's Europe and North America.

Posted by: perroazul del norte at September 28, 2005 06:24 AM

More on Gramsci: I've seen a frontpagemag.com article which credits Gramsci with the idea of the "long march through the institutions." That is, if leftists can gain control of the educational institutions, the younger generation can be indoctrinated. Since the older generation will die off in time, the leftists will win.

Posted by: dchamil at September 28, 2005 06:29 AM