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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSouth Carolina Bill Requires All Public School Students To Take NRA-Approved Gun Rights Course
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/01/08/3609257/south-carolina-bill-requires-all-public-school-students-to-take-nra-approved-gun-rights-course/BY IAN MILLHISER POSTED ON JANUARY 8, 2015 AT 10:04 AM
Legislation proposed last month by three members of the South Carolina legislature would require public school teachers in that state to spend three weeks each year extolling the virtues of the Second Amendment as that amendment is understood by the National Rifle Association. The bill requires all South Carolina public schools to provide instruction in the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution for at least three consecutive weeks during one grading period in each academic year. Moreover, the State Superintendent of Education shall adopt a curriculum developed or recommended by the National Rifle Association or its successor organization.
Three weeks is an absolutely extraordinary amount of instruction time to devote to such a narrow subject, at least at the elementary or secondary school level, even setting aside the political nature of the material. Many high school history teachers publish their course syllabi online, and a ThinkProgress review of Advanced Placement United States History syllabi reveals that teachers typically spend far less than three weeks teaching pivotal events or major aspects of American history.
One South Carolina charter school, for example, devotes just two weeks to The Slave System and the Coming of the Civil War and only a week and a half to World War II in its Advanced Placement United States History course. A Maine private school devotes two weeks to Slavery and Sectionalism and another two weeks to World War II and the Origins of the Cold War. A Kentucky high school devotes only two weeks to the Roaring 20s, Great Depression and New Deal, a period that thrust America into an historic crisis and transformed the nations view of the role of government in society.
Nevertheless, the South Carolina bill does not simply require schools to spend more time teaching students the NRAs view of gun rights than many advanced high school courses spend teaching about subjects such as slavery or World War II; it requires this course to be taught at the elementary, middle and high school level.
isobar
(188 posts)that's my favorite line! But I totally agree.
This is just another way to encourage parents to remove their kids from the public school system which give charter/voucher schools more importance (or some would hope).
hack89
(39,171 posts)Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)I suspect we agree a lot more than we disagree.
TheBlackAdder
(28,211 posts)jen1980
(77 posts)JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)Rhiannon12866
(205,854 posts)ileus
(15,396 posts)petronius
(26,603 posts)I doubt they have any expectation of passing this--I hope it's just posturing--but they sure are putting on a remarkable display of jackassery...
Initech
(100,099 posts)beevul
(12,194 posts)Neither side can claim any moral high ground here.
G_j
(40,367 posts)Last edited Sat Jan 10, 2015, 01:02 PM - Edit history (1)
seems this is one sided. I know one thing, in reality, the NRA has no moral high ground.
DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)And I win. I can't believe I'm at DU reading a defense of subhuman dogshit death lovers and their plans to propagandize children in the ways of death for three weeks every year. You defend these creeps. I'd rather spit in their stupid, inbred faces.
beevul
(12,194 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I really can't say it any better. Just when I think we've reached a new low...
kcr
(15,318 posts)kcr
(15,318 posts)That's what I thought. Wow, not wanting kids to have guns. What an outrage.
beevul
(12,194 posts)I note that you're steering away from that point with all due haste.
Tell you what, you tell me if you oppose both examples due to being against propagandizing children, or just one of them due to content.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Having a difficult time realizing the difference between an accredited, mandatory class which affects GPA, and a "message"?
I believe the words I'm using are "a petulant false equivalency for its own sake..."
beevul
(12,194 posts)Last edited Mon Jan 12, 2015, 05:17 PM - Edit history (1)
From a couple posts down...
"I've also asked the school board,to make a part of every day, some kind of anti-violence anti-gun message, every day every school at every level. One thing that I think is clear with young people, and with adults as well, is that we just have to be repetitive about this, its not enough to have a catchy ad on a Monday and only do it every Monday, we need to do this every of the week, and really just brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way."
Does it sound to you, like the kids in schooling under those school boards referred to above, have any choice in the matter?
So "mandatory" is a red herring at best.
Contrived distinctions without any meaningful tangible differences, don't suddenly become the huge differences you say they are, simply because you said so. But lets examine this a little farther:
In this this "mandatory" class...you'd be ok with it teaching the bill of rights minus the current legal interpretation of amendment 2, right? Or you'd be ok with it teaching the "collective rights" interpretation of amendment 2, right?
Should schools teach the bill of rights and just skip amendment 2?
What do you think they SHOULD do, in schools, where amendment 2 is concerned, since they DO teach the bill of rights, and amendment 2 is a part of it?
But that's neither here nor there...
This thread is chocked full of posts about propaganda and indoctrination, which ignore completely one example, while piling on the other. Posts by people who are clearly anti-gun, and have an anti-gun posting history.
Which was the point. Scratch an anti-gunner, and routinely, you uncover a hypocrite willing ready and able to chastise the other side for doing X, while turning a blind eye to people from their own side of the issue doing that very same X.
beevul
(12,194 posts)Attorney General of the United States should be good enough, I would think:
"I've also asked the school board, to make a part of every day, some kind of anti-violence anti-gun message, every day every school at every level. One thing that I think is clear with young people, and with adults as well, is that we just have to be repetitive about this, its not enough to have a catchy ad on a Monday and only do it every Monday, we need to do this every of the week, and really just brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way."
So yeah, like I said, both sides engage in this.
Neon Gods
(222 posts)...and no one did it better than the communists in the old Soviet Union. Next up? Three weeks explaining why abortion is murder, and then three weeks of why small government makes America great. Hell, who needs math and critical thinking?
Takket
(21,616 posts)is because of lousy teachers we can't fire
Volaris
(10,274 posts)That says FIRST you have to teach 3 weeks on free speech and propoganda.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)marmar
(77,088 posts)...... don't think it can't get crazier."
Response to marmar (Reply #17)
otohara This message was self-deleted by its author.
GGJohn
(9,951 posts)Crime is at it's lowest point in decades.
I live in one of the most firearms friendly states, no permit to CC, open carry legal, yet, I feel very safe, I don't hide in my home cowering in fear.
Response to GGJohn (Reply #44)
otohara This message was self-deleted by its author.
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)He's just pouting out, correctly, that violent crime is at it's lowest in decades and he's not afraid.
No reason to get defensive.
glasshouses
(484 posts)It's not really indicative of the rest country.
There's plenty of places where good decent people are afraid to walk down some neighborhoods .
Or even drive through them.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)Last edited Sat Jan 10, 2015, 12:55 PM - Edit history (1)
Some story like this comes up.
aikoaiko
(34,183 posts)DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)Wouldn't want your kids to get distracted with science or novels or art. Learning the ways of death from the NRA is superior to these other pursuits.
aikoaiko
(34,183 posts)PeaceNikki
(27,985 posts)Logical
(22,457 posts)NickB79
(19,258 posts)And most schools these days do require swimming lessons which encompass pool safety.
Logical
(22,457 posts)aikoaiko
(34,183 posts)PA Democrat
(13,225 posts)You would think that raising their pupils' academic performance in math and reading and increasing graduation rates might be lawmakers' highest priority.
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2014/01/14/states-with-the-best-and-worst-schools-2/4/
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)as long as you know how to use a gun you'll be all right in the old US of A.
malaise
(269,157 posts)randys1
(16,286 posts)randys1
(16,286 posts)VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)got to turn them into gun toting thugs early....
Also important to note....South Carolina is now the 11th most dangerous state to live in because of these NUTS!
NickB79
(19,258 posts)The Constitution and all it's amendments are already covered by any halfway decent school curriculum.
the Constitution consists of a lot more than a single amendment.. Then again, maybe the NRA would not approve...
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)Adrahil
(13,340 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)spend the time on a lot better things. I can see an hour or two on age appropriate gun safety like if you see a gun, do not touch, get an adult.
Sgent
(5,857 posts)in my PE class we were required to take a gun safety class (including shooting a gun), and I still think that's a good idea, but this is just idiotic and indoctrination.
I can't think of a single subject in AP history we spent more than a week on, much less an amendment for 3 weeks.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)of, like, PE. Just think about what I was missing.
Sgent
(5,857 posts)hunting was a major sport / food source, and this made (and makes) sense to me. To be fair, this was a hunter safety class, not just gun safety. This was about 25 years ago.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,436 posts)more comprehensive than most sex ed programs (are allowed to be) in this country nowadays.