What Is This? Crazy White Woman Day?
Look, if it’s gonna be crazy white woman day, I want my turn! First we have the Attorney General candidate in Arkansas and now this.
A white female Colorado Board of Education member has decided that slavery was … oh, I’ll just let you read it because you won’t believe me.
Yes, we practiced slavery. But we also ended it voluntarily, at great sacrifice, while the practice continues in many countries still today! Shouldn’t our students be provided that viewpoint? This is part of the argument that America is exceptional.
Voluntarily? Holy cow, woman. So you just cut 1861 to 1865 out of American history? There was a voluntary war during those years.
Y’all, by “at great sacrifice,” I think she means the economic advantage of having slaves.
And America is exceptional because all the rest of the world has slavery. We are exactly as exceptional a Italy. And Norway.
You can fix Stoopid.
1“In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.”
-Mark Twain
2She has already erased the civil (well, uncivil) dissent and protest of the Southern Sedition.
3This is the one that had AP US History kids out picketing against the changes they wanted to make.
My granddaughter had APUSH last year (Ann Arbor, not JeffCo, Colorado). I talked over a few things with her that she had trouble understanding-not too hard for her, just different. She worked harder on APUSH than anything else she was taking
That is a great course, very detailed and very deep in coverage. If any of the people even read part of the text, I would be grreatly surprised.
But then, of course, these are Republicans–what was I thinking? Not a chance they read anything but someone’s complaint about it’s not treating Amurrrka right.
4This does clarify why so many parents and teachers in Colorado are protesting proposed “board improved curriculum” doesn’t it?
Few people pay attention to school board elections, wich are generally held in off cycles in winter or spring. Thus it is easy to sneak in an ideologue stealth candidate whose focus is on a revisionist view of “history” and “science” who wants to censor libraries and English classes.
If you care about the future of our country you pay attention to this elections. Public schools are the last great egalitarian institution left in America. A good education is the best predictor of economic security and the best protection for democracy out there. We undermine these institutions at our own peril, and by ignoring school board races that is exactly what we are doing. For while the job is unpaid and if done correctly, generally unnoticed, the impact it has on the future is enormous.
Running for school board is a gift we can give our community, paying attention to whom we are voting for in these elections is an obligation we owe future generations. Sorry, off my soapbox now….
5What Deb said. And in case you haven’t heard about the school board of Jefferson County CO trying to rewrite American history:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/26/-sp-colorado-ap-history-curriculum-protest-patriotism-schools-students
They want patriots, not rebels (like, say, Rosa Parks).
6At a guess, the little heathens with whom Pam Maniac is concerned are her grandchildren. So, if she wants them to learn ‘creationism,’ she needs to get crackin’ on her own children to take them to a house of worship where they teach that stuff. As for revised history, there’s always home-schooling or those special religious schools, in which case Pammie needs to get out her own check book, or hope her own kids like her better than normal kids would.
Mrs. B, you can be crazy fun, crazy intelligent, crazy hard working and all other kinds of good crazy, but you can’t fake or even parody the cra cra crazy of a right wing zealot. Spoof, parody and satire are becoming endangered genres in the age of Teabagistan.
7Rwnj’s don’t just want to downplay the negative aspects of our history, they want to rewrite it. That is why, in many southern schools there is no mention of the Civil War, because they call it the War of Northern Aggression. That’s how voluntary giving up slavery was. No sooner had Lincoln given the Emancipation Proclamation, than the Confederacy was born and all those voluntary “emancipators” tried to secede.
8This re-writing of history has been going on in schools for quite some time. Federal funds should be withheld from school districts who teach lies.
What a maroon. I know people say you can’t fix stoopid, but why not? Don’t tubal ligations and vasectomies work on them?
9That level of stupid should be immediately and excruciatingly painful to the stupid.
10If they dropped to the ground writhing and screaming in agony every time they said something that mind-numbingly dumb, they might learn to shut up.
I swear to high heaven that all these damn boards and such are the last refuge for brain leakers!
11Rewrite history textbooks a little, and you can show how Rosa Parks should have stayed in the back of the bus. Rewrite it a little more, and there might be good reason to keep a trouble maker like Rosa Parks off of the bus all together.
Looks like businesswoman Pam Mazanec wants to start teaching her ideas to those that ride the big yellow school buses in her district.
12I heard on the Noon News that this woman admitted to not being really informed about American History … geez … really?!? How the heck did she ever get through high school without knowing American History? Hell, I graduated high school in N. Illinois and I had to know American History. I thought any and all high schools had to teach that. But I could be wrong!!
13You want to see crazy school board stuff?
14http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/534/transcript
I’m having trouble believing Pammy herself had much of an education in English either. Perhaps someone can help her learn the difference between “their” and “there.” If she manages to understand that, they can throw in “they’re.”
I have no hope she’ll ever understand American history; too (or is that “two?”) much thinking involved.
15Just being a little picky maryelle. I believe the confederacy was organized before the emancipation proclamation was issued. Lincoln was quoted that if he could save the union without freeing the slaves he would; if he had to free the slaves to save the union he would. The emancipation proclamation was considered a war strategy. what a terrible time to be President. Somewhat like now, only now it’s not save the union; it may be save the world.
16Yes it is crazy white woman day. Nuts in CO rewriting history and entitled whiners in Indy complaining about minorities.
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/call-6-investigators/charlotte-lucas-facebook-rant-about-minorities-raises-eyebrows
Somebody told her she screwed up, deleted her FB page.
Hippie in the Holler
17Maryelle, seccession came before the Emancipation Proclaimation.. If you read it you’ll find it only freed slaves in areas in open rebellion, not in places under Union control or States remaining in the Union. It was issued on January 1, 1863.
18What’s sad is they are trying the same thing in MO as well. The Kochaholics are all over the place where they shouldn’t have been admitted.
19This whole RW “let’s interfere in the teaching of APUS History and other education matters” is a huge farce. None of the tools we’re hearing from now cared one whit about APUS until, the RW org Concerned Women For America decided to object to the new changes in the APUS test. CWFA decided to contact the RNC. A couple months ago, CWFA and RNC members had a little “conference meeting” via computer. The head of CWFA convinced RNC members that the APUSH changes were a “threat” to our very existence and was an attempt by liberals to indoctrinate students with LW ideals. Then, the RNC decided to use its huge media platform to speak out against the changes, knowing that if its members said anything, it would be picked up by the MSM immediately.
Our state superintendent, John Barge, who so happens to be a republican, let the cat out of the bag last month about how this little anti-APUSH mess got started and why. He said that the recent republican push against Common Core and APUSH arose not because the top individuals advocating against it know anything about these issues, but because they saw another opportunity they could use to extract money from low-information individuals. I was surprised to hear a republican call out other republicans for creating controversy where none needed to be created and for calling them ignorant buttholes, but he did. Tanya Ditti, head of CWFA here in GA, didn’t know how to respond after Barge ripped her and exposed the real truth behind her organization’s opposition to CC and the changes to APUSH.
Many of the individuals in the groups opposing the APUSH changes have no background, training, or experience in teaching or in any field of education, but they’re sitting on local and state school boards across the nation, making decisions that affect our kids’ and grand-kids’ education, and they’re making these decisions based not on facts or best teaching practices, but on what they think/believe. I taught high school social studies, including U.S. History until 2009, and I’m appalled at the recent influx of know-nothings into the field of education and the control they’re wielding in crafting curriculum standards
Instead of sitting on the CO SBOE, Ms. Mazanec should be taking a remedial course in U.S. History. She is Example #1 of what can happen when voters equate having been successful in business with effective governance. Americans will never learn success in business is not a good predictor of success in governing.
20She has a degree in General Studies from Wichita State University in Kansas. I will refrain from further comment on the quality of education she likely received in Kansas.
I will say that I looked up her bio on the Colorado State School Board website and then emailed the Board with my opinion of her qualifications to snipe at history teaching. Including some pertinent facts about the non-voluntary nature of the end of slavery in the U.S.
21If we are going to do away with that whole “War Between the States” thing, then we, here in Texas are also going to have to do away with that whole Juneteenth thing, which, for you folks in foreign countries, is celebrated June 19th. That’s when folks in Texas learned about the Emancipation Proclamation. The rest of the country was, (as usual) way ahead of us.
However, to give the devil his due, I graduated high school in Texas, and we were taught real American history, we were also taught Texas history, and could not graduate high school, without “credits” in two courses: Civics and Social Problems.
We learned about what was in “The Bible”…… if we went to church. I was not even in school when “Under God” was added to The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. There was no screaming, hollering and yelling about “Prayer in School.”
For all that, I credit saner heads, fewer demagogues, less television, and no Faux News. JMHO.
22What Deb says,but whitey wingnuts takes these stealth elections further and take over cities and counties and eventually states,where they claim state’s rights as supreme law and then can make life miserable for women,the poor,the elderly,children etc.
23Ya’ll think this is bad…. do a little research on the Texas’ on SBOE and their rejection of APUSH and common core(The only state that has written into law that no one in the state can ever adopt common core)….Scary Stalinist stuff……
24Technically, the Emancipation Proclamation was given after the start of the War, but Lincoln had openly campaigned on an anti-slavery platform. When he won the presidency, in 1860, seven southern states saw the import and seceded, eventually adding more to their number. The point being that there was nothing voluntary about the abolition of slavery inn this country
25and African-Americans are still fighting for their constitutional rights, especially since the Supremes have seen fit to gut the Voting rights law.
Truly we as a nation ARE exceptional… in the amount of blood and treasure we sacrificed to officially end slavery. I have considered myself well informed about History, in particular U.S. History, for someone that majored in a different topic. But then I recently watched a few documentaries on the History Channel that made me realize that knowing the events of what happened at a time and place, without knowing the why and backstory, really isn’t History. And this woman wants to change the backstory of slavery being ended.
Backstory 1: Taking away the official right to own slaves dissolved the single largest category of dollar value wealth in the country at the time of the Civil War. Imagine Wall Street being vaporized (sort of).
Backstory 2: Following the Civil War, Reconstruction Era backlash kept the reality of freed slaves from changing. Andrew Johnson pretty much gave back control to Confederate legislatures and politicians, with unsurprising results. The worst part being the KKK and other groups that enforced slavery conditions and attacked abolishonistic individuals in former slave holding states. I want to emphasize that the KKK was the ISIS of it’s day, except that Christianity was it’s nominal foundation. I really don’t want that kind of information to be swept under the rug, because it allows a better understanding of horrible events elsewhere by comparison.
In conclusion, we ARE exceptional, in our ability to deny we’re like everyone else…
26Angry white woman look peeved,KemoSabe.
27You know, I hate to say this, but these are the kinds of people who probably would feel at home when Joseph Stalin was busy “erasing” people who fell out of favor, or under the Communist Chinese government who “erased” all evidence of Tienanmen Square (and are “erasing” all evidence of the uprising in Hong Kong), and whose favorite books is probably George Orwell’s “1984” and “Animal Farm” (all animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others).
28Went to the Fall Festival in the Old Town section of Manassas, VA yesterday. Y’all remember Manassas as soon as I say Battle of Manassas. Stayed only a very short 20 minutes. It was the booth staffed with Pea Tardiers doing their Gadsden thing again that really got to me. Stars and stripes were nowhere in sight. Prior to this I had been at Joe Gibbs country festival at his place for troubled or abandoned children. Drove in by first going under an ENORMOUS star spangled banner held aloft by two hook and ladder fire trucks. The rwnj’s had been picketing his 56 acre place claiming that his orphanage was hiding MS13 members, some as old as 20. He had been taking in on a temporary basis unaccompanied minors coming across the southern border for at least 2 years. Thousands attended his country fair yesterday. Not an MS 13 in sight. I’ll take Joe’s practice of Matthew 25 over deranged Pea Tardiers anyday. The Pea Tardiers were carrying on in public at their little festival booth in Manassas about the Constitution. Regular or Advanced Placement American History class, I bet they never ever read it. The majority of the Pea Tardiers, if questioned about current education, would swear that it was all golden and way better when they were in school and that today’s schools simply couldn’t match what they attended. Well, now. Maybe so. But I would question big time their attention span when they sat in a classroom. And their retention ability.
29It is only fair that one day is Crazy White Woman Day since the other 364.242 are reserved for Crazy White Men.
30Maggie-are you inferring that the bull is still running at Manassas? 🙂 🙂
31For those Teabaggers seemingly incapable of grasping American history, perhaps we can offer them a comparison course in eastern European or Soviet revisionist history. Perhaps a few comparable facts to the current Teabag revisionist history will lead them to their very own glasnost moment.
32Gerald Ford swore Eastern Europe wasn’t under Soviet domination when Ford was Potus. Someone neglected to tell him Poland was in Eastern Europe at that time and they were Soviet dominated.
33e platypus onion, Gerald Ford was a prime example of the dangers of playing football without a helmet.
Guess old Pam is an example to young girls that playing catcher on a softball team shouldn’t be allowed without a face mask.
Time for $arah Palin to whip up a batch of get well cookies for our North Korean ally, Kim Jong-un.
34If there is a Colorado Student Assessment Program that tests the learning of the state’s public school students, why can’t there also be a test of the competency of prospective Colorado Board of Education members before they are actually appointed?
35UmptyDump, judges in courtrooms throughout the country qualify very young children to testify based on their ability to distinguish between truth and fiction. Same standard should be applied to ‘adults’ aspiring to positions of leadership; probably using the same questions.
36The 13th Amendment is what really ended slavery. It was approved by the Senate in 1864 and the House in 1864. Legislatures in the southern states ratified it only because Andrew Johnson made it a condition of their re-admission. The Wikipedia article makes interesting reading.
37The point that is disturbing to me is that they want to teach things that are not based on reality as legitimate points of view. As a teacher, I can certainly appreciate a desire to introduce students to multiple points of view. However, whether it be science, history, or literature we have to be careful not to legitimize wild theories and ideas that just aren’t legitimate in some kind of false equivalency. American exceptionalism? I have no problem introducing the general concept, but if you have to make up facts to support it then you delegitimize its very existence.
38I’m glad I never had children.
39