Keep Politics Out of Schools

Here is a story that I found truly upsetting, though I cannot say it necessarily surprised me. I have taken the information from a story and link is at the bottom of the article.

A middle school teacher at Liberty Middle School in Fairfax County, Virginia recently forced his students to support President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign by conducting opposition research in class against the Republican presidential candidates. The 8th grade students were required to seek out the vulnerabilities of Republican Presidential candidates and forward them to the Obama campaign.

"Liberty teacher Michael Denman, who declined to comment, unveiled the assignment in mid-January when he broke the Civics Honor’s class into four groups, one for each Republican candidate. The students were then to collaborate as a group and research the backgrounds of their assigned candidate."

“ 'I was shocked that a school teacher would so blatantly politicize the curriculum of a middle school classroom,' a parent said. 'I asked [my child] if a similar assignment had been handed out to examine the background and positions of President Obama to see if the teacher was at least being bipartisan.'

No similar assignment was given to research Obama’s history, identify his weaknesses or pass them along to the Republican candidates."

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/22/va-middle-schoolers-assigned-to-do-oppo-research-on-gop-candidates/#ixzz1puCXN5S1