I’m a victim. An innocent bystander drawn into the stupiding of our children (I like to make up words…it’s called thinking outside the box). One day while innocently researching for an upcoming blog, I came across this mildly interesting game link that tests one’s knowledge of middle eastern geography:
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html When your done no score is given. They just tell you “Complete!” Well, I thought this was odd. “What the?”, I said. “What’s my friggin’ score? What kind of game is this that they don’t tell me if I won or not?” (to me, winning is getting 80% correct, I mulligan the other 20%).

Then I read the root url “rethinkingschools.org”. “Uh oh, this can’t be good.” My righty senses were going off the charts crazy. Against my better judgement I pushed through my hesitation and went to the home page. If ever there was proof of hate-america (insert appropriate slang term here) pushing to indoctrinate students and teachers, it is this site. Designed as a teacher’s aid in developing classroom curriculum, this site’s focus is on what a horrible place America is. So, as a teacher, are you struggling to figure out how best to educate middle schoolers…that’s right, MIDDLE SCHOOLERS…about the war on terrorism? Click this link. Want to develop a lesson plan around this topic? Here’s some ideas. What education would be complete without knowing “Drawing on History to Challenge the War”, “Whose Terrorism?”, “Defeating Despair”, or my personal favorite “Songs for Global Conscience”.

Let’s not overlook the fact that the game that lured me to the site in the first place has no risk/reward. It simply tells you when your done. There is no feedback nor consequence to an answer being wrong. I had no idea what the names of some of the countries were. I simply dragged the name over the land area until it stuck. And now I still don’t know where they are. Granted, my feelings weren’t hurt (as I’m sure was the intent) but I came away with no sense of accomplishment, no sense of achievement. It was all very forgettable. In short I didn’t care.

This is their model for teaching kids geography, history, and current events. Remove the risk and the reward is meaningless. Apathy takes root and the world gets a little more emo.

So, yeah. Obama had it right. When I read junk like this and think that it has even a chance to see the light of day in just a fraction of my tax funded classrooms, you’re darn straight that I will cling to my guns and bible. there’s not much more we can or need to count on.