From CNN: For World War II veteran Sam Stia, a legislative proposal that would cease requiring New Jersey schools to teach about Veterans Day and Memorial Day can be summed up in two words.
"That's wrong," Stia, 83, said Thursday from his Hamilton home, where he flies an American flag at half-staff to honor fallen soldiers. "We're just giving our flag away and our patriotism away."
Stia and other veterans are steamed about the proposal, which the state lawmakers unanimously passed last month and now awaits action by the governor. It was included as part of a larger measure designed to help control property taxes, mostly by abolishing some laws on school purchasing and public hearings.
Other holidays about which schools no longer would be required to teach include Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, Arbor Day and Commodore Barry Day, which commemorates Revolutionary War hero John Barry.
New Jersey schools must observe the holidays under a 1967 law designed to promote "the development of a higher spirit of patriotism." Florida, Nebraska and Washington are among states with similar laws.
New Jersey American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars groups have asked Governor Jon S. Corzine to veto the bill so schools still have to teach about Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
"It's not right. They're not going to know the sacrifices that were made so they can enjoy the protections that they have," said Hank Adams, New Jersey VFW adjutant and an Army and Coast Guard veteran.
The governor hasn't decided how to proceed. "We're reviewing that bill," Corzine spokesman Anthony Coley said.
The law wouldn't ban schools from holding holiday commemorations. But requiring schools to honor the days guarantees children would learn about veterans, said Ray Zawacki, department adjutant for the American Legion of New Jersey.
"If it wasn't for veterans, we wouldn't have been able to maintain the freedoms the Constitution provided to us," said Zawacki, a Vietnam War Navy veteran.
Zawacki said schools frequently ask his and other veterans groups to send speakers into schools before the holidays.
But state Senator John Adler, a sponsor of the bill, cited a 2004 report by a state commission that recommended giving schools more flexibility to decide holiday observations. He questioned whether schools even bother to recognize the holidays.
"I don't believe that most schools fulfill the spirit of the law and the mandate," he said.
Adler said he understood and respected the veterans' concerns, but argued curriculum, not state mandates, should drive instruction.
"I don't think the state should be in the business of telling districts to do every single thing," he said.
New Jersey school officials support the bill.
"It's simply time and flexibility," said Mike Yaple, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association. "There's nothing in the legislation that can undermine the amount of pride and honor a community feels toward their veterans."
While I agree with Mr. Yaple that the amount of pride and honor a community gives towards their veterans will not be threatened, the knowledge of what these veterans have done for the country DOES seem to be at stake here.
As a history teacher, there does seem to be a notable concern here. More often than not, I will ask my students a rather basic question regarding US History. The blank stare that I get back is frightening. Imagine students who don't know who Christopher Columbus is. Imagine the shock I get when students tell me the Civil War was in 1923 or that the Battle of Manassas was fought in Vermont and started when the Monitor was fired on by the Merrimac. How about when a student asks whether or not Stonewall Jackson was actually Andrew Jackson.
As a teacher, there is an obligation to give all students a strong knowledge of United States history. The fear veterans groups have when it comes to not having these days taught about or observed is well founded. The students may forget about what those who came before them died for. Even worse, if a teacher is not going to teach what happened on these days or who these people were, it is possible that the teacher could use their own classroom as a bully pulpit to tell children whatever they want.
Is this right? Must we sacrifice our history for the sake of political correctness? Am I just so old fashioned that teaching history should in the end give kids a sense of pride in who they are as Americans?
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2 comments:
Of course the let winf idiots want to do away with anything that would instill pride in America to our young people. How else can they push their "one worls/new worl order" agenda.
They have used the schools to undermine the strength and patriotism of our children as a sacrifice on the altar of "one world" order and loss of national Sovereignty.
Tar and feather the politicians who support this or better yet vote them back to the obscurity they so well deserve.
And despite countless stories like this, Congressman Murtha and false charges against US Marines, Harry "Tokyo" Reid declaring the war is lost, and Sen Durbin calling our troops Nazis, Democrats tell Americans not to question their Patriotism?
I guess you can't question something they don't have.
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