[angelize56]

Another slippery slope! I can agree with what Miriam Foltz says in this article :"There are other races in this city," said Foltz, who is white. "There are other cultures that will be very offended by this. How can you just mandate a course like this?" I smell the ACLU coming!

Philly Schools to Require African History Class to Graduate

NewsMax.com Wires

Thursday, June 9, 2005

PHILADELPHIA -- City high school students will be required to take a class in African and African American history to graduate, a move that education experts believe is unique in the nation.

The requirement in the 185,000-student district, which is about two-thirds black, begins with September's freshman class, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Thursday.

The yearlong course covers subjects including classical African civilizations, civil rights and black nationalism, said Gregory Thornton, the district's chief academic officer. The other social studies requirements are American history, geography and world history.

Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, an advocacy group for big city school districts, said Philadelphia appeared to be in the forefront with such a requirement.

"Courses on the subjects are offered as electives in other cities," he said.

Some parents opposed requiring the course, including Miriam Foltz, president of the Home and School Association at Baldi Middle School.

"There are other races in this city," said Foltz, who is white. "There are other cultures that will be very offended by this. How can you just mandate a course like this?"

While acknowledging it would be better to have courses adequately reflecting all cultures, district officials said African and African American history had been neglected too long.

"We have a whole continent that has been absent from most of our textbooks," said Paul Vallas, the district's chief executive officer.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/arti.../9/84532.shtml

[linskyjack]

They elect the mayor who appoints the school board. Thats localism for you--something that conservatives love.

[Gibble]

IMHO, it should be an elective.

[angelize56]

Gibby and I agree!

[angelize56]

UPDATE

Lawmaker Wants School Requirement Changed

Wednesday, June 22, 2005 11:23 a.m. ET

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The speaker of the state House urged the city school district to reconsider what he called an "unnecessary" requirement that high school students take an African-American history course in order to graduate.

"I would like to see them master basic reading, writing and arithmetic," Speaker John Perzel said in a letter Tuesday to James Nevels, chairman of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission.

"Once we have them down pat, I don't care what they teach. ... They should understand basic American history before we go into African-American history," he wrote.

Perzel, a Republican, questioned why one ethnic group is singled out in the curriculum. He urged a course of study focusing on "the many cultures" in the district, which is about 67 percent black, 14 percent Hispanic, 14 percent white and 5 percent Asian.

Nevels and Paul Vallas, the district's chief executive, were out of town and weren't available for comment, district spokesman Fernando Gallard said.

National education groups say no other school district they know of requires black studies. The requirement is to apply to the class of students entering high school this fall.

Sandra Dungee Glenn, a black member of the School Reform Commission who proposed the requirement, has said she hopes African-American history and that of other groups eventually could be taught within basic history courses.

"What we are doing now in many ways is reacting to the removal of information that has left all of us poorly educated in a lot of ways," Dungee Glenn said. "I would like to think that the end point would be to offer sound courses that were all-inclusive. ... But we're not there yet."

The course, already offered as an elective at 11 of the city's 54 high schools, covers topics including African civilizations, civil rights and black nationalism, and teachers say it has captivated students.

http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/s...toryId=1052756

[LANMaster]

Afdrican history should not be singled out as a separate course from World history.

.... unless you want to make it an elective where credits do apply to history requrements.

[plschwartz]

Angel. Sorry I missed this one. Belated thanks.

Many years ago my first wife and I were looking for an old country property to fix up. We saw a dilapidated stone church near a small river. I went running out of the car to look into a window, where there was what looked like wind-blown pile of leaves underneath.
One two three steps I took only to realize that underneath the leaves was a pile of chickendodo that has gotten shoveled out the window. The ex-church wa being used as a chicken coop.
So I know what it is to be butt deep in such stuff.
This experience came to mind reading that Philadelphia story.
But let me first start with the silliness of the Mexican stamp.. The response to this I fear shows the increasing rigidification of American society.

In the US where in-spite of all the noise about slave rape, it does seem that in the main black men were allowed and even encouraged to lay with black women. This kept a large relatively purely African population.
In a blog I read how in Spanish America but really mainly Mexico this was not the case The author states that for "religious" reasons the slave owners were encourages to be with the slave woman (black and Indian), with the exclusion of slave men.So that rapidly an integrated population emerged. The exception seems to be in a lowland area near the Carri-bean coast where there is a population of mostly African descendants
In distinction Cuba, though a Spanish colony had (has?) a color social stratification and a large population again of mainly African descent.

I would suggest the possibility that there were economic factors which favored an integrated society and other factors which were neutral or even favored segregation

Perhaps it was not entirely unfortunate that Stephen Gould dies early, as modern genetics would stamp paid to his attempts to isolate human racial differences from the results of the evolutionary theory he did much to further.

His theory of periods of rapid evolution due to environmental stress has been accepted over the slower march of mutation. This is most especially true in the evolution of Ciliad fish in the lakes and streams of Africa.

Next I wish to mention the rapid advances of genetic tracing of human migration. The consensus view is more or less presented in https://www5.nationalgeographic.com/...hic/atlas.html.

Genetic marker data supports a separation from the parent
African population and a small with distinct markers of a population which migrated first into the middle east and then east and north. This second population faced a variety of environmental stressors which would strongly suggest different evolutionary paths for the past 40,000 years.
The African population remained at a stone- and iron age level. This is shared by the remnants of an earlier migration out of Africa in an arc into Australasia.
Although there were obvious differences between different parts of Africa, economics remained basically hunter-gatherer and simple agriculture. In those areas where cattle could live there was also a herding culture.
More advanced society seemed dependent upon the establishment of riverine-based irrigation. This was impossible in Africa because of numerous human-adapted parasites.

If the lessons of history are to prepare us to learn from the errors of the past what exactly will be taught in a separatist history.
I am a social Darwinist and do feel that the multi-clitoral foolishness has allowed a Gresham's law to develop in our society

[plschwartz]

LAN is that thingy next to your name a picture of Big Bird when he doesn't get his way? Grimms fairy tales for you

[linskyjack]

Actually, the Catholic Church was primarily responsible for mitigating against pure chattel slavery in South America. What do you mean, you are a social darwinist---I doubt you are in the classic sense of the term.

[angelize56]

Hi Paul...you have to explain this one:

Originally Posted by plschwartz

multi-clitoral foolishness

Did you mean multi-cultural....was that a Freudian slip...or meant as written!

[plschwartz]

Originally Posted by linskyjack

Actually, the Catholic Church was primarily responsible for mitigating against pure chattel slavery in South America. What do you mean, you are a social darwinist---I doubt you are in the classic sense of the term.

Jack that is a star chamber accusation: What do you think I am not.
And why was the church successful in some places but notably not in Cuba or puerto Rico?
As I remember the story Spain was far from universally happy that the church or at least its early representative in Mexico so declared it. In the Brooklyn Museum therev is a fascinating Mexican folk painting or tapistry showing for the three races of african indian and european the various mixtures and degree of mixture. Each had a particular name. A society does this only if there is some external reason to do this

[plschwartz]

Originally Posted by angelize56

Hi Paul...you have to explain this one:

Did you mean multi-cultural....was that a Freudian slip...or meant as written!

I must have been thinking of you marlene

[linskyjack]

Originally Posted by plschwartz

Jack that is a star chamber accusation: What do you think I am not.
And why was the church successful in some places but notably not in Cuba or puerto Rico?
As I remember the story Spain was far from universally happy that the church or at least its early representative in Mexico so declared it. In the Brooklyn Museum therev is a fascinating Mexican folk painting or tapistry showing for the three races of african indian and european the various mixtures and degree of mixture. Each had a particular name. A society does this only if there is some external reason to do this

[linskyjack]

Schwartz stop being so cryptic. Answer to your question is simply the definition of social darwinism---as perpetuated by the crackpot pseudo-scientist Herbert Spencer:

It posits that their some races are superior to others and thus became an excuse for colonization, imperialism, slavery etc. Schwartz, thats so passe and I'm sure you dont subscribe to that nonsense. That would make you a racist, and I have seen nothing in your posts that would indicate that. More likely you meant to say Darwinism---leave the social out. By the way, this is not the Star Chamber--I was merely trying to find out why you claimed to be a racist---made no sense.

---As far as Cuba and Puerto Rico---both are very small islands and thus, the church was not as active as it was on the mainland of Central America and South America. Remember, I said mitigated against--not eliminated--slavery did exist and it was onerous, but nothing compared to the slave system in America.

[plschwartz]

Originally Posted by linskyjack

Schwartz stop being so cryptic. Answer to your question is simply the definition of social darwinism---as perpetuated by the crackpot pseudo-scientist Herbert Spencer:

It posits that their some races are superior to others and thus became an excuse for colonization, imperialism, slavery etc. Schwartz, thats so passe and I'm sure you dont subscribe to that nonsense. That would make you a racist, and I have seen nothing in your posts that would indicate that. More likely you meant to say Darwinism---leave the social out. By the way, this is not the Star Chamber--I was merely trying to find out why you claimed to be a racist---made no sense.

---As far as Cuba and Puerto Rico---both are very small islands and thus, the church was not as active as it was on the mainland of Central America and South America. Remember, I said mitigated against--not eliminated--slavery did exist and it was onerous, but nothing compared to the slave system in America.

Jack;
Second point first. Bad logic on the islands. You take the outcome to show a lack of input from your hypothesized active agent. Do you have outside evidence as # of priests per population etc.?

As to Darwinism let me suggest that I absolutely believe that there has been differential adaptations amongst different social groups in large part due to differential environmental challenges.
What I wonder Jack is if you actually belong over with Val. That evolution does not apply to humans. I believe that it does. It is easy to mistake and characterize my opinions. But I belief that there are differences between groups of humans which give a differential ability to respond to a specific set of environmental challenges. I do not see better or worse in an absolute sense but fit or more fit to a given environment.
Unfortunately in the present globalization of the world, the cultural environment is becoming more homogeneous.

The Philadelphia history demand is a logical response to the fantasy that this country has lived since the Civil Rights act. I spent many years of my professional life observing the results of what a central lie does to an individual, a family. I think that the decision to buy racial peace during Vietnam by proclaiming that the differences were all social, has had a price. America thrived under the Melting pot hypothesis. It has declined under the multicultural one. QED