I began my morning reading the account of a County in Virginia teaching calligraphy to children. Sounds innocuous until you read what they were given to practice. How about the Shahada? ” There is no other God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.” The World Geography course implemented by Augusta County, Verona, Virginia was used. Oh, just look it up on today’s news roster.
That gave me heartburn before I even had my morning coffee. The outraged parents shut the school down. How can there be a question of the purpose in this? American kids lag well behind other nations in the quality and content of what is taught them. They score well behind the children of other nations. Here is one of the reasons. Calligraphy is not one of the three R’s, won’t help much with math, world history or reading. Unless they are being prepared to read and write in Arabic. Why would that be a value above the basics?
I would suggest a policy to review every single curriculum being taught in every school in the nation. This discovery alone smacks of invasion. Could we have any doubt what’s happening here? These are children. Can the extemporaneous curricula be removed until children can satisfactorily score within the set parameters for the basic requirements? I can’t think of a single reason calligraphy should be imposed anywhere, frankly or insidiously. Outrage should be the order of the day everywhere that this is happening right under our noses.
It has been many decades since I was the terror of the system where my child attended school. It began way back in the very early sixties when school systems did an about-face from whining that parents were not engaged in the teaching of their children to please do not come. That guaranteed parents would become suspicious about what their kids were being taught. In her school district parents showed up and demanded teachers meet with parents.
Sounds like parents in Virginia recognize the camel’s nose is under the tent and raising sand about it. Bravo to them.
thestewofstory 