Southlake, Tx school district official tells teachers they should offer students an 'opposing view' to the Holocaust

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A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlakem, Texas, is under fire for advising teachers to present "opposing" viewpoints if they're going to provide books to their students about the Holocaust, NBC News reports.

Gina Peddy, who is the Carroll school district's executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the remarks during a training session this Friday that was called in response to a parent's complaint about a fourth grade teacher who had an anti-racism book in her classroom.

"Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979," Peddy said in a recording taken secretly by a Carrol staff member, referring to a new Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing "widely debated and currently controversial" issues.

"And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives," Peddy continued.

"How do you oppose the Holocaust?" one teacher said in response.

"Believe me," Peddy said. "That's come up."

In a statement to NBC News, Carroll spokeswoman Karen Fitzgerald said the district "recognizes that all Texas teachers are in a precarious position with the latest legal requirements" in regards to the new state law and an updated version that will go into effect in December, Texas Senate Bill 3.

"Our purpose is to support our teachers in ensuring they have all of the professional development, resources and materials needed. Our district has not and will not mandate books be removed nor will we mandate that classroom libraries be unavailable," Fitzgerald said, adding that "teachers who are unsure about a specific book "should visit with their campus principal, campus team and curriculum coordinators about appropriate next steps."
https://www.rawstory.com/texas-holocaust-books/

You will only teach what we tell you to teach. If you don’t you will be sent to a reeducation camp to tell you what you will teach. :sarcasm:
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Southlake, Tx school district official tells teachers they should offer students an 'opposing view' to the Holocaust

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More than a few years ago, I worked for a semi-rural Texas school district; an attitude some parents have is "Don't you dare teach my child how to think independently - I want them to think like me and they don't need to know anything different!"

This belief is especially evident during School Board election time, and can be a force to be reckoned with in local politics.
"...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." ― Article VI, United States Constitution

Re: Southlake, Tx school district official tells teachers they should offer students an 'opposing view' to the Holocaust

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Well nazis do have a different view, just not a justifiable one or based on reality. Why didn’t someone clearly ask what is the opposing view to the holocaust? “How do you oppose” is not straightforward enough. Is the opposing argument that deaths and concentration camps were fabricated? I would have been curious to know what kind of limb this moron wanted to climb on. Teaching opposing views is fine, as long as it’s based in reality and not fabrication and propaganda.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: Southlake, Tx school district official tells teachers they should offer students an 'opposing view' to the Holocaust

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OK. I can offer an opposing view:
View 1: 6 Million Jews died in the Holocaust.
View 2: No, 6.5 Million Jews died in the Holocaust.
View 3: 12 Million died in the Holocaust, including 6 Million Jews.
The bullshit that there was no Holocaust is not an "opposing view" because there is no evidence to support it.

America has gone insane and will collapse. The Georgia Nit WIt, MTG, has, as a member of Congress, proposed that we divide into 2 nations. Of course SHE thinks Georgia which went for Biden and has 2 Democratic Senators, will join Dumfukistan, being a Dumb Fuck herself.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Southlake, Tx school district official tells teachers they should offer students an 'opposing view' to the Holocaust

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lurker wrote: Fri Oct 15, 2021 7:02 am my crisis, maybe.
Psychiatric study is beyond high school level. I suppose one could split the holocaust into two views. Was it the act of a sane or insane individual. Still beyond high school though.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: Southlake, Tx school district official tells teachers they should offer students an 'opposing view' to the Holocaust

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Let's do a 180 degree turn.
Texas school district apologizes after asking teachers to examine 'opposing views' about the Holocaust

A Texas school district has issued an apology one day after its executive director of curriculum instructed teachers to promote reading materials that offer "opposing views" about the Holocaust.

In a Facebook post, the Carroll Independent School District admitted that the administrator erred when she made the recommendations about teaching two different sides to the systematic murder of 6 million Jews during World War II.

"During the conversations with teachers during last week's meeting, the comments made were in no way to convey that the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history," wrote Carroll Superintendent of Schools Lane Ledbetter. "Additionally, we recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust."

The administrator's remarks came in response to a recent bill passed by the Texas legislature that demands students be presented with opposing viewpoints when it comes to "widely debated and currently controversial."

Ledbetter emphasized, however, that "as we continue to work through implementation of HB3979, we also understand this bill does not require an opposing viewpoint on historical facts."
https://www.rawstory.com/texas-school-d ... holocaust/

Let's see what they do about other historical events such as slavery, including the real reason for the Texas War of Independence, the Civil War, westward expansion, or civil rights and now the big one CRT.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Southlake, Tx school district official tells teachers they should offer students an 'opposing view' to the Holocaust

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TrueTexan wrote: Fri Oct 15, 2021 5:10 pm Let's do a 180 degree turn.
Texas school district apologizes after asking teachers to examine 'opposing views' about the Holocaust

A Texas school district has issued an apology one day after its executive director of curriculum instructed teachers to promote reading materials that offer "opposing views" about the Holocaust.

In a Facebook post, the Carroll Independent School District admitted that the administrator erred when she made the recommendations about teaching two different sides to the systematic murder of 6 million Jews during World War II.

"During the conversations with teachers during last week's meeting, the comments made were in no way to convey that the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history," wrote Carroll Superintendent of Schools Lane Ledbetter. "Additionally, we recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust."

The administrator's remarks came in response to a recent bill passed by the Texas legislature that demands students be presented with opposing viewpoints when it comes to "widely debated and currently controversial."

Ledbetter emphasized, however, that "as we continue to work through implementation of HB3979, we also understand this bill does not require an opposing viewpoint on historical facts."
https://www.rawstory.com/texas-school-d ... holocaust/

Let's see what they do about other historical events such as slavery, including the real reason for the Texas War of Independence, the Civil War, westward expansion, or civil rights and now the big one CRT.
Agree TT. It’ll be interesting. Certainly one way expand creative writing. As a nation we have a huge problem admitting to all our wrongs. I’d certainly like to see the real history of our country taught. Our initial settlement from migrating people crossing from Asia to the brutal theft of land and decimation of their culture.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: Southlake, Tx school district official tells teachers they should offer students an 'opposing view' to the Holocaust

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The entire "Holocaust Denial" effort is, and always has been, gas-lighting. See, if you can throw shade on the actual reality of the Holocaust, or Shoa, then you can throw shade on the otherwise obvious evil of National Socialism (Nazism), you can start saying things like Hitler wasn't so bad, he saved the German economy, built the autobahns, had the iconic VW beetle, (Volkswagon, pronounced Folks Voggon, means "People's Car"), flushed out the German Communists (The KPD was THE strongest Communist party outside of the USSR and the only one that owed NOTHING to the USSR, and was unconnected--at one point they won 1/4 of the nation's votes). etc.

Then you can point to the "failings" of Left, arguing for an "efficient" one-party state. "Mussolini made the trains run on time" and other such nonsense. Watch Steve Bannon--he's a HUGE proponent of a fascist dictatorship, throwing shade on Democracy every chance he gets, citing obscure Italian fascists nobody else knows. But this effort to create a one-party state by the ReThugs goes back to the rise of Gingrich in the 90's, much more so than even Reagan or Nixon. Tom DeLay's and Karl Rove's attempt in the early 2000's to create a "perpetual majority" by attempting to freeze out any donor's access if they gave a NICKEL to any Democrat, to intimidate them into starving the DNC, the DSCC, and the DCCC. It didn't work.

One of the super-powerful reasons that the Weimar Democracy failed was that the judges were from the Kaiser era and didn't actually believe in Democracy, issued mild punishments to right-wing murders and insurrectionists, like the murderers of the Jewish Foreign Minister in 1922, Walther Rathenau, and of course Hitler's minimalist punishment for the Munich Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. McConnell has spent the last 12 years trying, rather successfully, to do the same thing to the Federal Judiciary here--witness the 5th Circuit supporting the clearly unconstitutional Texas abortion law--because it removes enforcement from the authorities and gives it to vigilantes. We see a court system that is giving, again, minimial penalties to insurrectionists, while ignoring obvious anti-Democracy moves in state after state.

If we can no longer trust our courts, the "game" is over. We, the Baby Boomer Generation, have allowed the corruption and the eventual fall of what "The Greatest Generation" gave their lives to save. Remember, Trump visiting a WWII military graveyard in France described the dead who saved us as "suckers and losers".--and he's a Boomer.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Southlake, Tx school district official tells teachers they should offer students an 'opposing view' to the Holocaust

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In the apology, Mr. Ledbetter said, “As we continue to work through implementation of HB3979, we also understand this bill does not require an opposing viewpoint on historical facts.”
State Senator Kelly Hancock, a Republican, said in a statement that “school administrators should know the difference between factual historical events and fiction.” He added, “No legislation is suggesting the action this administrator is promoting.”

State Representative Giovanni Capriglione, also a Republican and a sponsor of the bill, said: “The Holocaust was a terrible event in human history based on ignorant hatred. It is not a currently controversial or even debatable subject — its occurrence is a fact.”

He said that the new Texas law “does not require an ‘opposing view’ and any idea that it would, is incorrect.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/us/h ... chool.html

That district needs a new head of curriculum and instruction, Peddy should have anticipated the types of questions she would be asked and be prepared for them. And she could have checked with state curriculum officials to clarify any issues.

The Holocaust is a historical fact, only neo-Nazis and pseudo-historians like David Irving deny it happened. The Nazis themselves provided much of the evidence, they obsessively document in detail their final solution.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Southlake, Tx school district official tells teachers they should offer students an 'opposing view' to the Holocaust

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highdesert wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 11:46 am
In the apology, Mr. Ledbetter said, “As we continue to work through implementation of HB3979, we also understand this bill does not require an opposing viewpoint on historical facts.”
State Senator Kelly Hancock, a Republican, said in a statement that “school administrators should know the difference between factual historical events and fiction.” He added, “No legislation is suggesting the action this administrator is promoting.”

State Representative Giovanni Capriglione, also a Republican and a sponsor of the bill, said: “The Holocaust was a terrible event in human history based on ignorant hatred. It is not a currently controversial or even debatable subject — its occurrence is a fact.”

He said that the new Texas law “does not require an ‘opposing view’ and any idea that it would, is incorrect.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/us/h ... chool.html

That district needs a new head of curriculum and instruction, Peddy should have anticipated the types of questions she would be asked and be prepared for them. And she could have checked with state curriculum officials to clarify any issues.

The Holocaust is a historical fact, only neo-Nazis and pseudo-historians like David Irving deny it happened. The Nazis themselves provided much of the evidence, they obsessively document in detail their final solution.
At the same time the Repugs will argue they need to show the opposing view to CRT and other historical facts like slavery and the Trail of Tears treatment of the indigious people of the Americas.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Southlake, Tx school district official tells teachers they should offer students an 'opposing view' to the Holocaust

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A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlakem, Texas, is under fire for advising teachers to present "opposing" viewpoints if they're going to provide books to their students about the Holocaust, NBC News reports.

Gina Peddy, who is the Carroll school district's executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the remarks during a training session this Friday that was called in response to a parent's complaint about a fourth grade teacher who had an anti-racism book in her classroom.
I think 'somebody' needs to ask Gina how she can be comfortable being a Holocaust denier? And being a racist and probably a trump lemming who believes in the traitor's 'big lie'...

Re: Southlake, Tx school district official tells teachers they should offer students an 'opposing view' to the Holocaust

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F4FEver wrote: Mon Oct 18, 2021 8:09 am
A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlakem, Texas, is under fire for advising teachers to present "opposing" viewpoints if they're going to provide books to their students about the Holocaust, NBC News reports.

Gina Peddy, who is the Carroll school district's executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the remarks during a training session this Friday that was called in response to a parent's complaint about a fourth grade teacher who had an anti-racism book in her classroom.
I think 'somebody' needs to ask Gina how she can be comfortable being a Holocaust denier? And being a racist and probably a trump lemming who believes in the traitor's 'big lie'...
The School district has been apologizing all over the media in statements. I would bet that Gina is in deep shit over this and has been told not to even open her mouth without clearing every word with the School District Lawyers first. It would not be surprising to see her reassigned to a different position or resign.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Southlake, Tx school district official tells teachers they should offer students an 'opposing view' to the Holocaust

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I feel sorry for Ms. Peddy...

I think that her comment came as a result of having to deal with politically wacko parents - most likely at least one in her district has claimed that the Holocaust was overblown or just outright faked, hence her comment "...it's come up." Had she clarified her statement by citing an experience with a parent who is a Holocaust denier, I think the outrage would not have erupted as it did; unfortunately, she's now branded as a Holocaust denier when she was only trying to work within the constraints of a dumb-ass law forced upon the schools.

Having worked in a rural Texas school district, I feel confident in conjecturing that every school district in Texas has at least one wacko parent who will loudly object to anything which contradicts their worldview, usually during the monthly Board meetings. We had one who could be counted on to insist his (non-) historical "facts" were correct despite all evidence to the contrary. Unfortunately, due to local politics, the wackos often have more influence than would be warranted...

What's ironic is that I found the "Texas Mythos Mindset" to be unsurpassed in denial and self-delusion.... Point out that the defenders at the Alamo were fighting to maintain slavery and you will find yourself a pariah in short order.
"...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." ― Article VI, United States Constitution

Re: Southlake, Tx school district official tells teachers they should offer students an 'opposing view' to the Holocaust

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Gina Peddy was presenting at a meeting of teachers probably an in-service. She should have been clear on the new law and if she had questions before the training she should have called the State Dept. of Education and checked with their curriculum staff and maybe even the district counsel. I'm a former government employee and I've been in training sessions where attendees had questions and the trainer didn't know the answers ,so he or she wrote down the questions and a few days or a week later all attendees got an e-mail with the answers and the name of the person(s) who provided the clarification. I've been a trainer and I've done it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9mgtlLzq5Y

I know there are parents and probably even teachers who can ask over the top questions and it's the the trainer who has to control the discussion and get clarification on doubtful areas. This is a new law and teachers are bound to have questions and Gina Peddy should have been better prepared.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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