These People Sound Like Nuts

So why is it hard to take right-wing critics of the CSCOPE curriculum  system in Texas seriously? Check out this recent newspaper advertisement published by a Tea Party group near Austin:

Tea Party_CSCOPEad

“The schools have declared war on our children in the form of C-SCOPE curriculum — COMMUNIST, MARXIST, PROGRESSIVE, LEFTIST DOGMA, PROPAGANDA, AND INDOCTRINATION at the expense of taxpayers!”

The ad (sent to us by a TFN supporter) promoted a February 28 Tea Party event in the Hill Country town of Marble Falls west of Austin. The presenter is one of at least two who have been carrying their anti-CSCOPE circus act to Tea Party and local Republican Party events around Texas.

To recap, CSCOPE is a curriculum management tool developed through a collaboration of regional Education Service Centers set up by the state in the 1960s. The purpose of the service centers is to provide support to public school districts. CSCOPE guides districts in how to cover the state’s curriculum standards and includes sample lessons teachers can use. In recent months far-right activists have charged that CSCOPE and the educators behind it are trying to indoctrinate Texas children with Marxism, radical Islam and a host of other demons. Some have even compared CSCOPE to Nazi mind control. You can read more about the anti-CSCOPE witch hunt here.

This advertisement’s list of supposed “lessons” in CSCOPE is a classic example of the absurdly distorted claims made by the program’s critics. These hair-on-fire claims by right-wing activists have increasingly overshadowed legitimate concerns other critics might have about transparency and the quality of some program materials. Even so, some elected officials — including Dan Patrick, R-Houston, chair of the Texas Senate Education Committee — have aided the witch hunt. Just this week State Board of Education Chairwoman Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, appointed a board committee to review the CSCOPE materials. The committee is scheduled to start later this month. Stay tuned.

17 thoughts on “These People Sound Like Nuts

  1. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. For those of you who know me—well—you know.

  2. Find the people funding this nonsense and stop them. Even kooks need money, and when you turn off the money tap, they drain back under the floorboards.

  3. This is why i am saving my money and lesving this place as soon as possible. i can not take any more, these nuts are just getting started

  4. Max…take a deep breath and relax. There are not that many of ’em. Let’s say that there are–at most–perhaps a million terrorists in the world. The planet currently has a population 6,973,738,433. So that means that there a LOT MORE OF US than there of them.

    I get a kick out of people who think that the terrorists can take us over. If they wanted to take over the world, maybe 10,000 of ’em could be here in the U.S. Our military would be able to wipe them out in about 12 hours.

    Feel better now? I’ve tried to watch one of those “prepper” shows but kept laughing too hard and had to watch something on PBS station instead.

    The people who are prepping are NOT the sharpest knives in the drawer. LISTEN to them. They ain’t read no book since they graduated fourth grade.

    The knuckle-draggers who think that our kids are being taught that President Obama is an underground Muslim and that Marxism is better than Capitalism…well, you get the point. Stay where you are…the only thing to fear are the ignoramuses themselves.

  5. I actually followed the track from the company who is putting this event on. I then looked up their sources, and they are claiming to that the contraverasal lessons are from units of CSCOPE that don’t even exist! Too bad that only educators can view the info. One of the biggest concerns is the fact that parents can’t see the lesson plans. HELLO, since when do teachers have to tell parents what their lesson plans?

    1. Why, to make sure the lesson is Jeezly enough. You wouldn’t want your kid to forget about Jesus for a single God-blessed instant, now do you?? Nor do you want them learning anything unScriptural, like the Earth not being the center of the universe and all. That just won’t do.

  6. If I suggested something obviously outrageous like “…Interracial dating …. gateway to bestiality….” they would probably pick it up and run w/ it … so I better not.

  7. I’m surprised they don’t call for the impeachment of Earl Warren!

    What’s with these guys with Communists and Nazis and Black Panthers? It’s like they never got out of the 50’s.

    1. George,
      A press release from Barbara Cargill indicated that the meetings will be posted and public.