Why do our schools lead children to believe America is evil?

If you want to keep up with what’s happening in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Michael Rubin performs a public service in National Review Online’s Corner by offering periodic updates. Thursday morning’s post contains, among others, these items:

Ahmadinejad tells war veterans and families of martyrs of the Iran-Iraq war: “Development of this country is dependent on us showing the ethos and principles of the martyrs.” . . . “Pressing need for martyrdom culture.”

Filmmaker held in Iran after stumbling upon mass grave of prisoners executed by regime.

Interior Minister: “Our nation resists imported ideas . . . such as liberalism and moral decay . . . Japan and China have lost their traditional values and have become Westoxifated . . . but Iranian women resist the ugly temptations of liberalism.”

Madrasa, a quarterly journal reflecting views of moderate religious intellectuals such as Mojtahed Shabestari and Abdol Karim Soroush, banned.

It happens that just after glancing at one of Rubin’s dispatches the other morning, my sixth-grader drew my attention to his homework assignment. He was to read an article about Iran in Junior Scholastic magazine and answer questions about it. You surely recall Junior Scholastic from your own school days. It’s been around for 85 years and reaches about 25 million children.

The Oct. 1, 2007, issue featured a cover story titled “Iran: The Other Side of the World?” The piece begins by introducing Mohammad Reza Moqaddam, a 15-year-old resident of Qom, who “speaks quietly and respectfully” and prays five times a day. “A lot of young people these days have distanced themselves from religion,” he relates. “I would like them to be much closer to it.” Mohammad pays close attention to the news though, and offers the view that “Even if Iran wants nuclear weapons, it’s none of the other countries’ business. Some of them have nuclear weapons themselves.”

Okay, so when do we get to the part where it is explained that even if young Mohammad wants a neutral take on the news, he cannot get it in Iran where the press is rigidly controlled by the regime? Nowhere. Where does it explain that Iran is the world’s fourth-largest oil supplier and therefore scarcely in need of “peaceful nuclear power”? You won’t find that either.

The article (written by Roxana Saberi, a reporter for National Public Radio) explains that Iran has been “at odds” with America since the revolution of 1979, which forced out the “U.S.-backed Shah” and brought to power a government “based on strict Islamic principles.” But she doesn’t mention that Ayatollah Khomeini and his mobs denounced the United States as the “great Satan” and chanted “Death to America.” The hostage crisis, in which armed militants, possibly including the current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, held 52 American diplomats for 444 days, goes unmentioned until a glancing reference at the end of the article under Iranian history.

Omitting the nature of the revolution and vehement America hatred of its leaders, the article then instructs students that “the war in Iraq has further increased those tensions” because the U.S. commanders “claim” that Iran is supporting militias but the Iranian defense minister has labeled these accusations a “sheer lie.”

There’s much more along these lines. “Some members of the Bush Administration want to take military action against Iran.” But nary a word on Ahmadinejad’s threat to annihilate Israel or to see a world “without the United States.” Nor is there any mention of the thousands of casualties of the revolution, the public stonings or the virtue police. We meet more Iranian youngsters who defend their regime: “The U.S. thinks we are dangerous. Why shouldn’t we think the U.S. is dangerous?” asks a pretty, scarf-clad 13-year-old. Tania “is devoted to her country. Her wish for her people is that they become wise and well-educated.” She “hopes to help” her nation someday “by becoming a lawyer.”

We get the point. Only xenophobes would find this country hostile or frightening. The more we get together the happier we’ll be.

I’m not urging that Junior Scholastic gird our kids for war with Iran. But this happy patter is insipid and unworthy of them.

Why do our schools lead children to believe America is evil?pacific theater

Awww has somebody in the Farming School said,

this American crap stinks really evil? How significant.

Why do our schools lead children to believe America is evil?phantom of the opera opera theater

america is controlled by evil people,

the elite have hijacked our country and use the power to rape and pillage other countries resources...

the people are happily shopping and listening to the corporate owned medias propaganda.... they are blind

hillary has been chosen to lead

democracy is dead..

and you are on the wrong side...
WAY too much to read for a question. Consider cutting it down some so people will actually read it.

I don't think students are taught to hate America, I think they just learn the truth.
I'm sorry but I don't make that connection. How did you arrive at your opinion?
You mean the mandatory flags, pledges of loyalty er allegiance, ten commandments, and other items of mandatory patriotism or religious education are failing to indoctrinate these kids.

What the heck are conservatives doing wrong?
No one said Iran is innocent or isn't a major problem. They need to be delt with. But I don't believe bombing their country, which is made up of mostly children under the age of 18, is the right thing to do. Nor can we afford it militarily, economically or in terms of rising gas and oil prices.

I suppose you are going to be the first in line to fight the Iranians? I didn't think so.

And, our children are taught that Iran is evil, what is your point?
Teachers tend to focus on facts, not agenda. The facts are there, take it or leave it. Kids will eventually figure it out on their own. The ones that don't figure it out usually don't go to college and end up blaming everything on liberals and accusing US schools of being evil.

If the same thing going on in Iraq was going on here we would view the invading forces the same way the rest of the planet views us. Keep in mind education haters, you are the minority. You know nothing if you think teachers have an agenda to convince students that America is evil. That is just plain ridiculous.
Public schools and colleges have been infiltrated by left-wing ideology which is outlined by hating and blaming America for the world's problems.
yes
The only thing that will knock sense into liberals unfortunately, is when we are attacked again.
Because we LET them and that is truly infuriating.
it seems to me there are a large percentage of people in the education business who think the US for being a developed country, is bad. and we should all return to the ways of yesteryear and abandon cars and hospitals and ride horses that don't fart and have a doctor visit us at home, from money that grows on global warming fighting trees. They do not like the US and want us to become like Iran and Syria, etc. Basically, they hate themselves and want to see to it they lend a hand in their demise. I guess. Looks like it to me.