in my mail

Please see the following item from Diana Muir about the Scottsdale public schools adopting an anti-Israel textbook.   

Scottsdale is the test district for a new text produced by the Teacher's Curriculum Institute, History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond. The new book and teachers materials are extremely anti-Israel, in addition to providing a highly inaccurate history of Islam. 

See "Background", below, for details then  please write.  We must not allow history to be rewritten in American classrooms.

ACTION
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Write a letter of protesting the anti-Israel and factually inaccurate textbook and curriculum recently adopted by the Scottsdale Unified School District

CONTACT INFO
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Mrs. Christine Schild, President
Governing Board, Scottsdale Unified School District govboard@susd.org

Dr. John M. Baracy, Superintendent
jbaracy@susd.org

SAMPLE LETTER
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[Remember that it is always best if you compose a letter in your own words.]

Dear Dr. Baracy,

I am writing to complain about the anti-Israel textbook, "History Alive!", that the Scottsdale Unified School District has adopted. This textbook presents a highly biased view of the Middle East and contains factually inaccurate propaganda.

Specifically, the Teacher's Curriculum Institute unit on the Modern Middle East presents a distorted history of the region that omits mention of ancient Israel as a sovereign Jewish nation, omits mention of the centrality of Jerusalem to Judaism, and erases the pertinent fact of continuous Jewish presence in the Holy Land throughout history. It states that the Jews "left" Israel 2,000 years ago. The Jews did not "leave." The Jewish population of the area around Jerusalem was shipped in chains to Roman slave markets, while the Jewish population of the Galilee stayed in place.

The sort of propaganda-as-history presented in "History Alive!" has no place in the public school curriculum. History Alive!'s constant use of the name "Palestine," refusal to use the name "Israel," omission of any mention of the nearly one million Jewish refugees driven from Muslim lands, and use of the word "terrorism" only in the sentence "Zionist terrorist groups formed and began attacking..." demonstrates that this curriculum is not scholarship but mere propaganda carefully planned to delegitimize the Jewish claim to the land of Israel.

I demand that the Scottsdale Schools immediately discontinue use of "Histroy Alive!" and replace it with a textbook that takes an evenhanded and factual approach to the Middle East.

Sincerely yours,


BACKGROUND
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The History Alive! textbook and its instructional materials are now being tested in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The publisher is Teachers' Curriculum Institute, a privately held company hoping to introduce the book to the lucrative California textbook market.

The chief author-advisor on Islam is Ayad Al-Qazzaz, professor of sociology at California State University, Sacramento. Al Quazzaz is a Muslim apologist and anti-Israel and pro-divestment activist.

The historical distortion and factual misrepresentations woven throughout the TCI curriculum renders it unacceptable for classroom use. A valid educational approach would present fully the nationalist narratives of both sides of the dispute, in an objective and fair manner, and would explain clearly that these narratives are what each side passionately believes. This would give the student (and teacher) the opportunity to weigh the arguments of both sides in a balanced exercise in critical thinking.

This material is so biased that it cannot be "fixed" either by using additional materials to supplement for its inadequacies or by omitting any given section. As a result of the bias, a potential exists for the creation of a hostile environment in the classroom against Jewish students.

Reports on the curriculum are available at:
http://schoolpropaganda.us/TCI_final_report.htm
http://www.historytextbooks.org/islam.htm
http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/20546