[RSCT] resources and curriculum recommendations for new courses

[gibran raya]

Hello Colleagues,

Hope Summer finds you well and with more time to rest, reflect, and reload...

Im a member of the listserve and am teaching new classes this fall at a wonderful middle school with a great mission. 
Thus I would really appreciate some suggestions regarding materials for the following classes - though the one that I am most in need of is the first listed:

Ancient Civilizations - 6th gr.
Geography - 7th gr.
Social Justice - 8th gr.
Public Speaking - 6th & 7th grades

*** THE SCHOOL IS FOR ACADEMICALLY MOTIVATED STUDENTS AND MANY OF THE MATERIALS USED IN COURSES ARE HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL, IF TOO DIFFICULT THEY CAN BE ADAPTED SO PLEASE DONT REFRAIN FROM SUGGESTING SUCH RESOURCES.

Thank you so much for your continuous support, your knowledge is impressive and work is valued.
Gibran 



From: BBPDX at aol.com
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 19:44:40 -0400
To: rs at criticalteach.org
Subject: [RSCT] McNamara's legacy, war, and test scores

Dear Rethinking Schools friends,



When we think about the importance of the critical teaching work that we're attempting, it may be worth considering Howard Zinn's comments today about the character of Kennedy and Johnson's Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara -- key shaper of U.S. war strategy in Vietnam -- who just died. Here is what Zinn had to say on Tuesday's "Democracy Now," when Amy Goodman asked Zinn about McNamara's legacy:



<<It seems to me one thing which we should be thinking about, is that McNamara represented all of those superficial qualities of brightness and intelligence and education that are so revered in our culture. This whole idea that you judge young kids today on the basis of what their test scores are, how smart they are, how much information they can digest, how much they can give back to you and remember. That’s what McNamara was good at. He was bright and he was smart, but he had no moral intelligence. What strikes me as one of the many things we can learn from this McNamara experience is that we’ve got to stop revering these superficial qualities of brightness and smartness, and bring up a generation which thinks in moral terms, which has moral intelligence, and which asks questions not, “Do we win or do we lose?” Asks questions, " Is this right? Is it wrong?" And McNamara never asked that question.>>



Jonathan Schell was also interviewed by Goodman. Schell pointed out that as overdue and as pathetic as it was, McNamara waged a bit of public struggle with his conscience about his role in Vietnam, and even World War II. Zinn agrees but uses this to make another key point about young people:



<<I think it tells us that once you enter the machinery of government, once you enter the House of Empire, you are lost. You are going to be silenced. You may feel anguish and you may be torn and you may weep and so on, but you are not going to speak out. What lesson I think that is for us, for young people who may be thinking, as many young people do: “You know, I think I’ll enter the government and I’ll get in there and I’ll make a difference.” No. The people who made a difference are not the people inside the Pentagon. The people who made the difference are the people outside the Pentagon, the people who demonstrated against the Pentagon, the people in the streets, the movement. If people are going to devote their energy to making this a better world, they better not think of getting into that machine that destroyed people like McNamara and that silence them.>>



McNamara was a war criminal. Let's "honor his legacy" by continuing the crucial work of figuring out better ways to get our students to ask fundamental questions about our society and about war -- to ask, as Zinn says: "Is this right? Is this wrong?"



For the full discussion: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/7/vietnam_war_architect_robert_mcnamara_dies



Best, 



Bill Bigelow

Rethinking Schools

www.rethinkingschools.org


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