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Keep 'America' out of Michigan schools.



State bureaucrats want to do what Stalin, Osama could only dream about

Michael Warren

C ensoring the word "America" from our own schools is something Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden would never have thought possible. Michigan has done it without a whimper.

In perhaps a well-intentioned, but pernicious example of political correctness, the Michigan Department of Education is attempting to ban the "America" and "American" from our public schools. Even though the word "America" appears in the department's own civics and government benchmarks, the department's style protocol for the Michigan Education Assessment Program requires that "America" and "Americans" be expunged from our testing and grade level expectations. Last week, the department ordered that our hard-working teachers not utter the words.

We're all 'North Americans'

The Department of Education asserts that "Americans" includes Mexicans, Canadians and others in the Western Hemisphere, so referring to U.S. residents as Americans is inappropriate. In the department's view, "America" happens to include South, Central and North America. Accordingly, when referring to the colonial period, the state bureaucracy requires teachers to refer to "the colonies of North America" or "North Americans." After the American Revolution, the nation is called the United States (not of America).

The state's edict would be laughable if it were not so disgraceful. Instead of focusing on better teaching methods and educational resources to help our hard-working teachers and parents, the Department of Education spends its energy on confusing, misleading, historically inaccurate and counterproductive wordplay.

One can only imagine how teachers struggle to meet the semantic dictates of an educational bureaucracy gone awry. According to the department, before the American Revolution, George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were North Americans. But so were the French colonists in the Louisiana Territory, the Spanish settlers in Mexico and the British colonists in Canada -- not to mention the Native Americans.

Laugh!

Gordon.

Wonder what they'd subsistitute for 'America' in all those songs? It's a bit disappointing that is has been debunked. The joys of watching them try to wriggle their way out of all the knock-on effects which they haven't thought of would really be quite considerable.

Hmmmmm It might take awhile to find a more accurate word with the same ring. Maybe it would help if we put it to music.





:guitarist And I'm proud to be a USAsian, where at least I know I'm (relatively) free



:guitarist I'm a United Statesian Soldier, A United Statesian.



:guitarist Don't want to be a USish idiot.

Don't want a nation under the new media

And can you hear the sound of hysteria?

The subliminal mind **** USA.



Yup. This is gonna be tough.

Good god, next they'll be outlawing apple pie and baseball. :rolleyes:

Sheryl wrote: Good god, next they'll be outlawing apple pie and baseball. :rolleyes:Pie is fattening



Baseball is a dangerous sport that threatens to hurt children's self esteem.





Both must go! :yh_bye

Poor old Don Maclean. 'American Pie' would have to go. Neil Diamond's Jazz Singer - where are they going to if not to America??

And so on and so forth..........

If it's any comfort we get daft stuff like that here. I think most of us ignore it, mostly, and carry on as normal. I do wish I worked in that office where no pictures of pigs, including Piglet from Winnie the Pooh, were allowed in case they offended the Muslims. I'd have gone in wearing a teeshirt with a picture of bosoms on it.

Any comments on Native Americans/First People?

Doesn't pay to be PC in the classroom, we walk a semantic tightrope daily.

Well since native americans refer to themselves as 'the people', it's going to be a tough one!:wah: They only identify themselves to their tribes, not type. Being half seminole myself, I can relate to the problem! But indian is just wrong! They are not from india! Native american is the best description as a whole, methinks! *chuckle*

That's true, but Canada refers to them as First People. It is a unique term, which some scholars like. I use Native American. But it should be according to individual tribe/band/group.

Well, being an educator, maybe the teachers should be picky how they refer to us...............:wah:

Don't want to know what the kids say!

I tell you what interested me. It was the origins of the various tribes. The northerns and some westerns, have a mongolian look. The southerns, including the florida seminoles, have a distinct mexican indian look. But the true mystery is the origins of the anasazi. They only left us their cities in the mountains and mesas. Seems like EVERYBODY came from somewhere else!:-6 Thats what makes AMERICA so beautiful!

gordonartist wrote: [T]he Michigan Department of Education is attempting to ban the "America" and "American" from our public schools....Last week, the department ordered that our hard-working teachers not utter the words.

The state's edict would be laughable if it were not so disgraceful. Gordo, it's not laughable, it's not disgraceful, and most importantly, I doubt very much that it's true. It sounds like an 'urban legend' to me. Maybe you could provide some reliable documentation.

If it is true, which it's probably not, the worst that could be said about it is that it's futile or ill-advised, since the terms in question are well-established. The name of the country is the United States of America and there is nothing wrong with calling it 'America' just as there is nothing wrong with calling the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 'Britain'.

It IS, however, ambiguous, and POSSIBLY the State of Michigan, which borders Canada, has tried to take some steps to avoid the term in ambiguous contexts. Canadians dislike the term as referring to US citizens only since they too consider themselves American(s) in the geographic sense.

The alternative, Yank or Yankee, is also ambiguous as Southerners use it only to refer to Northerners, not to US citizens in general.

We could be Gringos, but that doesn't fit so good lately.