It’s not that we don’t trust Inside the Classroom — we trust them more than we trust Grosse Pointe South High School. But check out some of the questions on the handout. How do your parents vote? How many bedrooms does your house have? What’s the name of the church you attend? Has any member of your family ever been to a psychiatrist, and if so, why? That violates all sorts of HIPAA laws.
The Daily Caller saw the same questionnaire and has an answer. It’s real, but it was just a teaching exercise — a “simulation” — to teach students about McCarthyism.
Why do they need to know the political affiliation of a student’s parents? pic.twitter.com/NhEJt1EUMa
— Inside The Classroom (@InsideTheClass_) April 16, 2022
Kendall Tietz writes for The Daily Caller:
Students believed the survey, which was released on official school letterhead, to be real and that their parents could not opt them out of it, according to NLTE [No Left Turn in Education].
…
School leadership said the questionnaire “looked like an official document” from the school’s administration, but said the survey was “intentionally designed as a simulation of McCarthyism … to make students question the appropriateness of the information being requested,” according to the letter.
“In fact, within a minute, the teacher explained the purpose of the exercise was not to collect this information, but to demonstrate how private citizens’ rights and privacy were invaded during McCarthyism in the 1950s. The document which contained the questions was collected and destroyed,” the letter said.
That’s a terrible way to teach, mostly because Joseph McCarthy did nothing wrong.
I get that this was an exercise in mccarthyism. But these questions were not asked in school during the mccarthy era. The students are going to think they were. This is bad history. Should be using this exercise to discuss Maoism/communism/marxism.
— MJ Stillwell (@stillwell_mj) April 16, 2022
Recommended
Never learned about Mao in school. But we did spend a few days on McCarthyism in which it was compared to the Salem witch trials
— Jersey Jarhead (@wankerfromnj) April 16, 2022
We all had to read the very much-overrated “The Crucible.”
Ok, I see your follow up that they said it was an exercise on McCarthism and they *claim* the forms are collected and destroyed.
If it's a demonstration of inappropriate questions by authorities shouldn't we also be teaching kids NOT TO FILL THEM OUT AND TURN THEM IN?
— beccasu (@CocoaMonoi) April 16, 2022
What happened to kids who refused to answer any of the questions?
They claim this information was collected and destroyed, but if a student could take a picture of the questionnaire, so could the teacher once they were filled out, before destroying them.
— JessBlane1122 (@blane1122) April 16, 2022
I mean, of it was just an "example" for a class, why do they need to put the school seal and the name of everyone involved in the principal's office? appears to be an official school document, not an example sheet in a lesson.
— V (@happytacoscw) April 16, 2022
In this "exercise" are they also told that McCarthy was right?
Are they told about the Venona Documents?
— I identify as masked and vaxxed. Don't be a bigot (@NoMarxMoreSoma) April 16, 2022
Hahaha! The teacher probably doesn’t even know those exist.
— Emily Wellman (@ElectaWing) April 16, 2022
The explanation is inadequate. This is no way correlates with McCarthyism.
— ug (@ug28929802) April 16, 2022
Nope.
This is fine if it is an exercise in showing what is inappropriate for an institution to ask you.
Now let’s talk about how these questions violate the same boundaries as the racial and gender “education” so many kids are receiving in school.
— Ava Petrucci (@mmeJen) April 16, 2022
How about all of those critical race theory “privilege” worksheets they give out asking kids if they’re white, male, straight, if English is their first language, if they live in a house, etc.? They’re expected to fill those out to determine if they are the oppressor or the oppressed.
Related:
Black single mom whose son passes as white suing school over its ‘hostile’ Sociology of Change class rooted in ‘anti-racism’ https://t.co/VxpjfjrQtr
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) March 11, 2021
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