John Henry
01-06-2002, 06:17 AM
I'm not sure this is THE place to post this, but I had to pass it along !
http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,42276,00.html
Patriotism, Responsibility Themes Enshrined in School Workbook
Saturday, January 05, 2002
Email this Article
BOYS TOWN, Neb. — Teenagers are photographed together wearing labels that declare their ethnic backgrounds — African-American, Mexican-American, Japanese-American.
Above them are the words, "Before September 11, 2001."
In a second photo, they all bear the same label — American.
These are the first images that Girls and Boys Town wants students to see when learning about what it means to be an American.
The national institution for wayward children is offering a new 76-page workbook to help schools teach patriotism in the classroom.
"After Sept. 11, a lot of educators had looked at what they were doing and said 'This isn't working very well, is it?"' said the Rev. Val Peter, who leads the institution started by Father Edward Flanagan in 1917 and made famous by the 1938 film Boys Town.
Work on the books started within weeks after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.
Geared to students in grades 7 through 12, it was the brainchild of the institution's curriculum training specialist Tom Dowd and Peter, an excitable 67-year-old with wild, white hair and a blush fostered by his lively conversation.
The priest espouses the virtues of love of country, hard work and self-responsibility. He has no patience for political correctness or philosophies that tell people to do what feels good, calling the more liberal leanings of modern-day philosophies "psychological constipation."
Appalled by the terrorist attacks, Peter is thrilled that the tragedy reawakened American patriotism.
"We've always taught patriotism in our schools," he said. "America is getting back to the values that Boys Town never left."
Schools across the country are stressing patriotism in the classroom for the first time in decades. Education boards from Virginia to Washington state are calling on schools to incorporate the Pledge of Allegiance in their daily activities. Illinois lawmakers are even considering a bill to require the pledge in all public schools.
In Nebraska, the state Board of Education recently renewed a 1949 requirement for schools to teach the lyrics to patriotic songs, reverence to the American flag and the dangers of communism.
The Girls and Boys Town Book on Patriotism will be touted as a teaching tool this spring in a brochure to be sent to 112,000 school systems across the nation.
The book features brief biographies on American icons like Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
It also includes snippets on such vilified figures as Adolph Hitler, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and the late Cambodian prime minister Pol Pot.
"Maybe the bin Ladens...and Hitlers of the world have felt they were supporting their countries with their actions, when in fact, they're teaching hate," Dowd said. "We wanted to spell out the difference between healthy patriotism and patriotism gone awry."
One chapter focuses on quotes and passages of speech from famed Americans and includes a paragraph from Abraham Lincoln's 1865 inaugural speech, as well as comments from former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani at the site of the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 23.
In each chapter, students are asked to take notes and reflect on patriotism. Thirty-one of the book's pages are set aside for students' writings, prompted by a range of questions, including the definition of a hero and of a unified country.
One question even asks students to consider how hard it must have been for rescuers to enter the World Trade Center towers to help others, even though they knew they might die trying to help.
Fresh from the Boys Town Press, the book's initial 3,000 copies will be the basis of a new class offered this spring at Girls and Boys Town's 13 campuses from Los Angeles to New York.
More books will be printed and distributed to other schools for $3.95 each — which allows the institution to break even on printing costs.
"It may be a dud; I don't know," said Peter of the workbook.
What Peter does know is that more than 500 students at the village of Boys Town just west of Omaha have a renewed interest in America and what it stands for.
"There is a time for everything under heaven, and this is a time for patriotism," Peter said.
[ 01-06-2002: Message edited by: John Henry ]
http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,42276,00.html
Patriotism, Responsibility Themes Enshrined in School Workbook
Saturday, January 05, 2002
Email this Article
BOYS TOWN, Neb. — Teenagers are photographed together wearing labels that declare their ethnic backgrounds — African-American, Mexican-American, Japanese-American.
Above them are the words, "Before September 11, 2001."
In a second photo, they all bear the same label — American.
These are the first images that Girls and Boys Town wants students to see when learning about what it means to be an American.
The national institution for wayward children is offering a new 76-page workbook to help schools teach patriotism in the classroom.
"After Sept. 11, a lot of educators had looked at what they were doing and said 'This isn't working very well, is it?"' said the Rev. Val Peter, who leads the institution started by Father Edward Flanagan in 1917 and made famous by the 1938 film Boys Town.
Work on the books started within weeks after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.
Geared to students in grades 7 through 12, it was the brainchild of the institution's curriculum training specialist Tom Dowd and Peter, an excitable 67-year-old with wild, white hair and a blush fostered by his lively conversation.
The priest espouses the virtues of love of country, hard work and self-responsibility. He has no patience for political correctness or philosophies that tell people to do what feels good, calling the more liberal leanings of modern-day philosophies "psychological constipation."
Appalled by the terrorist attacks, Peter is thrilled that the tragedy reawakened American patriotism.
"We've always taught patriotism in our schools," he said. "America is getting back to the values that Boys Town never left."
Schools across the country are stressing patriotism in the classroom for the first time in decades. Education boards from Virginia to Washington state are calling on schools to incorporate the Pledge of Allegiance in their daily activities. Illinois lawmakers are even considering a bill to require the pledge in all public schools.
In Nebraska, the state Board of Education recently renewed a 1949 requirement for schools to teach the lyrics to patriotic songs, reverence to the American flag and the dangers of communism.
The Girls and Boys Town Book on Patriotism will be touted as a teaching tool this spring in a brochure to be sent to 112,000 school systems across the nation.
The book features brief biographies on American icons like Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
It also includes snippets on such vilified figures as Adolph Hitler, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and the late Cambodian prime minister Pol Pot.
"Maybe the bin Ladens...and Hitlers of the world have felt they were supporting their countries with their actions, when in fact, they're teaching hate," Dowd said. "We wanted to spell out the difference between healthy patriotism and patriotism gone awry."
One chapter focuses on quotes and passages of speech from famed Americans and includes a paragraph from Abraham Lincoln's 1865 inaugural speech, as well as comments from former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani at the site of the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 23.
In each chapter, students are asked to take notes and reflect on patriotism. Thirty-one of the book's pages are set aside for students' writings, prompted by a range of questions, including the definition of a hero and of a unified country.
One question even asks students to consider how hard it must have been for rescuers to enter the World Trade Center towers to help others, even though they knew they might die trying to help.
Fresh from the Boys Town Press, the book's initial 3,000 copies will be the basis of a new class offered this spring at Girls and Boys Town's 13 campuses from Los Angeles to New York.
More books will be printed and distributed to other schools for $3.95 each — which allows the institution to break even on printing costs.
"It may be a dud; I don't know," said Peter of the workbook.
What Peter does know is that more than 500 students at the village of Boys Town just west of Omaha have a renewed interest in America and what it stands for.
"There is a time for everything under heaven, and this is a time for patriotism," Peter said.
[ 01-06-2002: Message edited by: John Henry ]