Far left political propaganda under the guise of education continues to infiltrate Minnesota’s public schools. I’ve written previously about how the hard left has come to city governance in Edina while Katherine Kersten at the Center of the American Experiment recently penned an exposé about how Edina High School is suffering academically as a result of a leftist, social justice warrior curriculum that does little to educate students.
Now we see signs of similar agitprop at Minnetonka High School. Recently, parents of Advanced Placement Spanish students were sent a letter asking permission for their child to watch two films, in Spanish quite obviously. As obviously, both films are far Left and speak more to the mindset of those teachers of the subject than to anything that would help students become fluent in the language.
The first movie is Machuca by director Andrés Wood. It takes place in the time where the Marxist president of Chile Salvador Allende is replaced in a coup by military general Augusto Pinochet. It involves an elite school taking in a boy from the proletariat, becoming friends with a student from the upper classes and getting their spirits crushed by the fascist conservatives behind the coup. Very sad. Much feels. Correct politics.
As a director Woods isn’t particularly accomplished, but this isn’t a film column, it’s a critique of how any Leftist propaganda can be smuggled into our schools in plain sight. Of all the available Spanish language films, the teachers of this program believe these are the best to help make their students fluent. They aren’t, of course. They are selected solely for their political and cultural content. If you don’t believe me, the second movie chosen should dispel any doubts.
Murderous Che Guevara is the subject of The Motorcycle Diaries, a hagiographic account of Che’s early years where he’s just a sensitive scamp, tooling about South America with a bud (what’s Spanish for bromance?), alert to the suffering of the people. In fact, Che was a ruthless and cold blooded murderer but his association with the Castro revolution gives him the gloss of secular sainthood to the far left.
As Wikipedia puts it: “Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in the collective imagination in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs and films. As a result of his perceived martyrdom, poetic invocations for class struggle and desire to create the consciousness of a “new man” driven by moral rather than material incentives, Guevara has evolved into a quintessential icon of various leftist movements.”
Teachers of Minnetonka’s Advanced Placement Spanish class claim they are screening the films because they “are authentic, recommended by the College Board as relevant to our curriculum, and deal with cultural and historic topics.” It’s enough to make a cat laugh.
What is the College Board? After all, parents are told in the second sentence of the notification letter that it is “recommended” by it. Surely your own provincial understanding of the world must give way to this authority. Do you even have a passport?
David Coleman is the ninth president of the board, “frequently described in the media as ‘the architect’ of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.” Are you catching on yet?
Tellingly, the “College Board is effectively able to control every aspect of AP classes directly or indirectly.” And here we have come full circle, to the letter invoking that which actually controls the lesson plan in Minnetonka High School Advanced Placement Spanish. And you thought schools were subject to local control? Bless your heart.
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Socialist Venezuela has been in the news lately, mostly about societal collapse and starvation, and both are happening in Español. Why not a movie or two about that country and culture, leaving aside for the moment how you translate guttural cries of desperation? Has the College Board not “recommended” any such movies? Maybe they have but the pretend socialists teaching the AP Spanish class at Minnetonka have chosen films closest to their not so closeted political beliefs.
One Facebook poster mistakenly said, in reference to the College Board, “[t]hat’s Obama’s guy determining our education materials STILL.”
In fact, when David Coleman was named to Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2013, Jeb Bush wrote the “encomium.”
Welcome to the Uniparty. We’re on our own.
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In addition to Alpha News, John Gilmore is also a contributor to The Hill. He is the founder and executive director of Minnesota Media Monitor.™ He blogs at MinnesotaConservatives.org and is on Twitter under @Shabbosgoy. He can be reached at Wbua@nycunarjfza.pbz
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John Gilmore
John Gilmore is an author, freelance writer & former opinion columnist for Alpha News. He blogs at minnesotaconservatives.org & is @Shabbosgoy on Twitter
