Tuesday, April 07, 2015



UK: Up to 100 Islamist teachers could be banned from schools after investigation into their links with Trojan Horse scandal

Up to 100 Islamic teachers could be banned from working in schools for life following an investigation into their alleged links to the Trojan Horse scandal.

It is understood a teaching watchdog is working on possible disciplinary cases against current and former staff members at some schools in Birmingham where extremist Islamic views were being forced on pupils and staff.

This includes allegations an al-Qaeda style video featuring masked gunmen was copied in a classroom and teachers punished pupils by making them kneel on tiles.

More than 50 teachers - called the Park View Brotherhood - also alleged exchanged as many as 3,000 messages in a WhatsApp group which included offensive comments about British soldiers and claimed the murder of soldier Lee Rigby was a hoax.

It is understood the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) - the profession's watchdog responsible for banning teachers from classrooms - is looking at 30 disciplinary cases, with an expectation many more teachers will be targeted for their part in the affair.

The probe into the Islamic plot last year found evidence of anti-Western rhetoric, intolerance towards gays and creating the perception of a worldwide conspiracy against Muslims.

Golden Hillock School, Nansen Primary School, Park View School - all run by the Park View Educational Trust - Oldknow Academy and Saltley School in Birmingham were placed in special measures after inspectors found systemic failings in safeguarding pupils against extremism.

Another school investigated, Alston Primary, was already in special measures.

Allegations under investigation include claims that an al-Qaeda style video was copied at Park View Academy and teachers punished children by making them kneel on the floor, the Sunday Times reports.

A group of teachers - called the Park View Brotherhood - also alleged exchanged messages in a WhatsApp group where they claimed the murder of soldier Lee Rigby and the Boston bombings, where two bombs were set off at the finish line of the city's marathon, were a hoax.

Professional hearings are set to begin next month.

The teaching watchdog has obtained 'dossiers' about some of the 100 staff it is investigating from the Department for Education as part of its inquiries.  They are understood to include information from last year's Trojan Horse probe headed by Peter Clarke, the former head of counterterrorism at Scotland Yard.

His report, published in July, found there had been a 'co-ordinated, deliberate and sustained action, carried out by a number of associated individuals, to introduce an intolerant and aggressive Islamic ethos into a few schools in Birmingham'.

It also highlighted a 'disconcerting pattern' in the schools, including nepotism in staff appointments, bullying of senior teachers, a 'strategy of harassment to oust the head teacher' and the 'reinforcement of Muslim identity to the exclusion or disparagement of others'.

A source told the Sunday Times: 'The 100 or so include teachers, teaching assistants and teaching staff. The Department for Education is feeding in information to help corroborate some of what the NCTL has, and, in other cases, flag up new targets.'

'In some cases, some of those teachers and staff are still working at schools, and in other cases they have been removed. 'But although some of them have been removed, the NCTL does not want them to end up anywhere else.'  

SOURCE 






Progressive Fruits

by TOM MCLAUGHLIN

"Death to America! Death to America!" shouted a million Iranians in the capital square. Every year they would gather to chant, and every year I would show film clips to my students. It was always instigated by Iran's government in a country that calls itself "The Islamic Republic of Iran," which, I'm sure, President Obama would insist has nothing to do with Islam as he negotiates with the ayatollahs.   

My teaching ran directly counter to what was being taught in the vast majority of American public school classrooms. Most American students hear that Islam is a religion of peace. A majority of the world's muslims are peaceful, most teachers claim. About the latter, they are correct. About the former? Fourteen hundred years of history gives lie to any assertion that Islam is a religion of peace. Yes, it was relatively peaceful between the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 to the Iranian revolution in 1979, but in virtually every other period since about 600 AD, Islam has been anything but.

But I was an anachronism. Those calling themselves Progressives have been in charge of education in America at all levels for almost two generations and the results are coming in. During the span of just two days I read about the following:

Students at the University of California at Irvine voted to ban the American flag in a portion of campus because they want to be "inclusive." I figured: Oh well, that's California - the left coast - the land of fruits and nuts - run yet again by Jerry "Governor Moonbeam" Brown. No big deal. Par for the course.

Then a dean at Cornell University was asked by an undercover conservative posing as a Moroccan student if he would welcome ISIS on campus. "Sure," he said. Then he was asked if the "student" could invite "a freedom fighter [from ISIS] to come and do like a training camp for students." And the response? "You would be allowed to do something like that. It's just like bringing in a coach, to do a training, a sports trainer or something," said the dean. Perhaps the dean doesn't know that ISIS is at war with western civilization - which isn't a required course anymore at Cornell, or at 86% of all other American universities either. Students at Cornell are instead required to take a course in a non-western culture.
  
Then Meredith Shiner, a reporter at Yahoo News, commented on Senator Ted Cruz's announcement that he was running for president, by tweeting: "Bizarre [for you, Senator Cruz] to talk about how rights are God-made and not man-made in your speech announcing a POTUS bid? When Constitution was man-made?"  

 Hmm. Shiner graduated from Duke University, worked at Roll Call and Politico before Yahoo News, yet she's a progressive who clearly doesn't know much. She doesn't know, for instance, that the concept of God-given rights isn't in our Constitution. It comes from our Declaration of Independence, which was written shortly after the "shot heard 'round the world" was fired in Lexington, Massachusetts. But things have changed even there.

After students at Lexington High School voted a theme of  "American Pride" for a school dance, their progressive school administrators cancelled it because it excluded other nationalities. "People consider America to be a melting pot, so the fact that it was even considered offensive is what people are a little surprised about," said student Sneha Rao. I'm not surprised. That's progressive education in action. 
 
This was a little closer to home. I grew up less than twenty miles from Lexington. Yes, I know it's in Massachusetts, sometimes referred to as "The People's Republic of Massachusetts" and it's a famously progressive state like California, but still. American pride is offensive? In America? What have we become?  

Even closer to home, I read that a lacrosse coach at Fryeburg Academy was encouraged to resign because he posted a letter on his Facebook page. This guy coached some of my former students. The Conway Daily Sun reported: "The letter, written by ‘An American Citizen' was about Obama's speech given in Cairo in 2009 [in which he] said that Islam has long been a part of American history." The letter goes on to criticize Islam, saying Muslims are still the largest traffickers in human slavery, which the US State Department reported in 2009. It claims Muslims were allied with Hitler in World War II, which they certainly were. Hitler's Mein Kampf remains a best seller in Turkey and across the Middle East. In Arabic, it's called "My Jihad." My former students know all this.   

 The letter claims Muslims were either silent on or pleased with the September 11th attacks. That's dismaying, but also absolutely true. For years I showed students video of Muslims dancing in the streets of East Jerusalem, which progressive mainstream media outlets quickly squashed. Visiting there in 2005, I was advised by my Palestinian guide not to leave the hotel by myself - because it wasn't safe for Americans.

The Sun reported that although Coach Lees was to meet with top administrators about the letter, "athletic director Sue Thurston told him a decision to fire him had already been made," so he resigned. Unless there was something more damning in "the letter" than the Sun reported, it looks like Fryeburg Academy officials should bone up on the history of Islam. 

SOURCE 





Australia: Fast-track to university enrages Leftists

Concerns have been raised over a program which allows school students to gain entry to university without completing their final year certificate - and is only being offered to pupils at a prestigious Sydney private school.

The University of Sydney is running a pilot of a 17-week bridging diploma for Year 11 students at the elite school Scot's College, Fairfax Media reported, stirring fears among student groups and university staff that the program allows parents to 'buy' their sons entry to the sandstone university.

The program was devised by the university's commercial arm, Sydney Learning, and students who completed the course successfully were guaranteed places in a number of undergraduate level courses, including bachelor degrees in health sciences, liberal arts and science, animal and veterinary bioscience, visual arts, music and oral health, or in a diploma of law.

Minutes of a university Academic Board meeting show staff were worried over how the course was being advertised to Year 11 students 'as an alternative to completing the HSC', with 'concern noted about possible implications for the university's reputation'.

Eight Scot's students gained 'direct entry' to the university after completing the program in 2014, according to a letter sent to parents by principal Dr Ian Lambert, while 166 students completing the HSC. 

Rose Steele, the president of the National Union of Students, told Daily Mail Australia that while it was important there were alternative pathways available for students to gain entry to university, it was 'really concerning' if this program was only open to students who could afford it.

'NUS really believes education should be open to all and not just those who can afford it,' Ms Steele said.

Scot's College does not advertise their fees for tuition, sport and other curriculum activities, but in 2013 they were reported to be $30,900 per year.

Dr Lambert, the college's chief, was quoted telling the Sydney Morning Herald that the diploma was designed with students 'in the middle rank of learners' in mind.

SOURCE



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