Many of you probably received the same mailing I did promising “free hot cocoa, cookies & donuts” in exchange for you showing up to “protest bias & lies in the Newton School curriculum.”
While not named in the mailing, the group behind this is the ironically named “Americans for Peace and Tolerance,” which is the same Islamophobic hate group that has been circulating for quite a while in Newton. This group is also behind the “contest” that asked students “List all lesson plans, outlines, chapters in specific textbooks, handouts, homework or other work related to this issue assigned to you during the class.”
This showed up on the Newton Parents Facebook group a few days ago with some people not familiar with the organization. Within the lengthy discussion (220 comments and counting) is the realization that even though the mailing references a CAMERA book, CAMERA is not at all involved in it. In fact, it took pains on its website to point out that it doesn’t organize rallies of any kind, saying on the website “CAMERA is not responsible for political organizing, rallies, or other forms of grassroots political activism that may use our research and information. Links to this site or citation of our work should not be taken as a CAMERA endorsement.”
And just in case you’re still fooled by all the sweet and kind language, The Boston Broadside, a publication that proudly proclaims that it’s “not liberal” calls this a “RALLY against Newton School Committee” and calls on Newton schools “TO STOP INDOCTRINATING THEM [students] WITH SKEWED AND BIASED INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS.” (emphasis theirs). They also call for the firing of Superintendent David Fleishman and the replacement of School Committee Chair Ruth Goldman. They also wanted to get rid of former School Committee Chair Matt Hills.
Worth noting that Councilor Emily Norton is active on the Facebook discussion and also has a bumper sticker if anyone should want it, that has a much more positive message. Former ward 4 candidate Allison Sharma is also deeply involved in the discussion.
Please note that I am purposely not linking to certain site as I do not want to give them any SEO or other credibility. If you want to find them, you’re free to use Google.
I’m genuinely curious as to why this post hasn’t gotten any traction.
Feel-good images of hot cocoa, cookies and donuts to attract folks to a hate rally??? Disturbing to say the least.
I know that many have been around long enough to know the history of Charles Jacobs and Americans For Peace and Tolerance in Newton, and are writing off his latest effort as an annoyance. But there are others in our community who are seeing this vitriol for the first time and are alarmed and afraid.
As a community, we need to call out and act on hate when we see it, lest our silence be interpreted as acceptance.
Allison – I suspect your original analysis is on the mark. Anyone associated with the schools has seen the CJ group too many times to count so a vitriolic mailer from them didn’t come as a surprise. That being said, I’ve heard nothing but outrage about it, discussions about how to address the situation effectively, etc.
A website is listed at the bottom of the mailer and I got in touch with those people, asking about their connection to CJ, whether they funded the mailer, etc. The organization is called CAMERA and I don’t know anything about it. However, they said they were not associated with the rally/mailer and did not fund it. We had about 5 email exchange and it appears that they did not authorize the use of their web address on the mailer. I hope I’m not being naive about that, as I know nothing about them but they seemed genuinely concerned about being associated with this situation.
Does anyone know of a counter rally?
This hate rally is planned to coincide with the School Committee meeting on the 12th. The SC meeting starts at 7:00. The hate rally is at 6:30 at the same place.
As for a counter rally, there is time for public comment at the beginning of the school committee meeting. Newton residents can voice their thoughts/comments, for up to 3 minutes each. Just arrive early to sign up to speak. These hate groups tend to sign up en masse to dominate the public discussion period.
@MMQC – I believe the Newton clergy association is planning an event in response, but haven’t heard anything definitive yet.
Maybe some people in the Newton Community feel as scared as you are, when they find out they are being depicted unjustly in text books as the villains in a long complicated conflict, only because someone who takes part in this conflict may have paid a large sum of money to put it in print (as seen in this video: https://youtu.be/JpSPOInxZYo)
This rally is an expression of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the right for legitimate non-violent self defense.
Isn’t that what democracy is all about?
I find the discussion around this whole Postergate to be frustrating. I have no idea who this Charles Jacobs is (I guess I do now), and I find this flyer that was sent out by his organization the most unfortunate. However, what I am more curious about is what did the Camera investigation find? No one is talking about it. Based on the articles in Wicked Local and Boston Globe, it does sound like there was a problem with the curriculum where the materials were removed. Can someone please let me know how these materials got into our schools to begin with, and what safeguards were put in place to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again??
The problem is that everyone from the ADL to local clergy to state education officials said that there is nothing to be found. One item was changed because it was outdated, not because of anything sinister. Books and reading materials are changed all the time in all subjects.
This is a group that is creating controversy and questions where none exist, just to try to remove anything about the teaching of Islam. They’ve made requests, the requests were filled, and when those requests turned up nothing, the group declared that there must be a conspiracy. It’s circular logic that is based on nothing more than hatred.
Chuck, I am going by this interview here:
http://newton.wickedlocal.com/news/20171121/camera-focuses-on-newton-schools-arab-israeli-conflict-curriculum
I am familiar with the Camera organization and know that their work can be trusted. If everything is so great, why would they publish this book then?
https://www.amazon.com/Indoctrinating-Our-Youth-Curriculum-Arab-Israeli/dp/0966154894
I have no idea what ADL or the local clergy examined – did they examine the same materials as what Camera got under their public record request? Do they have the same experience as the Camera organization in addressing these issues? I have spoken with a good number of my fellow Newton residents who feel the same way I do – we don’t support the flyer, but we want to know what’s happening with the curriculum. And the current approach of dismissing our questions with “move along, nothing to see here, it’s a hate group” is frankly, infuriating.
A very good and recent op-ed on the history of this matter by Matt Hills can be found here.
http://newton.wickedlocal.com/news/20171218/hills-politicizing-curriculum-leads-to-worst-possible-outcome
Beyond posting this link, I have absolutely no interest in engaging in this topic which to my mind was thoroughly hashed out over several years, while my kids were actually attending NPS (high school curriculum). Bye.
IMK, yes they studied the same material. The NPS curriculum is available to all parents. It’s not hidden and there is no conspiracy or “deep state” hiding material.
This rally is being dismissed because the same thing has been going on for years. First the discredited accusations (that in the NPS curriculum, Israel is being treated as a villain, Islam is being glorified and they are hiding the curriculum) are spread around frightening parents and other residents, then a rally is held and finally there is a cry for a study of the curriculum.
It seems like this comes up every year. It is the same thing each time. It’s a ploy to get rid of any part of the curriculum that paints Islam in a neutral light, as all major religions are, when they are explained historically. They want Islam out or painted as nefarious.
These are not reasonable people. They have received what they asked for but didn’t like it because there was no demonization of Islam.
As Chuck said, the group CAMERA disavows the use of their name and website in any of their materials.
IMK, if you or any other resident wants to know what is happening with the curriculum, check out what your students’ are studying and come early and sign up to speak/comment/ask questions before the school committee meeting.
Marti, you are wise to encourage parents or any residents to sign up for public comment at any School Committee meeting. However, it is misleading to encourage speakers to expect answers to their questions. The School Committee politely listens to anyone who signs up to speak for up to a maximum of three minutes, but there is no interactive portion and questions are not answered. The volume of speakers on one topic does get attention from the School Committee. To get specific answers to questions, one needs to contact Department Chairs, or individual School Committee members outside of the official meetings.
Lisap: thanks, but not interested in people’s personal opinions. What would be helpful is to see the actual passages that Camera organization objected to and NPS’s response (maybe some meeting notes are out there)?
Marti: Camera group may not be associated with Charles Jacob’s group, but I don’t care about Charles’s group. I care what Camera has uncovered, and based on the fact that they bothered to go ahead and publish their findings, looks like it’s not nothing. If NPS has gone ahead and refuted their findings, it would be great to see some sort of meeting notes to understand what exactly was misrepresented and how. I will definitely be keeping a close eye on the materials that my child brings home, but would I be given access to materials that they would be discussing in class? Definitely not going to the school committee meeting :), sounds like that would be a highly unproductive way of finding out the information that I am interested in. Would like to avoid all the shouting, get all the facts and judge for myself. Not sure why NPS did not make this info widely available? That way anyone who is new to the controversy can read through and judge for themselves.
Jo-Louise, thanks for the clarification of my comment. You are correct that questions are not answered at the meetings.
IMK, you’re reading this website as if it has new information. It doesn’t. It is info that they began collecting in 2011 for their study.
The CAMERA findings are the ones that have been addressed. Nothing new here. This was in the Globe back when they first spread their erroneous info. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/west/2013/11/07/content-affirms-newton-school-curriculum-schools-protests-depiction-israel-state-defends-newton-schools-against-racist-semitism-charges-officials-reject-labels/4ehYp3Rg4zRx9P27ozKROL/story.html
As you can see, the state, clergy and Newton Public Schools found no bias. There is no info that NPS has kept from anyone.
Marti, it’s all new info to me. I do see that there was no bias found by all these organizations, however, I’d like to be able to judge for myself. I am especially interested to learn what NPS’s response to specific concerns has been, and that’s the info that I’d like to get. If NPS is not keeping any info back, then it should be readily available, no?
@IMK,
The DESE (Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education) fielded a complaint about the history curriculum from a parent when this issue first arose in 2013 to the best of my recollection. The DESE received a response from NPS. The DESE then reviewed the materials, along with the City’s response, and under their standards and guidelines found no violation of educational law, education regulations or education policies. Suggest you might contact the DESE with a public records request. At the time, the case was reviewed by Ellen Convisser in Program Quality Assurance.
You said that you are looking for any response by NPS to the specific concerns. Again, I suggest you formulate that into an inquiry and submit a public records request to the School Dept. for any responses to specific concerns raised by whatever group or groups you think would have prompted a response from NPS. The Secretary of the Commonwealth publishes an excellent guide on submitting public records requests. View it here: https://www.sec.state.ma.us/pre/prepdf/guide.pdf
If you have specific concerns about your child’s curriculum, then you should bring your concerns to your child’s teacher.
(So much for my not replying again. Oh well…)
Lisap, thank you for the info, very helpful! I will look into filing that public record request like you suggested. Given the fact that this issue will not be going away any time soon by the looks of it, IMHO it would behoove NPS to post this information themselves to refer parents to when questions come up and to make themselves appear transparent. However, having dealt with NPS on a different matter for 7 years now, forthcoming with information and being transparent with parents is not exactly their strong suite! 🙂
Personally I think it was addressed at the time and the only people bringing it up again are this group. They are trying to stir things up again even though various clergy and the state found no bias. IMK feel free to be engaged in your child’s education and be aware of the curriculum but your level of interest in this issue that was addressed when in came up 5 years ago seems a bit odd to me. Why rehash this old issue when you can focus your attention on what your child is learning today. Rehashing this issue and making it seem current is exactly how this group wants to catch people’s attention. It is not productive.
IMK, instead of rehashing the same issue that was first brought up in 2011 about a World History Course and addressed at the time, why not just check out your students’ reading materials, read their curriculum and talk to their teachers. There’s nothing to be gained by talking about the same thing over and over that happened years ago particularly since nothing was found. Check out the current materials.
The SC and NPS should not waste time continuing to address a 7 year old issue. Nor should they have to answer the same questions every year just because the info is new to you. Attempting to second quess what has already been settled is up to you – not the SC or the schools.
This group brought up old gripes mainly to hook newcomers to the information. They want curriculum changed in the entire country and continuing to dredge this up about Newton gives them a way to spread their lies far and wide – Of course without including the facts that nothing was actually found. Scare tactics.
Got the mailer today. Had to recycle it, as I do not have a fireplace.