Teaching kids the wrong lesson

By Mary Turck, TC Daily Planet
March 25, 2010

This time it's not a parent or a teacher, but the news media who are teaching kids the wrong lesson - about politics, about protest, and about civic participation. After a negative news report by KSTP 5 and an even more negative blog post by KARE 11's Gordon Severson, Southside Family School started getting telephone and email threats. Why? Because 6th-8th grade students at the school participated in a protest against Governor Pawlenty's proposed welfare cuts.

Severson's long blog post was titled "5-year-old pawns in the chess game of politics,"  said in part: 

The planning for all of this was nearly flawless, but among those chanting about budget cuts dealing death, were children that probably don't understand what the word "welfare" means. Most of them probably don't even know what a governor does or who he is. However, they are taught to hate him and the "rich people" at a very young age. Why would anyone want to teach their children hate?

The beautiful part of being a kid is that for maybe 10-18 years they can play, experiment, and live without fear or confusion of the harsh reality of adult life. As a kid I had little to no knowledge regarding taxes, abortion, political parties, or anything else related to the adult world. I was more focused on what coloring crayon I was going to use next, and not what issue I would protest next. ...

Are they really mature enough to understand what they're a part of? Do they need to be taken out of their blissfully young and ignorant world in order to further a cause they don't know anything about?

Apart from the fact that the demonstrators were 6th-8th grade students -- and they'd tell you that is nothing like being five years old -- there's no evidence that they were pawns or ignorant of the issues.

In fact, based on my acquaintance with Southside Family School students, I'm betting that they were pretty familiar with what the word "welfare" means and it's entirely possible that some of their families survive only with welfare, medical assistance or some other form of aid targeted for cuts.

Many young people reject the "blissful ignorance" that Severson advocates. Those at Southside Family School have a curriculum that includes lots of education about the civil rights movement, in which young people were on the cutting edge. Grade school and high school students marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were knocked down by fire hoses, attacked by police dogs, and dragged off to jail.

Flo Golod, who headed Southside Family School for 20 years, explains on the school's website about its commitment to civil rights and social justice education:

But at Southside, social justice means more than youth engagement and a basic commitment to equity issues. It means that children themselves learn by doing social justice work, and do so well in their academics because they have learned that education is about them, about the roots of racism and its local legacy, about the reasons nearly half the houses in their neighborhoods are foreclosed, about the systemic reasons their mothers are poor and about why asthma rates are so high in big cities. ...

As for being taught to "hate," as Severson blithely alleges - that's a far different matter than learning about social justice, or participating in a demonstration at the State Capitol.

Opposing injustice is not the same thing as hating. Hate leads people to spit on Congressional representatives and call them racist and homophobic names. Or throw bricks through windows of Democrats after the passage of health care reform. Or cut the propane line at the home of a Congressional Representative Tom Perriello's brother, after a Tea Partier erroneously posted his address online, saying it was Perriello's address.

Hate leads people to threaten the children at Southside Family School. The threats to Southside Family School and its students that came after KSTP and KARE's coverage of the demonstration are described on the school's website:

Recent news articles on TV and the internet have highlighted Southside Family Charter School's social justice mission and successful civic engagement program.  We have received several requests for follow up interviews.  As we have been for years, we are happy to discuss the school's curriculum, philosophy and results.  We are proud of our students and our curriculum.  

However, we have also received vitriolic voice and e-mail messages.  Some of these messages have been personal attacks, bordering on threatening against the school.  At this time, our primary focus is on the safety and well being of our students so we will not be commenting further on the specific action at the Capitol.  Requests for more information about the school and our curriculum will be taken in writing and responded to within the next two weeks.

In addition to requesting information, KARE 11 should make an apology for its inaccurate and disrespectful characterization of these young people.

©2010 Mary Turck

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    Disrespectful Characterization

    Submitted by Jeremy Myers on Thu, 03/25/2010 - 9:49pm.

    Mary,

    Thank you for your article. It is so promising to see young people get involved in the political process. There are far too many disrespectful characterizations of our youth all over the media. We seem to have set the bar extremely low for them and then we get angry when they actually leap over it!

    Peace,

    Jeremy Myers

    Welfare Rights Committee statement

    Submitted by Linden Gawboy (not verified) on Thu, 03/25/2010 - 11:37pm.

    Thank you for this article. I am with the Welfare Rights Committee, the group that organized the die-in. Our comments have been published at  http://www.fightbacknews.org/2010/3/25/twin-cities-tv-attacks-welfare-ri...

    I am also pasting our statement below:

    ***********On March 23, the Welfare Rights Committee organized and held a protest and die-in in front of Governor Pawlenty's office to highlight the devastating cuts that he is proposing this legislative session. We highlighted the fact that Pawlenty is willing to sacrifice the people of our state for his own political gains. Pawlenty is leading the charge in a war against poor and working people and he doesn't care how many casualties there are. His cuts, if they are allowed to go through, will bring untold suffering on the most vulnerable in our state, the poor, disabled and elderly.

    This is a very serious issue. Pawlenty's proposed cuts will cut completely eliminate the General Assistance program, leaving over 20,000 poor people with disabilities and unable to work with nothing to live on.

    Pawlenty proposes to count hundreds of dollars a month out of the welfare grants for poor families with a disabled family member. Welfare grants for a family of 3 pay a measly $532 a month. Pawlenty's cut would count the SSI grant of the disabled member against the welfare grant, basically completely eliminating the entire welfare grant as well as food stamps for the remainder of the family. This is illegal and a criminal cut.

    Pawlenty further proposes to steal nearly $60 million from the federal block grant intended for poor children and their caregivers and transfer it to spend down the deficit.

    Finally, Pawlenty proposes to cut tens of thousands off of health care by gutting the MN Care program.

    We organized a die-in to show the results of Pawlenty's cuts. People will die. It is obvious to most that Pawlenty is willing to sacrifice Minnesotans in order to let the wealthiest in this state go untouched. Pawlenty is making the immoral choice to balance the state budget on the backs of poor and working Minnesotans and refuses to make the richest pay even ONE dime for the budget deficit.

    The Welfare Rights Committee is outraged by the way the Pawlenty die-in protest on March 23 was reported by both KSTP news and in the KARE blog. Rather than reporting on the reason for the protest and the devastating cuts in Pawlenty's proposal, they completely let Pawlenty off the hook and instead chose to demonize those participating in the protest. Neither of these media outlets will come forth and challenge Pawlenty on his disastrous actions, instead they attacked those would be affected by his actions. This type of reporting is not only inaccurate, unprofessional, biased and irresponsible, it sets a tone of blaming the victim and fear mongering.

    In particular, KSTP and KARE decided to focus on young students protesting instead of the real issues facing low-income people, families and children. Yes, we had up to 50 people, including children and students, who chose to participate. The fact is, most of the victims of Pawlenty's cuts to welfare will be children.

    Public and charter schools are supported by tax dollars; KSTP implied that this particular charter school was doing something wrong with that money. There are many schools that bring students to the capitol to advocate for issues. This day was no different. KSTP and KARE's reports also insult the students' intellect. These students are well informed about the issues that are present in their world. It is clear that they are more informed on welfare and the Pawlenty cuts than the reporters that are supposed to be reporting the news. The students vote on what they want to participate in. It's also insulting to all who were there to speak their minds to tell Pawlenty his cuts are wrong.

    It is obvious to us that KSTP and KARE should be investigating Pawlenty instead of investigating those who stand up and speak out the truth about his cuts. The fact is, they have done little to nothing to investigate and report on the devastating path he is proposing for Minnesota, nor his political motivations for bashing poor, disabled and working Minnesotans. Pawlenty is using us as political footballs in his quest for national office, and he doesn't care how many people he destroys or kills for his political gain.

     

     

    Thank you for this piece. As

    Submitted by Jess Sundin (not verified) on Tue, 03/30/2010 - 2:44pm.

    Thank you for this piece. As a Southside Family School parent, and long-time Welfare-Rights Committee supporter, I was very upset by the slanted media coverage of the protest. My thoughts have been published here:

    http://www.fightbacknews.org/2010/3/27/parent-responds-tv-attack-school-...


    Minneapolis, MN - We have a social safety net that is nearly gone, and the politicians are stealing the last crumbs from the tables of our state's poorest families. Not only do they ignore our kids when they cut the budget, they try to hide the fact that children make up the majority of impoverished people in this country.

    So, yesterday [March 23], the children of welfare rights activists, as well as middle school students from my daughter's school, participated in a protest at the governor's office. Two local TV stations ignored the crisis that budget cuts will create for our families, and instead criticized parents and schools for having children participate the protest.

    One says we're using our kids as pawns, when they know nothing about the issues they're protesting. The other takes a play from the tea party playbook, complaining that a publicly-funded school took students on a field trip to a protest.

    At Southside Family School, my daughter is getting a great education. After just a few months in kindergarten, she can read those cardboard signs folks hold up beside the road, "Will work for food." She asks me about it, and I choose not to lie to her.

    Like most kids her age, she pays attention to the world around her, and she has opinions about it. She knows it's bad to be hungry. She knows how important it is to have a place to call home. She even knows that medicine makes her feel better when she's sick. Some kids know it even more personally; their parents can't choose to shelter them from the hard knocks of life - 20% of American kids live in poverty.

    You don't need to be 18 years old to believe that everyone should have their basic needs met. You shouldn't have to wait until you vote, before you can speak up and be counted.

    And really, is it such a crazy idea? Okay, maybe not everyone blames the governor, or the capitalist system... but can't we all agree that children shouldn't live in poverty? So, you take your kids to church to ask God to take care of it, and I'll take mine to a protest to ask the government to take care of it.

    One of the most wonderful things about children is their idealism. My daughter believes everyone CAN have what they need. And she believes that WE can change the world to be that. How could I teach her to ignore reality, teach her that she has nothing to say about how her world is, or teach her that she cannot help shape it?

    The media stories criticize us for teaching our kids to hate. Have they ever watched their own news reports? And all that air time given to racist, tea bagger rants? I do not teach my child to hate, and I don't think most of us do. I teach her that some things are right, and some things are wrong. And I teach her that if someone is doing the wrong thing, you should speak up and try to stop them.

    I teach her that Gov. Pawlenty is responsible for his choices, just as she is for hers. And I teach her that people can change - and they should. The entire spirit of a protest is that the people in power have a choice - they can choose to act differently. This is how I talk to my daughter.

    She's five, I don't tell her everything (like that it's not in the Governor's interest to act differently, and it is only pressure from outside, from poor and working people and our allies, that will make him change). I also don't tell her that some people hate queer folks, like her two mamas. I do tell her that some people don't like us, but they are wrong. And yup, we don't like Gov. Pawlenty. Give me one good reason why our family should like him?

    It is a good and positive thing to teach children that they have power, that they have a voice. If we hope to see a better world one day, our children will need confidence in their own strength to bring it about.

    That is exactly what makes Southside such a wonderful school. Our children learn about social justice and are taught progressive values. But they are not brainwashed, or set up as props for protesters. On the contrary, our kids learn about the issues they become involved in. And not just the he said-she said of "both sides." They learn the background, the statistics, the history. Southside holds up the example of the Civil Rights movement to say that protests can make change. It makes sense that sometimes, students go out into the world, and put what they are studying into practice. They can see and decide for themselves - by doing - whether and how to have an impact on the world around them.

    So, cheers to all the students, children and youth who are taking it to the streets and speaking out for justice in the world. We need you!