The Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis are making their way onto high school and college campuses across America — but they’re not sneaking in, they’re being invited.
A handful of teachers are allowing these groups into their classrooms in an effort, they say, to expose students to their messages of hate.
It’s a tradition that Worthington Kilbourne High School in Columbus, Ohio, started back in the 1970s for seniors in a class titled “U.S. Political Thought and Radicalism.” The class, which also covers topics such as immigration, environmentalism and abortion, spends a couple of weeks each semester interacting with hate groups, including Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, the tiny, ardently anti-gay church best known for staging protests at the funerals of American soldiers killed in combat.
School officials insist they do not endorse these hate groups, nor has any student ever been converted to their way of thinking. Instead, the classes are held so students can witness the extreme views such groups espouse and know how to avoid them.
“The kids see through their messages,” said David Strausbaugh, who along with Scott DiMauro, teaches the Worthington Kilbourne class. “They know. There’s nobody — nobody — who leaves and says, ‘Boy, we’ve got to join these people.’ That’s why we can bring them in, because we know the kids are going to see them for who they are.”
The Ohio school is not alone. Across the country, other schools also are organizing classes to give students a taste of the message purveyed by hate groups. At Portland State University in Oregon, sociology professor Randy Blazak said he brings in neo-Nazis to talk with his students about the role of extremism in society.
“It’s a good idea to know what’s out there,” Mr. Blazak said. “They’re not monsters. They’re human beings, wrestling with their own issues.”
Quote: Eglman wrote in post #1By Tim Devaney, The Washington Times
The Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis are making their way onto high school and college campuses across America — but they’re not sneaking in, they’re being invited.
A handful of teachers are allowing these groups into their classrooms in an effort, they say, to expose students to their messages of hate.
It’s a tradition that Worthington Kilbourne High School in Columbus, Ohio, started back in the 1970s for seniors in a class titled “U.S. Political Thought and Radicalism.” The class, which also covers topics such as immigration, environmentalism and abortion, spends a couple of weeks each semester interacting with hate groups, including Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, the tiny, ardently anti-gay church best known for staging protests at the funerals of American soldiers killed in combat.
School officials insist they do not endorse these hate groups, nor has any student ever been converted to their way of thinking. Instead, the classes are held so students can witness the extreme views such groups espouse and know how to avoid them.
“The kids see through their messages,” said David Strausbaugh, who along with Scott DiMauro, teaches the Worthington Kilbourne class. “They know. There’s nobody — nobody — who leaves and says, ‘Boy, we’ve got to join these people.’ That’s why we can bring them in, because we know the kids are going to see them for who they are.”
The Ohio school is not alone. Across the country, other schools also are organizing classes to give students a taste of the message purveyed by hate groups. At Portland State University in Oregon, sociology professor Randy Blazak said he brings in neo-Nazis to talk with his students about the role of extremism in society.
“It’s a good idea to know what’s out there,” Mr. Blazak said. “They’re not monsters. They’re human beings, wrestling with their own issues.”
ZitatThe class, which also covers topics such as immigration, environmentalism and abortion, spends a couple of weeks each semester interacting with hate groups, including Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, the tiny, ardently anti-gay church best known for staging protests at the funerals of American soldiers killed in combat.
Funny. I don't see any radical Leftist outfits being invited.
"That question is incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial." -- P. Mason
RIGHT'S RIGHT 
Print view
Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:30 am
reply
