Dr. Ben Carson is being heavily hyped as a 2016 presidential candidate by the conservarazzi and Beltway media, regards of how many unintelligible things he utters. The fact that he is an accomplished doctor and a highly educated person makes what he says all the more puzzling. He's just one of many tea party maniacs infiltrating their way into local and national politics and because of this there is no shortage of crazy going on at any given moment in our country. Colorado is the latest state to be inflicted with tea party screwballs who are now trying to rewrite American history, and students aren't taking it sitting down.
Of course, Dr. Ben has something to say about it.
The admirable hell being raised by students out in Colorado, where they are boycotting classes rather than be taught American History As Told To Jeebus And The Duggar Family, continues apace. It also has ramifications beyond the classroom and good for it, and them. Naturally, of course, it has popped on the national radar screen as well. Andwho better to take the proper measure of the controversy, and its underlying issues, than Dr. Ben Carson, renowned neurosurgeon and political pinwheel.
"I am a little shocked quite frankly looking at the AP course in American history that's being taught in high schools across out country right now...There's only two paragraphs in there about George Washington. George Washington! Little or nothing about Dr. Martin Luther King...I think most people when they finish that course, they'd be ready to go sign up for ISIS. I mean, this is what we're doing to the young people in our nation...We have got to stop crucifying ourselves. Have we made mistakes as a nation? Of course we have. Why? Because we're people. And all people make mistakes."
How fu*king stupid is this man to equate an American history course as a recruitment tool for the terrorist group ISIS? This is not normal, even for an Ann Coulter wannabe.
Steven N over at Booman explains how Ben Carson Is A Fool
No. None of my students wish to sign up for ISIS.
By examining the mistakes we make as a country, we can examine perhaps the most American words in any of our foundational documents: "to make a more perfect Union."
Today, for instance, we discussed the Articles of Confederation government. We discussed its many flaws, but also what it did well - keeping the idea of republican government alive, settling the northwest territories dispute, and establishing the principle of a united nation. But that was balanced by its lack of an executive authority or federal court system, its inability to regulate trade or levy taxes; its lack of being a real government rather than a loose confederation of independent states. It had to be scrapped - amendments were insufficient to create a true national government and thus cement the independence we fought so long and hard to obtain.
We discussed the particular American contribution to world political theory: the idea of a fundamental law that is inviolable and difficult to change to create a bedrock set of rules and norms for government. The British have no written constitution, no fundamental law. That's us; we did that. Almost every country in the world now has a fundamental law. True, many ignore them, but the very preference for the rule of fundamental law is an American invention.
But we also talked about the problems in amending the Constitution and how that creates a stagnant government that only changes in times of crisis or in a spasm of reform.
In other words, we engaged in the process of historical analysis.
I wouldn't presume to tell Dr. Carson how to operate on a patient. I would kindly request he stay the fuck out of my classroom.
Some added comments: Carson either has not read the AP material and is relying on false information provided by others or he is flat out lying. My two children both took AP History and Washington and Dr. King were more than adequately covered. Then again maybe he is simply delusional. - Steven D
I'd go with delusional.
