CSCOPE in Texas has come under fire lately for its lesson plans, curriculum and taxpayers unable to access the content of these plans/curriculum. An article recently was circulating about girls having to wear burqas in Texas classrooms as part of a CSCOPE lesson plan. From wnd.com:
...in Lumberton, Texas, this week, high school girls were made to wear burqas as part of a CSCOPE study of Islam.
One student quoted the teacher as saying, “We are going to work to change your perception of Islam.”
The teacher in the burqa lesson, according to a student, also said, “I do not necessarily agree with this, but I am supposed to teach you that we are not to call these people terrorists anymore, but freedom fighters.”
Critics argue that this should not be a teacher’s role, and are concerned that CSCOPE curriculum appears agenda-driven.
According to a student in the class, the lesson was to teach about the life of women in Islam. The burqa exercise focused on fashion and did not include the fact that in many Muslim communities, women who appear in public without a burqa face being beaten, imprisoned or murdered by family members, vigilante groups or even the state.
At the end of class, the students were assigned to write a paper about Egypt. According to one student, they were instructed to discuss “how Egypt was a good country until democracy took over, and that things were finally corrected when the Muslim Brotherhood came into power.”
Muslim women are portrayed as liberated in CSCOPE literature. In a lesson titled “Thinking About Sexuality” that utilizes a series of film clips, students are asked, “What do the women portrayed in these film clips think Islam teaches about sexuality? How are their thoughts similar or dissimilar to your own ideas about sexuality?”
Read more here.
Now let's see what's going on in Missouri. We don't have CSCOPE but we have IB curriculum in rural Camdenton, Missouri. What is IB teaching these students? From a Missouri citizen:
In Camdenton IB students are doing the same by the girls wearing burqas and reading books about Muslims and the ravages of our war on their society while money is being raised for the schools in Afghanistan.
From lakenewsonline.com:
Camdenton, Mo. -- Thanks to the collaborative efforts of students at Dogwood and Hawthorn Elementary schools, Camdenton High School, Camdenton R-III faculty and staff, and the entire community, the CHS International Baccalaureate (IB) students have raised $5,194.84 for Pennies for Peace. Pennies for Peace supports the construction of schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
IB students read a children’s book to the elementary students, played traditional Afghani games with the students, and constructed a mock school for the children to visit.
Read more here. Below is the accompanying photograph in the article. Why are the girls in Camdenton wearing burquas unless they are of the Islamic faith?
Can someone in Camdenton place their hands on the IB curriculum offered in this school and give us an idea of what is taught in Camdenton schools? It would be interesting to compare and contrast what CSCOPE teaches about Islam and what IB teaches their students about this faith and the role of women in Islamic society.
As an aside, maybe CSCOPE and IB would like to investigate the Pennies for Peace program and the controversy surrounding its founder. Maybe what these kids have been taught as truth is not entirely factual.
