Fred Klonsky’s PREA Prez Blog

The Illinois Family Institute, a fringe anti-gay and anti-family planning group, has attacked the Maine South High School’s science curriculum because it mentions birth control.

Two sets of parents, backed by the IFI, have not simply asked that their own kids be excused from learning science. They are demanding that any mention of birth control be removed from the Maine South High School science curriculum.

Amazingly, when the parents objected last year, District 207 actually did remove sections of the science curriculum, this according to the Park Ridge Herald Advocate.

But, apparently coming to their senses, this year the curriculum was restored and the parents were offered the option of having their own children given an alternative area of study.

“(The parents) didn’t want it taught at all, but we felt that was not an appropriate resolution,” said Ken Wallace, the assistant superintendent for instruction for District 207.

Wallace said after last year’s discussions the school agreed to give advance notice to parents about the class, giving them an alternate assignment rather than the birth control class.

He said the materials for the class come from a textbook approved by the Illinois State Board of Education. The class is not offered at the district’s two other high schools — Maine East in Park Ridge and Maine West in Des Plaines. Wallace said the choice to include it at Maine South was made by the faculty team which determines curriculum for the building.

While on a trip through Florida pushing the myth of NCLB success, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings was asked if she has a position on whether evolution should be a part of science standards.

Spellings replied:

No, I don’t.”

Holly Anne Reichert with Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president, at a news conference announcing her selection.

After Debbie Almontaser was forced to resign as principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy last summer, she was replaced by an “acting” principal who had no background in Arab history or language.

The entire affair, whipped up by anti-Arab racism in the NY press and anti-Arab organizations, was a disgraceful attempt to shut the school down. Progressive organizations were split, with many groups, including a number of prominent Jewish organizations and leaders supporting Almontaser, and the head of the NY teachers’ union calling for Almontaser’s resignation.

Wednesday’s NY Times reports that the acting principal has now been replaced.

The new principal, Holly Anne Reichert, 42, has worked in the city public schools for more than nine years, first as an English as a Second Language teacher and, later, as a teacher mentor.She has also spent much time in the Arab world, including stints as a Peace Corps volunteer in Yemen, as a teaching fellow at the American University in Cairo, and as head of the English department at an English-Arabic dual language school in Bahrain.

Just in case we teachers were confused about why we teach, Republicrat Andy Rotherham reminds us by directing his readers to the US Chamber of Commerce web site.

Says the Chamber:

To maintain a competitive business environment in America, we need to have an accountable educational environment.