School biased against communism?

[The Old Man from Scene 24]

I know that this happens sometimes, but last year I think that my school went over the line. In history, we were asked something to the extent of "What is it called when a government restricts people's rights and controls everything as a dictatorship?". The 'correct' answer was communism. In our text books, it described communist countries as ones that are totalitarian and ran by a dictator. Frankly, I'm not surprised, but has anyone else noticed bias in their schools like this?

[ВАЛТЕР]

Wait... That's not Communism? Then what did I sign up for?

No surprise here, the Bourgeoisie has to make Marxism, and Communism terrifying words. And where better to start than in the schools?

[TheRed]

And this surprises you? Each and everyday I get some kind of flak from misinformed idiots about how "communism means only dictatorships" or communism means "A small social elite and 1000's getting the bad end of it". I remember years ago during the Russian invasion of georgia I got a lecture on how "russia is secretly communist" from a teacher! What could that possibly mean other than that teacher clearly has no understanding of communism.

[Smyg]

My old schoolbook: "Communism and fascism might seem to be opposites... but are they?" *-Cue horseshoe political spectrum-*

[The Old Man from Scene 24]

And this surprises you?

Read the last sentence of my post.

[norwegianwood90]

The bourgeoisie are the ones who decide the curriculum to be taught and textbooks to be used. They obviously are not in any hurry to be truthful about communism. Leftist politics were mentioned very rarely in my American history class, which I took during my sophomore year of high school. Our teacher repeated to us the mantra, "communism looks great on paper, but doesn't work in practice because there would be no motivation." The definition of "communism" was essentially anything the United States government said was communism: The Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc, China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, etc. Communist thought, we were told, inevitably leads to totalitarianism. I believe anarchism was mentioned once, in connection with Sacco and Vanzetti. Other than that, the message was that only capitalism works in society. :rolleyes:

[TheRed]

Read the last sentence of my post.

*facepalm*

[CommieTroll]

Typical indoctrination, any teacher that says they teach history objectively is a liar. I walked into my history class and it had the definitions of Capitalism, Communism and Fascism. ''Capitalism - Democratic Government for the people, people are rich'', ''Fascism - Government run by dictator, people are allowed economic freedom'', ''Communism - Government usually run by a dictator - Government is rich, people are poor''. This is the shit they are ''teaching'' to 14 year olds and one of main reasons I get asked, ''Why is it wrong to own your house''. Even the thought of having to learn that shit makes me depressed and even makes me question the future of class struggle sometimes

[The Idler]

Does anyone know any good general political educational textbooks sympathetic to Marxism designed for school students?

[Adorno4498]

Oh, Chavez, you mean that bias?
The capital classes assert two contradictory things: the irrelevance of communism and its danger. They send two messages two the two different classes they control. To the petit-bourgeoisies and academics of that class, they assert theses like that found in Fukyama's The End of History, that the fall of the Soviet Union and the advent of the Information economy has reasserted liberal democracy as the best of all possible worlds and has made the idea of Marxism obsolete, all while fighting three wars against countries of an "evil religion", of which the leaders of the West were in bed with from the begining! And the events of the Arab Spring and the Occupation Movement have left the bourgeoisies in a tizzy because it reasserts Marxism!
To the poor and their children, the capital class tries its best to indoctrinate the idea that Marxism is dangerous by appealing to the idea of Liberalism, which is brilliantly cruel because
1) Liberalism asserts the freedom of the individual and the idea of a free market
2) Liberalism is the status-quo, and it's ideals stir up images and ideals of American History, and the little information given in our cirricula in school about economics and philosophy is given a liberal slant. It is the only ideology known to some proletariat. How can they choose other options they don't know about?
So, because it is a status-quo that also strives towards freedom (and very little question what that word entails), teaching that Communism is both authoritarian and anti-establishment repels possible (and non-knowing) socialists, because Liberalism in its current form appeals to people's emotional, free sides and the side that strives towards order and cooperation. Cultural hegemony allows for the creation of this contradiction, and cuts off alternatives to liberal capitalism. And again, free will is learned, because who can choose an ideology that is invisible?

[ColonelCossack]

Yeah, teachers at my school shout "go back to russia ya dirty commie". I don't think they're serious though, partly because I live in a pseudo-lefty area.

My history teacher is a self-professed socialist, and the only reason he says he teaches that capitalism=democracy and communism=dictatorship is that he has to be concise because time is short and most people would get confused by anything more complicated... and I'm in the top set. :glare:

[Ocean Seal]

Well, yes they are biased. And you should take it up with them. Show them the definitions of socialism and communism and show them how they're wrong. Don't let go of this. When the bullshit is this clear this is your time to strike.

And Col. Cossack, it was the same at my high school but the teachers were a bit more serious about that stuff. They used to ridicule me at every point instead of letting me finish, say that my viewpoint was offensive, childish, among other things without allowing me a platform for my views. One teacher even ridiculed me for my disorganization claiming that to organize a revolution I needed to be more organized. Then during superlatives he made a category called most likely to lead a failed revolution... for which he nominated me, and then when I won in other categories he said that no one could win two. I told him that no one led a working class revolution... And of course he also said that the USSR was an ally with Nazi Germany, and I went to say that it was false, and I tried to show the material basis behind the Molotov Ribbentrop pact, and why the capitalist countries couldn't have the moral high ground.

[Le Socialiste]

Nothing remarkably special here, the U.S. education system isn't exactly neutral when it comes to communism.

[m1omfg]

Do they seriously teach this in Western schools? I live in a post-communist country and it is far less biased here (basically "there were bad sides but also good sides"..., well, the textbooks are really biased, our history teacher is only a very slight anticommunist through [and that little bit mostly because her parents were landowners once, she's really nice and a good teacher through]).

[Erratus]

Yeah, that is how I was taught it also. I learned something similar to this diagram.
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/9981/circularmodel.jpg

Where communism and fascism were right next to each other. Communism has become synonymous with totalitarian. Pretty sad really, it always disgusts me when people have to bastardize an idea. If communism is truly this horrible, vile system, why must it be distorted before taught to children?

[CommieTroll]

Well, yes they are biased. And you should take it up with them.

Trust me, I've tried. Their most intelligent response was, ''How many degrees do you have?'' A vague attempt to validate their self worth

[Tim Finnegan]

My old schoolbook: "Communism and fascism might seem to be opposites... but are they?" *-Cue horseshoe political spectrum-*
Funny thing is, that doesn't even make sense on their own terms unless you eliminate every detail about either typology until you're left with "there was only one party" and "the boss was kind of a dick". It's almost like they're trying to give you an easy bit of bullshit to see through, like they're trying to slyly breed some healthy cynicism into you.

[Red Commissar]

Reading through my old school work I have saved from over seven years ago, I used the phrase "the iron fist of Communism" to describe actions by eastern bloc states and the Soviet Union.

I want to punch my younger self if I could.

[X5N]

I remember my middle or high school history textbook arguing that communism doesn't work, or something, and then giving a watered down/convoluted explanation of what communism and socialism are. I can't really remember good, though.

However, my history/Native American studies professor in junior college was a total fucking commie, who in the U.S. history classes I took assigned us a rather left-leaning textbook. :D

[Erratus]

Reading through my old school work I have saved from over seven years ago, I used the phrase "the iron fist of Communism" to describe actions by eastern bloc states and the Soviet Union.

I want to punch my younger self if I could.

I feel like that too looking back on a lot of stuff that I said/wrote. But OP is right, there is heavy bias. You can't expect people to just automatically look through bullshit they have been spoon-fed their entire lives, and that includes yourself. Be happy that you are no longer that person.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

I skipped out of the high school indoctrination but I am sure my textbooks had similar views.

[Hexen]

No surprise here, the Bourgeoisie has to make Marxism, and Communism terrifying words. And where better to start than in the schools?

Capitalists are pretty successful making Communism even Socialism loaded words (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loaded_language).

[norwegianwood90]

I'm currently in an upper-level economics course, "The History of Economic Thought." On the first day of class we were asked to provide our name and something about ourselves. To keep it "economically relevant," I said that I'm a Marxist. There were a few gasps. One liberal, who introduced himself as "being white," called me a "commie," to which my reply was, "Well... yeah!"

We recently finished our section on Marx. On multiple occasions, my professor incorrectly stated that The Communist Manifesto was published in 1844 (instead of 1848), and that its opening line (instead of closing line) was "Workers of the world, unite!"

I suppose it went better than expected. After all, the unit didn't begin with, "We know Marx was wrong because..." :D

[The Old Man from Scene 24]

*facepalm*

That's my profile picture! LOL!

I agree with everyone here, it is a bourgeois problem.

[Blake's Baby]

... communism means "A small social elite and 1000's getting the bad end of it"...

Wait, this is communism? Shit, here I was hoping for a revolution, but I've just realised, we're living the dream! Happy Communism comrades!

And then I woke up and realised that they were thick as pigshit and had got mixed up; they were talking about capitalism.

[Veovis]

If communism is truly this horrible, vile system, why must it be distorted before taught to children?

Furthermore, if communism is such a horrible system, why was the USA so busy putting down communist movements in the third world? You'd think those movements wouldn't have any popular support.

[Drowzy_Shooter]

I know that this happens sometimes, but last year I think that my school went over the line. In history, we were asked something to the extent of "What is it called when a government restricts people's rights and controls everything as a dictatorship?". The 'correct' answer was communism. In our text books, it described communist countries as ones that are totalitarian and ran by a dictator. Frankly, I'm not surprised, but has anyone else noticed bias in their schools like this?

Says the Stalinist ( jk jk jk).

But, It's understandable. Your man Stalin said something about this himself (I forget the exact quote).

On a side note, I get pissed when my books ( christian perspective ) break out the communism is an evil state atheism land where Christians are thrown in the street and shot. It annoys me heavily.

[Misanthrope]

High school history class makes me RAGE.

[Franz Fanonipants]

lol you mean history is an ideological battleground no

[Marxaveli]

In my Poli Sci class today at my college, we had a Capitalism vs Communism debate sort of. The teacher had asked us to write a picture or phrase on the board that described our economy, I wrote "Capitalism = profits over humanity"....we discussed what each person wrote, and needless to say, when the teacher got to my quote, she smiled and knew who had written it. Anyway, we have one staunch Republican in our class, and me and like 3 other people totally destroyed all his arguments, and then there were 2-3 neutral people that said they disliked both Capitalism and Communism.

[CommunityBeliever]

Frankly, I'm not surprised, but has anyone else noticed bias in their schools like this?

Yes. There are a variety of centuries-old ideas (like capitalism) that our school systems are biased towards maintaining. When things get out of date like that they need to revolutionized.

[Ocean Seal]

Trust me, I've tried. Their most intelligent response was, ''How many degrees do you have?'' A vague attempt to validate their self worth
I've gotten this response as well. A good come back, is: oh, I didn't realize that your degrees could change definitions/history.

[TheRed]

I feel like that too looking back on a lot of stuff that I said/wrote. But OP is right, there is heavy bias. You can't expect people to just automatically look through bullshit they have been spoon-fed their entire lives, and that includes yourself. Be happy that you are no longer that person.

Can you really blame them for being "spoon fed" though? After all it the threat of newclear anihalation that spawned the whole anti-communism mindset in the first place, I don't condone thease loud mouth ultra right conservative rednecks but if it ment the survival of your nation wouldn't you spur up hatred for your enamies?

[The Young Pioneer]

In one of my courses the other day (in the US), the professor said, "Raise your hand if you believe healthcare should be a human right."

In a room of 40, only two of us raised our hands. Prof proceeded to point at us and exclaim, "You're WRONG!"

Smh.

This is why I strongly encourage anyone living in a Western country to seek education elsewhere. I miss the kind of education I got in Finland, and am getting back east ASAP.

[Genti]

The 'best' thing is when my teacher told us that democracy is the best thing because we can choose our own leader i was like WTF ?

[Jennifer]

You mean my sophomore year AP World History teacher's *****ing about my reading the Communist Manifesto in class, my refuting (alone) his ideals of wage labor, pointing out his hipocracy in his critizism of Rome and his failing to see a MIRROR FUCKING IMAGE, trying to shut me up when I try to correct the information conveyed from him to my fellow students, my refusing to practically wet myself with patriotism during pledges (or doing them at all for the matter; what gives?), oh, and me being "Eurotrash" belonging to a family full of "dirty hippy communists" (I wish) who need to get the fuck out because this is the best country in the whole world (because apparently the US is the only country in the world...the rest of you are just satellites, essentially :rolleyes:)and who want nothing more than to leech off of the rich because I'm INSANELY jealous of them?

Yeah, I'd say they're not fond of socialism/communism in our school system.

[Hexen]

Remember, the original purpose of schools in western society are basically training grounds for future obedient workers which their ofcourse their going to be biased against communism which is plainly obvious.

[ColonelCossack]

You mean my sophomore year AP World History teacher's *****ing about my reading the Communist Manifesto in class, my refuting (alone) his ideals of wage labor, pointing out his hipocracy in his critizism of Rome and his failing to see a MIRROR FUCKING IMAGE, trying to shut me up when I try to correct the information conveyed from him to my fellow students, my refusing to practically wet myself with patriotism during pledges (or doing them at all for the matter; what gives?), oh, and me being "Eurotrash" belonging to a family full of "dirty hippy communists" (I wish) who need to get the fuck out because this is the best country in the whole world (because apparently the US is the only country in the world...the rest of you are just satellites, essentially :rolleyes:)and who want nothing more than to leech off of the rich because I'm INSANELY jealous of them?

Yeah, I'd say they're not fond of socialism/communism in our school system.

Your teachers really called you a "eurotrash" "dirty hippy commie"???

[The Dark Side of the Moon]

next time we go to china, loas, and Nam, i plan on arguing with the teacher that they are not communist, and socialist at the most,

fine, capitalist at the most. any suggestions on how to counter anything he will say?
and do you have any ideas how to counter them?

[Invader Zim]

I know that this happens sometimes, but last year I think that my school went over the line. In history, we were asked something to the extent of "What is it called when a government restricts people's rights and controls everything as a dictatorship?". The 'correct' answer was communism. In our text books, it described communist countries as ones that are totalitarian and ran by a dictator. Frankly, I'm not surprised, but has anyone else noticed bias in their schools like this?

If I may ask, how old were you at the time?

[Chambered Word]

In one of my courses the other day (in the US), the professor said, "Raise your hand if you believe healthcare should be a human right."

In a room of 40, only two of us raised our hands. Prof proceeded to point at us and exclaim, "You're WRONG!"

Smh.

This is why I strongly encourage anyone living in a Western country to seek education elsewhere. I miss the kind of education I got in Finland, and am getting back east ASAP.

woulda told that fucker to go fuck himself


I've gotten this response as well. A good come back, is: oh, I didn't realize that your degrees could change definitions/history.

"so you've studied for years and you're still unable to grasp the concept of communism properly? nice work" parochial idiots deserve to be ripped on.

[Triple A]

http://latvianhistory.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/hitler-stalin-2.jpg

My history book had this image and my teacher explained how communism and nazism were the same based on this single image.

[Jennifer]

Your teachers really called you a "eurotrash" "dirty hippy commie"???

Yes. He basically said anyone who aligns with my beliefs is "eurotrash" and a "dirty hippie communist". Therefore, that'd include me.

[NewLeft]

http://i.imgur.com/BrHXP.png

[Misanthrope]

Who's not going to study anything other then something math/sci related? This guy.:thumbup1:

[Bronco]

I've never found it that bad actually, this is in the UK but we looked at the Russian Revolution in school and did actually have a brief overview of the idealogical basis for Communism and the reasons for the split between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, and now where I am at University we often look at Marxist interpretations for historical events and texts, and studied Engels' "The Condition of the Working Class in England" for a bit

[NewLeft]

Who's not going to study anything other then something math/sci related? This guy.:thumbup1:
lol I'm with you.. I don't want to bother with any of this.

[Le Rouge]

http://i.imgur.com/BrHXP.png

You forgot to write "slavery" at the bottom.

[NewLeft]

You forgot to write "slavery" at the bottom.
Huh? Nah, American freedom includes the freedom to be a slave.

[Misanthrope]

lol I'm with you.. I don't want to bother with any of this.

no matter how right we communists seem to be we are still dead wrong angsty teenagers.

[Inner Peace]

ju3h7yk4Hcg

[Comrade Samuel]

Yeah of coarse its biased but look at the facts, most if not all of our teachers where raised during the cold war so obviously from a very young age they believed communism to be the ultimate enamy to there way of life.

Yeah they might be idiots for not even trying to look deeper into it and instead blindly bashing it for absolutely no logical reason but at least after thease generations die off perhaps we may hear only the facts about communism in school. But we should see that through most of there lives if they where to support communism they Midas well just called themselves Nazis, the problem was irrational fear of socity.

[OHumanista]

I guess I was lucky, it was kinda mild in my school, in general they just pretended the subject didn't exist at all. Only going into some non detailed criticism of the USSR (which I don't consider socialist after Lenin). So no big deal, but I did have some reactionary "teachers" who went out of their way to denounce the evils of leftism.

Still later I also had the luck of having a great sociology teacher who was a marxists and put great emphasis on the importance of Marx...but that was DEFINITELY an exception.

[Lokomotive293]

The general opinion of my teachers seems to be that it was a good idea, but it didn't work, and that communism died with the Eastern Bloc.
We only focus on German history, so we only ever talked about communism when we were talking about the DDR (strangely, they completely left out the part about the failed revolution of 1918/1919), and of course the teacher told us all about how oppressive the regime was, how bad the economy, and how they had to build a wall to keep people from leaving, and that that is why communism will never work. As if one failed experiment proves that things will never, ever be different. Biased, of course, but from what I've read in this thread, I guess it was nowhere near as biased as what you get in the US.

One funny scene was in 9th Grade in history class. My teacher was talking about the DDR, spouting all those typical Western prejudices you usually get. He told us about how people had to wait 15 years for a car, and then he said something like "And the cars they had there, the Trabi, you can't even call that a car!" One guy in my class (quite the hot-tempered person) got really mad and said "They were normal cars that you could drive. Yes, of course, they weren't as fast as others, but... NOT EVERYTHING WAS BAD THEN!" The teacher gave him a weird look and asked "Are you from over there?" He said his parents are from East Berlin. It was priceless. That was before I got into leftist politics, though.