Schoolyard communism
This story is just fantastic. Hopefully other schools will follow in Pine View’s footsteps to teach students the problems with communism.
[...]
The drill was part of a history lesson taken to an elaborate level Tuesday at Pine View, where Stephany and the rest of the 2,000 students participated in an interactive lesson commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago.
“This was a project of the history club, and their idea was that students should really have an idea of what it was like to live in a communist state,” said social studies teacher Patricia Johnston, who helped organize the project and served as the lead “comrade.”
Students, with the help of a local landscaping company, erected a nearly 100-foot paper replica of the Berlin wall, complete with graffiti. It stood across the middle of the campus to mimic the concrete wall that separated communist East Germany from capitalist West Germany from 1961 to the end of 1989.
On the west side, students could walk around, socialize and behave as they normally do.
But on the east side, students could only walk on sidewalks, wear approved clothing (no hats, for instance) and had to behave in an orderly, controlled fashion. [...]
February 25th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
I wonder if the Principal if going to pull a Reagan and tear down the wall!
February 25th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
I’m surprised they were even allowed to do this. It seems that the post-colonialists in the education system are so dead set on showing the merits of communism that they would be blinded by ignorance. I’d be surprised if this happened a second year.
February 25th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
i’m sure reagan was a great president and all, but neo-cons today need to stop that ridiculous love affair they have with him. gorbachev ended the cold war, not reagan. reagan cut taxes, so what, let’s look to the future instead of focusing on the past.
February 26th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Seriously? Gorbachev ended the cold war? Reagan was a real president. He didnt feature hundreds of pictures of himself on the walls of the white house (like the current guy). Strangely, many communist dictators feature pictures of themselves EVERYWHERE… People who disagreed with Reagan were not marginalized, (those who disagree with the current guy tend to be dismissed as racist sexualized slurs who are probably inbred and should be institutionalized). After marginalizing their opposition as nutjobs, communist dictators tended to lock up their critics… Hm…
Reagan never walked into the Oval office unless he was wearing a suit and tie, he respected the office and he respected the trust that the American people had placed in him. The Owe… not an issue, not only does he not bother with the suit, he’s been known to put his feet on the Resolute Desk, and considering how he treats the American people, we certainly know what he thinks of them (much like what Communist Dictators think of the common folk in their countries).
I miss Reagan.
As to the article, very cool way to educate the students, I imagine more of them will remember that history lesson far more than any other history lesson they had that year. Makes me wish my high school had tried funky forms of education like that, I would have had a lot of fun wandering around saying “Cooler, eight veeks” while dressing like Frau Farbissina.
February 26th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Well said Kawen. Interactive lessons are always more memorable, I hope that these children will be able to smack some sense into university history professors who try to tell them how evil Reagan was. As for Obama, I just can’t stand the arrogance he has about him when he tries to revolutionize the office of the President. I’m not opposed to progression…but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
March 3rd, 2010 at 4:47 pm
[...] LEST WE FORGET– Schoolyard communism, with a mini-Berlin Wall …. [...]