Ana Cenallos of The Orlando Sentinel reports that the state of Florida adopted curriculum materials created by rightwing talk show host Dennis Prager with the explicit purpose of indoctrinating students to accept rightwing views of controversial topics.
Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly says he opposes indoctrination in schools. Yet his administration in early July approved materials from a conservative group that says it’s all about indoctrination and “changing minds.”
The Florida Department of Education determined that educational materials geared toward young children and high school students created by PragerU, a nonprofit co-founded by conservative radio host Dennis Prager, were in alignment with the state’s standards on how to teach civics and government to K-12 students.
The content, some of which is narrated by conservative personalities such as Tucker Carlson and Candance Owens, features cartoons, five-minute video history lessons and story-time shows for young children. It is part of a brand called PragerU Kids. And the lessons share a common message: Being pro-American means aligning oneself to mainstream conservative talking points.
“We are in the mind-changing business and few groups can say that,” Prager says in a promotional video for PragerU. He reiterated this sentiment this summer at a conference for the conservative group Moms for Liberty in Philadelphia, saying it is “fair” to say PragerU indoctrinates children.
“It’s true we bring doctrines to children,” Prager told the group. “But what is the bad about our indoctrination?”
The bottom line message: The US is the best place ever. Its history is unblemished by any troubling episodes. Slavery was practiced in many societies, and white people should be credited with ending it.
PragerU is not an accredited university and it publicly says the group is a “force of good” against the left. It’s a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles that produces videos that touch on a range of themes, including climate policies (specifically how “energy poverty, not climate change” is the real crisis), the flaws of Canada’s government-run healthcare system (and how the American privatized system is better), and broad support for law enforcement (and rejection of Black Lives Matter).
In some cases, the videos tell kids that their teachers are “misinformed” or “lying.”

In every circumstance, the right accuses the left of sins they themselves commit on a regular basis.
The right accuses the left of abandoning the helpless when they support abortion rights, then denies healthcare to youth and old alike.
The right accuses the left of distrusting the military, then sends our military into untenable situations across the globe.
The right wants you to train your attention of corruption of public officials, then accepts bribery on a scale not seen since the Gilded Age if they benefit
The right accuses the left of indoctrination when the left argues for the rights of all, then boasts of indoctrination when it wants to reserve those rights for the few at the expense of the many
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The Left accuses the Right of things that they are guilty of as well. The same issues we fight today have been around for decades. Abortion, federal overreach, gun control, health care, immigration etc are issues that could have been seriously worked on many years ago, but it has always been easier to keep the fires burning. The fight would bring more power and money to the incumbent party. I feel sorry for this country. Let the past be the past and work to improve the lives of everyone.
The Black writers of this curriculum refuse to change it. have the objectors studied it (outside of a few sentences? It covers more than just Black slavery. Has anyone else complained? Give it a chance.
As far as DeSantis is concerned–He is better in Florida.
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As a Floridian, I can honestly say he is not better in Florida. He needs to go!
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The right often accuses the left of doing exactly what the right intends to do. DeSantis and his minions are hyper-partisan, and they lack tolerance for divergent opinions. DeSantis has been on a campaign to shut down any liberal views in public education including higher education. He wants to use public tax dollars to indoctrinate public education students with his whitewashed history and biased political beliefs. Prager U can be used to turn public schools into propaganda machines similar to way in which Hitler’s Youth movement operated.
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Correction:
“He wants to use public tax dollars to indoctrinate public education students with his whitewashed REACTIONARY XTIAN THEOFASCIST history and biased political beliefs.”
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“Yet his administration in early July approved materials from a conservative group. . . ”
Again for the umpteenth time. . . they aren’t conservative although they love to call themselves that-lends a sheen of credibility to their machinations.
THEY ARE REACTIONARY XTIAN THEOFASCISTS.
Plain and simple.
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Duane, I think nowadays “conservative” has a bad enough meaning. It’s good to be “progressive” and bad to be “conservative”. It’s good to promote progress in issues such as retirement, minimal vacation time, health care, gun control, minimal maternal leave, and it’s bad to try to conserve what we currently have on these issues in the US.
I have no idea what are “XTIAN ” and “THEOFASCISTS”.
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conservative vs progressive is plain and simple.
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Reactionary vs progressive is just as plain and simple. So is regressive vs progressive.
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I’ll go with that.
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The bottom line messages:
We know best.
We are the best.
Think like us.
Follow us.
Become like us.
We are the social servants,
set apart for the maintenance
of the proper social order and
the securing of the right social
growth. We are prophets, of the
true God, and shall usher in
the true kingdom of heaven…
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For the federal experts commenting – I just skimmed ESSA (ESEA). The good news is that it prohibits the federal government from dictating just about anything to States in curriculum. Funding from the federal government is at the discretion of the states. So, gosh forbid these fools get elected, a national mandate is prohibited.
The bad news is, the federal government can’t intervene even if it witnesses blatant lies and indoctrination in local curriculum.
However, there is nothing I see about withholding funds. If a state loses funding for whatever scheme the fed construe, so be it. So withhold funds from States that teach lies.
And, if the federal government cannot be selective in funding, then threaten to adjust the budget nationally to take funds from all 50 states and at least half the states would pressure the red ones to comply.
Doable?
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What you suggest, WAIT, requires someone at the Dept of ED with courage.
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The good news is that it prohibits the federal government from dictating just about anything to States in curriculum.
In practice, that’s bs. The Common [sic] Core [sic], because of its imprimatur by the Obama Education Department under Duncan, became the de facto curriculum outline in Math and ELA in the United States. I know because at the time I was working in the textbook industry and saw this happen firsthand.
The end of coherent curricula in these subject areas in the United States, though the problem was less severe in Math than it was in ELA, where it was devastating.
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The federal prohibition on interfering in the curriculum was totally ignored by Arne Duncan when he promoted Common Core.
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Exactly right, Diane.
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And…
At what point with this indoctrination curriculum cross the line of federal law? Every parent with a clue and a conscience should be filing OCR complaints.
Title IX? I expect somewhere the curriculum violates or promotes discrimination.
There has to be a loophole somewhere.
And if not, where’s the push back – national, outspoken, in-your-face confrontation. Are we relying on Chris Christie to be the only loud mouth counter to the these candidates and State absurdity?
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Conservative vs Progressive
is plain and simple.
No matter who loses,
MONEY always wins…
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The whole Ceballos article can be found without paywall here: https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2023/07/31/floridas-conservative-prageru-teaching-texts-labeled-indoctrination/
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Thanks for the link!
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Just over a year ago, FL established a rule “banning teachers from indoctrinating or persuading students,” which included a last-minute amendment specifically banning “theories that distort historical events, such as… Project 1619.” But ed materials designed by a rw org that promotes itself this way are fine: “We are in the mind-changing business… It is fair to say we indoctrinate children.” Says FL Dept of Ed: “PragerU Kids is no different than many other resources, which can be used as supplemental materials in Florida schools at district discretion.” Guess they’ve gone through it with a fine-toothed comb and found no “distortion of historical events.” 🤣
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Hypocrisy is a way of life for right wing extremists.
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“To label PragerU as right wing, one should also label at the same time virtually 80% of what’s in American schools right now as extreme left wing,” Streit said. [CEO of PragerU]
A wild claim. Let me guess: “Virtually 80% of what’s in American schools right now” = (a)blue state declarations of DEI policy in ed standards; (b) sex-ed standards in some blue states; (c) 3 or 4 out-there picture books for the K-2 set that can be found on the shelves of some blue-state pubschool libraries; (d) 3 or 4 controversial novels that can be found on highschool library shelves [where not banned]– and even assigned as reading for some schools in some blue states.
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This is sick and disgusting!
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We’re now well beyond “give‘m an inch, they’ll take a mile.”
What should we call this kind of move– “give’m an inch, they’ll convert it to megahertz”? Or maybe, “give’m an inch, they’ll transform it into a frog”?
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Because the left controls literally everything including education, our country is 25th in world, you guys actually suck at what you do.
omgggggggggg Climate changeeeeeeeee ahhhhhhhhhhh. It’s 75 degrees in August noooooooooooo. What happens if we had 7-10 100 degree temperature inn a row like we had in 80’s and 90’s is that going to cause a ……. ahhhhhh climate change. In 500 years maybe caps will melt more, Greta my climate teenage savior said we would be gone. by now, Al Gore predicted 20 years ago we would be under water.
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Actually Josh, our country is first in the world on many measures—economic, cultural, social. That’s because everyone has access to free public education. 90% of American youth are in public schools. 90% of Americans graduated from public schools. You seem to have a low opinion of the USA. Public schools made us great. The international scores reflect the proportion of kids in poverty. No child is America should grow up in poverty, without access to health care, food, and a secure home.
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Josh,
It was not 10 days over 100 in Phoenix this year, it was 31 consecutive days with the temperature over 110.
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TE, you must know that the radical left controls temperatures wherever they want.
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Phoenix set a new record: 31 days straight of over 110-degree heat smashing the previous record of 18 days set in June of 1974.
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Unfortunately, our math education and the climate disaster we have been experiencing are related.
The effects of climate disaster are long term and probabilistic. This means fatal heatwaves, killing millions of people globally, will happen more frequently: while our grandfathers experienced such an event once in their life time, our kids will experience it every 2-3 years. These events will happen randomly, meaning we cannot tell if it will happen today, tomorrow or next week. What we can say is that the frequency of these events will be much greater.
Arguing by saying “but today, it’s 77 degrees in Phoenix” is completely meaningless, but to comprehend why it’s meaningless requires some understanding of probability and randomness, that is, the guiding principles of gambling.
Unfortunately, our current math curriculum focuses on torturing kids with an infinite collection of useless (even for mathematicians) formulas in trigonometry, algebra and calculus, instead of teaching them the basic principles of gambling, which happen to be the principles of most natural laws as well.
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https://cwfis.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/interactive-map
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OK Josh get some perspective on the PISA ranking, please.
First off, you can’t just eyeball it & say oh god we’re 25th out of 77. Because the combined-score range is 334 – 579. Ours is 495. That puts us in the top 15%. As are France and Austria. (Oh no, Switzerland is 1% ahead of us!) Seems like we’re in pretty good company.
Also, check out the scores that make up the combined score, to see where we do better/ worse. In reading, we’re in top 9%, between Sweden and Japan. In science, we’re in top 15%, between Netherlands and Belgium.
But yes, we could improve in math! We’re in the top 21%, along with Hungary, Lithuania & Spain. Think of it this way: so much better than back in 1960’s. The 1st 4 intl competitions were all in math. We were dead last in 1963, and not a lot better in the next 3…
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https://www.factcheck.org/2023/06/viral-posts-distort-greta-thunberg-tweet-warning-about-climate-change/
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Josh, are you actually a 14-year-old kid whose parents are avid Trumpers – and traitors- and who has yet to learn how to write coherent comments?
Asking for a lot of people .
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The Prager stuff is VERY SLICK. Extremely superficial, but VERY SLICK. And extremely Reich-wing. It is indoctrination via feel-good television commercial. It has and will have enormous appeal to uneducated idiots. And it’s more artfully prepared than was, say, a segment of the Tucker Carlson Show. It’s quite easy to imagine a future where PragerU videos constitute all of History and Civics instruction in half our states.
Extremely effective. Why did Hitler and Lenin both start film studios just after seizing power? Because it works as propaganda. You will be familiar with the phenomenon in which you sit and watch a move and by the end of it, you are feeling all Michael Corleone. Well, imagine a new generation of little Candace Owenses and Tucker Carlsons.
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Script, PU, 2033
Why work camps for subversives? Your Glorious Leader is glad you asked! It’s a little complicated, but stick with me. Suppose that all the dogs in the neighborhood crapped in your backyard, and it got to where they yard stank to high heaven and little Casey and Ronnie couldn’t even go back there to practice their Young Patriot League rifle drills! Pretty terrible, huh? Now, suppose you could release a Lawnba Deluxe cleaner drone out there, and it could gather all that dog poop and take it to a facility that would burn it to produce energy! A win-win, right?
Well, think about the dog poop of human societies, subversives. In the 20th century alone, they caused wars that killed millions! In the Battle of Stalingrad alone, some 250,000 Germans died fighting Communists! Young, idealistic people just like you! But subversives are worse than that. Not only do they cause wars, they also cause unrest–burning shops and homes and blocking streets. AND they also consume resources. Every one of them leeches thousands and thousands of dollars from hardworking Americans each year. And every one of them takes jobs that hardworking Americans could hold.
Well, suppose that you ended ALL THAT and you put them ALL in a place where they couldn’t cause unrest and burn things down and where you could control the amount of resources they would consume? And on top of that, imagine that you could use them to produce useful items like dog collars and Victory Vitamins, which no self-respecting hardworking American would want to spend time doing.
Again, as with the dog poop, it’s a win win. So, next time you have your morning vitamin, thank a camp director! [Video of good Christian Aryan children running in a field with Fido outside a camp; of camp guards and officials waving atthe children]
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In other news, Trump indicted on Election Fraud. Here’s the indictment text:
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BTW, the extremely Reich-wing rag that goes by the name The National Review–the one that ludicrously pretends to be objective and scholarly–just ran an article called “This Trump Indictment Shoudn’t Stand.”
Evidently, attempting by various illegal means to overthrow a duly elected government of the United States before it even takes office is just fine with the NR.
There’s a word for that.
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having fun with all the fake indictments BOBBY!! Must get you all giddy, no crimes, the election was a fraud, now we can look into it!
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Hilarious. Your guy is going to prison for conspiring by several means to overturn what was described by his own appointees as the most secure election in American history. You base your contention, Carrie, on ZERO evidence. EVERY COURT THAT LOOKED AT TRUMP’S CLAIMS COMPLETELY REJECTED THEM.
Why? Because they were based on ZERO evidence. As Ghouliani said, “We have lots of theories. We just don’t have any proof.”
HAAAAA
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And I wouldn’t call it giddy, Carrie. More like annoyed that Garland dragged his feet for so long and that the criminal idiot wasn’t put in prison long ago for one or more of his many, many serious crimes.
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I would be willing to bet the farm, Ms. Carrie, that you haven’t even read the indictment and so have no freaking clue at all what you are talking about. At some point, one cannot simply put forward some generalized unreality as the truth. Why? Because there is all this actual evidence, much of it right out in the open or multiply corroborated, often with a document or other media trail. That idiocy only goes so far.
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It would be a fascinating scientific study to trace the daily activities–conversations with peers, media consumption, and so on–of one of these Trumpeters to see how one can, in the 21st century, be a grownup and be this utterly clueless about what Trump is, about how elections are conducted, and so on.
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The fact that there are some Black people who were involved with creating and implementing these materials—the ones emphasizing the “good” or “beneficial” aspects of almost 250 years of slavery in North America, among other mendacious and sickening falsehoods—doesn’t provide any cover or justification. It is still a grossly inaccurate and deceptive narrative. Anyone involved with bringing this into Florida public schools deserves condemnation regardless of their race, religious beliefs, nationality or anything else.
There will always be ultra right-wing extremists in every walk of life—Clarence Thomas, Alan Keyes and Herrman Cain are typical examples—who for either money or status will adopt the mindset of those who have historically oppressed them. But such sellouts are never representative of the broader community they came from. Nor does their participation in something that is wrong somehow make it acceptable.
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