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Education

Was The Boston Tea Party Terrorism? Texas Schools Are Teaching Just That (And More)

Nov. 20, 2012 5:06pm

(UPDATED: Additional information has been added to this story.)

In less than a month (December 16th), we will mark the 239th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. This well-known protest against “taxation without representation” is almost universally recognized as the moment that sparked the American Revolution.

In many Texas public schools, the Boston Tea Party is now being taught as an example of an act of terrorism.

Here’s an excerpt from a Texas school system’s World History / Social Studies lesson plan. It purports to be helping teachers become more efficient, but many people are upset with the content of the lesson and the lack of parental review. In this specific instance, teachers are instructed to read the story to their classes as if it were a news report that had just happened within the past hour:

News report: New Act of Terrorism

A local militia, believed to be a terrorist organization, attacked the property of private citizens today at our nation’s busiest port. Although no one was injured in the attack, a large quantity of merchandise, considered to be valuable to its owners and loathsome to the perpetrators, was destroyed. The terrorists, dressed in disguise and apparently intoxicated, were able to escape into the night with the help of local citizens who harbor these fugitives and conceal their identities from the authorities. It is believed that the terrorist attack was a response to the policies enacted by the occupying country’s government. Even stronger policies are anticipated by the local citizens.

Later in the curriculum, teachers are instructed to reveal to students that the event described above the historic Boston Tea Party. Here’s a screen capture from the actual lesson and what should be done after the story is read:

Texas Schools Teaching The Boston Tea Party Was Terrorism

Image: Screen capture CSCOPE’s website

For the record, this lesson comes from a non-profit group called CSCOPE.  They are an offshoot of an educational program that traces its roots back to 1965 when the state established media centers / Education Service Centers (ESCs) throughout each of the state’s 20 school districts:

In 1965, the 59th Texas Legislature authorized the State Board of Education to establish media centers throughout the state. Two years later, the State Board of Education divided the state into 20 regions, assigning each media center to begin operations and serve in each region. In 1966-67, Title III of the U.S. Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided funding for start-up costs associated with establishing supplementary educational centers.

These “media centers” are reported to have received $25 million in funding last year.

Texas Schools Teaching The Boston Tea Party Was TerrorismJust a few years ago, 19 of the 20 centers formed a non-profit entity call the Texas Education Service Center Curriculum Collaborative (TESCCC). And TESCCC owns the Cscope Curriculum Management System. CSCOPE defines itself on their website:

CSCOPE is the source for an all-in-one approach to a quality curriculum system. CSCOPE is a comprehensive, customizable, user-friendly curriculum management system built on the most current research-based practices in the field.

TheBlaze has reached out to CSCOPE in hopes of clarifying a few of the issues being raised by parents. As of this writing, no calls have been returned.

One of the major issues we expect to discuss with CSCOPE’s directors is the complaint raised by several parents about the lack of transparency at the schools. Several parents from different locations in Texas have independently confirmed that parents are not permitted to access the lessons being taught in the classrooms. There is a “Parent’s Portal” available online, but the content differs greatly from the lesson plans we have seen.

For example, the lesson on terrorism shown above is part of the curriculum that correlates to this section in the Parents Portal:

Texas Schools Teaching The Boston Tea Party Was Terrorism

Image: CSCOPE web site

Several parents and teachers have written to TheBlaze stating that they were denied access to the lessons being taught using CSCOPE materials. This apparent denial is apparently in direct conflict with Texas law.

From Texas State Constitution:

Sec. 26.006.  ACCESS TO TEACHING MATERIALS. (a)  A parent is entitled to:

(1)  review all teaching materials, instructional materials, and other teaching aids used in the classroom of the parent’s child;

If schools using CSCOPE are not allowing parents to review education materials, it would appear they are violating one of the state’s constitutionally protected rights. Our initial investigation into CSCOPE has also uncovered some other questionable lesson plans. In order to properly vet these stories, TheBlaze is investigating further and will report back on Monday after Thanksgiving weekend.

If you have any information to contribute to our investigation, please email links and documents to: mopelka@theblaze.com

Update:

Since our original posting of this story, TheBlaze has received a flood of emails from educators and parents in Texas providing more information that will be included in our follow-up story next week. One teacher claimed that our report about the “Boston Tea Party being taught as terrorism” was incorrect and that the lesson is currently not on the CSCOPE website.

We do know that the lesson in question was on the site as recently as January of 2012 and apparently had been part of the curriculum since August of 2010 (see the screen capture from the now “scrubbed” web page below). Since officials from CSCOPE have not returned our calls, we cannot confirm the date when the curriculum and the website was changed.

Texas Schools Teaching The Boston Tea Party Was Terrorism

Image: CSCOPE screen capture

 

Featured image via Shutterstock.com

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Comments (205)

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  • TexasBlonde
    Posted on February 27, 2013 at 5:15pm

    My comment was to say the British and those loyal to the British technically may have thought the rebels were terrorists for dumping their prescious tea into the harbor. That really does not fit the definition we associate with a terrorist.

    I do not mind a teacher posing the question if nothing else to get a lively discussion started, but I do believe the teacher should also define the difference between an act that brought a little inconvenience to the British and an act of terrorism that is meant to instill fear in those who they commit the act against. Flying airplanes into the World Trade Center Towers, the OKC Federal Building bombing, car bombs that are set off in foreign countries, and attacks on foreign embassies are all terrorists attacks. Back then the British may have felt it was an economic terror attack similar to more recent history when the oil fields in Kuwait were set on fire which was an attack on their economy as well as the ecology.

    CSCOPE crossed the line this week when the teacher told the student not to call radical muslims terrorists but to call them freedom fighters. Yes, they are fighting against a harsh dictator, but what they want to put in place is not freedom. They want strict Sharia law which will allow no religious freedom, women will be virtual slaves to men, and men feel they have the right to take the life of their wife or children if they feel they are not in compliance with Sharia law. That is not freedom.

    Report this comment

    TexasBlonde  
  • wanda faye rigdon
    Posted on November 25, 2012 at 5:58pm

    Ahhhh here we go again changing history to suit them sorry left wing liberals you need to all be hanged for treason!!!!!

    Report this comment

    wanda faye rigdon  
  • petie3
    Posted on November 25, 2012 at 9:48am

    I do not object to the lesson itself, as it invites the reader (student) to think like a Tory. It’s a thought experiment; like imagining you were a ***** in the back of a bus in 1953. I do object if the children are not old or mature enough to understand the perspectives involved. For indoctrination this is not a particularly good example.

    Report this comment

    petie3  
  • Deathissalvation
    Posted on November 25, 2012 at 1:19am

    One person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter.

    Report this comment

    Deathissalvation  
  • garbagecanlogic
    Posted on November 22, 2012 at 9:19pm

    I sincerely hope Beck stops telling us what a great place Texas is. It appears to be just as corrupt as New York!

    Praise Be To Obama. Psalm 109:8

    The U.S. Out Of The U.N.
    The U.N. Out Of The U.S.

    Report this comment

    garbagecanlogic  
  • Aerocog
    Posted on November 22, 2012 at 12:49am

    I think it’s a good lesson, one man’s patriot is another man’s terrorist.

    Report this comment

    Aerocog  
  • SYZYGY_420
    Posted on November 21, 2012 at 10:43pm

    lol, what a bunch of crap. im glad i was home schooled, i never got brought up believing john d rockefeller BS! the NEA is stupid. They don’t even teach real history anymore, Lewis and Clark that is about it. so sad

    Report this comment

    SYZYGY_420  
  • AllAmericanGirl22
    Posted on November 21, 2012 at 10:29pm

    When I was in middle school (recently) my history teacher compared the sons of Liberty to al-Quaeda…our public schools are soooo corrupt…

    Report this comment

    AllAmericanGirl22  
  • ICEDRAGON
    Posted on November 21, 2012 at 9:55pm

    Time to rewrite history for the useful idiots. I can’t believe that we are going to have to redo all this garbage when the Liberals are killed by the mohommedists and the conservatives take out the mohommedists.

    Report this comment

    ICEDRAGON  
    • petie3
      Posted on November 25, 2012 at 9:50am

      I’m glad you said ‘when’ and not ‘if.’ Concur.

      Report this comment

      petie3  
  • ladyevidence
    Posted on November 21, 2012 at 7:42pm

    The question becomes: Is it terrorism when it is against a TYRANNICAL government?

    ter·ror·ism -the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/terrorism

    So, going by textbook definitions, then this probably was an act of terrorism.

    We have two choices then: Either the Boston Tea Party never should have happened because it was an act of terrorism… or terrorism can be an acceptable means of fighting a tyrannical government.

    Report this comment

    ladyevidence  
  • Oldshooter
    Posted on November 21, 2012 at 3:15pm

    Interesting way to approach discussing the Tea Party! I wouldn’t object, as long as the teacher then correctly points out that, in fact, the actions by the Sons of Liberty that day were NOT terrorism, as it is defined today, but rather an act of civil disobedience similar to the what we saw with the “Occupy” movement a few months ago. Terrorism is specifically defined as the use of tactics that create terror among the civilian population, for the purpose of bringing about a change in the government or its policies. By this definition one could conceivably call the WWII fire-bombing of Dresden and Tokyo “Terrorism,” (if its intention was not so much to destroy war-making capacity as to cause terror among the population to induce them to stop supporting their governments – a debatable point) but the Boston Tea Party cannot be called terrorism. It involved no act of terror, no threat of harm to anyone, and no actual harm to anyone. It DID involve the damage of other people’s property. This is a crime called “Vandalism” if done for the fun of it, and “Civil Disobedience” if done with the intent of raising political issues and trying to force the government to change its policies. Might actually be a useful discussion to have in our schools today!

    Report this comment

    Oldshooter  
  • OperationNorthwoods
    Posted on November 21, 2012 at 2:28pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oP1Ke70Mi8 Here’s police officers being trained on how the Founding Fathers were terrorists.

    Report this comment

    OperationNorthwoods  
  • uptickusa
    Posted on November 21, 2012 at 2:25pm

    You forget this was our Country where Britain were in control-We wanted Independence Not terrorists who kill because they hate religions other their own warped sect.

    Report this comment

    uptickusa  
  • gsreagan
    Posted on November 21, 2012 at 1:53pm

    It seems that we Texans have created a progressive monster that needs to be tamed with oversight. Maybe ole Rick Perry needs to be cautioned about this. If we don’t do it now, then the Alamo may be next. No one messes with the Alamo much less Texas. George S. Reagan, Sr., Fort Worth, Texas.

    Report this comment

    gsreagan  
  • Old Ogre
    Posted on November 21, 2012 at 1:06pm

    This is not isolated to just Texas;
    It is in every public school in the nation to some extent and if you want to find out who is really to blame do some digging into the teachers unions; it would shock you at how powerful these people really are. Look at how much they dumped into the elections, especially at the local level.
    I am willing to bet the ratio of liberal teachers to conservative ones is about 99 to 1, and there is not much we can peacefully do about it. We have to find a way to cut the head off the beast; they create more liberals exponentially every year. It takes time to un-brainwash people; they usually don’t smarten up until they are older and have had reality set in even if then. Now we have this huge influx of illegals to contend with, do you think they will vote against the teachers and the government that feeds them?

    Report this comment

    Old Ogre  
  • pandora
    Posted on November 21, 2012 at 11:31am

    What better place to attempt progressive infiltration than Texas? Texas is full of patriots. That will be a hard place to conquer unless they start indoctrinating young Texans.

    Report this comment

    pandora  
  • gyro
    Posted on November 21, 2012 at 11:26am

    As a canadian all I can say is God Save The Queen
    We kicked US ass in 1918

    Report this comment

    gyro  
  • sbs21078
    Posted on November 21, 2012 at 11:21am

    The midnight raid, popularly known as the “Boston Tea Party,” was in protest of the British Parliament’s Tea Act of 1773, a bill designed to save the faltering East India Company by greatly lowering its tea tax and granting it a virtual monopoly on the American tea trade. The low tax allowed the East India Company to undercut even tea smuggled into America by Dutch traders, and many colonists viewed the act as another example of taxation tyranny.Parliament, outraged by the blatant destruction of British property, enacted the Coercive Acts, also known as the Intolerable Acts, in 1774. The Coercive Acts closed Boston to merchant shipping, established formal British military rule in Massachusetts, made British officials immune to criminal prosecution in America, and required colonists to quarter British troops. The colonists subsequently called the first Continental Congress to consider a united American resistance to the British.- Who were the supposed “Terrorists” in this situation? The Subjects who lived here under a tyrant king and parliament who definitely had spending problem or the Citizens who were trying to make a living and just survive in this New World and exhausted from being ripped off the wealth they made for themselves and had continually removed from them by way of excessive taxes from the Tyrant-In-Charge?

    Report this comment

    sbs21078  
  • DeOppressoLiber
    Posted on November 21, 2012 at 10:58am

    Troonorth and TwoByFour do you still have a Governor General? Who is David Llyod Johnston?

    Either you are pregnant or you are not. You can not have one and say you are free and clear.

    Either you have a free country or you are tied to mommy’s apron.

    Hats off to the PPLI and JTF-2

    Report this comment

    DeOppressoLiber  
  • lisa2994
    Posted on November 21, 2012 at 10:47am

    As much as it pains me to say this liberal progressives have infiltrated Texas. Some aspects of agenda 21 actually took place in Austin as well. We have to put a stop to this before all is lost.

    Report this comment

    lisa2994  
    • encinom
      Posted on November 21, 2012 at 4:42pm

      Stop what critical thinking skills being taught in schools, because of some BS conspiracy theory Beck and others have you believing.

      Report this comment

      encinom  
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