I talked to an assistant superindent of schools today about ABC.

[madfloridian]

I was surprised at the pleasant interaction. He asked me a lot of questions, about Scholastic and the plans (they do use Scholastic)..about what was fabricated, what was the purpose of the show, and so on. He had not had time to pay that much attention to it.

We both agreed it became propaganda the minute it was peddled to kids in schools. I told him when I taught we had to be so very careful, and he agreed wholeheartedly.

I can't do much about what ABC shows, but I did get his ear. He is going to check with the curriculum people throughout the county.

I called the ABC affiliate for our area, and they sounded weary. That's a good thing.

[miketorse]

1. Wow...

Great progressive Asst. Super!!

[snowbear]

2. Here's a brand new press release about Scholastic pulling the info!!

Scholastic Replaces 'The Path to 9/11' Classroom Guide With New Discussion Materials Focusing on Critical Thinking and Media Literacy Skills


NEW YORK, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Scholastic, the global
children's publishing, education and media company, today announced that it
is removing from its website the materials originally created for classroom
use in conjunction with the ABC Television Network docudrama, "The Path to
9/1l," scheduled to air on the ABC Television Network on September 10 and
11, 2006. A new classroom discussion guide for high school students is
being created and will focus more specifically on media literacy, critical
thinking, and historical background.
"After a thorough review of the original guide that we offered online
to about 25,000 high school teachers, we determined that the materials did
not meet our high standards for dealing with controversial issues," (continued: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-07-2006/0004428789&EDATE= )

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. This is sweet. A plot by rw fundie nitwits has been foiled.

[madfloridian]

6. But the materials are already in the schools.

According to some.

Glad they changed it though.

[kstewart33]

7. Not good enough.

They are encouraging teachers to tell their students to watch this propaganda so they can talk about it in class. Because of their partnership, more students will watch this claptrap.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. No one from my school board has returned any of my calls. But

I did leave the gest of my complaints on their phonemails!

[patricia92243]

5. ABC is weary - that IS definately a good thing. We must be getting the

message across. Everybody keep it up.

[PoiBoy]

8. What about the Teacher's Union?

can we alert the Teacher's Union about this so that they alert their members about this propaganda and to be vigilant about this stuff being distributed after the heat dies down? I mean, Scholastic can distribute this rubbish, but when it hits the classrooms, it's the teachers who can file it in the circular file...

[madfloridian]

9. I called our teacher advocacy group here.

I am supposed to get a call back. You would need to call the county teacher groups. They are only sort of unions...Florida style.

[snowbear]

10. You're doing a great job M_Floridian!

[fed-up]

11. I went to my son's former High School this morning and gave links to

media matters and truthout to son's former Political Science teacher. He was aware the movie blamed Clinton, but was unaware that Scholastic was giving out propoganda materials.

I will speak to the superintendant tomorrow.

[madfloridian]

12. Good for you.

They simply don't keep up with things on line so often. Most of them want to be fair.

[lpbk2713]

13. Thank you for your involvement.

And it's good to hear they were receptive.

[madfloridian]

14. Be sure to call someone at your school system.

I got a call back from another curriculum person who was as appalled as I am. They asked even more questions, asked where to get info on line.

They are paying attention.

[calimary]

15. Hot Diggity=-Dog! What an utterly SPLENDID move!

KUDOS!!!

Also good news in your report about the ABC affiliate people sounding weary. That tells us they've been avalanched about this, which is just sensational!

Here's what I sent to Disney:

Gentlepeople,

PLEASE do the right thing. Not the "right" thing (as in pandering to the so-called "right" wing of American politics. PLEASE don't slander or libel the Clinton administration! "The Path to 9/11" is filled with lies, distortions, misrepresentations, and deceptions. PLEASE don't put it on the air! I don't want to feel compelled to stop watching ABC, or joining the growing boycott of ABC sponsors. But if this despicable miscarriage of truth and justice is allowed to air, I'm going to have to do both those things.

PLEASE pull this awful program!!!

Thank you.

------------

BTW - good thread here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

BTW part two: ALL that contact info and more has been updated in the Five Star Activists' Resource Thread. Check Part Sixty, ESPECIALLY the Third Add.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[calimary]

16. Links didn't work. Here's a correction:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2817563&mesg_id=2817563

[madfloridian]

17. Thanks, will check it out.

:hi:

One of my friends here locally called me today, she's a teacher. Apparently the curriculum person called some in to talk about it. Don't know anymore yet. Hope they follow through.