What imagine one of the camp counselors will look like. |
Organized by conservative writer Jeff Lukens and staffed by volunteers from the 912 Project, Tampa Liberty School will meet every morning July 11-15 in borrowed space at the Paideia Christian school in Temple Terrace.
"We want to impart to our children what our nation is about, and what they may or may not be told," Lukens said.
He said he was not familiar with public school curriculum, but, "I do know they have a lot of political correctness. We are a faithful people, and when you talk about natural law, you have to talk about God. When you take that out of the discussion, you miss the whole thing."
One example at Liberty: Children will win hard, wrapped candies to use as currency for a store, symbolizing the gold standard. On the second day, the "banker" will issue paper money instead. Over time, students will realize their paper money buys less and less, while the candies retain their value.
"Some of the kids will fall for it," Lukens said. "Others kids will wise up."
Another example: Starting in an austere room where they are made to sit quietly, symbolizing Europe, the children will pass through an obstacle course to arrive at a brightly decorated party room (the New World).
Red-white-and-blue confetti will be thrown. But afterward the kids will have to clean up the confetti, learning that with freedom comes responsibility.
Seriously, WTF?
Gee, and all we did in the summer camp I went to was practice archery, ride horses, and go canoeing.
THAT must be why I turned out to be the liberal fascist socialist I am today. Thanks Mom!
But you know it MIGHT not be all bad.
For instance the counselors might help the kids to brush up on their spelling.
Or they might play dress up with them.
Or provide instruction on racism in America that would be second to none.
Okay all kidding aside, anybody who actually sends their children to this camp, should be forced to attend their OWN summer camp called "Fox News has been lying to you for the last fifteen years." And then have their children taken away and placed in foster care with gay couples who work in health care, for the school district, or for the government.
Dear God Gryphen. Between this and your posting on education, I don't know what to think. Perhaps I should be glad that my youth is behind me and that I had sane, loving parents. However, it makes me so sad for those children that are exposed to this idiocy.
ReplyDeleteMy sister-in-law was sent to a John Birch Society camp as a teenager. Now she is a proud teabager and Palin worshiper. Luckily my husband escaped his family and is a well-informed, critical thinking old school Conservative.
ReplyDeleteSo they're giving kids hard candy, and they expect them to save it and use it as currency? Methinks they've not spent much time around kids if they think kids will do anything other than EAT the hard candy.
ReplyDeleteGryphen, it's quite clear that you've never attended an evangelical Vacation Bible School. They lure you in with promises of crafts and snacks, but not before trying to scare the Hell out of you (literally).
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting is that this programming might work on little kids, but teenagers? fuggedaboudit. Teens are all about rebellion, but not the Tea Party kind.
Is Piper signed up yet? Seriously, all they need now is Sarah jumping off a giant cross and handing out big cross necklaces. I don't suppose learning real Bible verses and not propaganda has any place in this little come to Christo-fascist camp. You know, like "Love Your Neighbor." Or "treat others the way you want to be treated." That would involve thinking,I guess, and these people want no thinking, just blind obedience. A thinking person can worship God, but realizes that the USA is no more blessed by God than the Sudan...we are all people, all created by God, and we are all equal in His eyes. What we do with the bounty we have, how we choose to follow Christ's teachings, determines if we are worthy. And these folks, not so much.
ReplyDeleteWow, didn't Michelle Bachman say that the Peace Corps (or whatever group it was) was Obama's way of indoctrinating American youth into his Marxist socialist ways?
ReplyDeleteMan, this is sooooo far gone.
Plus, as a parent, I don't want anyone giving my kids candy. We are a no-cavity zone!
"Yes, we are faithful, moral, upstanding, self-righteous, patriots who believe that the Republic of the United States belongs to white Christian males (females are just there to serve, look pretty and make lots of future followers. Oops, did we let that slip?) We are violently opposed to the Taliban, even though we're acting like its American equivalent (oopsie. Let that one slip by, too). We also hate the fact that the African Marxist in the White House is trying to indoctrinate our children into Socialism by stressing the importance of a good education. We'd rather they remain ignorant and frightened, just like we are. Do you honestly think we want a better life for them than we have? Who would want to live any other way than our narrow minded, miserable lives?"
ReplyDelete"And besides, the Jesus Camp concept was already taken."
I like the concept of a centrally controlled economy that decides the value of "candy". In a real economy, the price of "candy" would rise and children could trade their "candy" for more of the paper money.
ReplyDeleteThe value of gold is only how much you can buy with it. Unless someone sets up a centrally controlled economy that regulates the price.
Arent they americans as well .... wonder how you start a conversation with these Americans when you start with "Teabagger" . And how do they start a talk with you when they consider you child killers .
ReplyDeleteI wonder ..
This, for me, says it all: "He said he was not familiar with public school curriculum..." The ignorant creating ignorant children to follow in his ignorant ways. Poor kids.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me a bit of the really disturbing documentary "Jesus Camp." If you ever get a chance, you might want to watch it. I am really fearful for the future of the nation with so many parents turning out brainwashed children.
ReplyDelete"Starting in an austere room where they are made to sit quietly, symbolizing Europe..."
ReplyDeleteWell doesn't that let the cat out of the bag. Not one of these 'morans' has every been to Europe, otherwise they would the beauty and vivaciousness of Paris, Amsterdam, Nice, Edinburgh, etc.
"Teach Your Children Well"
William F. Buckley would be rolling over in his grave when he sees how the conservative movement has been hijacked by these mouth-breathing knuckle draggers.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of indoctrination may work with some kids, but overall, kids I know have a pretty finely tuned bull-shit meter, and they'll grow up and turn away from this ridiculous crap.
ReplyDeleteIt would be illuminating, in 15 years, to know the political makeup of graduates of this camp. I predict that well over 60% will be out of the cult.
For those who have always considered gold...well, the "gold standard"...I have this to say. If you can't eat it, wear it, drink it, keep warm and dry in it, it's no more valuable than paper money or hard candy. Hmmm, I suppose, in that case, hard candy has more value (except about the teeth thing).
ReplyDeleteMay we never reach the day where a loaf of bread or jug of water will get you all the gold you can carry!
The parents who pull these kind of indoctrination tricks on their children are laying the future foundation of a troubled relationship with their kids.
ReplyDeleteMy dad was a John Bircher, joined the Mormon faith, and today is an elderly T-bagger with a McCain/Palin sticker on his mini-van.
I love him, but I know I can't be as honest with him about certain subjects.
I knew this even as a little girl, when he spit and cursed Walter Cronkite for saying the war in Vietnam was a mistake.
They are just teaching their kids to lie to them.
Actual conversation with a Teabagger Cardinal fan (no, not the one in the picture, unfortunately).
ReplyDeleteTeabagger: "America is going bankrupt!"
Me: "No it's not."
Teabagger: "What are you a moron? Haven't you been paying attention?"
Me: "No, YOU haven't. The country has assets worth $200 Trillion and debt of $14.5 Tillion. In what bankruptcy court would that fly?"
Teabagger: "But, but, but, what about the deficit?"
Me: "That's a cash flow problem that occurs when you don't tax the rich their fair share."
Teabagger: "Yeah, that's what all you libtards say. Tax tax tax."
Me: "Of course not, we shouldn't have any taxes at all. But who gets to tell all those cops and firemen and soldiers that they're now working for us for free? If you don't want to pay taxes that means you want a free lunch. That doesn't sound very patriotic or American to me."
Teabagger: "Oh leave me alone, you're a moran!"
True story.
Morgan, I second you on the "Jesus Camp" movie.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Camp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_758l1CVJ7M
Attention florida teachers!
ReplyDeleteNext fall, have your kids write a "What I did during my summer vacation essay."
If "went to Tea Party camp" is the answer, brace yourself for some truly dumbass parents.
My favorite part from the interview, "He said he was not familiar with public school curriculum." No shit! Me thinks Mr. Lukens isn't familiar with ANY school curriculum.
ReplyDeleteInstead of s'mores, kids will make no'mores. The marshmallow and chocolate shall NOT be allowed to touch in ANY way. Unless, the chocolate is WHITE chocolate, that is.
ReplyDeleteThe baggers can't send their kids to this camp. No 32 year old is going to want to go to bagger camp. Nope. The baggers will have to talk their children into allowing the grandparents to send the grandkids to bagger camp. Not sure how well that will go over.
ReplyDelete"We're a faithful people..."
ReplyDeleteSo they're going to teach kids to be greedy little merchants by opening up a store in a Christian church? Don't they remember that Jesus threw the moneychangers out of the temple for doing just that???
"We want to impart to our children what our nation is about, and what they may or may not be told," Lukens said"
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely they want to control what their kids are told, therefore the brainwashing begins early. They are terrified of the idea that some of their children might be tempted to think for themselves when they grow up. Beginning indoctrination early will create loyal puppets for them to control later.
"Their nation" is all about "their" heroes which are the likes of David Barton, Limbaugh, Palin, Bachmann, and other history distorting prevaricating ultra right-wing conservative creeps.
The end-of-camp "get together" will probably include a parade with "Teabagger Youth" marching in teabag uniforms carrying teabag flags emblazoned with red, white and blue hard candy, tea bags and crosses (hooked crosses?????).
These people are so far out in right field they are clueless. What abominable fools!
Camp has Beck and W. Cleon Skousen's hand prints all over it.
ReplyDeleteScary.
These camps are taking their cues from the Taliban schools I guess.
ReplyDeleteBut, honestly, I despair for America. What the hell can be done? When they are so closed-minded, there is no point in talking to them.
@Anon 6:43 -- I haven't been able to talk to my Christianist/right-wing father honestly for 35 years, and now he is dying & out of his mind with dementia.
@ibts --Excellent summary, if frustrating and worrisome....There Will be Blood... It's name calling now, but...the more angry and mocked they are...
I agree with Aunt Snow: this kind of indoctrination backfires. Some kids will rebel immediately. Some will eat it up at the time and later realize how flawed the reasoning is. Some will eat it up to a certain point, but sooner or later, one of the Teabaggers will say something that pushes just a little too far, and the kids will start questioning everything. Yes, a few of them will always accept what they're told and will grow up into good little Teabaggers. But most of them won't.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a "Christian" dominionist/theocracy-teaching school that was paranoid about any outside influences. I bought it all hook, line, and sinker until high school, then I started to wonder what the principal and other authorities were so scared of. I reasoned that if they really believed they were teaching us the truth, then they should have confidence that the truth would be strong enough to stand up to questions. So I started asking questions and discovered what they were scared of: Their version of "truth" didn't stand up to reality or logic.
The extreme misogyny--which resulted in some genuinely creepy comments that today could get the school sued for sexual harassment--was another important factor for me. As a girl, I believed that God had given me certain gifts. To be told by a stuffy middle-aged man that I couldn't "do anything" with those gifts just because I was female--that was a pretty big "f**k you and the BS you've been peddling under the pretense of teaching American history" moment for me.
Is this not reminiscent to Germany's Youth Camps back in the 1930s & 40s?
ReplyDeleteIndoctrination of young minds?
Frightening. Terribly frightening because these little children grow up to become voting adults with twisted views & ideas of what is true & what is not.
According to Sarah Palin..
ReplyDeleteMORAN is the correct spelling of the word moron. It's from the French "morel" and "tuer les bebés phoques" also, too.
i often wonder if that "morans" guy knows how infamous he has become.
ReplyDeleteroflmao.
Epic Fail.
ReplyDeleteTaking candy from kids and giving them fake money teaches them nothing. Fake money doesn't taste as good as candy, and doesn't give that sugar rush.
Amazing what passes for "education" these days.