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Curriculum pretends non-Christians never existed

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Stalinization of history in Maine

Cole alleged that complaints by "a small group of fundamentalist Christian individuals" led to the creation of a curriculum "which never mentions religions other than Christianity and never teaches the history of civilizations other than Christian civilizations."

"He can't even teach the history of anti-Semitism (or the) history of ancient Greece," Cole's lawyer, A.J. Greif of Bangor, said Tuesday.

"How can you explain the evolution of democracy in the Western world without talking about ancient Greece? He can't talk about all the influences of the Indian, Japanese or Chinese cultures."

Superintendent Gehrig Johnson said Tuesday he had not seen the lawsuit but noted that the curriculum has been "developed by teachers across the district and adopted by the SAD 1 School Committee."

"Teachers are expected to follow the curriculum," he added. ...

Greif said that when Cole has gone outside the prescribed curriculum he has been reprimanded and given warnings that he could lose his job.

Social studies teacher sues school district over curriculum

Richard Evans Lee
December 04, 2003 •
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http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=101B08D534764BD7&p_docnum=1 TEACHER WHO SUED IS PLACED ON LEAVE Author(s):    A.J. Higgins, Globe Correspondent Date: April 1, 2004 Page: B2 Section: Metro/Region PRESQUE ISLE, Maine - A seventh-grade history teacher has been placed on administrative leave, less than four months after he filed a lawsuit alleging the school district violated his First Amendment right to free speech by requiring him to adhere to a European history curriculum that emphasizes only the evolution of Christian civilization. Citing confidentiality policies, administrators in the school district said they could not discuss the reasons Gary Cole was placed on the paid leave last month. Cole, 60, of Washburn, declined to discuss the lawsuit or the administrative leave, referring questions to his lawyer, A.J. Greif of Bangor. Greif said that "if one sues a school district and suddenly finds a more hostile working environment, I think a causal link between the two can be easily inferred." Cole filed the lawsuit in November in US District Court in Bangor against School Administrative District 1 in Presque Isle. Cole, who is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, says in the lawsuit that when he didn't follow the curriculum guidelines, he was issued written warnings directing him to "cease and desist at the peril of losing his job." The school district's lawyer, Bruce W. Smith of Portland, said Cole's allegations are completely without merit and are demeaning to other educators who, by implication, are portrayed as supporting a Christian-based curriculum. "Frankly, this is a crock," Smith said. "And I don't usually speak that strongly about cases that get filed. There are no facts that support Cole's claim and there are no other educators, that we've found, who will substantiate or believe his claims." Michael Carpenter of Houlton, another lawyer representing Cole, said his client is contesting the paid administrative leave and is discussing the situation with the school district's lawyer. The largest city in Maine's northern Aroostook County, Presque Isle is part of a region that some Mainers call the state's Bible Belt. For example, it is illegal to purchase liquor or beer in any of the towns between Presque Isle and Houlton, about 40 miles south along Route 1. In the lawsuit, Cole says restrictions on what he could teach were not limited to avoiding telling students about the influence Jewish, Islamic, and Asian cultures and religions had on the European political structure. Cole says in the suit that in the late 1990s - years after the collapse of the Soviet Union - he was forced by the school department to use a textbook titled "Europe and the Soviet Union" as the basic foundation of his seventh-grade social studies program. The text "presents a world in which there is still a divided Germany and one in which the Berlin Wall still stands," Cole wrote in a 1998 letter to the school's curriculum director. "It also holds that most of the European nations, now free, remain under the domination of Soviet communism." But Kevin Sipe, a seventh-grade teacher at another school in the district, said in an interview that Cole mischaracterized the district's textbook choice, which Sipe said was made only out of economic considerations. Sipe said he has never been pressured to steer clear of certain religions while instructing his students. "It's disillusioning because Aroostook County has always had a problem retaining people to maintain the population and businesses," he said. ". . . These baseless allegations have now tainted the [school] district falsely and makes us all look like we're not doing our jobs."

Posted by: JC | April 1, 2004 11:26 PM

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My thanks,
Richard

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