Mikael Thalen
Sixth grade students from the Bryant School District in Arkansas were asked to throw out two amendments in the Bill of Rights as part of a Common Core history class assignment.
The worksheet reads:
“The government of the United States is currently revisiting The Bill of Rights. They have determined that it is outdated and may not remain in its current form any longer.”
The worksheet goes on to ask the students to “prioritize, revise, omit two and add two amendments to the Bill of Rights.”
Lela Spears, whose daughter brought the worksheet home, says this is her daughter’s first assignment concerning the Bill of Rights and Constitution.
“After she brought it home and explained her assignment to me, it made me question exactly what she was being taught,” Spears told the Digital Journal. “She didn’t even understand what the Amendments meant. How can she make an informed decision when she doesn’t understand what she is ‘throwing out’?”
The assignment also asks students to revise the Bill of Rights under a special “task force,” failing to mention the amendment process which includes support from a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate.
“Funny thing, she was never told how the Bill of Rights is amended; I do not believe that amended was even used in the class language, only “changed”. I read through the handouts she was given, around 6 in total, and nothing about how an Amendment is ratified,” Spears said.
Luckily, Spears not only made sure to properly inform her daughter on the amendment process, but on the importance of the inalienable rights expressed in the document as well.
“I believe that, with the wording of the assignment, many children will think that the Bill of Rights is amended and can be changed by a “special” committee instead of an act of Congress. I know that my child will not think this is true since I have made it my mission to be very much involved in her education,” Spears said.
The Obama administration backed “Common Core State Standards” program, supported in 45 states, has already received massive backlash from parents across the country.
Just last month, a parent in Louisiana was shocked after hearing her fourth grade son say “pimp” and “mobstaz,” words the mother found in her son’s homework. The school defended the assignment, claiming the words were appropriate for 9-year-old children according to Common Core.
A Common Core backed textbook referred to as the most “widely adopted history textbook” in the country has also rewritten the Second Amendment, claiming that people only have the right to keep and bear arms in a state militia, also claiming that people only have the right to bear arms, not “keep” and bear arms.
Unfortunately, not every student has a parent that will find and correct the government’s purposeful and malicious historical rewrites, leaving thousands of children at the mercy of the state’s demagoguery.