Former Republican candidate for District 15 House Matt Rosburg told me on Twitter that we could resolve the folderol over the Noem Department of Education’s apparent whitewashing and politicization of the K-12 social studies standards by getting rid of the teachers unions, since “they’re just the ones bitching about it … get rid of the whiners and there’s no problem.”
(A) There are no teachers unions, plural, in South Dakota. There is one union, the South Dakota Education Association.
(B) The SDEA has been reserved in its comment. SDEA president Loren Paul called the removal of Native American references “concerning” and, according to Christopher Vondracek’s report Wednesday, “called on the Board of Education Standards to review the ‘full draft’ when it considers adopting the social studies components.”
(C) But if the Republican solution to problems is to “get rid of the whiners,” then Rosburg and friends must really want to get rid of the Native American tribal leaders who are criticizing the Noem DOE’s revisions. Let’s start with Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Rodney Bordeaux:
“All South Dakota citizens need to be taught what’s going on in the state and throughout the country,” he said. “You shouldn’t gloss over it — I think our citizens deserve better. They need to know the true history so they know what they’re dealing with.”
“Particularly in South Dakota,” said Bordreaux, “they need to know what our Tribal citizens — the history our tribes have faced — and if you gloss over that, it’s a disservice to the citizens of the state.”
Bordeaux says the absence of these standards affects both those within and without the Indigenous community. “You come away with a different view, and it’s not fair to you because you’re continuing to have racial prejudices against people,” he said [Jacob Newton, “Reaction from Tribal Leaders and Educators After Removal of Native American References from South Dakota Curriculum,” KELO-TV, 2021.08.11].
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe President Harold Frazier says the standards whitewash reflects our ugly history:
Frazier says that the removal of Native American information from the standards draws to mind a grim policy from American history. “What’s kind of taking place here is the old process of assimilation again, where they say ‘save the man and kill the Indian.” This process that Frazier refers to is the historical policy of using forced assimilation of Native children using means such as boarding schools in order to cut them off from their culture and heritage.
“A word that popped into my mind was ‘extermination’,” said Frazier while contemplating this assimilation. “We’ve got to know where we come from and who we are. That’s the most important thing,” he continued. “I’ve always been optimistic that when people talk about history — lets really talk about the true history of where we were and why we’re here” [Newton, 2021.08.11].
The NDN Collective sees the same ugly parallel:
The consistent and active erasure of our people is demonstrative of a larger social and systemic issue of white supremacy, racism and clear lack of cultural proficiency that can only be addressed when we begin to be inclusive of the narratives that have been absent and excluded from our education system. Past advocacy efforts of many Native educators and allies for the full inclusion of the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings (OSEU)– a set of state recognized standards and curriculum reflecting the thought and philosophy, history, land, language and people of the Oceti Sakowin, or the 7 Council Fires representing the 9 Tribal Nations Indigenous to South Dakota– have been completely ignored under the empty promise of former South Dakota Department of Education Officials who stated that the OSEU would be included when content standards were revised [Sarah White, NDN Collective Director of Education Equity, NDN Collective press release, 2021.08.11].
NDN Collective president and CEO Nick Tilsen says the revision constitutes further racist violence against Indigenous people:
Indigenous children were taken from their homes, mouths washed out with soap for speaking their language, and buried in graves during the boarding school era. That is the legacy of education for Native students in this country– forced assimilation, indoctrination, and erasure. Now, Governor Noem wants to virtually erase us from history books. Kristi Noem is a racist, irresponsible leader. She’s a disgrace to this entire democracy and her actions are absolute violence against Indigenous people. This country needs courageous leadership leaning into transformative change, not leaders who impede human progress and perpetuate outdated white supremacist constructs [Tilsen, NDN Collective press release, 2021.08.11].
Governor Noem calls all this criticism “ridiculous.” However, like her fellow Republican Rosburg, she gives no reason why we should ridicule responsible leaders and educators who criticize the Department of Education for overruling the work of 46 educators to remove references to American Indian culture and insert openly political, ideological declarations without any specific rationale. Like Rosburg, Noem apparently believes that the problem is not her and her party’s bad decisions, but the citizens who reasonably critique those bad decisions.
It is very amusing how the word “whiners” comes up most often when teachers are being discussed over any other group.
It is very amusing how the words “crooks and con men” come up, most often when lobbyists are being discussed over any other group.
On the subject of “words”, two from Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Rodney Bordeaux are the crux of what Noem wants to hide and what kids need to learn:
true history
Well Grudz, Rev. Kevin Zaborney started it. Mostly for overeaters who’s belly whines on December 26. All those breakfasts do add up.
methinks that grudz is one who needs glasses or hearing aids of higher quality than @ present: teachers represent what is good about America-his politician friends represent the opposite.
I would love to be a high school student in So. Dak again. I had to continually go before the school board, mostly for long hair, but attitude was also there. I would continually point out that what they were doing was illegal, the year after I graduated they dropped the dress code. It would be great to point out the extra curricular exploits of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington for instance. As far as Native Americans go, this subject would take weeks, I’d love keep asking who owns the Black Hills. Matt Rosburg is the real whiner, what a bitcher, he should just move over to Crooks.
Amen to our president Bordeaux. The truth hurts but is that what we want in school books is the question. I have teachers in my family and they really enjoy it. KN doesn’t seem to respect anyone except Republicans.
I love the “whiner” reference. Republicans could give us all lessons in how to whine incessantly. Noem is the Queen of Whine. Just listen to her totally bogus story concerning how she was cheated by the federal estate tax. Pointing out historical wrongs is NOT “whining,” but making up a lie as a cover for providing aid and comfort to the mega-billionaires is not just “whining;” it’s despicable
Is it whining for Jews to urges us to “never forget” the Holocoust? I think not. We were taught about Anne Frank when I attended school in Sioux Falls, but Wounded Knee was taught as a “battle,” when it was closer to a Holocoust. Let’s try to get history right. There will always be disagreements about certain things in history, but there shouldn’t be about clear moral wrongs.
At any rate, I get a kick out of Republican whining, such as that of Rosberg’s, quoted in Cory’s piece. It’s just so typicals. There are no bigger whiners than Republicans, and there are no bigger purveyors of injustice than Republicans. The two seem to go hand in hand.
Hm, it sounds as if former Republican candidate for District 15 House Matt Rosburg might be onto the Final Solution.
Perhaps Matt was shopping for new hats, tee-shirts, and stickers at a certain rally vendor . . .
Unbelievable.
drumpf is the championest whiner and liar ever. Then the magats are next in line as champion whiners. Then Grudzilla is next!
grudznick, it come up so much because YOU use it — usually followed up with your seven traits of teaching.
Schools are facing an on-going drought of talent — certainly because of pay — but things like having potential Presidential candidates making political hay through Orwellian censorship doesn’t foster recruitment.
Teachers are not whiners. They work for the public and can be reprimanded for speaking out. The South Dakota Teachers Association has no powers to defend those who do. However, most teachers belong because they need the 1 – 2 million dollar insurance policy in case they get sued by a student, parent, community resident, administrator, or school board member. How many of you need insurance for your job?
Teachers are problem solvers and if they were in charge of standards, methods, resources, and school procedures, WOW we’d have a completely different educational system. Unfortunately, it’s a politically controlled profession and in South Dakota, it’s an inefficient system that is run with an iron hand and empty mind, and with the powers that be at center stage, instead of our youth.
Whiners are the people who criticize others without having walked in their moccasins. Whiners complain without resolution because they don’t want to solve the problem, they just want to ruminate the situation over and over and over again. And like Trump, Noem, and the current Republican establishment, they create new problems to distract from the real problems because they have no clue as to what they are doing. They are an insult to public education and to the educated, especially our youth.
“Her Royal Highness” has the final say on our education curriculm and everything else under the sun. “Under God, Kristi Noem Rules”…end of discussion.
All Your Goats R Belong to grudznick.
The whole herd! 🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐
My work was done early today.
Teachers are the biggest whiners out there.
Mr. O, it is the SILT ,or Seven Indisputable Levels of Teachers.
I do like that. It shows why the good and great teachers should get paid more, but the weak and whiny teachers should not.
Yes of course Grudz, you should pick whos great and good. Isn’t that a charm folks. Let’s talk about it at breakfast.
It’s worth pointing out that Matt Rosburg is a Republican in an overwhelmingly pub state that lost to a Democrat. What’s up with that?
Well..there are a good many problems with the education system in America. Teachers are not one of them.
Rosburg appears stuck in the past of at least two decades ago in some whine of his against what was then the demon of the day, vis., the NEA. He, like many, are thus out-of-whack with the times. Wackos in any other terms.
It’s considered, many suppose, poor form to troddle a person’s religion into consideration of their world views. Hogwash on that. Judging from his FB page, it’s far from difficult to discern that Rosburg runs with a herd, even if it’s a herd of a dying religious breed which, for all that, seeks to perpetuate its kind all the more, a self-congratulatory herd comprised of whiners and organizing themselves around outworn whines. Most in his religion have moved on or don’t subscribe to his coterie, other than by blind political obeisance.
Are these Rosburgians stuck in time found primarily east river as they appear to be, or as a west-riverite, am I simply blind to their west-river avatars?
If you can read, write, form a coherent and logical opinion, and debate in a civil manner, THANK A TEACHER.
Grudz, I can tell that you are a typical Republican and have no respect for public education. Perhaps, like John Dale, you had a bad experience and have never outgrown it. I think you are whining about teachers because the majority of them are women.
It’s called womb envy.
Perhaps gruz blames his unintelligible sentences on teachers instead of recognizing his choice to be ignorant so he can appear relevant to anyone.