3mo ago

Hawaii public school lesson on presidential candidates stirs mixed emotions

www.hawaiinewsnow.com Hawaii public school lesson on presidential candidates stirs mixed emotions

The race for the White House is reaching local classrooms and one lesson has some parents calling "bias."

The controversy is over a two-page document that was handed out to classrooms at Kapolei Middle School.

It broke down where the U.S. presidential candidates — Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump — stand on the issues.

The state Department of Education confirms the document was put together by a group of teachers at the school who simplified the information in a candidate comparison article in the New York Times.

The material given out to students lists six issues.

CRIME

 undefined

        Harris: “Gives money to police”
    Trump: “Sends soldiers to cities”

DEMOCRACY

 undefined

        Harris: “Wants to keep our country a democracy”
    Trump: “Tried to overturn the 2020 election

IMMIGRATION

 undefined

        Harris: “Hires more people to watch the border”
    Harris: “Limits how many people can move to the U.S.
    Trump: “Finds and catches people in the U.S. illegally”
    Trump: “Takes children away from their parents”

30 comments

Not a single Trumper can explain why this was unfair because their homie likes to grab pussy and fucks underage girls with Epstein.
- And actually said/did all these things listed.
  "The MeDyA Is UnFaIr!!1!"
  For just stating how your favorite little guy is?

Seems remarkably honest, much more honest than our presidential candidates.
- Agreed. About the only way they could increase their objectivity would be by using the candidate's own, recent words on the various topics.
  Somehow, I think there would be far more outrage if they had done that...

These are literally all factual. If they don't want to look bad on paper maybe they shouldn't be fascists.

I like how when you put the two candidates into 8th grade level language, the differences become so stark. There really isn't room for additional interpretation.
Also, I'm not surprised its Kapolei parents getting outraged at this, things get fairly red once you get out of Honolulu and especially as you get onto the West Side. You'll see a Trump flag being towed along side a Kanaka Maoli flag, a back the blue flag, AND a Hawaiian kingdom flag. I'm glad to see the DOE not budging on this.
- I've been in Honolulu this past week and saw loud Trump supporter caravans going through the city twice, loud group of Trump supporters in front of the state capitol, and another one I don't remember where. Not sure what they're trying to achieve with all this.
  
  Almost guarantee they are Westside.
- Got a chuckle seeing this clown running for office. Not surprised though, a lot of people here are insane.
  https://ballotpedia.org/Shelby_Billionaire
  
  He got my vote.

The truth doesn't reflect well on Trump. That's the fucking point! Instead they bitch that it was unfair. How can they be so fucking stupid to miss the entire point!

Yeah, the truth about Trump is pretty ugly when you don’t bury it beneath talking points, or obscure it with incoherent rants. “Biodegradable cattle byproduct” sounds okay, but it’s still bullshit.
- pretty ugly when you don’t bury it beneath talking points, or obscure it with incoherent rants
  Or outright blatant, easily proven lies.

Should they have included each candidate's stance on grabbing women by their privates?

So some parents whine because truth hurts, or what? Or is there a single item that is not easily verifyable?
- They are phrasing it in a way that makes plausible deniability harder!

"Wants to make it easier to guns"
I think you a word there
- I wish it was easier to these guns
  Flexes nonexistent biceps

Aw, are the republicans upset that the children aren’t getting their propaganda? That’s so sad for them.

When I was in the 8th grade I tried asking what the difference was. A friend of mine at the time, who was kinda smart albeit the son of a rich dentist, summed it up by saying "Democrats want to give money to the homeless while republicans want to create jobs for the homeless". It made sense at the time and held some truth for a decade or 2.
Whereas now it's "democrats try to get homeless people back on their feet, republicans make being homeless illegal"

I love how even a biased take, trying to paint Harris much further left than she actually is, still went hard on Harris’ right-wing anti-immigration policies as if they were a good thing. LoL.

Are current politics something usually discussed in US middle schools? They're like what, 14? Or is there a separate civics class?
I'm pretty sure if a questionairre that fluffs Trump instead of Harris is passed out to children, people would be yelling fascism.
The problem is with spreading propaganda in school. There's just too much history and philosophy to cover to get a sense for modern policy, unless you have a special class for it maybe in high school.

I need a copy of this!

I read the headline and thought the controversy was probably stupid. Then I read the comparisons.
They should have pulled out planks from the party platforms. At least write what the party says it is going to do in its own words. It's OK to simplify, but this list is heavily editorialized. I don't know how much of that was from the NYT article (editorial?) and how much was the teacher's take.
I think it would be fine to have these characterizations of each party's policies in Speech & Debate coming from the opponents.
- It's a comparison between Harris and Trump, not between the parties.
  
  In theory the candidate supports and has a heavy influence over the party platform.
- At least write what the party says it is going to do
  No, they should present what each party actually tries to do. No more lies.

30 comments