Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chicago Sun‐Times – November 7, 1995
Author: Raymond R. Coffey
From the official minutes of "Multicultural Committee" meetings at Stockton School in the
Uptown neighborhood:
"In summary, we have all been taught history from the point of view of rich white men, and that
has hurt all of us." (Feb. 17, 1995.)
Also, "Children in the suburbs are being prepared to govern – children in the city are being
prepared to be governed. We have to consciously change that." (Same meeting.)
Stockton, as I've been reporting here, is one of several Chicago public schools at which the
local school council is controlled by political followers of left; radical activists Walter "Slim"
Coleman and Emma Lozano.
Minutes of three meetings, a budget for Chapter 1 state funds and other material, passed on to
me by Stockton insiders, point to a pretty political direction being taken in the schooling of
kids in kindergarten through fifth grade.
They also show that not everyone, particularly not the parents of minority bilingual students, is
pleased with the direction in which their kids are being taken.
Last June the "Bilingual Committee" disbanded, basically because parents felt "their interests
or concerns" were being ignored while the local school council spent "too much time on
political action activities."
The Stockton council, the committee said, "must become aware of its purpose," which the
committee felt it necessary to point out, is supposed to be education.
The committee also charged the council with "waste in the budget," hiring "unqualified staff"
and disregarding "discipline and structure," which are "paramount" to education.
In consequence of these failings, the "Bilingual Committee" said, "many bilingual parents have
opted to move their children out of" Stockton.
None of this, however, seems to faze the "Multicultural Committee," whose meeting minutes
are, uh, vividly unsubtle.
Those Feb. 17 minutes, for instance, pose the question, "What are some of the worst things
we've been taught?" via the alleged rich white men's perspective.
The answers: "Black is bad and white is good; if you're poor it's your fault; (and) the U.S. is the
greatest, most altruistic (sic) . . .." At a March 10 meeting, it was declared that "our children need
to know the history of their own community" and its record in fighting "arson for profit, slumlords
and (property) speculation, etc."
This record, the minutes say, has made Uptown "through its diversity, a microcosm of the world
which few communities in the U. S. can claim."
The most obvious reason for teaching little kids about Uptown history, of course, would be to
acquaint them with the autocratic political hegemony there that was created by now‐Ald.
Helen Shiller (46th) and Coleman back in the 1970s, before Coleman moved on to team up with
Lozano.
In any case, the Stockton council's Chapter 1 budget lists $25,500 for "multicultural" purposes,
including $10,000 for a "consultant," $4,000 for a mural, $1,000 for supplies and $1,500 for
"assemblies" in connection with its "Uptown History" project.
It also lists $18,000 for another "consultant" for an "Algebra Project" and $17,100 for the
project itself, a program to prepare fifth‐graders for taking algebra in the eighth grade.
The project itself is controversial, and Coleman is personally and energetically involved in
promoting it.
By way of contrast as to priorities, the budget lists only $4,000 for its "book replacement" fund.
The "Multicultural Committee" meetings are attended by about 20 local school council
members, teachers, other staff and parents. And the minutes indicate they are indeed into
diversity.
Given a "homework" assignment to think of themselves as being of a different gender, race,
etc., and then respond with their "perspective" on our national anthem, the participants gave
answers ranging, according to the minutes, from "patriotic love of song" to "it's a pack of lies."