After 33-years service in capacity of classroom teacher and administrator for the second largest school district in America (Los Angeles Unified), it is with authority I validate Rabbi Shifren's assessments in Kill Your Teacher.

Any teacher worth his salt having worked in "inner-city" (black and Hispanic) schools, can attest to much the same student activities and administration actions/inactions/reactions of which Rabbi Shifren reports. Few would have the courage of Rabbi Shifren to publicly do so.

Recently, Lou Dobbs of CNN, presented Americans with some disturbing facts on our schools. Among which, 50% of black and Hispanic teenagers do not graduate from high school. As Rabbi Shifren points out, teachers are encouraged to pass minority (i.e. black and Hispanic) students who did not work for excellence. Students quickly learn they do not have to study for learning or passing grades, finishing high school with spurious diplomas.

Let us not think dumbing down of our students is limited to blacks and Hispanics. Articles galore have been written on why "Johnny can't read." According to latest accounts, "Johnny can't read, write or think." Even though research has been done on "why Johnny's teachers can't teach," none has been as inclusive as Rabbi Shifren's Kill Your Teacher.

It is not uncommon in countries which celebrate group rights over individual freedoms to live and believe in the concept "it takes a village to raise a child." But in America, vast numbers agree with syndicated columnist Mark Thornhill: It takes parents whose authority isn't undermined by meddling government socialists to raise a child.

In this country, we celebrated individual rights; until the advent of "diversity" and "multiculturalism" in our schools. Diversity and multi-culturalism do nothing more than promote hatred for America and bigotry among ethnic groups. Examples of this divisiveness abound with reports of black and white students fighting over refusals of blacks to honor the American Flag, whites flying the Confederate Flag; black and Hispanic students fighting because one has "dissed" (disrespected) the other's culture.

America's public schools should be in the business of teaching American culture. The teaching of American history (true not revised), the United States Constitution, and civic responsibility is a must for all our children--no matter their color, financial status, ethnicity.

Rabbi Shifren sought to provide his students with a classroom atmosphere conducive to learning. Refusing to support him in this regard, school authority evidently thought students did not deserve such a learning environment. Rabbi Shifren wanted to give his students meaningful lessons: not just read but read with comprehension; not just write but write with greater clarity, style and substance; not just compute but utilize critical thinking and analytic reasoning. From their treatment of Rabbi Shifren and teachers of his ilk, school authority and teacher unions and "community activists" are content with "feel-good" lessons.

Do parents really know what their children are suffering through on a daily basis in the government schools?

First, the Federal government has no business (according to the Constitution) funding and dictating curricula for public schools. The highest quality education in America was before the Federal government took control of the schools. Quality has steadily declined ever since.

Secondly, "community activists" have no place in our schools. They do not represent the best interest of parents and their children. Most, if not all, these community activists are paid accomplices of local "politically ambitious" school board members and politicians using our children to promote their socialist agenda.

For every freedom-loving American, Kill Your Teacher is a must-read. Every American citizen, with or without school-age children, must recognize our future is determined by today's education. It really is true, an educated people is a free people.

For those Americans unaware of the direction today's education is taking us -- incapacity rather than talent, despotism instead of liberty, vice over virtue, ignorance above enlightenment

I strongly suggest you read Kill Your Teacher.

EZOLA FOSTER

Black Americans for Family Values

Founder/Past President

2000 Elections Vice President Candidate

First Black Woman to run on major party ticket