Common Core teaches kids to ‘divide Jerusalem’
A Boston University professor has defended to WND his creation of a Common Core-compliant lesson plan that uses role-playing workshops to teach students to sympathize with Hamas, create a Palestinian state and divide the city of Jerusalem.
Professor Carl Hobert’s “Whose Jerusalem?” project has been lauded by those at the pinnacle of the education establishment as an important work that will, in the words of Boston University School of Education Dean Hardin Coleman, “help students acquire the skills they need” in conflict resolution “to be successful in the 21st century.”
But the role-playing exercises have also come under fire recently from pro-Israel groups. One group, Boston-based Americans for Peace and Tolerance headed by Charles Jacobs, released a 27-minute documentary film last month that derides Hobert’s project as an “attempt to indoctrinate” rather than educate.
The role-playing games where students pretend to represent Arab, Israeli or American interests have been used in hundreds of high schools across America, Hobert told WND. Last year, the program was added to the Common Core-approved list of curricula and received Race to the Top funding from the U.S. Department of Education. The workshop is presented in many schools as part of a “global education” initiative, which is a strong focus of Common Core-compliant curricula.