Multicultural Lesson from Guatemala

The frightening thing about looking at schools in other countries is that you can see where our own education is going.

At this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, Gloria Alvarez of the National Civic Movement of Guatemala, showed the cover of a textbook circulating in Latin America which depicts deceased Venezuelan Marxist strongman Hugo Chavez shaking hands with Bolivian founding father Simon Bolivar in front of Jesus Christ.  Just one of the ironies of this depiction, Alvarez averred, is that Bolivar was a great admirer of America’s founding fathers: There is no evidence that Chavez ever was.

In Guatemala itself, the schools specialize in victim education, Alvarez asserts. The schools teach students that they are victims of, among other malefactors, the United States and low self-esteem. Indeed, this mode of instruction would give American youths something in common with their South American peers.

Nor does the reeducation end when school does. The Populist Handbook, also used widely in Latin America, provides a number of guidelines for dictators that may be frighteningly familiar to Americans of late. For example, the handbook urges would-be supermen to: Divide society with hate; eliminate any opposition from the legislative branch; buy judges to avoid trials and convictions; limit private property; and pursue constitutional reforms to stay in power.

Photo by laloking97

Photo by laloking97

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