Democrats love to champion diversity. They want people of different skin color (except white people), of different religions (except Christians), of different ideologies (except conservatives), and of different sexual orientations (except straight) to have more representation. But what they do not want is a diversity of thought. That's why leftists go around removing books they don't like from free little libraries, and it's why groups like CodePink go to schools and try to indoctrinate children.

That's what they're doing with their 'Challenging Zionism' webinar series. They claim it's teaching K-12 students 'critical thinking,' but the outcome of the lesson is already laid out: Israel is the bad guy. As we saw with Hasan Piker recently, failing to toe that line leads to threats of violence.

Back in July, Ben Austin wrote against this indoctrination in The Hill, saying "students need education, not indoctrination."

"One webinar featured dance teacher Laura Pinho, who has a social media history replete with antisemitic tropes such as characterizing Jews as 'Satanic bankers,' explaining how to incorporate Palestinian 'resistance' into dance lessons," Austin wrote. "This was not simply a lesson about Palestinian culture. It was a tutorial in how to use state academic standards to steer students toward a predetermined political conclusion."

CodePink's Marcy Winograd wrote her own op-ed, saying such lessons are necessary to learning. "For those who think there is no place for this kind of discussion in schools, it is outmoded to think that students must stick to the basics of drill-and-kill exercises in order to learn — dates, times, historical figures — to improve reading and writing. Students will not learn to think critically if they are fed bland content devoid of controversy and heavy on memorization. On the contrary, they will fall asleep or watch the clock until their eyes close," she wrote.

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With reading scores declining in most states and math scores not doing much better, it's hard to buy that argument, however.

Now Dana Stangel-Plowe destroyed Winograd's argument, saying 'Challenging Zionism' is not teaching critical thinking.

Here's more:

It isn’t just trying to influence American politics. It is now also training K-12 educators to push anti-Israel teaching into the classroom using vague academic standards — social-emotional learning among them. They view these vague standards as an "an open door" for their activism, praising the vulnerability in the system they’re exploiting.

Earlier this year, my organization exposed this training, as well as union activists who quietly repurpose education for their political ends and call it "fugitive pedagogy." A  colleague, Ben Austin, writing about this training series, reiterated that activists who misuse standards  — which were “intended to teach students how to think for themselves" — are failing students who have a right to a quality education, free of their teachers' political biases.

In an oped response to Austin, CODEPINK defends its politicized training — but their defense reveals too much. Marcy Winograd, one of the organizers, makes the case against her own training in her own words.

...

As Ms. Winograd describes it, the course included a professor who "explained" that the chant "From the River to the Sea" is not antisemitic but "liberatory" for Palestinians. That explanation is only one interpretation of a contested slogan, offered apparently without presenting the perspective of millions who understand those same words as a call for Israel’s destruction. The lesson leaves room only for the anti-Zionist view — an unusual definition of “multiple perspectives.”

...

The CODEPINK training does not help teachers do that. Instead, it coaches them to exploit standards to bring one side of a deeply contested issue into the classroom while calling it "rigorous debate.”

That same sleight-of-hand runs through Ms. Winograd’s closing line. She claims to want students to be able to debate if “'never again’ only applies to the Holocaust or whether it means never again’ for everyone — including those in Palestine.”

As Stangel-Plowe points out, Winograd said in that last sentence that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza to create a false dichotomy: you either agree with anti-Zionism or you support genocide.

CodePink's "Challenging Zionism" webinars are not about "critical thinking," as its supporters claim. Winograd gave the game away multiple times in her defense of the program. This indoctrination has no place in schools. No one opposes children learning critical thinking skills or being taught complicated issues. What we oppose — and rightly so — is the wholesale indoctrination of children into CodePink's anti-Israel, antisemitic agenda.