Anti-Commie Activist Kai Chen Claims Victory in Confucius Classroom Spat
Categories: School Daze
Kai Chen may not have got the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda to remove its life-size statue Mao
Tse-Tung, but the Los Angeles-based, Chinese-American activist and others are claiming victory in their spat with the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District.
District officials last week announced that they will not accept money from the Chinese government to fund a Chinese language and culture program known as "Confucius Classroom."
"We won," Chen writes in a message to the Weekly. "But the fight continues, for nearly 50 such programs in the US funded by the Chinese government, only a very few encountered opposition and protest."
He continues: "But at least this victory serves to be an example for those concerned parents, teachers, school officials to take action to [get] rid of the insidious program."
Nearly 40 Confucius Classroom programs are up and running in the U.S., according to the Chinese government's Language Council International, or Hanban.
The school board voted 4-1 in January to accept $30,000 a year from Hanban for a Confucius Classroom at Cedarlane Middle School in Hacienda Heights.
Chen and other foes of China's communist regime blasted the program then and continued to apply pressure at subsequent trustee meetings, claiming Confucius Classrooms are designed to brainwash impressionable young American minds.
The district has decided to keep the program but cut off the commie funds because the issue was becoming a distraction, the Hacienda schools superintendent has reportedly said.
Textbooks and other Hanban-supplied materials will still be used after a district committee screens them.
District officials last week announced that they will not accept money from the Chinese government to fund a Chinese language and culture program known as "Confucius Classroom."
"We won," Chen writes in a message to the Weekly. "But the fight continues, for nearly 50 such programs in the US funded by the Chinese government, only a very few encountered opposition and protest."
He continues: "But at least this victory serves to be an example for those concerned parents, teachers, school officials to take action to [get] rid of the insidious program."
Nearly 40 Confucius Classroom programs are up and running in the U.S., according to the Chinese government's Language Council International, or Hanban.
The school board voted 4-1 in January to accept $30,000 a year from Hanban for a Confucius Classroom at Cedarlane Middle School in Hacienda Heights.
Chen and other foes of China's communist regime blasted the program then and continued to apply pressure at subsequent trustee meetings, claiming Confucius Classrooms are designed to brainwash impressionable young American minds.
The district has decided to keep the program but cut off the commie funds because the issue was becoming a distraction, the Hacienda schools superintendent has reportedly said.
Textbooks and other Hanban-supplied materials will still be used after a district committee screens them.
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