I'm the OP and I heard it on WTOP. The daily caller was just the top of the google list and that's where I got the link. Nothing more. FCPS has confirmed it happened, it's not something the "right-wing media" dreamed up.

FWIW, Obama does have primary challangers, just no one takes them seriously. But to be fair what is the problem, if we need to do this at all, of including Obama for the game...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/22/va-middle-schoolers-assigned-to-do-oppo-research-on-gop-candidates/

Scary, all over the news.

Consider the source: The Daily Caller? That's like a couple of notches below Weekly World News in terms of credibility.

Let's try this, then:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/22/virginia-middle-school-teacher-makes-students-search-for-weaknesses-in-gop/

No, you didn't. Did you? Did you just really respond to pointing out the ludicrousness that is The Daily Caller by falling back on a story by ... Fox News?

You do realize how the right-wing media echo chamber works, don't you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/22/va-middle-schoolers-assigned-to-do-oppo-research-on-gop-candidates/

Scary, all over the news.

Consider the source: The Daily Caller? That's like a couple of notches below Weekly World News in terms of credibility.

Let's try this, then:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/22/virginia-middle-school-teacher-makes-students-search-for-weaknesses-in-gop/

Because only one party was in the news. Obama does not have a primary challenge.

Anonymous wrote:So it is wrong to give an assignment that is relevant to current events? From what I can tell, the purpose was to develop research skills. How to gather up the dirt on candidates using available information is basic research that can be applied to other areas.

It would have been creepy to do 'opposition research' on random people.

Why it was limited to one party is the issue. If it had been any cantidate it would have been a yawn.

So it is wrong to give an assignment that is relevant to current events? From what I can tell, the purpose was to develop research skills. How to gather up the dirt on candidates using available information is basic research that can be applied to other areas.

It would have been creepy to do 'opposition research' on random people.

Anonymous wrote:I think this is outrageous. I can only imagine the outrage that would be all over the place if the class had been asked to do opposition research only on Obama.

Having said that, had the class been allowed to break into groups and pick ANY candidate of any party to research, and there was no part to find out who to send it to in the other party, I would have no problem. The way this was done was obviously a leftist hack trying to brainwash kids.

We are zoned for Liberty. Thank goodness my daughter is in the AAP program and won't go there. I can't believe the school is defending this assignment and that the County is as well.

I can see the helicopter flying away from Liberty now. Thank God.

Jon Stewart ruins Tucker Carlson's career:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE

My children went to Liberty and Michael Denman is an excellent teacher. He engages the students and is particularly effective with getting adolescent students involved. Someone obviously has a personal problem and is projecting it on this teacher and the subject matter. The father quoted probably is "that kind of neighbor" as well. You know, the guy that asks too many questions and yells at his kids while giving you the evil eye because he thinks your parenting style is too relaxed (i.e, you allow your children to laugh and sing in public places).

Anonymous wrote:I think this is outrageous. I can only imagine the outrage that would be all over the place if the class had been asked to do opposition research only on Obama.

Having said that, had the class been allowed to break into groups and pick ANY candidate of any party to research, and there was no part to find out who to send it to in the other party, I would have no problem. The way this was done was obviously a leftist hack trying to brainwash kids.

We are zoned for Liberty. Thank goodness my daughter is in the AAP program and won't go there. I can't believe the school is defending this assignment and that the County is as well.

I have to assume you are the OP and are back to try to stir up trouble after your first post garnered no outrage.

Look, the assignemnt was made in mid-January. What was going on in mid-January? Oh, yeah, the Republican primary season had just gotten underway. It was all over the news. The current events were about the REPUBLICANS and not the president. There were still multiple challengers, little known about any of them. Bachmann had just dropped out. Huntsman and Perry might still have been in it (dropped out 1/15 and 1/19 respectively). Obama is a known quantity as an incumbent.

So, I follow the thought process of the teacher and find your unwillingness to give the benefit of the doubt and to leap immediately to your deepest darkest fantasy about indocrination to be patently offensive. You're basing this on a poorly written Daily Caller article by a freaking INTERN who quoted a chicken-shit single parent anonymously and a single student who was veyr likely that parent's own kid.

No, there's nothing to see here. Move along.

Ordinarily, I would think that students should be allowed to pick which candidate they want to research, but the problem here is the risk that some kid is going to make the birth certificate an issue, and failing the kid for that will have the parent up in arms.

I think this is outrageous. I can only imagine the outrage that would be all over the place if the class had been asked to do opposition research only on Obama.

Having said that, had the class been allowed to break into groups and pick ANY candidate of any party to research, and there was no part to find out who to send it to in the other party, I would have no problem. The way this was done was obviously a leftist hack trying to brainwash kids.

We are zoned for Liberty. Thank goodness my daughter is in the AAP program and won't go there. I can't believe the school is defending this assignment and that the County is as well.

I remember the same type of project in 1972, although "opposition research" at the time meant Watergate. By the way, our 8th grade Civics class totally threw the election by voting primarily in favor of McGovern.

Anonymous wrote:http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/22/va-middle-schoolers-assigned-to-do-oppo-research-on-gop-candidates/

Scary, all over the news.

Consider the source: The Daily Caller? That's like a couple of notches below Weekly World News in terms of credibility.

BTW it was a Civics Honors course. Also sounds like they weren't really assigned to "forward" the information to the president's campaign.

I don't really see a problem with any of this.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/22/va-middle-schoolers-assigned-to-do-oppo-research-on-gop-candidates/

Scary, all over the news.