From: David Fleishman
Jennifer Morrill
Friday, April 06, 2018 9:31:50 AM
Subject: Fwd: Recent foia
To: Jennifer Morrill
Hi Jen,
This is really good. Many thanks.
Matt Hills suggested that we add a paragraph stating that the decision to revamp
the unit was due to a need to update not because it was in any way biased. I think
that could be helpful. I took a stab at a paragraph and it would be great if you
could edit or expand. For example, it might be good to add a sentence about the
two state solution being outdated.
As always, your help is much appreciated.
DF
‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐
David
I wanted to write you an email clarifying events around the recent FOIA for the
2016‐2017 year.
Last year, I decided in consultation with a few 10th grade teachers that we needed
to revise the unit on the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict and stop teaching it until
we did so. Last spring (2017) I asked all 10th grade teachers not to teach the
unit. Last fall when we met with Robert Trestan and other representatives from the
ADL, I believed that all of the teachers had followed my directive and not taught
the unit during the 2016‐2017 school year. However, when the FOIA was issued
recently, I found that one teacher had not followed my directive and had taught the
entire old unit. She did not disregard my directive intentionally but somehow
missed my message to the department. (This is a teacher who has struggled in the
past with following department wide directions.) Additionally, two teachers showed
a few slides on the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict in a ppt as part of a larger
lesson. When I realized that one teacher had taught the old unit, I included a note
with the FOIA materials explaining that the unit was no longer supposed to be
taught by the department and that only one teacher had taught it last year.
Clearly this note was ignored, and our curriculum was misrepresented in the Jewish
Advocate article.
Page 1
content
I believe it is important to note that we decided to revise the unit because we
believed that it needed to be updated not because it was in any way biased. We
continue to believe that the curriculum materials that we used in the unit
represented a range of perspectives in a thoughtful and accurate manner. In fact,
I would expect that we will use some of the materials again.
I was especially sorry to see that the FOIA materials were being used to discredit
the ADL and Robert Trestan. I cannot say enough how much Newton South appreciates
the efforts of the ADL. The recent work they did training sophomores and juniors
was life changing for many of the students. Our trained ADL peer leaders are now
practicing the lessons they will be doing in 9th grade classes after April break.
We hope to continue our partnership with the ADL by sending two teachers to a
summer workshop and doing another training for 30 more students in late August.
Please let me know if there is anything further I can do to clarify this
misunderstanding. I very much regret that the ADL has been put in bad position on
our account.
Jen Morrill
History and Social Science Department Chair
Newton South High School
617 559 6548
Page 2