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Hugo Chavez threatening to nationalize private schools that will not change to his government's new textbooks. George Orwell unavailable for comment...........
| quote: | Chavez threatens to nationalize non-compliant private schools
* Story Highlights
* Chavez: All schools must submit to the government's new educational standards
* Opponents accuse president of aiming to indoctrinate young Venezuelans
* Chavez: "Society cannot allow the private sector to do whatever it wants"
* Chavez: Capitalist ideology has destroyed "the values of children"
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened Monday to close or take over any private school that refuses to submit to the oversight of his socialist government as it develops a new curriculum and textbooks.
"Society cannot allow the private sector to do whatever it wants," said Chavez, speaking on the first day of classes.
All schools, public and private, must admit state inspectors and submit to the government's new educational system, or be closed and nationalized, with the state taking responsibility for the education of their children, Chavez said.
A new curriculum will be ready by the end of this school year, and new textbooks are being developed to help educate "the new citizen," said Chavez's brother and Education Minister Adan Chavez, who joined him in a televised ceremony at the opening of a public school in the eastern town of El Tigre.
The president's opponents accuse him of aiming to indoctrinate young Venezuelans with socialist ideology. But the education minister said the aim is to develop "critical thinking," not to impose a single way of thought.
Just what the new curriculum will include and how it will be applied to all Venezuelan schools and universities remains unclear.
"We want to create our own ideology collectively -- creative, diverse," the president said, adding that it would help develop values of "cooperation and solidarity."
All schools will be bound to "subordinate themselves to the constitution" and comply with the "new Bolivarian educational system," he said, referring to his socialist movement named after South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.
Anticipating criticism, Chavez said the state's role in regulating education is internationally accepted and it is not possible for a school administrator to insist on autonomy in countries such as Germany or the United States either.
Chavez also noted that previous Venezuelan educational systems carried their own ideology. Leafing through old grade school textbooks from the 1970s, he pointed out how they referred to Venezuela's "discovery" by Europeans.
"They taught us to admire Christopher Columbus and Superman," Chavez said, adding that education based on capitalist ideology had destroyed "the values of children."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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This guy is losing it.... http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/amer...eref=rss_latest
but since its not an approved news source that George likes, I am sure this is just more ignorant American press just picking on poor innocent Chavez.. 
we need maps.....like and so forth.. 
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Thank you for posting the most ridiculous thing I have read today. Not only an unsubstantiated strawman but an irrelevant one as well. A godwin in modern sense. Bringing Bush into the discussion does not aid your argument against me unless you can actually use it constructively. The problem is is that A)I'm not a bush supporter and B) Even if Bush DID do exactly the same thing I'm not making an ideological hyprocritical appeal whereby I'm endorsing Chavez's behaviour among ANY other candidate. Sorry you're going to have to do better than that. 
