PragerU unironically being taught in schools

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Sadly not to an art class, but a 10th grade history class. Since removed after a complaint from a parent who couldn't appreciate the little joys in life, but apparently signed up to by thousands of other parents and teachers.

This is probably the high water mark of human civilisation, but it's generated less buzz than the 1619 Project so far.

[John Dule]

I like PragerU. In this complicated modern world, it's kind of nice to come across something so bald-facedly evil.

[OSR stands with Israel]

PragerU is not as bad as the 1619 project though thats an extremely low bar

[Santander]

PragerU is not as bad as the 1619 project though thats an extremely low bar

Kissing Republican ass won't stop them from deporting your ass as soon as they're able to.

[HisGrace]

This isn't fundamentally different from the 1619 Project being taught in schools. At least this was removed when a parent complained which I very much doubt would happen with the 1619 Project. That's probably why there isn't as much "buzz" here as the OP noted.

Ideologically driven history like Prager or the 1619 project should not be in public schools. Objective, ideologically neutral history should be taught. The problem is the post-modern left has convinced everyone there's no such thing as neutrality or objectivity in which case PragerU is every bit as legitimate as the 1619 Project.

[PSOL]

PragerU is not as bad as the 1619 project though thats an extremely low bar

Kissing Republican ass won't stop them from deporting your ass as soon as they're able to.

Rude and false. On a purely moral level, it’s never right to joke about deportation.

On a realistic level, he lives in a proletarian zone as a conservative And isn’t a threat to the religious and corporate establishment as a threat or a competitor. OSR is a “model minority” that aligns with the interests of the GOP at the end of the day to protect his class interest, something many of us behave as in varied situations, so again—no threat.

[Sestak]

Whatever your objections to the 1619 project are, I don’t think they’re really comparable to actively presenting negative judgements of current political forces as objective facts.

Bad history is bad history, but not the same as literally teaching “the current Democratic Party are the bad guys and here are all the reasons they’re evil.”

[darklordoftech]

Imagine the reaction if the 1619 Project talked about “The Right”, “theism”, and “capitalism” the same way PragerU talks about “The Left”, “atheism”, and “socialism”.

[Tartarus Sauce]

PragerU is not as bad as the 1619 project though thats an extremely low bar

If anything, they are far, far worse.

IIRC correctly, they actually made a video arguing that Hitler was a liberal. A liberal FFS! They are the champs of trading in ahistorical nonsense.

[pbrower2a]

Stark graphic from Media Bias/Fact Check




                                 

A questionable source exhibits one or more of the following: extreme bias, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, poor or no sourcing to credible information, a complete lack of transparency and/or is fake news. Fake News is the deliberate attempt to publish hoaxes and/or disinformation for the purpose of profit or influence. Sources listed in the Questionable Category may be very untrustworthy and should be fact checked on a per article basis. Please note sources on this list are not considered fake news unless specifically written in the reasoning section for that source. See all Questionable sources.



Overall, we rate PragerU Questionable based on extreme right-wing bias, promotion of propaganda, the use of poor sources who have failed fact checks, and the publication of misleading information regarding immigration and climate change.

Detailed Report
Reasoning: Extreme Right, Propaganda, Poor Sourcing, Mixed Fact Checking
Country: USA

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/prageru/

History

Founded in 2009 by Dennis Prager and Allen Astrin, PragerU short for Prager University is a non-profit organization that creates videos on various political, economic and philosophical topics from a conservative or right-wing perspective. PragerU is not an academic institution. It is strictly a conservative Youtube video channel and news website. The following disclaimer is located at the bottom of the website: PRAGER UNIVERSITY IS NOT AN ACCREDITED ACADEMIC INSTITUTION AND DOES NOT OFFER CERTIFICATIONS OR DIPLOMAS. BUT IT IS A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE FREE TO LEARN.

Dennis Prager is a Neoconservative radio host and columnist for the far-right and questionable WND. Prager believes that Christianity is under threat from secular leftist universities and therefore created PragerU to counteract them. PragerU has developed two partnership programs to help cultivate relationships with educators. PragerU’s Educator Program supplies teachers with lesson plans and study guides that accompany their videos. Additionally, secondary school teachers and college professors can register their classes through PragerU’s Academic Partnership program, which lets students sign up and allows teachers to monitor their students’ progress.

Funded by / Ownership

PragerU is a non-profit that is funded through donors such as hydraulic fracturing billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which advocates for low immigration and human-influenced climate change denialism. Other large donors all hold conservative views as well. The organization has a $10 million annual budget, of which it spends more than 40% on marketing.

Analysis / Bias

In review, PragerU publishes well-produced videos that appeal to a conservative audience. The most frequent topics covered are anti-immigration, human-influenced climate change denialism, Pro-Christian and anti-Muslim themes, as well as advocacy for free-market capitalism and harsh criticism of socialism. Further, there are many videos in support of President Trump. Most videos are less than 5 minutes and come from prominent conservatives such as Dennis Prager and some of which have very poor track records with fact-checkers such as Tucker Carlson, Michelle Malkin (Anti-Islam), and Steven Crowder. Further, the right-leaning Cato Institute has criticized PragerU for publishing misleading and false information regarding immigration. In general, all videos favor the right and denigrate the left with the use of poor sources.

The website also contains an “In The News” section which curates news from other sources such as the BBC and Forbes. However, they also list stories from far-right biased sources and questionable ones such as Breitbart, Townhall, PJ Media, and Front Page Mag. All news stories are related in some way to PragerU, such as this: The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Smear Campaign Against PragerU. This particular story is a reaction to the SPLC calling PragerU an “indispensable propaganda device for the right.” They further state “PragerU seems to be yet another node on the internet connecting conservative media consumers to the dark corners of the extreme right.”

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Mike Gravel and Archer/Bob are fighting this.

[pbrower2a]

Back in the 1970's when I was in high school the English teacher exposed us to an article from American Opinion Magazine, a publication of the John Birch Society, alleging that rock-and-roll music was part of a Communist conspiracy to corrupt the souls and character of American youth. The material was so blatant in its editorial bias and shoddy reasoning that we could all recognize the material as such. Smart high-school kids can be very adult in thought. 

Truth be told, Soviet culture at the time was extremely conservative in its expression and content. The Soviet Union then heavily sponsored classical music and apolitical folk music. Artistic expression in the Soviet Union was limited in range and content. I found it easy to recognize that rock music in America was very much a free-enterprise activity incompatible with the Soviet economic system.

That teacher knew what she was doing, and our class was an honors class in all but name. This teacher expected someone to recognize the article as propaganda. 

[cvparty]

of course it’s ohio

[Sorenroy]

Back in the 1970's when I was in high school the English teacher exposed us to an article from American Opinion Magazine, a publication of the John Birch Society, alleging that rock-and-roll music was part of a Communist conspiracy to corrupt the souls and character of American youth. The material was so blatant in its editorial bias and shoddy reasoning that we could all recognize the material as such. Smart high-school kids can be very adult in thought. 

Truth be told, Soviet culture at the time was extremely conservative in its expression and content. The Soviet Union then heavily sponsored classical music and apolitical folk music. Artistic expression in the Soviet Union was limited in range and content. I found it easy to recognize that rock music in America was very much a free-enterprise activity incompatible with the Soviet economic system.

That teacher knew what she was doing, and our class was an honors class in all but name. This teacher expected someone to recognize the article as propaganda.

There is absolutely a role for critical analysis of news media in our modern world, and the recognition of propaganda or other heavily biased media was something being introduced at my school around the time that I was leaving. In this instance though, the article indicates that this teacher and PragerU's larger PREP program aims to present its information as fact. Without the space for critical discussion, especially when the information presented comes only from one side of the spectrum, it will, at best, be picked up on by the students as misleading and, at worst, be taken as regular curriculum and absorbed in the same way as one might learn from a history textbook.

[AtorBoltox]

This isn't fundamentally different from the 1619 Project being taught in schools. At least this was removed when a parent complained which I very much doubt would happen with the 1619 Project. That's probably why there isn't as much "buzz" here as the OP noted.

Ideologically driven history like Prager or the 1619 project should not be in public schools. Objective, ideologically neutral history should be taught. The problem is the post-modern left has convinced everyone there's no such thing as neutrality or objectivity in which case PragerU is every bit as legitimate as the 1619 Project.

This does not exist

[7,052,770]

PragerU is not as bad as the 1619 project though thats an extremely low bar

This is the hackiest thing you've ever posted.

[Samof94]

Ironically, they did get the U.S civil war right, but then again Neil Gorsuch is a fan of Native American rights as he takes 19th century treaties literally.

[Former President tack50]

What is wrong with a decent University like Prager U helping to write a school curriculum? /s

[Bismarck]

I like Prager U but it doesn’t belong in schools. Neither does Howard Zinn or the 1619 project, unless multiple opinionated sources are being used for a discussion or something.

[Person Man]

Smart kids know fake news when they see it. I'm worried about the rest of them and Dennis Prager is pretty good at fake news.

[OSR stands with Israel]

PragerU is not as bad as the 1619 project though thats an extremely low bar

This is the hackiest thing you've ever posted.

Getting 5% on a test is still technically better then getting 0%

[Storr]

From the article: "The PREP program study guide quizzes students with true-false questions such as “nearly all the major 19th- and 20th- century breakthroughs in health care were made by Western Europeans and North Americans.” (The study guide says the answer is true.) Another true-false question asks students to evaluate the following statement: “Big Tech with its control of search algorithms, its shadowbanning, and deboosting supports political correctness and the resulting limitations of freedom.”"

[Senator Incitatus]

Local Man Discovers History is Myth

[HisGrace]

This isn't fundamentally different from the 1619 Project being taught in schools. At least this was removed when a parent complained which I very much doubt would happen with the 1619 Project. That's probably why there isn't as much "buzz" here as the OP noted.

Ideologically driven history like Prager or the 1619 project should not be in public schools. Objective, ideologically neutral history should be taught. The problem is the post-modern left has convinced everyone there's no such thing as neutrality or objectivity in which case PragerU is every bit as legitimate as the 1619 Project.

This does not exist

Right, I acknowledged in my post that a lot of people think that in which case they don't have a leg to stand on to criticize this. If there's no objectivity than nothing can be true or false. When the left say things like this it's just a cheap excuse for heir own biases while trying to leave themselves free to criticize other people's.

[QAnonKelly]

I think anything being said about controversial curriculum is like saying Beetlejuice or Voldemort to attract OSR about the 1619 project.