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ScoobyDooby
Another article from the Worcester Business Journal: [www.wbjournal.com]

Does anyone know if this Judith Sigolovsky is an SGI member?

It sounds like it. Her speech contained some SGI buzz words, such as "value" repeated many times and "fundamental".

Thanks for finding that for us.

This is the Spirit of Knowledge Academy's official website:

[www.sokacs.org]

Recruitment social scheduled for August 17th, people posting here from Massachusetts may want to check it out.

Quote
ScoobyDooby

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Rothaus
Concerning the school business … has anyone of you thought about bringing this to the media's attention?

Apparently, someone already has: [www.incitytimesworcester.org]

Yes, and there have been others in Worcester who have serious reservations about the Soka Academy too. John Manfredo, for example, says that Soka is simply taking tax dollars to duplicate already-existing programs in Worcester. Manfredo felt that approval of the Spirit of Knowledge Academy was simply pushed through -- without allowing its opponents to express their concerns.

[www.incitytimesworcester.org]

[www.incitytimesworcester.org]

Their whole mission statement is full of SGI buzzwords. I do not know if Dr. Sigalovsky is an SGI member. SGI seems to be pretending that it is not involved in the Spirit of Knowledge Academy.

I was still an SGI member when Soka University, in Aliso Viejo, California, opened. The Soka Gakkai was tremendously proud of this -- it was very openly publicized as the Soka Gakkai's university. This Soka Academy in Worcester? Not one mention of SGI on the school's website, or in the media. On its application with the Massachusetts Department of Education, Ikeda is mentioned once, as a Japanese educator and author. His connection with SGI, or with Buddhism, is not mentioned at all.

There is also no mention of the new school on the SGI-USA website, even on their educators' blog. There is a link to "Soka Schools." This mentions the Soka Universities in Japan and California, and Soka elementary, middle schools and high schools in Japan, Brazil, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. Nothing about this new school in Massachusetts. Apparently, the Soka Gakkai does not want anyone to know that they are connected with this school!

And yet, how hard would it be to find out? All that anybody in the Massachusetts Department of Education had to do was google "Daisaku Ikeda" or "Soka" or "Value creation" and they would get enormous amounts of information. So how can the media, the Massachusetts DOE, or the educational community of Worcester NOT know about SGI?

There was also this, from wormtowntaxi.com

[www.wormtowntaxi.com]

-------------------beginning of quote------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday, April 8, 2010
Cult News for Worcester Schools

There's an interesting post over on the InCity Times blog today connecting the Spirit of Knowledge charter school with Soka Gakkai International and its current president, Daisaku Ikeda, in a pretty negative light.

The connection is clearly documented here (scroll about 2/3 way down the page for "The Spirit of Knowledge Academy Charter School"), where it says, "The SOKA humanistic philosophy is best articulated by Daisaku Ikeda..."

I've searched around a bit and find that there's definitely a schism with Buddhists, as there are some pretty angry rants about SGI and Daisaku Ikeda. But I haven't found any negative M$M press, just blogs and forum stuff. So I can't really find any meat on this bone...

But the "Japanese Buddhist Cult" connection here does seem to be a possible red flag to me, since it is the mainstay of religions to increase their membership ranks over the long term by indoctrinating the young... the earlier in life they can be exposed, and the more regularly they can be exposed, the more effective even the subtlest of "messages" can be.

Posted by Jeff Barnard at 5:46 PM

5 comments:

joef said...
Unless I'm missing something, there is nothing in the InCity times entry that actually connects Spirit of Knowledge to to Soka Gakkai. Other than the use of the word "connection" that is.

I'm not doubting that there is a link here but does anyone have any evidence or substantiation of this claim other than someone saying it is so in a blog entry?
April 9, 2010 8:59 AM

Jeff Barnard said...
Joef: The connection is hardly in doubt, as I've already pointed out with a link, and the entire second paragraph of my post.
April 9, 2010 9:13 AM

Nicole said...
I guess I didn't realize any of this was news.
April 9, 2010 3:39 PM

Jeff Barnard said...
Heh... news or noise... hard to tell sometimes.
April 9, 2010 3:58 PM

Tamara said...
The Spirit of Knowledge Academy's application to the Massachusetts DoE mentions Daisaku Ikeda as an author and educator. Interesting that nobody mentioned that Ikeda is the President of Soka Gakkai International, a controversial lay Buddhist organization with branches in over 100 nations. In Japan, the Soka Gakkai has a reputation for corruption and harassment of members who wish to leave. It is also connected with the New Komeito Party, which has been part of a coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. Both parties suffered serious losses in the most recent elections in Japan.

For information on the Soka Gakkai and Ikeda, you might try:



1. Japan Times Online



2. The Rick Ross website, which maintains an archive of articles from various newspapers on numerous groups including SGI.

[www.culteducation.com];

3. The Cult Awareness and Information Centre, which does the same:
[www.culthelp.info];

4. The International Cultic Studies Center:

[www.icsahome.com];

5. SGI's own websites about itself. See how many times Ikeda's name is mentioned, how he's praised. 

[www.sgi-usa.org] 



You can also look up articles on SGI's university in Alisa Viejo, California -- there have been financial problems and staff complaining of religious discrimination there. 

In San Francisco, some residents of a neighborhood are complaining because some SGI members want to donate $180, 000 to name a gate after Ikeda.

There's considerable debate over whether SGI is a cult...maybe they are, maybe they aren't. The issue is, should they really be infiltrating the Massachusetts public schools?
-----------------------------------------end of quote---------------------------------------------------------------------

Tsukimoto - It's interesting that the acronym for Spirit of Knowledge Academy = SOKA

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ScoobyDooby
Tsukimoto - It's interesting that the acronym for Spirit of Knowledge Academy = SOKA

That it is.

This is the Spirit of Knowledge Academy Staff. Does anyone know anything about any of these people?

Administration:

1. Dr. Julia Sigalovsky, Director

2. Mikhail Khmeinitskly, Director of Curriculum and Instruction

3. Gene Buchanan, Dean of Student Life

4. Dr. Suzanne Shaw, Director of Student Support

5. Darlene Frederick, Director of Business and Operations

6. Maureen Searl, RN, School Nurse

7. Margaret Lyons, Secretary

Teachers:

1. Robert Ayres, M.E., Mathematics and Computer Science

2. Joti Bajaj, M.Ed., Special Education, Computer Science

3. Michele Bock, M.S., Geography and Earth Science

4. John Carter, M.Ed., History

5. Cooper Pereira, Taekwondo

6. Carolyn Given, B.A., English language and World Literature

7. Nargess Hakim, M.S., Mathematics

8. Clark Honeywell, M.S., Biology and Chemistry

9. Mary Malaguti Lanctot, M.A., Art and History of Arts

10. Carl Ploss, M.A., Latin

11. Elena Stuhl, M.Ed., Learning support specialist, Special Education

12. Sarah Williams, B.A., English language and World Literature

Does five administrators and eleven academic teachers seem like reasonable staffing for a school of 156 seventh through ninth graders? Remember, the school is still hiring, so more teachers will be hired by the start of school. We also don't know how many of these teachers are full-time and how many are part-time. The website says that they are looking for part-time teachers...understandable if they don't get many takers for that. How many certified teachers can afford, or want to work part time?

As we'd expect, there are lots of science and technology teachers. Are there to be no foreign languages but Latin offered? No physical education other than tae kwon do? (Sensei's little ninjas!) No music classes? World literature will be taught. Hopefully, the kids will not be assigned, "The New Human Revolution."

@ Tsukimoto

Hmmmmm, I wonder who will step in as in the NY incident, when chanting cards will be handed out???

It appears that Dr. Sigalovsky was director of a similar Mass charter school:

[www.metrowestdailynews.com]

doubtful - All in all you stated a good case! I agree all you need is Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, I have no problem in spreading the WORD sort of speaking. It’s the way SGI flaunts it. I know this first hand I started practicing in the 70’s showing my age just a tad. And practices in several states and countries and the MO is always the same speak out against the chosen one Ikeda on any of his positions (especially – Ikeda is my mentor ) and you get a verbal lynching with a follow up last minute home visitation from a few Sr. Leaders. Very awkward indeed however I have always made a good account of myself during these inquisitions. Calling out leaders that say nonsensical things like chant to be happy or accept Ikeda as your mentor to attain happiness or turning meetings district/chapter into Ikeda rallies – this has been going of late say @ least (the past 10 years or so) - Biggest Issue is having SGI condition the YD to accept Ikeda as their mentor – you don’t do that to young people - they are still impressionable and SGI and the Leaders are blatant about telling the YD that Ikeda is their Master this is very Cultish behavior – you would have not seen this behavior in the 70’s, 80’s or even the 90’s –
In the SGI It’s all about the person and nothing about the law – don’t know but it appears that the SGI is trying to transform Nichiren to Ikeda Buddhism - if you take a step back and look @ Nichiren he focus on attaining enlightenment in this lifetime – and Ikeda attaining happiness in this lifetime – I will take Nichiren every time. :)

Quote
ScoobyDooby
It appears that Dr. Sigalovsky was director of a similar Mass charter school:

[www.metrowestdailynews.com]

Thanks, ScoobyDooby, great link! Dr. Sigalovsky was very controversial. Her contract with AMSA, the Advanced Math and Science Academy in Marlborough, Massachusetts was not renewed, and a parents' group was very vocal about wanting her out. They criticized the science curriculum, staff turnover, and the administration's lack of support for teachers. There were complaints that many of the AMSA teachers were experts in their field of study, but lacked background in teaching and disciplining teenagers; many classrooms were disorderly and undisciplined. There were also accusations that AMSA pushed special ed students out, so as not to lower the school's test scores.

On the other hand, many parents who were interviewed spoke positively of Dr. Sigalovsky and AMSA, and said that their kids had gotten a great education there.

So who knows how SGI's Spirit of Knowledge Academy will work out. Dr. Sigalovsky has brought two of her former colleagues from AMSA to SOKA, Dr. Suzanne Shaw, and Gene Buchman (I mistakenly listed his name as "Buchanan in my previous post. Sorry!)

Rothaus, I doubt that a repeat of the incident in Riverdale, New York, with Phillip Scharper, the hate-chanting principal, will happen. That incident got SGI an enormous amount of negative publicity. SGI leaders will not want that to happen again, and will be very careful about who is appointed to direct their charter schools. (Scharper was actually the principal of a public school anyway.)

Look how careful SGI has been with the Spirit of Knowledge Academy. Everything that has been written about SOKA -- on the website, on the Massachusetts DOE application, in newspapers, in Dr. Sigalovsky's interviews...does not mention the Soka Gakkai or Buddhism. There was only one mention of Ikeda, on the charter school application. He was listed as an educator and author. Usually, he pads his resume...here he's deliberately understated his career. Someone...several someones, were VERY careful about how everything was worded. And it worked.

Someone has tried to tell the media and general public in Massachusetts about the Soka Gakkai's tie with the Spirit of Knowledge Academy....and the response is "Ho hum, is this really news? Nah,no meat to the story. Just a bunch of cranky people complaining on some website."