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MashkadovThere is in fact already a charter school founded and still operated -following the spirit- of the SGI. It is called the Rennaisance Charter School located in [...] Jackson Heights.Their website is
renaissancecharter.org. Although not explained on their website, it was founded by a certain Dr. Montee Joffee in the 1990s. It was only recently that he stepped down as detailed in the article "Practical Implementation of "Soka" Education: A Dialogue with Monte Joffee" URL: [
www.eric.ed.gov]. You can read the abstract on that page. I have the full article but I can't share it because I has identifying information on who downloaded it (me) and where. One striking fact here is that their website doesn't mention anything about the SGI, Makiguchi, or Ikeda anywhere! There is no mention of Soka Education - not even in the
Educational Philosophy Section. Do parents even know the inner motivations of their children's school?
Excerpt from About Us > MissionRenaissance is based on the conviction that a change in the destiny of a single individual can lead to a change in the destiny of a community, nation, and ultimately humankind. Its mission as a K-12 school is to foster educated, responsible, humanistic young leaders who will through their own personal growth spark a renaissance in New York. Its graduates will be global citizens with an abiding respect for peace, human rights, the environment, and sustainable development.
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Renaissance is committed to graduating competent individuals who are powerful thinkers, engaged citizens, and life-long learners who will create the renaissance of New York.
Mashkadov, thanks for posting this. Montee Joffee was, and probably still is, an SGI leader, and the statement reeks of SGI rhetoric. SGI has also spoken of a "Soka Renaissance."
Still, it's difficult to know exactly what the story is with this school. Is it a school that has been created and funded by SGI, and it's just not identifying itself as such?
Or is it a school that just happened to have a principal who was a member of the Soka Gakkai? (Interestingly, Dr. Joffee was a friend and mentor of the hate-chanting principal, Phillip Scharper.) Principals bring their interests, philosophies and values to their schools -- how can they not? A Christian principal may feel that his values inform his work as an educator-- yet that doesn't necessarily mean that his church runs the school. It doesn't automatically mean that he's trying to convert the students.
"Renaissance" seems to be a popular name for charter schools. There's a whole chain of Renaissance Charter Schools in Florida and Georgia. Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Moscow, Idaho, Fresno, California, and Flushing, New York have all had Renaissance Charter Schools. Are all of these schools connected with SGI, then? When you look at their websites, there is certainly no mention of SGI. The schools also seem to have different philosophies, and focuses -- and quality.
The school in Jackson Heights seems to have a good reputation, while Renaissance Charter Schools in Pennsylvania have been closed for low test scores. The Boston school was poorly evaluated for turning away special ed students. It was one of the Edison schools -- so is SGI connected with Edison? The Fresno school has been closed. The Barack Obama Charter School in Los Angeles had two board members who also hold important positions at SGI's Soka University. Coincidence?
Given SGI's secrecy, it's just hard to know what's really going on here. They've had an Educators' Division since the 1990's...used to be part of the Culture Department. Some of the teachers in my area used to go to these meetings. They said they just talked about teaching, "value creation," and humanistic education. And for many principals and teachers, maybe that's all it was -- an occasional meeting, hanging out with other educators. For other people, in other areas, maybe there was more to it. Perhaps some educators are being groomed to become principals and apply Makiguchi, Toda and Ikeda's "humanistic education," and "value-creation education" to the public school system. Not specifically Buddhism, since in America, religion in schools is extremely controversial and could easily backfire -- but this "humanism," "socialist competition," that Ikeda keeps spouting. This philosophy seems to interest him far more than actual Buddhism does anyway.
This could offer Ikeda the best of both worlds -- he can get his half-baked philosophy into the schools, without the actual work and expense of operating large numbers of charter schools.