Monday, August 17, 2009

Education: Our Greatest Challenge?

Here's a older post from the Conservative Hideout.

This is an article that I had commented on for another site some time ago. I thought that given the current climate of “change,” it might be a good idea to re-visit it. The article is eight years old, however, it seems to echo what is going on today.

From the August 2001 Idaho Observer:

Why Our Schools Teach Socialism

By Joe Larson

Congratulations America: Today there are over 10,000 openly marxist professors and thousands of humanist professors controlling the universities and colleges that produce America’s teachers and other professionals. Varying forms of marxist-humanism are the predominant philosophies of the educational establishment; yet we repeatedly send our most precious gift (our children) off to them for “education” (indoctrination).

Today’s schools are filled with sex education, political correctness, environmental extremism, global unity, diversity training (pro-homosexuality) and higher order thinking skills [HOTS]; which boldly claim that to become a higher order thinker one must first believe the fact that there are no absolutes, absolutely! “The Greatest Story Ever Told” based on the greatest book ever written, “The Holy Bible,” about the greatest teacher who ever lived, Jesus, is not allowed, let alone used, in the schools of America. The Bible was America’s first textbook; yet today it is referred to as a book of fables.

Our schools are filled with violence, murder, extortion, rape, unwanted pregnancy, drug use, disrespect, foul language, declining test scores and children who cannot read. While the pontificators wonder why, God doesn’t; He knows – Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. I will also reject thee seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God; I will also forget thy children.” Verse 7 says, “As they were increased, so they sinned against Me: Therefore, will I change their glory into shame.”

The problem with America’s educational system began with the birth of socialism and given impetus by federal government involvement. Lenin, one of the world’s leading experts on socialism, tells us – “Communism is socialism in a hurry.” Socialism, therefore, is communism by gradualism rather than by revolution. The socialist “Fabian Society,” the forerunner of most socialist groups in America, had as their motto “Make Haste Slowly.” “Democratic Socialism” became the battle cry to socialize the United States of America. The socialists’ goal was to “permeate and penetrate,” then control this nation from deep within. Their first target in America was our children through public instruction.

In the U.S. their followers would use language as their first line of attack and deceit. They would wear no badge nor socialist label, but were to call themselves “liberal,” “progressive” and even “moderate.” Words were the weapon of choice for this new war. By changing and shifting word meanings the socialists could cover their true purpose. Everything would be done under the banners of “reform” and “social justice,” suggesting all was for the public good, for humanitarian reasons, for true democracy — and finally — for the children. The buzzwords of socialism were then, and are today, “social” and “democracy” (i.e. social science, social studies and socialization of the child). Robert Conquest observed, “a communist never does anything under his own name that he can do under someone else’s.”


This is important: Totalitarians never announce themselves. They do not come in and say, “Hi, we’re socialists and we’re going to take away your freedoms bit by bit. We’re going to criminalize your beliefs and your God. We’re going to control every aspect of your live from cradle to grave, and there isn’t a thing you can do about it!” They couch their intentions with pleasant sounding words; they distort and confuse the meanings of their words to make you think “it’s OK.” How many times do we hear the term “change, reform, progressive?” Or, what of “tolerance, diversity, or fairness?” “Change” is certainly true (not change we would want), but what of the others? I think we all know what they really mean.

Regarding the statement, “make haste slowly,” the left does not announce their plans and intentions in full form. They know that the public would reject them. Instead, they move incrementally. They take whatever step they can at a time. Either by exploiting a crisis, or creating one, they implement their plans step by step. It will start with some regulations or restrictions, usually in response to some real or invented event or problem. As time wears on, they add to the regulations or restrictions. At each phase, the politicians and media assures the public that it’s just some small sacrifices that they’re making, and the government doesn’t really want to take some right or freedom away. The educational system plays a role here as well. Since so many children are indoctrinated, they will no know the reasons for the freedoms that we have. As we have heard, there have been more than a few occasions where children have been threatened with failing grades, ridiculed, or otherwise discriminated against because they had a differing viewpoint. Too many of these people grow to be adults with absolutely no concept of our system of government. They don’t recognize that government control always leads to tyranny. They have no idea that the founders wrote our Constitution to protect our rights from the very things that are happening now.

In the early 1900’s, because of unrest in Europe, thousands of socialists flocked to America for safety. Large numbers held degrees in the fields of psychology, sociology and psychiatry (behavioral sciences, dealing with behavior and [social] change). Many went on to become college and university professors.

Norman Thomas, socialist and member of the Civil Liberties Union, boldly told the world, “The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened.”


Note now that they don’t use the word “liberal.” They now refer to themselves as “progressive.” How ironic! They use a nice sounding term to describe tyranny.

The story of how the socialists took over the American educational establishment would fill a book; so let us just listen to their own words.

John Dewey, called “the father of modern education,” was an avowed socialist, the co-author of the ‘Humanist Manifesto’ and cited as belonging to fifteen Marxist-front organizations by the Committee on Un-American Activities. Do the words (the father of modern education) now take on new meaning? Remember, Dewey taught the professors who would train America’s teachers. He was obsessed with “the group.” In his own words, “You can’t make socialists out of individualists. Children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society which is coming, where everyone is interdependent.”


How many of us were taught by our parents, or even our schools, to think for ourselves, be self-reliant, strive to achieve our dreams, be our own person? Under the system of the future, are these traits illnesses that are to be “treated?” Are we to be replaced by successive generations of subservient drones that have no ability to critically analyze facts, and therefore will never question their masters?

Rosalie Gordon, writing on Dewey’s progressive (socialist) education in her book “What’s Happened To Our Schools,” said, “The progressive system has reached all the way down to the lowest grades to prepare the children of America for their role as the collectivists of the future. The group — not the individual child — is the quintessence of progressivism. The child must always be made to feel part of the group. He must indulge in group thinking and group activity.”


Collectivist = Communists. Notice how individuality is to be eliminated. How meaningful are the individual freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution when individuality is to be eliminated? As an update, is it any surprise that the government has been pushing mandatory pre-school? This has nothing to do with education. This is about indoctrination. They state it plainly themselves.

After visiting the Soviet Union, Dewey wrote six articles on the “wonders” of Soviet education. The School-To-Work system in our public schools (all 50 states) is modeled after the Soviet poly-technical system.

In 1936, the National Education Association stated its position, from which they have never wavered; “We stand for socializing the individual.”

The NEA in its “Policy For American Education” stated, “The major problem of education in our times arises out of the fact that we live in a period of fundamental social change. In the new democracy [we were a Republic] education must share in the responsibility of giving purpose and direction to social change. The major function of the school is the social orientation of the individual. Education must operate according to a well-formulated social policy.”

Paul Haubner, specialist for the NEA, tells us, “The schools cannot allow parents to influence the kind of values-education their children receive in school. That is what is wrong with those who say there is a universal system of values. [Christians?] Our (humanistic) goals are incompatible with theirs. We must change their values.”

Professor Chester M. Pierce, M.D., Professor of Education and Psychiatry at Harvard, has this to say, “Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill because he comes to school with certain allegiances to our Founding Fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being, and toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It’s up to you as teachers to make all these sick children well — by creating the international child of the future.”

Some politicians agree. Listen to former Senator Paul Hoagland of Nebraska: “The fundamentalist parents have no right to indoctrinate their children in their beliefs. We are preparing their children for the year 2000 and life in a global one-world society and those children will not fit in.”

What then happens to those children that do not “fit in” to this new socialist world? Many of the readers of this blog have been subject to the indoctrination of the public schools and universities. We were somehow able to resist and form opinions of our own. What will become of such people in the “new order?”

In the Humanist Review magazine it was observed that, “Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism. What can a theistic Sunday school’s meeting for an hour once a week and teaching only a fraction of the children do to stem the tide of the five-day program of humanistic teaching?”

P. Blanchard, in ‘The Humanist” 1983, continues: “I think that the most important factor moving us toward a secular society has been the educational factor. Our schools may not teach Johnny how to read properly, but the fact that Johnny is in school until he is 16 tends toward the elimination of religious superstition. The average American child now acquires a high school education, and this militates against Adam and Eve and all other myths of alleged history.”


In a socialist state, there can be no power higher than the state. The concept of God, and for some reason, the Christian God in particular, that has to be eliminated. They won’t say that publicly, but that’s the agenda. Even for those who aren’t religious, what other ideas might be out of synch with the new worldview? Once they come for the Christians, who might be next?

John J. Dunphy wrote in the Jan/Feb 1983 edition of The Humanist, “The battle for mankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom. The classroom must and will become the arena of conflict between the old and the new. The rotting corpse of Christianity and the new faith of humanism.”

Our bureaucrats, politicians and educators are constantly on television blaming either parents or lack of funds for our schools’ dilemmas. The answer is always more money and more government control. For well over 50 years the American voter has believed this line of crap. Victor Gollancz, a famous socialist publisher tells us why he believed that socialism would take over America; “Christians are not exactly bright, so it will be easy for socialism to lead them down the garden path through their ideals of brotherly love and ’social justice.’”

It’s (past) time that Christian men stand up for their families and their faith and put God back in charge of this nation and it’s schools.

Joe Larson is the director of Restoring America, a nationwide association of individuals and organizations, including The Idaho Observer, that are dedicated to networking their information, activities and resources to further the effort of a peaceful restoration of our Constitutional Republic. Larson can be contacted at restoringamerica.org or by calling: (573) 793-3156.


http://www.proliberty.com/observer/20010816.htm


I know, why this now? I know the ObamaCare plan is oozing its way through Congress. I know Cap and Trade lurks on the horizon. Education is already in the hands of the left, and it has been for some time. We vehemently defend our health care choices and our income, as well we should, but we then forget about our children? With every successive generation of children going through the public schools, the levels of violence, the lack of ethics, and the lack of knowledge of the average American citizen continues to grow. Yes, many of us were taught well at home. We learned lessons of hard work, discipline, integrity, and so forth from our parents and other family members. But as these new generations are indoctrinated with leftist ideas, there will be fewer and fewer parents able or willing to teach such lessons. My fear is that, at some time in the future, we will reach a tipping point where people that are honest, have integrity, or are able to think independently will become a small minority. At that point, the indoctrinated ones will freely give up all the rights that made this nation great, simply because they don’t know the utility of them. In fact, they will have been taught to despise them.

People that believe in freedom are already the new pariahs for the left. One only needs to look at the media coverage of the Tea Parties to confirm this. The drumbeat will only grow. As it does, the left will continue to indoctrinate more and more children. We might yet defeat the socialized medicine, and we might prevent passage of Cap and Trade. Obama may lose hig congressional majorities in 2010. He might even be defeated in 2012. But if we continue to give our kids to the government every day, those victories will be temporary, delaying the socialists for a few years to be sure, but in the end, futile.

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