Utahs Republic

Posts Tagged ‘Alpine School District’

The Nature of Rights

For many of you this may not be a revelation as it was to me today, but I would appreciate your feedback and any extra insight you may have into this topic.

“We the people.” The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States starts with these 3 words. We sometimes hear the phrase “by the people, of the people, for the people” tossed around but what does it really mean? OK, the people are supreme. That almost sounds like a democracy, doesn’t it? So what does it mean and how does it apply in a republic?

We know that rights come from God. God gave us unalienable rights which cannot be transferred by anyone or to anyone. We have core rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This means we also have a right to self-governance.

For example, if you were in a plane that crash landed on a tropical island and there was a tribe of natives on the island, you would have a God-given right to defend yourself and your property and to pursue a path of happiness (which is probably to make peace with the natives :)), but you would not have a right to demand the natives educate your children or provide you with medical service or build you a house for shelter. That would be charity on their part, but you have no right to force them to do it.

Many of you have probably read Ezra Taft Benson’s excellent treatise “The Proper Role of Government.” In it he describes how government only wields powers we delegate to them. In other words, if I don’t have a right, I cannot endow government with the ability to enforce it for me. Since I have a right to life and property, I can transfer powers to the sheriff to protect my life and property without precluding me from doing what I need to in order to protect my life and property. Likewise, government cannot assume any rights and powers that I don’t possess individually.

Since we as individuals have the rights, we then form government to protect our rights. We can delegate some of those rights to the sovereign state, which then delegates some of them to the federal government. They are OUR RIGHTS which WE THE PEOPLE inherently possess from God. We have chosen to DELEGATE SOME OF THEM to government in a WRITTEN CONSTITUTION because it’s more efficient to have a representative in a constitutional republic handle those things, otherwise we would have a democracy if we had to take care of every issue.

The U.S. Constitution as written by the people and then ratified by the states (it used to be the united states of America, not the United States of America) has specific powers delegated to the federal government from the states which the feds can handle better than the states such as national defense, coinage, treaties, etc… The powers not delegated were reserved to the states (10^th Amendment). The states have powers delegated to it in their written constitution by the people of their state. What isn’t delegated to the state is retained by the people individually. The states in turn delegate to local government the things best handled at that level.

The Education Question

With this understanding in place, by what right is compulsory schooling allowed to exist in our country?

I do not possess a right to force my neighbor to pay my taxes, to mow my lawn, to educate my children, so how is it that the government has taken a right to itself which the people themselves do not possess. Simply put, it is unconstitutional as well as immoral.

A few months back we discovered Alpine School District had a web page with several offensive quotes including this one:

“Arguments for compulsory education have been based on the idea that the school is the only institution that can counter the accident of birth, guarantee quality of opportunity, and provide objective and fair ways to select and train talented individuals.” (https://www.alpine.k12.ut.us/phpApps/genericPage.php?pdid=777)

Right off the bat you get a sense that something is wrong. The blatant statement of compulsion immediately strikes out at you if you know that to force someone against their will is at best, misguided, and at worst, satanic. It is a violation of moral agency which God gave each of us. Coupled with the phrase “accident of birth” and you start to wonder what type of individual would dream up such a phrase, and then wonder what kind of person would post it on a school district website. (Hint: a follower of John Dewey and a John Goodlad AED Scholar)

If I have no right to walk over to my neighbor’s home and force him/her to educate his/her child, then I clearly do not have the ability to delegate to government a right to enforce compulsory education on my neighbors’ child either. At its core, education by force is a socialistic concept where the elites believe they know what is best for parents and they seek to enact it by force in complete violation of individual’s moral agency.

In Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural address in 1981, he said:

“From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?”

So I ask the question, what does constitutional, non-compulsory schooling look like? Please leave your thoughts below.

Part I: John Burton calls me a Bald-Faced Liar
Part II: John Burton’s Serious Ethical Dilemma

-Part I-

I want to make something very clear concerning what I write and publish to the website. I never publish anything that I don’t believe to be accurate information. I do not lie or *make up* anything to stir things up. I try to always make sure what I’ve published is correct.

I say this because it has come to my attention that John Burton has been calling me a liar in correspondence with people for insinuating that he may have been involved in the confiscation of math textbooks at several schools in Alpine. This is part of an email that was forwarded to me.

John Burton wrote:

“Since you call Oak your ‘friend,’ I’m sure you have read his personal home page. One of the statements that he makes on one of his links is very interesting because it talks about my involvement in Investigations Math. Let me quote it for you. ‘ASD actually confiscated textbooks at 4 known schools to ensure teachers had to switch to Investigations math. John Burton, candidate for school board in American Fork, was over those schools at the time. His direct role in that (if any) is unknown.’

[name removed] the statement that I just quoted to you penned by Mr. Norton is a bald-faced lie and Oak knows it!!! I am totally offended by it!” (John’s emphasis, not mine)

The careful reader will note that I said Mr. Burton’s role in the confiscations (which did happen) is “unknown” but that he was merely the administrator over the elementary schools at the time of implementation. My friend, who was kind enough to play ping-pong email for John and I, then received another email from John which contained this new information about his service.

“I wasn’t even at the district office when Math Investigations was implemented. Go check it out in the Human Resource Department and you will find out that I was appointed a supervisor of elementary schools after Math Investigations had been implemented. Obviously Oak hasn’t taken the time to do this.

At the time of implementation I was principal at Legacy Elementary and my school opted not to implement the program. Therefore it would have been ridiculous for me to confiscate the books at my school since the teachers and students would have had no books to use at all!!” (Emphasis mine)

On the first point, John is right. I didn’t take the time to do that. I wish I had more time on my hands to try and verify every fact with every available source, but I relied on a teacher who said she was there at the time and that was her recollection.

John’s second point claims he was principal of Legacy Elementary when Investigations was implemented and he turned down the program. This was new information to me so I emailed John and asked him for a timeline of his service so I could then provide it to my source and try to get to the bottom of the issue. I told him if I was wrong that I would gladly publish it on my website so everyone could know the facts as they really were.

John wouldn’t reply. I emailed again and he wouldn’t reply. I made a third and final offer to him nearly 2 weeks ago and he wouldn’t reply.

So I checked with my source and she maintains that her recollection was correct that John left Manilla to go to the district, but left a little wiggle room saying maybe he went to Legacy and then to the district, but she didn’t think that happened.

A small fragment of doubt had been cast between what John claimed and my source’s recollection, so I wavered a bit trying to know what to publish. Thankfully, my good friend Doug Cannon had taken up the anti-Investigations math fight a few years before me and just provided me with GRAMA data that helps reveal a much clearer picture.

First, I found on John Burton’s campaign website a timeline with some of the information about his service that I was trying to get from him.

Alpine School District, Administrator K-6 Schools, 2001-2008
Alpine School District, Elementary School Principal, 1980-2001

So John transferred to the district office in 2001, probably making the transition in the summer of 2001 so that a new principal could start the 2001 school year at John’s school.

This first pdf provided by Doug Cannon to me, shows the cost of Investigations math being implemented in Alpine School District, as well as a table showing when every school implemented Investigations math. You can see that both Manilla and Legacy elementary schools implemented Investigations math in the 2001-2002 school year, and that neither principal at the time was John Burton, he was already at the district. That is a direct contradiction to what John represented in his emails above and this comes from district materials.

PDF see page 4 (GRAMA Reply 1-14-2003)

The next pdf is dated in 2003 (which is after everything took place) and shows John signing a district document in favor of Investigations math.

PDF see page 1 (ASD letter 1-27-2003)

Giving John a big benefit of the doubt, maybe he was principal at Legacy when Investigations math was first offered and maybe he turned it down (don’t know since he won’t verify his service record), but it seems clear from the record that he was at the district office when the schools that confiscated textbooks performed that action and it seems clear he was fully on board with the district in embracing Investigations math. People that know John have identified him as a strong constructivist. In other words, if you want fuzzy math to continue in Alpine School District (as it does still continue), then elect John. He’s going to keep it going. His role in the confiscations mentioned above is unknown, but it seems clear he was at the district office from the records just provided, and he was not principal of Legacy Elementary when it was actually implemented.

-Part II-

John recently retired from Alpine School District (2008) and went to work for Utah Valley University as the Field Supervisor of Secondary Prospective Teachers. If he is elected to the school board, he will have a direct conflict of interest with his job because the students he reviews will also be applying for work at Alpine School District. If John will be able to put pressure on principals to hire his students, or if principals feel there is a benefit to hiring the students John recommends, or students want John to review them in hopes of getting favorable placement in ASD, these situations create ethical issues for John.

When I sent John the timeline request mentioned in Part I above, I also sent to him a question asking if he was planning to resign his job at UVU if elected to the school board. He refused to answer that question. He is certainly aware that this issue exists but he does not want to answer the question. It would be nice to know if he would resign so we could be assured there would be no ethical issues that surround hiring issues as they relate to his reviews.

Mr. Burton has avoided all of the Meet the Candidates events in AF so his refusal to answer the conflict question and to appear in public is disconcerting to say the least. Why would someone who wants the job of a school board member run a campaign in near complete isolation and privacy? It makes no sense unless he’s got something to hide or he is doing this under pressure from someone else such people at the school district.

I’ve also received reports from very unhappy parents asking why some sitting principals (Jason Theler at Lindon Elementary and Gary Gibb at Legacy Elementary) are campaigning for Mr. Burton.

If you would like to email John and ask him for yourself if he plans to retire from UVU if he is elected, please feel free to do so. Here’s his email address.
johncharlesburton@gmail.com

Dear John, if you would be so kind to answer this question, I’d be happy to post it here on the website so the public has your response.

So you don’t think Socialist Revolutionaries exist in Utah County? Think again.

I just read an article in the Daily Herald about Stephen Sandstrom’s new immigration bill. https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/article_c49d2be6-4311-59ec-a977-c96d1a42645a.html. Here are the 3 individuals/organizations quoted as being against tougher illegal immigration:

1) Utah Progressive Coalition

2) Stephen Baugh (Democratic candidate running against Sandstrom who was the former ASD Superintendent and current BYU CITES director pushing John Goodlad’s Democracy Agenda)

3) Revolutionary Student Union at Utah Valley University (UVURSU)

What?? A Revolutionary Student Union club? Curious, I looked them up. Want a real awakening? Holy Cow!!

This club encourages the REVOLUTIONARY overturn of capitalism in the US and is connected to many national and international Marxists, Leninists, Socialists, Anarchists, Palestinian Liberation groups and of course, Democracy Now. This group doesn’t just take the slow evolutionary approach to socialism like our public school system does, it actually calls for revolution and features a post about combating the police. It is very reminiscent of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in which Bill Ayers started the Weather Underground to revolutionize America by blowing up buildings. Important: scroll down https://www.uvursu.com/ to see who RSU affiliates with to get an eye-opening education of what is going on at our campuses right here in Utah County.

Perhaps interesting to you might be a group the RSU links with, Mormon Worker (think Workers of America Unite). This site is published by LDS members “devoted to Mormonism and radical politics” https://themormonworker.org/about.php. Interesting to me is the contributor list which mentions many graduates from BYU who have gone on missions and fight for redistribution of wealth, feminism, sex-ed reform, the gay agenda, and other Progressive policies. https://themormonworker.org/contributors.php

What does this have to do with me? What can I do about it?

There is a reason many parents think there is a problem with Alpine School District pushing a Democracy Agenda over academics and why we are concerned that they won’t break up their love affair with John Goodlad, socialist/atheist/humanist who mentors the district with his socialist theories and writes in his books quotes like these…

“Enculturating the Young Into a Social and Political Democracy”

“Most youth still hold the same values of their parents… if we do not alter this pattern, if we don’t resocialize, our system will decay.”

“Parents do not own their children. They have no ‘natural right’ to control their education fully.”

“The curriculum of the future ‘will be what one might call the humanistic curriculum.”

If there is nothing going on here in Alpine School District promoting socialism or atheism, ask yourself this… Why can’t ASD pull itself away from the district motto and everything John Goodlad? https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/article_7d0cf17d-e17a-50e3-a1fa-8a51b871c75b.html

Why is Bill Ayers, socialist and former revolutionary terrorist-turned University educator the keynote speaker for an upcoming NNER Conference in October which Alpine School District employees attend each year? https://www.utahsrepublic.org/tag/bill-ayers/ (Read all 3 posts to see how Bill Ayers is connected with the Alpine School District.)

Why was the NNER’s last keynote speaker an anti-Mormon, ex-BYU feminist and Progressive, Nel Noddings, who wrote Women and Evil which scrutinizes the Bible’s male chauvinist writers for portraying women as evil? Her plea to educators is to re-define evil to fit in these modern times (moral relativism). By the way, this speech’s emphasis was on one of Goodlad’s 4 Moral Dimensions that our school board is so adamant on defending, nurturing our children. The question is, who is doing the nurturing? Parents or the state?

Please, it is time to educate our community, stand up for what is right and vote these current board members out who keep pushing this political agenda. We need to concentrate on academics and true principles. We need to raise a liberty-loving, moral generation if we want our Republic to be strong. And morals need to be taught by parents and churches, not government run schools! You might not see this in your child’s classroom…yet, but know that the ASD is pushing this agenda and spending our tax money doing it.

Susie Schnell

Update 10/23/10: for those of you looking for the most relevant information on the elections I recommend you visit www.SaveASD.com for candidates that will act as the public watchdogs we need, instead of acting as apologists for district policies.

**********

Original post:

An open letter to the teachers of Alpine School District (ASD) – I encourage all parents to forward this email to their children’s teachers and principals, and then to your friends elsewhere so they can be aware of the transformation taking place in our schools.

---

Dear Teacher or Principal,

Thank you for becoming teachers and engaging in the challenging and rewarding work of inspiring the rising generation. Thousands of families hope for your success in reaching their children to help them achieve all they can. I write you to express my concern over a dangerous agenda which is filtering into schools around our country and even into our own school district to an extent. My hope is to simply raise your awareness so that you are not drawn into these philosophies unaware of their intent.

Last year I started the website UtahsRepublic.org after reading the history standards for the state of Utah. I discovered that the word Republic did not appear one time in the K-12 standards. Article 4, section 4 of the U.S. Constitution guarantees us a republican form of government but it seems that all we ever hear about is that we are a Democracy. The short video at this link clearly explains the difference between a republic and a democracy.
https://www.utahsrepublic.org/get-educated/why-a-republic/

The name John Goodlad is well known in the field of education.  His book, “The Moral Dimensions of Teaching” is the source of the statement in the Alpine School District Professional Development Center which says, “Enculturating the Young into a Social and Political Democracy.” When I first encountered that phrase about 6 years ago, I didn’t realize the full ramifications of what it was saying. Only during the past year, with the help of others, were we able to understand what Goodlad meant.

John Goodlad is a follower of John Dewey. Dewey was one of the original signatories on the Humanist Manifesto in the 1930’s. A humanist is one who replaces the worship of God with the worship of man and his “genius.” With no God, there are no absolute truths so all knowledge and morals are relative or as Goodlad says, democratic. This moral relativism is based on evolving majority public opinion and is the core of Goodlad’s belief system. This is why he favors and promotes a constructivist philosophy. It is centered in the notion that the process is more important than the result which he believes may change over time.

Among Goodlad’s beliefs are: (references below)

• “Most youth still hold the same values of their parents… if we do not alter this pattern, if we don’t resocialize, our system will decay.” (1)
• “Parents do not own their children. They have no ‘natural right’ to control their education fully.” (2)
• “The curriculum of the future ‘will be what one might call the humanistic curriculum.’” (3)
• “Enlightened social engineering is required to face situations that demand global action now.” (4)
• “…the state we should strive for is better described in Deweyan terms as a social democracy.” (5)
• “…educators must resist the quest for certainty.  If there were certainty there would be no scientific advancement. So it is with morals and patriotism.” (6)
• “Education is a task for both parents and state. The state, parents, and children all have interests that must be protected.” (7)

Do these statements surprise you as much as they did me?

A “social democracy” is defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as a democratic welfare state or the gradual transition from capitalism to socialism. Goodlad seeks to accomplish this transition by his “enlightened social engineering.” Charlotte Iserbyt (worked in the Department of Education under Reagan) in her book “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America” wrote that Goodlad is this nations “premier change agent” to take us toward socialism. (www.deliberatedumbingdown.com) In her book she quotes Goodlad as saying:

“The most controversial issues of the twenty-first century will pertain to the ends and means of modifying human behavior and who shall determine them. The first educational question will not be ‘what knowledge is of the most worth?’ but ‘what kinds of human beings do we wish to produce?’ The possibilities virtually defy our imagination.” (pg. 56)

Goodlad espouses centrally planned indoctrination for the modification of human behavior. There is no agency or liberty in Goodlad’s formula for success.

In 1983 John Goodlad came to BYU’s McKay School of Education (MSE) and set up the Public School Partnerships (PSP) which ASD joined (along with Provo, Wasatch, Nebo, and Jordan school districts). In 1986 he established the NNER (National Network for Educational Renewal) and the MSE became a founding member in the hopes of improving education for our children.

In June 2006, during an NNER Executive Board meeting at which Vern Henshaw (ASD Superintendent) was present, Ada Beth Cutler raised concerns that BYU fired an adjunct faculty member for writing an Op-Ed in support of homosexual marriage. Ms. Cutler then shared “her grave concern about BYU’s action and policies that discriminate against homosexuals, given the principles of the Agenda for Education in a Democracy.” You can read more about this and the NNER here:
https://www.utahsrepublic.org/education/daily-herald-what-social-democracy-means-to-utah-county-educators/

As this information spread the last few months, worried parents were happy to hear BYU’s MSE announce at the end of June 2010 that they were dropping their association with the NNER for financial reasons.
https://www.utahsrepublic.org/media-coverage/byu-drops-goodlads-nner/

The story became even more troubling when we discovered the connection between John Goodlad and Bill Ayers. Would you be comfortable with an avowed Marxist revolutionary terrorist teaching your children? Bill Ayers was a founding member of the terrorist group “The Weather Underground” and was involved in activities like bombing the Pentagon and New York Police Department between 1968 and 1975. In 2001 he lamented to a NY Times reporter that he regretted he couldn’t have done more. Ayers realized after the terrorist days that you can’t gain a big following by bombing things. The way to attract followers is to indoctrinate the young into your philosophy. To learn more about his radical philosophy and how he promotes it through teaching democracy to children, please read this page:
https://www.utahsrepublic.org/education/bill-ayers-exposed/

Bill Ayers and John Goodlad are birds-of-a-feather. They have the same fundamental beliefs except Goodlad didn’t blow stuff up. He went straight into education and skipped the violence. If you read the comparison at the link below you will see how similar their philosophies are. Then ask yourself: why has Bill Ayers been invited by John Goodlad to be the KEYNOTE SPEAKER at the 2010 NNER conference this October?
https://www.utahsrepublic.org/education/whats-the-difference-between-john-goodlad-and-bill-ayers/

Both Goodlad and Ayers teach that our form of government is a democracy and push to have it taught in the classroom in order to revolutionize our society. I strongly suggest you read the 2nd link above which lays bare their agenda in their own words. You can read snippets or download the entire Weather Underground manifesto co-written by Ayers. Their Agenda is all laid out just like it is on the NNER website in one of the links above.

I believe Bill Ayers and John Goodlad both to be dangerous men. Goodlad is well respected in education circles and that allows him to promote his philosophy in friendly environments making it difficult for people to separate the good educational practices from the bad social philosophies. I believe that someone who is an atheist/socialist/humanist has no place in our school system, attempting to indoctrinate teachers how and what to teach our children.
https://www.utahsrepublic.org/education/dealing-with-korihor/

I pass this on in the hopes that as you become aware of what is happening here and around our country you can find ways to resist this agenda.  If you would like further information or to join with us in opposing this socialist movement, please contact me through the UtahsRepublic.org website.

Sincerely,

Oak Norton

Quote References

1) John Goodlad, “Report of Task Force C: Strategies for Change,” Schooling for the Future, a report to the President’s Commission on Schools Finance, Issue #9, 1971
2) John Goodlad, Roger Soder & Timothy McMannon, “Developing Democratic Character in the Young”, pg. 164
3) John Goodlad, “Directions of Curriculum Change”, The NEA Journal, March 1966
4) John Goodlad, “Schooling for a Global Age,” pg. xiii
5) John Goodlad, “Developing Democratic Character in the Young”, 2001, pg. 153
6) John Goodlad, Corinne Mantle-Bromley, Stephen John Goodlad, “Education for Everyone: Agenda for Education in a Democracy”, Woods Learning Center, pg. 6
7) John Goodlad, “Developing Democratic Character in the Young”, 2001, pg. 164

Here is the poll to vote for the new Alpine School District motto based on the top results from the brainstorming. You may select 3 answers. If you like one a lot but would rather see a word tweaked to something else, vote for it anyway and make a comment below. The top 2-3 vote recipients will go to a run off and if there is a favorable variation on one of them I’ll include that as well as an option.

[poll id=”2″]

OK folks, there’s enough people trafficking this site that I think we can help Alpine School District with their motto. They said their current motto, “Educating All Students to Ensure the Future of our Democracy,” took 18 months and 40 meetings to come up with. That’s pretty amazing. I think they should have just set up a web page for ideas and then refined it with direct public input, especially since they’re so keen on democracy. :)

So here’s what I’d like you to do. Ponder what you think a good motto should say and post it in the comments along with a reason why you like it. If you like a motto from someone, click the “like” button and you can do that once for each motto. At the end of the week I’ll take the top “liked” mottoes and stick them on a survey form and we’ll let everyone take a vote for their favorites and we’ll take the top 2-3 and get input on refining them in case a word or two could be improved to make it even better.

Update 10/23/10: for those of you looking for the most relevant information on the elections I recommend you visit www.SaveASD.com for candidates that will act as the public watchdogs we need, instead of acting as apologists for district policies.

**********

Original post:

Yesterday, the Provo Daily Herald ran an article on the school board races in Alpine School District. They mentioned the 33 page document I put together along with my endorsements for the candidates in the races. Although I have printed this elsewhere on this site I want to reproduce it here for easy finding.

Provo Daily Herald Article: Discontent polarizes Alpine district races

Oak Norton’s Endorsements for School Board Races in Alpine School District (click here for the full 33-page story mentioned in the article as well as a bullet list of issues with ASD)

Primary voting is June 22nd. Early voting is happening through the 18th. Check for locations at https://elections.utah.gov.

*Candidates I endorse, mainly due to their positions on math and civics education

A1-Lehi/Saratoga Springs/Eagle Mountain
*Paula Hill (https://paulahill4u.wordpress.com/)
*Casey Voeks (https://www.caseyvoeks.com/)

A2-Highland/Alpine/Cedar Hills/Small segment of Northeast Lehi
*Wendy Hart (https://wendyhart2010.com)
*Zonda Perry (https://www.zonda.org)

A3-American Fork
Incumbent-*Tim Osborn (https://www.electtimosborn.com/)

A5-Southwest Orem
*Scott Bell (https://www.BELLforSchoolBoard.com)
*Brad Thompson

The Abigail Adams Project invited all the candidates to answer a number of questions for voter guides. You may view all of Utah here for those candidates that responded:

https://www.abigailadamsprojectut.com/voterinformation.htm

I was wrong and I freely admit it. In my “Full Story” document I had a section talking about how ASD had removed a damaging web page from their site. However, after someone read my document, they did further searching and were able to find the page still alive and well. Click the link below and become an eyewitness to this quote.

“Arguments for compulsory education have been based on the idea that the school is the only institution that can counter the accident of birth, guarantee quality of opportunity, and provide objective and fair ways to select and train talented individuals.” – Walter Feinberg

https://www.alpine.k12.ut.us/phpApps/genericPage.php?pdid=777

ASD-Democracy-The Moral Dimensions (click for pdf version of the page in case it disappears)

I’m not certain who posted this page but Barry Graff’s name is at the bottom of it and it says if you have questions or comments to contact him. He is also one of the 4 Goodlad appointed “AED” (Agenda for Education in a Democracy) scholars in this region. (link)

Utah County…

The most conservative county in the most conservative state in the country…

It can’t happen here…

All is well…

If it can happen here, it’s probably happening in your school district too.

(Please spread this message)

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

After sending someone the first draft of my story (right-click to save the pdf), she wrote back that it kept her up till 1 am reading it and then she couldn’t go to sleep till 4 because she was so mad. I can only hope it has the same effect on you when you see these events and concerns chained together. I hope it will help you realize that a change in educational leadership is needed in Alpine School District (ASD).

The full story is attached which details the experience of many parents in dealing with ASD over the last several years including the Investigations math fiasco, down to some of the latest disturbing events which you may have read in the press concerning the district’s infatuation with someone Charlotte Iserbyt calls “the nation’s premier change agent.” I hope you will read at least portions of the attached letter, but I will post 2 things below for your convenience. First my endorsements for school board race candidates in ASD, and second the historical list of concerns with the district.

Primary voting is June 22nd. Early voting is happening through the 18th. Check for locations at https://elections.utah.gov.

*Candidates I endorse, mainly due to their positions on math and civics education (This list has been edited after the primary to only show the candidates that made it through the primary. All are in the November election against a candidate that will maintain the status quo.)

A1-Lehi/Saratoga Springs/Eagle Mountain
*Paula Hill (https://paulahill4u.wordpress.com/)

A2-Highland/Alpine/Cedar Hills/Small segment of Northeast Lehi
*Wendy Hart (https://wendyhart2010.com)

A3-American Fork
Incumbent-*Tim Osborn (https://www.electtimosborn.com/)

A5-Southwest Orem
*Scott Bell (https://www.BELLforSchoolBoard.com)

The Abigail Adams Project invited all the candidates to answer a number of questions for voter guides. You may view all of Utah here for those candidates that responded:
https://www.abigailadamsprojectut.com/voterinformation.htm

Historical List of Concerns with the District

Investigations Math

• Alpine School District (ASD) intentionally removed the times tables, long division, and division by fractions from schools when they implemented Investigations math.
• ASD’s school board failed to fix the problem when presented with clear and mounting evidence of increased failure rates.
• ASD’s school board failed to remove Connected math when presented with facts about its failure, its removal from the state approved program list, and lack of any studies to support it.
• ASD actually confiscated textbooks at 4 known schools to ensure teachers had to switch to Investigations math. John Burton, candidate for school board in American Fork, was over those schools at the time. His direct role in that (if any) is unknown.
• ASD intimidated and threatened some teachers’ contracts at two elementary schools if those teachers didn’t implement Investigations math.
• Multiple parents were individually told “you’re the only one that’s ever complained about the math” by a district math official in an attempt to isolate them. A similar thing happened when parents complained about another program a few years earlier.
• ASD school board read a statement in 2003 to the Utah legislature on why they wouldn’t approve any more charter schools in ASD because the board wouldn’t be able to vouch for quality of education in those schools.
• Orem investigated breaking away from ASD so ASD promised a choice for schools between “standards-based” (Investigations style) math or traditional math.
• ASD only offers 2 “standards-based” programs (slightly better than Investigations). Then ASD provided teachers with Investigations math books the week before school, encouraged their use, and touts they now use “balanced” math. Public is lulled back to sleep while some ASD teachers use Investigations 100%.

The United States Constitution

• ASD is the ONLY school district in the state to refuse to help distribute “In God We Trust” posters to teachers…because the word “Republic” was on the posters.
• ASD is indoctrinating teachers (which filters to students) that we are not a Republic. Teachers in turn tell students we are not a Republic.
• ASD promotes social and political democracy (Definition of social democracy: transformation from capitalism to socialism).
• ASD linked their website to a radical anarchist who calls our Founding Fathers “predatory elitists” and is grateful we are moving away from being a republic toward pure democracy.
• ASD blames *parents* for “misrepresenting” their position.
• ASD refuses to tell how, and then lied about how the link got put up (told a parent the link just appeared out of nowhere).
• ASD’s school board refuses to respond to parent’s questions—instead, defends the district. (Who do they work for?)
• ASD administrators are given national awards for their commitment to promoting John Goodlad’s agenda.
• ASD continues to pull web pages from their site due to controversial content
• ASD just adopted a new termination policy limiting freedom of speech of district employees. You may be terminated if you bring “reproach” on the district.
• ASD has paid for BYU employees at CITES with our tax dollars.

In spite of these negatives I am eternally grateful to ASD because if it wasn’t for their ability to be the poster child for reform in Utah:

• We wouldn’t have a State Charter School Board
• We wouldn’t have got the state math standards raised
• We wouldn’t have got the help of legislators and the state school board to review the social studies standards and get the word Republic put back in the standards (in process)
• Parents wouldn’t be waking up to the dangers of socialism right in our own back yard

Sincerely,

Oak Norton

The Full Story (right-click to save the pdf)

For those of you that saw last Sunday’s Provo Daily Herald front page story, the reporter claimed I made a number of statements which I did not. I understand how a reporter occasionally gets things wrong, especially from oral conversations, but in this case, I gave the Herald a letter in writing and they completely destroyed what I wrote and put words in my mouth I never said. This is my response. Please pass this on to everyone you know to help people understand how wrong the Daily Herald got my story. The original article I sent the Herald can be read here so you can see exactly what I did write.

Oak

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Last week’s article entitled “Parents accuse BYU, Alpine district of a socialist conspiracy” contained a sensationalized title and was a mischaracterization of an article I wrote at the Herald’s request. It did not accurately portray several important facts as we have never leveled such charges at BYU or ASD. The word “conspiracy” never appeared in my original article and the word “socialist” only appeared in a quote from John Goodlad from his NNER website where they listed various forms of government until they decided a democracy was the best one for us.

The Herald article went wrong by attributing serious charges I leveled against John Goodlad, to BYU and ASD. What parents have been working to do is expose Goodlad’s Agenda which we view as anathema to this community. It can accurately be said that Goodlad is a socialist, humanist, and atheist, and that his influence is filtering into our schools (case in point is the “Enculturating the Young into a Social and Political Democracy” sign in ASD’s District office).

I have posted in full, my original letter to the Herald on my website at www.UtahsRepublic.org should any of you wish to see that it barely mentions Alpine district and BYU except by way of their associations with John Goodlad.

It is Goodlad’s philosophy to remove God and traditional family values from the classroom. His main channel is through his NNER (National Network for Educational Renewal) which has on its website a subversive Agenda calling for the transformation of America into a social and political democracy. This Agenda follows the Humanist Manifesto, seeks to completely remove God from our schools, and seeks to ensure children are given a proper education away from parents who might unduly influence them. Here are a few quotes from Goodlad that illustrate his philosophy.

“Parents do not own their children. They have no ‘natural right’ to control their education fully.” (John Goodlad, Developing Democratic Character in the Young, 2001, pg 164)

“In the quest for learning, educators must resist the quest for certainty. If there were certainty there would be no scientific advancement. So it is with morals and patriotism.”  (John Goodlad, Woods Learning Center, Education for Everyone: Agenda for Education in a Democracy, pg. 6)

“The curriculum of the future ‘will be what one might call the humanistic curriculum.'” (John Goodlad, NEA Journal, Directions of Curriculum Change, March 1966)

Humanism is replacing the worship of God with the worship of man and his “genius.” For those of you that are LDS, just a week ago at general conference there were strong warnings against moral relativism (ie. standards based on changing cultural norms) and the dangers of the humanistic Korihor doctrine.  It can accurately be said that John Goodlad is a modern day Korihor.

One other error in last week’s article was the notion that I believe a republic is based on the “power of God.” What I actually wrote was “we are a republic with natural rights bestowed upon us by God.” I do believe the Framers of the Constitution were inspired, but our Republic is based on principles of representation where elected officials exercise sovereign power on our behalf to protect our natural rights. If we don’t like the job they do, we vote them out. This differs from a democracy which Goodlad desires to transform us into through his Agenda where everything is subject to a vote of the people…issues, knowledge, and morals.

Now that this is fully public, I ask those at BYU and ASD who have accepted Goodlad into the educational fold to reject him. Does this community really want or need a humanist, atheist, and socialist dictating what the ‘Agenda’ or ‘Moral Dimensions’ are for our schools and thus our children? Honestly, what benefit does Goodlad or his NNER bring to BYU or ASD? I’d say it’s time to drop such dangerous philosophies and connections. I can’t imagine the benefits of this relationship outweigh the costs.

Sincerely,

Oak Norton