Revisionist History Conference Exposed
November 2nd, 2010
In July of this year, a federally funded conference on history was held in Hawaii on the subject of “History and Commemoration: The Legacies of the Pacific War in WWII.” One professor who attended recorded the events and exposed them as a massive effort to re-write history ala Bill Ayers version of imperialism and anti-Americanism. For example, one of the many items he reported was this:
10. Veterans’ memories of their own experiences in the war are suspect and influenced by media and their own self-delusion (Rosenberg, 18, 24). Therefore, it is the role of academics to “correct” their history. As one organizer commented, this will be more easily accomplished once the WWII generation has passed away. Another wrote, “America’s nostalgic war memories are beginning to fray around the edges” (White, 267).
Read more here:
https://www.theblaze.com/stories/professor-exposes-federally-funded-revisionist-history-conference/
Alarming Davis School District Teacher Comment
October 30th, 2010
Just over a week ago I made a presentation at the Davis County 9/12 group on education issues. One of the parents in attendance shared this story with me about something a high school teacher told the class.
“Your parents lie to you all the time but in this class I will never lie to you. I will tell you the absolute truth. If I told you all the lies that your parents have told you I could go on from a year from Thursday.”
Davis County High School Teacher
I asked her what the teacher uses as an example of the lies of a parent. He said that parents tell their children that if they eat their vegetables it will make them strong. he points out that only protein builds muscle and strength. Therefore the parents have lied. Wow.
This is why parents have to be involved in their schools. This is a teacher that should be fired. This is a teacher that illustrates the power of indoctrination and it reminds me of how Fidel Castro told children to close their eyes and pray to God for candy and when they opened their eyes there was no candy. Then he had them pray to him for candy and when they opened their eyes it was there for them. This is totally immoral.
The Steve Baugh Flier
October 26th, 2010
Yesterday I was in a panic over an email I received from someone who was quite upset at a flier that was circulating concerning Steve Baugh. I won’t post that email here but suffice it to say, it made the flier sound horrible and specifically fingered me as the person providing quotes that attacked Steve Baugh in a very negative way. I immediately sent out an email to my list asking if people made their own fliers to make sure they had the story straight and not put words in anyone’s mouth, mine or candidates.
It turns out my panic was unjustified. When I later obtained a copy of the flier, I saw that it was fact based and merely pointed out troubling associations for Mr. Baugh to answer to. When did it become taboo to ask candidates uncomfortable questions? When they run as a Democrat but don’t tell people or want people to bring that up? When they tout church callings in their campaign materials in an effort to garner religious votes?
Mr. Baugh told the Deseret News yesterday that the flier was “Half truths. Quotes out of context. Lack of references,” he said. “Accusing me of being a socialist, that’s nonsense. It’s ridiculous.” Here is the actual flier that was being distributed from Linda Jardine.
Dear Steve Baugh Supporter:
I am giving you this letter because you have a Steve Baugh sign in your yard. I have a Sandstrom sign in mine, but I’m not affiliated with him or his campaign. While Steve Baugh seems like a nice man, nowhere in his literature, web site, or signs does it even mention that he is a Democrat, which I consider deceptive. His brochure says he is a “Mainstream Candidate”. But Mr. Baugh has a socialist agenda and I don’t consider that “mainstream”. His brochure says he is a “Man you can Trust!”. But he is not a man I can trust because the values he espouses are very different from the values I hold dear. Character is what guides a man in the choices he makes in his life and will, in this case if he is elected, guide him in making the laws of our state.
Mr. Baugh is the director of the CITES program (Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education and Schooling) at BYU. His bio on BYU’s website says: “ I am interested in the moral dimensions of teaching as identified by Dr. John Goodlad.” Canadian Dr. John Goodlad espouses the ideas of John Dewey, the founder of humanism, and is in favor of transforming America from a republic to a socialist state. Also, Dr. Goodlad’s NNER (National Network for Educational Renewal) “is aware of, concerned about, has a commitment to and is an advocate of LGBTQQIIAA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Intergender, Asexual, Ally) concerns.” The confirmed terrorist-turned-educator, Mr. William Ayers, was a keynote speaker at NNER’s conference this year. You may think Mr. Baugh doesn’t have much to do with these people, but NNER’s online publication was written by CITES. The people with whom Mr. Baugh has allied himself are not those whom I trust to teach children, let alone make laws in our state!
Mr. Baugh is a former superintendent of Alpine School District. He was there when the Investigations math program began, which still continues. This program is questionable at best because it does not teach basic math skills like multiplication tables, and leaves children unprepared to function in life. It is one of the reasons that many parents have taken their children out of Alpine School District and placed them in charter schools or home schooled them. There is also a great deal of controversy regarding Alpine School District’s mission statement: “Enculturating the Young into a Social and Political Democracy”, which is a direct quote from Dr. Goodlad. Mr. Oak Norton has explained a lot more than I have room for here in his website at www.utahsrepublic.org/actions-items/why-i-believe-candidate-steve-baugh-should-not-be-elected. He quotes some of Dr. Goodlad’s “moral dimensions of teaching” as:
• “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.”
• “Enlightened social engineering is required to face situations that demand global action now.”
• “…the state we should strive for is better described in Deweyan terms as a social democracy.”
• “Educators must resist the quest for certainty. If there were certainty there would be no scientific advancement. So it is with morals and patriotism.”
These socialist views are subversive to our government and way of life. I don’t believe we want to have a man representing us in the legislature, and making our laws, who espouses the view that children should be indoctrinated against the teachings of their parents or that has a problem with patriotism. It isn’t hard to see why these ideas aren’t in Mr. Baugh’s literature, website or signs.
I urge you to study both candidates and become informed; this is a critical election. Then I hope you will join me in voting for Representative Stephen Sandstrom on November 2nd.
Thank you,
Linda Jardine
Mr. Baugh, the references to the Goodlad quotes are on this page of this site.
The link to the reference you make concerning your bio page is here.
On the LGBTQQIIAA quote, I’m not finding Linda’s exact quote in a quick Google search but this document I found shows the NNER is fully in support of the above statement here.
I would also be interested in what you claim are half-truths. As for being out of context, please prove it. I’ve read Goodlad and he is bad news. He’s a humanist and does not meet our Utah community values. The only thing I might change about this flier is where Linda says, “Mr. Baugh has a socialist agenda,” I would have said, “Mr. Baugh follows an individual with a socialist agenda.” Only a slight modification and certainly doesn’t diminish the question raised. Linda also shares something I didn’t know, that CITES (for which Mr. Baugh is the director) actually PUBLISHED the NNER Today update for 2009-2010. (Scroll to the very bottom to find CITES printing this document)
I would also be interested in knowing why you support the Citizens Ethics Initiative which will destroy our system of checks and balances and create an elitist oligarchy in Utah. I would also like to know why your organization CITES has stonewalled Senator Margaret Dayton’s attempt at finding out where public tax dollars CITES has received have gone to. There is nothing wrong in the world of politics with asking these questions and learning the truth about a candidate’s positions BEFORE they get in office. Associations are fair game as well. If America had known Barack Obama’s association with radical Marxists before the election, we wouldn’t have a president who has put Marxist revolutionaries into his cabinet and other important posts throughout our government and now direct our agenda. Why should a potential state representative get a pass just because he’s a nice guy?
This Explains a Lot
October 23rd, 2010
What would you think if a principal said this?
“We send it [the multiplication tables] home to placate the parents. They get the times tables, and we teach what we want, and they don’t know any better.”
One did, showing the utter contempt administrators have for parents. This reminds me of the Alpine School District administrator who a few years ago told several different parents on separate occasions “you’re the only one that’s ever complained about the math program.”
Read the full story here and help Tim Osborn get re-elected to the ASD board.
https://timosbornforasd.blogspot.com/2010/10/what-principal-is-hiding-from-parents.html
It’s never been more important for you to get involved with our local school board elections. Please support the candidates we’ve outlined at the Save Alpine School District website.
Comments Closed
Troubling Utah State Standard
October 23rd, 2010
Someone recently emailed me this 6th grade history standard from the Utah state history standards. It’s more important than ever that you know your state school board candidates and make sure they are committed to reviewing what’s being approved for use in Utah. How this is a standard and hasn’t been shouted from the rooftops by someone is stunning.
https://www.uen.org/cc/uen/core/pub/displayCoreCourse.action?ccId=6060
Standard 4
Objective 3
Determine human rights and responsibilities in the world.
- Identify rights considered essential for all humans (e.g. health care, education, safety, freedom from fear, freedom of expression).
- Propose steps individual students can take to protect these rights (e.g. support for sister schools, energy and resource conservation, letter writing, career choices, fundraising efforts).
First students will identify rights that aren’t really rights, and then they’ll go to the next step and propose ways to advocate or devote their life to them.
The new Texas standards are looking better and better for potential adoption in Utah.
Comments Closed
Prominent Educators vs. Religious Leaders
October 18th, 2010
By Susie Schnell, Meredith Schnell, and Oak Norton
“And also trust no one to be your teacher nor your minister, except he be a man of God, walking in his ways and keeping his commandments.” -Mosiah 23:14
| “Public education has served as a check on the power of parents, and this is another powerful reason for maintaining it.” – John Goodlad, Developing Democratic Character in the Young, pg. 165 “[schools] should liberate students from the ways of thinking imposed by religions and other traditions of thought.” -John Goodlad, “Education and Community,” in Democracy, Education, and the Schools, Roger Stone, pg. 92. |
“There is a spirit working among the Saints to educate their own offspring. If our children will be all we will have for a foundation of glory in eternity, how needful that they be properly trained… There are wolves among us in sheep’s clothing ready to lead astray our little ones… Wolves do not devour old sheep when there are any young ones. I have herded sheep long enough to know that. Look after your children.” – Elder John W. Taylor, (Collected Discourses 2:138.) “There are three dangers that threaten the church from within, and the authorities need to awaken to the fact that the people should be warned unceasingly against them. As I see them, they are flattery of prominent men in the world, false educational ideas, and sexual impurity.” -President Joseph F. Smith (Gospel Doctrine p. 312-313.) |
| “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.” – John Goodlad, Schooling for the Future, Issue #9, 1971 |
“Many activities link the values of one generation to the next, but perhaps the most central of these activities is parents teaching children in the home. This is especially true when we consider the teaching of values, moral and ethical standards, and faith.” -Elder L. Tom Perry, April 2010 LDS General Conference |
| “Parents do not own their children. They have no ‘natural right’ to control their education fully.” – John Goodlad / Developing Democratic Character in the Young, pg. 164 |
“[We should] reassert the primary right and responsibility of parents for the total education of their children, including social values, religious convictions, and political concepts. Schools should be reminded that their primary field of competence is academic, not social adjustment, or world citizenship, or sex education. Parents should stand firm on this and not be intimidated by ‘professional educators.’ After all, it’s their children and their money.” -Ezra Taft Benson (An Enemy Hath Done This, p. 231) |
| “Education is a task for both parents and state. The state, parents, and children all have interests that must be protected.” – John Goodlad, Developing Democratic Character in the Young, 2001, pg. 164 |
“While other institutions, such as church and school, can assist parents to ‘train up a child in the way he [or she] should go’ (Proverbs 22:6), ultimately this responsibility rests with parents. According to the great plan of happiness, it is parents who are entrusted with the care and development of our Heavenly Father’s children. ” -Elder L. Tom Perry, April 2010 LDS General Conference |
| “The curriculum of the future will be what one might call the humanistic curriculum.” – John Goodlad / Directions of Curriculum Change, The NEA Journal, March 1966 “Education is thus a most powerful ally of Humanism, and every American public school is a school of Humanism. What can the theistic Sunday-schools, meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?” -Charles Potter, co-signer with John Dewey of the Humanist Manifesto, “Humanism: a New Religion”, pg. 128(Humanism is the denial of God and elevation of man. It is the “Korihor” doctrine if you are LDS.) |
“Humanism is a threat to the work of the Lord. One of the greatest threats to the work of the Lord today comes from false educational ideas. There is a growing tendency of teachers within and without the church to make academic interpretations of gospel teachings – to read, as a prophet leader has said, ‘by the lamp of their own conceit.’ Unfortunately, much in the sciences, the arts, politics and the entertainment field, as has been well said by an eminent scholar, ‘all dominated by this humanistic approach which ignores God and his word as revealed through the prophets.’ This kind of worldly system apparently hopes to draw men away from God by making man the ‘measure of all things’ as some worldly philosophers have said.” -Harold B. Lee, Conference Report 10/68 p. 59. “There is promise, given under inspiration from the Almighty, set forth in these beautiful words: “We are very particular to forbid anyone from preaching Catholicism, or Protestantism, or Mormonism, or Judaism, in a public school classroom, but for some reason we are very patient with those who teach the negative expression of religion. |
| “Enlightened social engineering is required to face situations that demand global action now.” – John Goodlad / Schooling for a Global Age, pg. xiii |
“If they embark on this course the difference between the old and the new education will be an important one. Where the old initiated, the new merely ‘conditions’. The old dealt with its pupils as grown birds deal with young birds when they teach them to fly; the new deals with them more as the poultry-keeper deals with young birds- making them thus or thus for purposes of which the birds know nothing. In a word, the old was a kind of propagation-men transmitting manhood to men; the new is merely propaganda.” -C.S. Lewis, Abolition of Man, Pg. 22 |
| “…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 / Education for Everyone: Agenda for Education in a Democracy, Woods Learning Center, pg. 6 “…a student attains ‘higher order thinking’ when he no longer believes in right or wrong. A large part of what we call good teaching is a teacher´s ability to obtain affective objectives by challenging the student’s fixed beliefs. …a large part of what we call teaching is that the teacher should be able to use education to reorganize a child’s thoughts, attitudes, and feelings.” -Benjamin Bloom, psychologist and educational theorist, “Major Categories in the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives,” pg. 185 |
“Unfortunately, other educators deny the existence of God or deem God irrelevant to the human condition. Persons who accept this view deny the existence of moral absolutes. They maintain that right and wrong are relative concepts, and morality is merely a matter of personal choice or expediency.” -Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign, October 1992, pg. 60 “God uses scripture to unmask erroneous thinking, false traditions, and sin with its devastating effects. He is a tender parent who would spare us needless suffering and grief and at the same time help us realize our divine potential. The scriptures, for example, discredit an ancient philosophy that has come back into vogue in our day—the philosophy of Korihor that there are no absolute moral standards, that “every man prosper[s] according to his genius, and that every man conquer[s] according to his strength; and whatsoever a man [does is] no crime” and “that when a man [is] dead, that [is] the end thereof” (Alma 30:17–18)” -Elder D. Todd Christofferson, April 2010 LDS General Conference |
| “I walked out of jail and into my first teaching position—and from that day until this I’ve thought of myself as a teacher, but I’ve also understood teaching as a project intimately connected with social justice.” -Bill Ayers at the World Education Forum in Caracas, Venezuela in front of Pres. Hugo Chavez“It is my expectation that Teacher Education for Democracy and Social Justice will become a rich resource for continuing this multi-layered conversation-from democratic belief to democratic action-that is the hallmark of educational renewal.” -John Goodlad’s forward to “Teacher Education for Democracy and Social Justice,” Nicholas Michelli and David Lee Keiser |
“In a complete reversal from a century ago, many today would dispute with Alma about the seriousness of immorality. Others would argue that it’s all relative or that God’s love is permissive. If there is a God, they say, He excuses all sins and misdeeds because of His love for us—there is no need for repentance. Or at most, a simple confession will do. They have imagined a Jesus who wants people to work for social justice but who makes no demands upon their personal life and behavior.” -Elder D. Todd Christofferson, April 2010 LDS General Conference “I wonder how much we offend Satan if the proclamation of our faith is limited only to the great humanitarian work this church does throughout the world, marvelous as these activities are. When we preach the gospel of social justice, no doubt the devil is not troubled.” -President James E. Faust, Liahona, November 1995, pg. 3 |
| “…the state we should strive for is better described in Deweyan terms as a social democracy.” – John Goodlad, Developing Democratic Character in the Young, 2001, pg. 153 |
“I feel to warn you that one of the chief means of misleading our youth and destroying the family unit is our educational institutions. There is more than one reason why the Church is advising our youth to attend colleges close to their homes where institutes of religion are available. It gives the parents the opportunity to stay close to their children, and if they become alerted and informed, these parents can help expose the deceptions of men like Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, John Dewey, John Keynes and others. There are much worse things today that can happen to a child than not getting a full education. In fact, some of the worst things have happened to our children while attending colleges led by administrators who wink at subversion and amorality.” -Ezra Taft Benson (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 307.) |
| “I do not see how any honest educational reformer in western countries can deny that the greatest practical obstacle in the way of introducing into schools that connection with social life which he regards as desirable is the great part played by personal competition and desire for private profit in our economic life. This fact almost makes it necessary that in important respects school activities should be protected from social contacts and connections, instead of being organized to create them. The Russian educational situation is enough to convert one to the idea that only in a society based upon the cooperative principle can the ideals of educational reformers be adequately carried into operation.” – John Dewey, Impressions of Soviet Russia and the Revolutionary World, pg. 86 “I believe that the school is primarily a social institution. Education being a social process, the school is simply that form of community life in which all those agencies are concentrated that will be most effective in bringing the child to share in the inherited resources of the race, and to use his own powers for social ends. I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.” -John Dewey, My Pedagogic Creed, January 1897 |
“When you speak of peace, the Communists mean the cessation of all opposition to Communism, the acceptance of a Communist world. Then, and only then, can there be peace. This alone is what peace means in Communist language. Once this is understood the utter falsity and hypocrisy of Communist references to peace becomes at once obvious. I have mentioned these things simply to emphasize one dominant force which has as its ultimate achievement and victory-the destruction of capitalism, the destruction of the free agency of man which God has given him, and that destruction may be brought about-as advocated by Marx himself-in a brutal way. What is the other force? It is just the opposite. Jesus said to the man who came and asked him which is the greatest law, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ When Marx was asked one time what was his object, he answered, ‘To dethrone God.’ -David O. McKay, Two Contending Forces, BYU Speech, May 18, 1960 |
| “Every child in America entering school at the age of five is insane 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.” -Dr. Chester M. Pierce, Harvard Professor of Education and Psychiatry, in an address to the Childhood International Education Seminar in 1973 |
“From the 5th grade through the 4th year of college, our young people are being indoctrinated with a Marxist philosophy and I am fearful of the harvest. The younger generation is further to the left than most adults realize. The old concepts of our Founding Fathers are scoffed and jeered at by young moderns whose goals appear to be the destruction of integrity and virtue, and the glorification of pleasure, thrills, and self-indulgence.” -Ezra Taft Benson, The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, pg. 321 |
| “Education should aim at destroying free will so that after pupils are thus schooled they will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their school masters would have wished …” -Bertrand Russell, quoting Gottlieb Fichte the head of psychology that influenced Hegel and others. |
“Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him…I caused that he should be cast down;” -Moses 4:3“Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;” -Doctrine & Covenants 58:27 “We must protect this American base from the brainwashing, increasingly administered to our youth in many educational institutions across the land, by some misinformed instructors and some wolves in sheep’s clothing. Their false indoctrination, often perpetrated behind the front of so-called academic freedom, is leaving behind many faithless students, socialist-oriented, who are easy subjects for state tyranny.” -Elder Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, April 1962 |
C.S. Lewis on Democracy in Education
October 14th, 2010
If you’ve never read the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, you’re missing out on one of the gems of literature. The book is a series of letters from the perspective of a master devil (named Screwtape) to his nephew (Wormwood) who is a beginning tempter “in the field” trying to win souls for the devil. Screwtape encourages Wormwood and guides him through various episodes in tempting humans to fall into sin. Occasionally he scolds Wormwood for allowing his subjects to become involved in something that may lead them toward the enemy (ie. God).
Sometime after Lewis wrote the book, he wrote an essay entitled “Screwtape Proposes a Toast.” I have a quote from this essay elsewhere on the site but I felt the need to share this clip with you. The essay itself is a satire on the American education system and in this clip, Lewis skewers our system of dumbing down our children in the name of “democracy.”
To read the entire and VERY worthwhile essay, you can find it anywhere online but here’s one link this clip came from (including the site’s bolding).
Now, this useful phenomenon is in itself by no means new. Under the name of Envy it has been known to humans for thousands of years. But hitherto they always regarded it as the most odious, and also the most comical, of vices. Those who were aware of feeling it felt it with shame; those who were not gave it no quarter in others. The delightful novelty of the present situation is that you can sanction it — make it respectable and even laudable — by the incantatory use of the word democratic.
Under the influence of this incantation those who are in any or every way inferior can labour more wholeheartedly and successfully than ever before to pull down everyone else to their own level. But that is not all. Under the same influence, those who come, or could come, nearer to a full humanity, actually draw back from fear of being undemocratic. I am credibly informed that young humans now sometimes suppress an incipient taste for classical music or good literature because it might prevent their Being Like Folks; that people who would really wish to be — and are offered the Grace which would enable them to be — honest, chaste, or temperate refuse it. To accept might make them Different, might offend against the Way of Life, take them out of Togetherness, impair their Integration with the Group. They might (horror of horrors!) become individuals.
All is summed up in the prayer which a young female human is said to have uttered recently: “O God, make me a normal twentieth century girl!” Thanks to our labours, this will mean increasingly: “Make me a minx, a moron, and a parasite.”
Meanwhile, as a delightful by-product, the few (fewer every day) who will not be made Normal or Regular and Like Folks and Integrated increasingly become in reality the prigs and cranks which the rabble would in any case have believed them to be. For suspicion often creates what it expects. (“Since, whatever I do, the neighbors are going to think me a witch, or a Communist agent, I might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, and become one in reality.”) As a result we now have an intelligentsia which, though very small, is very useful to the cause of Hell.
But that is a mere by-product. What I want to fix your attention on is the vast, overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence – moral, cultural, social, or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how “democracy” (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient Dictatorships, and by the same methods? You remember how one of the Greek Dictators (they called them “tyrants” then) sent an envoy to another Dictator to ask his advice about the principles of government. The second Dictator led the envoy into a field of grain, and there he snicked off with his cane the top of every stalk that rose an inch or so above the general level. The moral was plain. Allow no preeminence among your subjects. Let no man live who is wiser or better or more famous or even handsomer than the mass. Cut them all down to a level: all slaves, all ciphers, all nobodies. All equals.Thus Tyrants could practise, in a sense, “democracy.” But now “democracy” can do the same work without any tyranny other than her own. No one need now go through the field with a cane. The little stalks will now of themselves bite the tops off the big ones. The big ones are beginning to bite off their own in their desire to Be Like Stalks.
My Continuing Position on Public Education
October 12th, 2010
It seems that no matter how many times I try to explain something, there are always a few people who feel they are gifted to look beyond what I say or write and that it’s just a cover for what I really believe. I’m not smart enough to live 2 lives that way and have one set of beliefs and values that I hide and keep separate from what I say publicly.
For example, this was recent posted on one candidate website.
[candidate] are you an advocate for traditional public schools? Oak Norton and associates are anti-public education and pro-private education as indicated by his Powerpoint displayed on his website. You were endorsed by that group. Does that endorsement mean that you are also against public education? If so, why should we elect someone who associates with those who are anti-public education or makes bombastic and baseless comments such as Superintendent Henshaw is buddies with Bill Ayers?
Let me explain this one more time for the benefit of my readers. I am not anti-public education, I am anti-federal government involvement in public education (my own children are in a wonderful PUBLIC school). I am against dumbing our children down with weak math and revisionist history. I am anti-John Goodlad involvement in public education. It just so happens that the Alpine School District is tied at the hip with John Goodlad and his literature and teachings are being passed out to our teachers to read from and be taught in professional development. Goodlad is a humanist with dangerous beliefs. He is a socialist and uses his forums to transform America into a socialist state. He is friends with Bill Ayers and Ayers is the keynote speaker at the Goodlad conference this month. Vern Henshaw was on the executive committee of Goodlad’s national organization (NNER) when Bill Ayers was a speaker at another conference. ASD’s Superintendent is fully aware of Goodlad’s positions yet continues to allow his teachings to be disseminated to teachers. To anyone who hasn’t watched the presentation referenced above, here’s a link. Go see for yourself what was presented and you’ll discover a national movement to destroy religious morality, belief in God, and to separate children from their parents. The public education teachers that were present thanked us after the presentation.
This individual continues his post:
My feeling is that anyone who is associated with Oak Norton and subsequently the radical Eagle Forum, and the conspiracy theory-laden John Birch Society should not be serving the children of ASD. I’m also disturbed by the fact that Oak Norton supports the Texas education standards which indoctrinates children to learn about Phylis Schlafly, ultra-conservative movements such as the Eagle Forum, and rewrites history by inaccurately vindicating McCarthyism? Do you support a core curriculum that makes an attempt to be politically neutral and teach students to evaluate and think for themselves or do you support the right-wing ideological indoctrination of our students as those who endorse you do?
So the attack continues. Lets look at how this person succeeds in labeling the situation by presenting the facts. The individual begins by naming the Eagle Forum and John Birch Society to be radical and shouldn’t be serving the children of ASD. I am a member of neither organization but I believe them to be wonderful groups who spend countless hours promoting freedom issues and support of the constitution. The JBS actually produced the 10 minute video found on this site in the upper right corner which explains the difference between a republic and a democracy. The Eagle Forum was founded by Phillis Schlafly, a woman who stepped forward in the 70’s to stop the feminist movement. Her efforts had a tremendous impact on the entire nation. This individual thinks children will be “indoctrinated” to learn about her contributions, but I disagree. This is what one single Texas history standard actually says about Ms. Schlafly.
Describe the causes, key organizations, and individuals of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the National Rifle Association;
If the individual feels this is conservative indoctrination to learn about such individuals and organizations that have had an impact on America, then why does he not decry the other side of the coin when further down the Texas standards later include the contributions of Hillary Clinton?
Evaluate the contributions of significant political and social leaders in the United States such as Andrew Carnegie, Thurgood Marshall, Billy Graham, Barry Goldwater, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Hillary Clinton.
This individual seems to have seen a group he despises and leveled charges. The John Birch society isn’t even mentioned in the standards so it’s further confusing to his point to bring them into his rant.
His last charge that the Texas history standards are rewriting history are amusing when our history books already contain a rewriting of history calling the Framers of our Constitution deists and accusing them of all manner of immorality. His specific charge deals with Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Venona papers. Have you ever heard of the Venona papers? Neither has most of the country because that was removed from our history books as well. I’d never heard of them till this year. Here’s what the Texas standards say:
Describe how Cold War tensions were intensified by the arms race, the space race, McCarthyism, and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), the findings of which were confirmed by the Venona Papers.
This is a completely relevant standard. High schoolers should be taught what happened during the Cold War including the facts about what McCarthy was doing and what was later shown to be correct. Did McCarthy finger some people who were innocent? Possibly so, but to ignore the significant findings of the Venona papers would be the equivalent of indoctrinating our children in the false assumption that there were no Soviet spies and that McCarthy was on a baseless witch hunt. The Venona papers identified 349 persons who had some level of relationship with the Soviet Union, from Alger Hiss and other well known spies, to many whose code names have never been matched up with real individuals.
The Texas history standards are a landmark achievement for presenting history as factual and fair. It removes the prior revisionist history and adds important facts. Significantly more minorities are discussed with their contributions to America. America is repeatedly identified as a constitutional republic (for a change from democracy). And there is a newfound emphasis on the founding documents of our nation. If you haven’t taken a look at them, here’s a link to see for yourself.
https://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=3643
Here’s one I just noticed that is new to these standards:
Describe U.S. citizens as people from numerous places throughout the world who hold a common bond in standing for certain self-evident truths
I would love to have Utah adopt these standards. What an improvement over the current indoctrination of diversity and multi-culturalism!
Save Alpine School District site
October 9th, 2010
A new site has been put up specifically for those in Alpine School District, but helpful to anyone looking to understand the national education indoctrination movement. Please visit the site and give it a look. It’s a collaborative effort from a number of people who are committed to exposing the connections to people who would tear down our nation and force socialism on us.
ASD’s “Democracy” Explained
October 5th, 2010
Over 200 years ago the Framers of the constitution gave us a republic “if [we could] keep it.” During the 20th century, progressives in our nation worked to replace “republic” with “democracy” as the name of our form of government. The reason for this was so that people would blur the meaning of the word democracy and give it a dual meaning. They’ve succeeded. Websters defines the word both as representational government we typically think of as a republic, and also as a pure democracy (mob rule) which the Framers were so against.
Now when you hear someone talk about democracy, we always assume they mean the “good” one formerly known as a republic with checks and balances. However, the progressives wanted to blur the meaning so they could introduce the bad form of democracy into casual language and gradually move direct democracy principles into the public discourse in a way that seemed natural. “We’re a democracy so we all have a voice and vote.” It’s a gradual process toward an end we weren’t expecting.
ASD’s slogan “Enculturating the Young Into a Social and Political Democracy” is said by them to mean a republic (though that word seems to burn their lips to say it). Right in front of our eyes they are redefining the terms social democracy and political democracy. A social democracy is defined by the dictionary as a democratic welfare state (socialism) and a political democracy is a pure democracy. These definitions are again being introduced with false meanings in order to make the language commonplace for us so we forget the actual meaning of the words.
John Goodlad wrote this phrase in his book “The Moral Dimensions of Teaching” which ASD has pushed into all its teacher training. Goodlad is a socialist that talks about the need for democracy training in education (along with Bill Ayers). What is their end? It isn’t representational government, it’s pure socialism. Ayers wrote extensively in the Weather Underground Manifesto on the need for teaching youth democracy in order to bring about revolution. Read his writings.
So the point is, when we let someone else define the meanings of terms like “social democracy” and “political democracy” and lose the actual meanings, we get used to the newly defined terms and start accepting some of the true and evil meanings once we get used to the watered down meanings. We accepted “democracy” in place of “republic” and now we see the seeds of true democracy bearing fruit such as the public accepting the 17th amendment so that we would “all have a vote” on our senators, destroying the check and balance that the Framers set up to protect states’ rights. It’s gone downhill from there. So now the progressives start talking about social democracy and redefine it as something that doesn’t sound so bad and once we accept it in our vocabulary they’ll start talking about democratic socialism. We are the frog in the water and the temperature is going up.
When John Goodlad says, “…the state we should strive for is better described in Deweyan terms as a social democracy,” he’s literally talking about socialism. Dewey was an original signatory on the humanist manifesto which erases God and teaches people that science is supreme. All of Goodlad’s training tools are built upon this foundational goal.
When John Goodlad says, “The curriculum of the future will be what one might call the humanistic curriculum,” he is literally saying that his work is to bring to pass humanism through his enculturating programs.
When John Goodlad says, “…educators must resist the quest for certainty. If there were certainty there would be no scientific advancement. So it is with morals and patriotism.” He is literally saying he is for moral relativism and his curriculum and methods are calculated to bring this about. It’s no wonder he’s for constructivist math because that focuses on the process and not the result under the belief that there are no absolute truths (like morals which come from God).
When Bill Ayers said, “the struggle for self-determination has had two stages: (1) a united front against imperialism and for New Democracy, and (2) developing out of the new democratic stage, socialism,“ he is literally saying he wants to push for democracy to replace capitalism, and out of that democracy stage, to bring about socialism. It’s no wonder Bill Ayers is the keynote speaker at next month’s John Goodlad conference, a conference which ASD personnel have always attended and even been members of the national executive committee. Every year till now they have helped organize and present at these conferences, at least until this year when a controversy has been raised over it.
This doesn’t mean Alpine School District is full of socialists, it means we’ve got a few progressives in high places that like the worldly accolades that John Goodlad’s organization brings to them. It means our “watchmen” are asleep on the towers and these national movements have already slipped in the door when vigilant people watching over our education system should have stopped it in its tracks.
If you still think the district phrase above is no big deal, what then will be a big deal? When a teacher tells students that America is not a republic? When a teacher gives an assignment that says “label the form of government of all these nations from around the world” and then marks republic wrong for America on a student’s paper? When a teacher calls a book full of quotes from the Founding Fathers “pure science fiction?” When a district administrator agrees to distribute “In God We Trust” posters until he finds the word “republic” in the subtext referencing “The National Motto of the Republic of the United States of America?” Well I’m sorry to say that all those things have happened in Alpine School District. No, socialism isn’t being taught outright in the classes, but we’re being poisoned by degrees and those who are awake are having a difficult time waking up those who are slumbering because they’re so trusting of those in educational positions of authority.
Oak
