Utahs Republic

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

This is the original letter I sent to the Daily Herald which was greatly distored in the 4/11/10 front page article entitled “Parents accuse BYU, Alpine District of socialist conspiracy”. To read my rebuttal, go here.

Is Truth Dead?

Does truth really matter anymore? The professors of our day say it’s just democratic. It’s what the majority says, right? Morality is all relative, right? Truth is just different things to different people, right? If more people say God doesn’t exist than those that say he does, then he doesn’t exist right? Welcome to democratic knowledge, a basic tenet of humanism.

If the BYU motto is right, and the glory of God is intelligence, or in other words light and truth, and truth is knowledge of things as they were, as they are, and as they will be, then it must be logical to assume that knowledge is not democratic and never has been. Shades of gray only apply to human limitations, but for God, truth exists and our quest as honest seekers of the truth, is to find those absolutes.

In the recent Alpine School District debate over the terms democracy and republic and what form of government our nation has been founded upon, a number of people are asking questions of why it matters what term is used. Is truth dead?

The U.S. Constitution guarantees every state a republican form of government. The word democracy does not appear in the Constitution at all. The simple truth is, we are a constitutional republic which elects representatives to do the business of the people. The purpose of the website I set up at www.UtahsRepublic.org was to help restore this basic truth to the K-12 state history standards, where the term “republic” didn’t appear even one time.

However, beyond this, there is something far more important which has come to light inside the motives of those who are trying to change our language and remove the notion that we are a republic with natural rights bestowed upon us by God.

To begin, it’s clear the word democracy has changed over time. The online Merriam-Webster’s dictionary actually has 2 contradictory meanings for the word, one as in the true meaning of democracy (mob rule) and the other quite close to what the term republic means. What isn’t so clear is why the meaning of the term democracy has changed and what the driving force is behind that change.

John Dewey was one of the original signatories on the first Humanist Manifesto, a document which describes itself as a religion meant to transcend and replace deity-based religions. Their work was based on the Communist Manifesto written by Marx and Engels which they held as an effective means of transforming society into one based on moral relativism, atheism, and democratic knowledge, only accepting that which the 5 senses can detect.

For the last hundred years, we have accepted gradual doses of the secular religion of humanism in direct violation of the Constitution of the State of Utah. Our state constitution says the legislature shall provide for the establishment of an education system which “shall be free from sectarian control.” This means the self-proclaimed religion of humanism cannot be taught through our school system.

John Goodlad, a follower and recipient of the John Dewey award, and keynote speaker at a John Dewey conference, came to BYU in 1983 to establish the Public School Partnership with 5 surrounding districts. Goodlad has done this numerous times with universities and school districts around the nation. BYU’s education department drew heavily on his book entitled “The Moral Dimensions of Teaching.” One of Goodlad’s “moral dimensions” is entitled “enculturating the young into a social and political democracy,” which is the text and controversy surrounding Alpine School District’s large plaque inside their teacher development center.

What does Goodlad mean by this? Is this an innocent phrase meant to instill a sense of patriotism and participation in the democratic process? Or is this revealing of Goodlad’s ultimate motives?

John Dewey said that education is a responsibility that society must execute using techniques “previously ignored as trivial, futile, or even condemned as positively evil.” (School & Society, pg 112)

What did he have in mind? Perhaps we can see some of this evil when we examine what his follower John Goodlad has said. Here are several quotes illustrating Goodlad’s belief system.

“Again, we are looking for a balance—for an institution, really—that will consider the interests of parents, state, and children. Parents do not own their children. They have no ‘natural right’ to control their education fully.”-Goodlad

“Education is a task for both parents and state. The state, parents, and children all have interests that must be protected.” -Goodlad

“Education, public schooling, is necessary to maintain citizenry capable of maintaining a democracy. The knowledge of how to run a democracy is not possessed by all parents equally.” -Goodlad

“In the quest for learning, educators must resist the quest for certainty…So it is with morals and patriotism.” -Goodlad

“…belief in some that there exists ‘objective knowledge’ and a ‘correct’ view of the world.  This is incorrect.  All knowledge is partial and subjective.” -Goodlad

Which of you believe the state has a right to your children and has interests that must be protected in the education of your child? Which of you believes it is up to the schools to educate your children because parents don’t understand how to run a democracy? Which of you believe morals and knowledge are subjective?

Goodlad then proceeded to get BYU to become a founding member of the National Network for the Renewal of Education (NNER). From their website we find these quotes.

“The NNER pursues the Agenda for Education in a Democracy [the Agenda] and its implementation in member settings, with other educators and partnerships…”

“Why Do We Focus on Democracy? Many different forms of government have tried to meet this challenge: fascism, socialism, communism, and democracy, to name a few. Democracy, while certainly not without its flaws, seems to offer the best hope of enabling us to live together in relative peace and prosperity. This is because democracy has a great virtue that the others generally lack: real democracy strives to ensure that everyone in a society contributes to the decision-making processes that affect their lives.”

In other words, the NNER has an ultimate Agenda. Part of that Agenda is to promote democracy as our form of government and to make societal decisions democratic (ie. moral relativism).

Do you as a parent want this for your child? Do you want Goodlad’s and Dewey’s Agenda “enculturating [your child] into a social and political democracy”?

Ezra Taft Benson said, “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.”

So is enculturating our young into a social and political democracy harmless? Hardly. When a group of people set on a deliberate course of action to subvert the moral fabric of a society in the goal to eliminate the worship of deity and replace it with the worship of man, we come to the crossroads of our culture, and must make that final decision as to who the God of this land really is.

The question we must now address is, with this knowledge coming into in the public space, will those who accepted the good parts of Dewey’s and Goodlad’s teachings which no doubt attracted them in the first place, now recognize and reject the poison (Agenda) that came with it. If there is not a purging of the poison from the well, the 99.9% crystal clear water, will still continue to harm and kill those that partake of what deceptively appears to be a cool and refreshing well of truth.

Oak Norton

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Post note. In retrospect, I never should have said the water is 99.9% clear. It’s not. It’s much less than that.

Sensational headlines sell papers I guess and thus the “Parents accuse BYU, Alpine district of socialist conspiracy” article in the Provo Daily Herald got the headline completely wrong. The point is not a conspiracy at the schools, it’s that there is poison in the well in the form of “educational consultants” like John Goodlad, a humanist atheist who believes in moral relativism. His philosophies are permeating our school system from the top down.
https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/education/article_7bccc151-cb34-5dd2-ae52-fab607b81b17.html

I have just posted my original article to the Daily Herald on this site which was the foundation Caleb Warnock went to for my comments. If you read it, you’ll see quite a different picture from the one portrayed in the newspaper article.
https://www.utahsrepublic.org/media-coverage/original-article-sent-to-the-daily-herald/

If you’re new to this list and petition and don’t know who John Goodlad is, you can find a number of shocking quotes here and get caught up on why Alpine School District has identified itself as a poster child for education reform.
https://www.utahsrepublic.org/democracy-media-fiasco/

If you’re not LDS, just skip this, but for those of you that are LDS, if you missed Elder Christofferson’s talk last week, he actually spoke about some of these very issues at General Conference related to moral relativism and social justice.
https://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-1207-12,00.html

Here’s a few additional quotes from LDS leaders related to education:
https://www.utahsrepublic.org/get-educated/education-quotes/

And some fantastic articles/talks on Freedom from LDS leaders and others here. One of my favorites is by Charlton Heston:
https://www.oaknorton.com/articlestalks.cfm

Last, if you want to hear Ezra Taft Benson, former Secretary of Agriculture to President Eisenhower and later President of the LDS church, talk about his visit with Kruschev, you can download this little clip or hit the podcast play button at the top of this post.

Ezra Taft Benson on giving Kruschev a Tour

While on Red Meat Radio this morning, Scott in Sandy called in to share how a Republic is more representative of the people than a Democracy. Here’s a simple analogy.

Lets say you have 100 people in your country. In a Democracy, you would need to get half plus one (50 +1) of the votes in an election, or 51.

On the other hand, if you had 10 states in this country with 10 people each (total population again 100), in each state you would need a simple majority again (5+1) which would be 6 votes in an election. This has the potential to give the winner 60 votes (6 times 10 states) which is more than a simple majority of 51 in a Democracy.

Republics therefore, better represent the majority of the population.

Thanks Scott!

I submitted this letter and amendment to the Utah Republican Party for consideration at the May 8th, 2010 state convention. I hope if you are a State Delegate you will support this amendment and help get your fellow delegates to vote for it. Please forward this link to all your fellow delegates.

The proposal is just the part underlined below. The blue paragraphs above and below it are already in the platform and are included below merely to show placement of the new section on the form of government.

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To whom it may concern:

I would like to propose the following addition to the state party platform. My reason for proposing this change is because society today has become so used to identifying with the “democratic” process, that many people now believe our form of government is a Democracy. We are losing a vital piece of our national identity and by virtue of that, losing the most fundamental aspect of protecting our natural rights by no longer teaching our children what a Republic is, and what Republican government is all about.

Educational networks now promote the false notion that knowledge and morals are democratic which leads to moral relativism. The Framers of our Constitution said only a moral people can preserve a Republic. On this ground alone, we must ensure that each generation of Americans has the knowledge espoused in the proposed addition to the platform.

The one concern some delegates may have is the declaration that the Federal government has the right to intervene in a states’ affairs under the condition mentioned.  This was carefully considered by the Framers as they were most concerned about preserving the sovereignty and independence of the several states. They wrote into the constitution a guarantee to the states that they would be able to retain a Republican form of government, because they knew that only a Republic would preserve the rights of the people. Thus they gave permission for Federal intervention to protect the people of a state should their Republican form of government be in jeopardy of being changed.

Sincerely,

Oak Norton,  State Delegate, Highland 7th

State Delegate Co-Signers
-Lowell Nelson, Highland 5th
-Kristen Chevrier, Highland 4th
-Don Baker, Highland 7th
-Larry Hilton, Highland 7th
-Sarah Nitta, Highland 4th

PREAMBLE
We, the Republican Party of the Great State of Utah, affirm our belief in God and declare our support for government based upon a moral and spiritual foundation. We affirm freedom for every individual as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and protected by the Constitution. We believe that citizens’ needs are best met through free enterprise, private initiative, and volunteerism. We support the “Rule of Law” and believe in upholding the law of the land.

THE PROPER FORM OF GOVERNMENT
We recognize that the United States of America is a Constitutional Republic. We recognize that when Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution declares “the United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a Republican form of government,” this simple declaration gives the federal government the right to intervene in the affairs of a state whenever that states’ form of government is in jeopardy of being changed to something other than a Republic. We further recognize that a Republican form of government is one based on: law; representatives elected by the people to exercise sovereign authority on the peoples’ behalf; a system of checks and balances and transparency of operations; and based on protecting the unalienable natural rights of man as given by a beneficent God to protect the freedom and agency of man.

THE PROPER ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
We believe government properly exists by the consent of the governed and must be restrained from intruding into the freedoms of its citizens. The function of government is not to grant rights, but to protect the unalienable, God-given rights of life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness.

John Gatto – Extended Childhood

I discovered an audio file recently that is one of the very best files I’ve ever listened to for explaining what has been intentionally done to our education system to dumb it down and transform our children from independent thinkers to preparing them for Pavlovian behavior in an industrial world.

John Taylor Gatto was selected as the New York City teacher of the year THREE times. He finally quit his job during the year he’d been selected for the third time by announcing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece that he was no longer willing to hurt children.

I cannot stress enough the magnitude of this audio file. It is one of the most riveting stories I’ve ever listened to and tremendously vital in understanding today’s current education climate and who the players are that have sought to take down the original entrepreneurial spirit of our country. It was apparently given in 2001 to the LDS Homeschooler’s Association.

I obtained the audio from this site which has a lot of great quotes on freedom and various topics, but I’m posting the audio here as a convenience if you want to listen to it in a podcast player.

https://www.ourrepubliconline.com/OurRepublic/Article/48

John’s website is www.johntaylorgatto.com and he has written a number of popular books
on this topic.

To all those visiting the site and agitated that a bunch of nut job (can’t deny it, it comes with a name like Oak) parents are getting nit-picky over the term democracy, I have written a new page of this site to explain the whole story which cannot be explained in a couple of sound bytes in a news story. It’s much more involved. If you want the whole picture, please check it out here. It’s not just the term democracy, but the individual behind it who says the state has a right to your children and that morality is democratic (determined by a vote).

https://www.utahsrepublic.org/democracy-media-fiasco/

A Navy Admiral is requesting 8,000 troops to be stationed on Guam and has to endure this congressional questioning. This video illustrates why the delegate system should be used to vette candidates before they get to a general election where the voters can exercise their uninformed voting rights. :) Warning, do not have drink or food in your mouth while you watch this. :)

Here’s links to a couple of articles in the media this week.

https://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/education/precollegiate/article_dd9e4c33-f27e-51d0-b785-266338310af9.html?mode=story

https://www.sltrib.com/Utah/ci_14797234

One more from the AP:

https://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=10238942

At tonight’s Alpine School District board meeting, a volunteer read the following statement to the school board.

I have volunteered to read this statement from the Utah’s Republic dot org organization.

To the Alpine School District School Board:

Recently, there has been a disappointing set of events that has caused the public to question the district. Last month, hundreds of parents brought you their concerns about the motto, mission statement, and direction of this district in educating our children. Instead of researching the problems to make corrections, you accused parents of “misrepresenting” yours and the district’s positions.

What specific misrepresentation occurred? It is a fact that someone in the district wanted to provide a link to support the district position that we are a democracy. Someone at the district researched and found William Meyers’ site with a page calling our Founding Fathers “predatory elitists.” That person felt it represented the district position correctly, got it approved, and posted the link on the district’s website. Someone approved your mission statement explanation that used the term “democracy” 13 times and the words “academics” or “republic” not even once. Parents then found the source of the “enculturating” phrase coming from John Goodlad, a humanist educator with very socialistic views on politics and family rights. When all these stars aligned, parents decided to present the facts to the public.

In essence, we were doing your job. You swore an oath to protect the constitution from “domestic enemies.” In your stewardship that is to protect our school system from false educational ideas that would weaken the constitution and our families.

We are here tonight to present you with 3 questions and ask that you, our elected officials, provide answers at the next board meeting on April 20th. We are giving these questions to the press as well so you know that we do take your positions seriously.

Our questions are:
1-Who exactly was misrepresented and what misrepresentations and falsehoods are you referring to in your statements to the public and to school district faculty?

2- You admitted at the last board meeting that “Enculturating the Young into a Social and a Political Democracy” is not user friendly and you will revisit the use of this term. In the meantime, will you direct the immediate removal of all instances of the “Enculturating” sign and the “Democracy” motto in all district buildings and schools until you have developed a new motto which is absent of politics? If not, why?

3 -What policies have you now implemented as a result of this recent controversy to ensure false educational ideas do not further creep into our children’s classrooms (ex. sponsoring constitution classes for teachers during teacher development time; reconsidering the sources of your material such as the PSP/NNER/CITES connections to Goodlad’s teachings, etc…)?

We ask that you, the board, our elected officials, specifically answer these questions so that you are responsible for the answers.

Thank you for your time and consideration. The public looks forward to hearing your answers to these 3 questions at your next board meeting on April 20th.