Utahs Republic

One of my favorite speakers is Dr. Rufus Fears. I’ve listened to a few of his lectures through The Teaching Company which produces some wonderful material. If you get on their email list you can wait for a 70% off sale and pick up some of the courses pretty cheap. Anyway, this lecture by Dr. Fears is really wonderful and I encourage you to listen to the parts at lunch or sometime.

There are 7 parts to this speech, but half of it is Q&A which has some good material but I’ll just post the speech below.

Part 1

Read the rest of this entry »

Judge Napolitano gave this great speech at a Campaign for Liberty function. Watch this third part and if you’re not motivated to get involved to save this country, I don’t know why you’re on this website wasting your time.

There’s been a lot of misreporting by the media around the country (shocker…) about the new Texas history standards including reporting that Thomas Jefferson has been removed from the standards. That is utterly false. The only person to get more attention than Jefferson is, appropriately, George Washington. Here are a few resources to get the scoop on their standards, which frankly, Utah ought to adopt. Texas’ goal in these standards was to create the most factual standards in the country and to expunge revisionist history such as what ASD linked to in their infamous William Meyers link.

Here are articles and links to learn more if you’d like to.

TX state board member Gail Lowe explains some of the misreporting and shares this closing comment:

A critical skill Texas students should develop as part of their education is the ability to analyze information from primary source documents. This should be a requirement for journalists, too. Many seem to have jumped to erroneous conclusions without even examining the actual curriculum standards. One can disagree ideologically with the State Board of Education, but the TEKS standards themselves should be the point of reference for objective, thorough reporting.

https://www.educationnews.org/political/media/76110.html

Next, the TEA (appropriate acronym for Texas Education Agency) released this correction of some items floating around in the news, with these quote corrections from FOX news:

https://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=8203

Last, here is a link to actual changes in the standards. If you open the 6-8 grade pdf and search for the word Republic, it’s everywhere. You can also see a list of important people that are taught by grade level which is kind of cool. A lot of these names are people I’ve never heard of, though some may just be important Texans, but I’m sure they’re all worth knowing.

https://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=3643

Today’s Red Meat Radio update contains the following topics:
Red-Meat-Radio-Republic 3-20-2010
-ASD School Board races
-Recap on the Motto controversy
-Utah State Office of Education’s “Bias and Sensitivity” committee
-1986 USOE’s unanimous decision to accept “The Making of America” as an approved textbook

Election Signups

With the filings for election races now complete, we ended on a great note this week in Alpine. Thanks everyone for your support in signing up or helping encourage others to do so. The work now begins. Here’s a list of candidates for the ASD school board.

https://www.utahcountyonline.org/Dept/ClerkAud/Elections/Candidates.asp

A1-Donna Barnes, 5 competitors

A2-Chrissy Hannemann, 4 competitors

A3-Tim Osborn, 2 competitors one of which is a former ASD administrator (I fully support Tim)

A5-JoDee Sundberg, 2 competitors

State Office Emails

Here is the text of the email exchange with the State Office.

If you missed last weeks’ update that contained the first set of letters exchanged with the state office, check them out here (USOE letters)

Note this letter was also sent to Larry Shumway the State Superintendent and other State Office of Education members.

Oak,

“The Making of America” and “The 5,000 Year Leap” would need to be submitted by publishers to the textbook review committee.  However, I doubt either book would be approved for classroom instruction, although they are excellent reference materials.  The books have some religious overtones and terms that would not pass the Bias and Sensitivity Committee.  The books were not written to serve primarily as public school textbooks and therefore fail to provide teacher support for differentiation, readability, assessment and etc.  Again, I would agree the materials are very informative.

I would invite you to provide us with a list of individuals with backgrounds in the field of education for consideration to serve on our advisory or steering committees, as we move forward with core curricula revisions in the area of US History.  Please send us your list of individuals, noting their educational background, as soon as possible.  I look forward to your e-mail of nominations.

Lynne Greenwood

My reply:

Lynne,

Thank you for responding so quickly. I want to note that although the 5,000 Year Leap was not written as a textbook, “The Making of America” was and was very close to being adopted by *California* as a textbook a couple decades ago. I will have the publisher send you a copy for your review if you will send me your address. Also, if for some reason the USOE rejects the book, I would like a detailed reason why. There is no “religious” overtone to the book. It is a disection of the constitution and the arguments and statements made by our Founding Fathers at the time it was created as to why they phrased the constitution the way they did. It is more than a resource, it is an exposition on the original intent of our Founding Fathers in preserving our freedom.

I will also work to get a list together quickly of qualified candidates to assist with the standards review and curriculum writing.

Sincerely,

Oak Norton

I then followed this email up with this one which contains a clear direction for the state office to approve the textbook “The Making of America” SINCE THEY’VE ALREADY APPROVED IT!

Hi Lynne,
Will you please check the current approved book list and see if “The Making of America” is already on the list? In speaking with the publisher yesterday, I was told it was approved unanimously by the committee back in 1986. The publisher sent me this email below as the text from the approval letter by then Superintendent Moss. Please let me know.  If it’s not on the list, I guess it ought to be since it was already approved. Zeldon also sent me the attached fax page of endorsements for the book which includes this letter from the former State Superintendent.
Thanks,
Oak Norton

The Making of America”

The text was recommended to the resource material by the Social Studies Curriculum Advisory Committee.  This committee works under the jurisdiction of the State Textbook Commission.  The recommendation of the committee was then acted on by the Commission on November 13, 1986.  The Commission at that time voted unanimously to accept the recommendation of the committee.  Therefore, it will be suggested to Utah schools that the book be used as resource material for teachers and student use.
James R. Moss
State Superintendent
Of Public Instruction

Zeldon Nelson—CEO
National Center for Constitutional Studies

Here are the Making of America reviews Zeldon sent me which I attached in my email to Lynne and the other state office employees and Superintendent. If you don’t have this wonderful book, order it today at www.nccs.net. It is a powerful textbook and when we are at the razor’s edge of losing the Constitution, this is the book that explains the constitution in its original glory.

In response to the opinion piece in the Daily Herald last week, Susie Schnell wrote a comment and the Herald has published it as a new opinion column. Please check it out here:

https://www.heraldextra.com/news/opinion/utah-valley/article_a8051b72-93ad-590f-8cf7-8b05d0b2f900.html

“Some Alpine School District parents recently raised concerns about a Web link and phrases in the district’s mission statement. Former district teacher and current UVU professor Axel Donizetti Ramirez responded recently, prompting the following comments from a local parent.”

Wow, WoW, and WOW! Check out this awesome article on the new Texas standards voted in by the State Board of Education.

https://townhall.com/columnists/PhyllisSchlafly/2010/03/16/texas_kicks_out_liberal_bias_from_textbooks

Texas curriculum standards will henceforth accurately describe the U.S. government as a “constitutional republic” rather than as a democracy. The secularists tried to remove reference to the religious basis for the founding of America, but that was voted down.

Not only do they correct this simple point, but they really go for the gold on a whole host of other changes. I think we ought to just adopt Texas’ history standards right now! :)  Here’s some other highlights. Read the rest of this entry »

The Herald Journal published an opinion piece by Axel Donizetti Ramirez called “What ‘Social Democracy’ means to Utah County Educators.” Below is my response to his piece, which I hope motivates him to re-evaluate the motives behind those who use the phrase in question.

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Lets look at the history behind the “Enculturating the Young into a Social and Political Democracy”. This phrase comes from one of the 4 Moral Dimensions of teaching by John Goodlad. Mr. Goodlad was hired by BYU to come and set up a Public School Partnership in 1983. Mr. Goodlad is a follower of John Dewey and Horace Mann. All 3 of these individuals are humanists, atheists that want to enculturate the young to only believe in what they can prove with the 5 senses. From Mr. Goodlad’s book “Developing Democratic Character in the Young” we get these two juicy tidbits.

“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.”

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

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? Read the rest of this entry »

In this update:

Red Meat Radio podcast
What’s happening in Alpine School District
Full audio of the public minutes from Tuesday’s board meeting
State office update

Red Meat Radio podcast

I was on Red Meat Radio this morning and spoke about the Alpine School District meeting this week and the official response I received from the State Board concerning the petition on this site. Click the link at the top to listen to it. (one of the two is the radio show and the other is the school board meeting.) RMR Audio (right-click to save)

What’s happening in Alpine School District

In brief, if you missed the press news from the Daily Herald and their posting of ASD’s official response to the link flap that’s going on, check it out here (Concerned Parents Decry Socialism at Alpine District Meeting)

Here are a few clips from their official statement:

We appreciate the opportunity to correct a serious misunderstanding about Alpine School District that has occurred because of a link that was accidentally and briefly on our Web site. The link was inappropriate and does not reflect the beliefs or values of the district, administration or school board. The superintendent had it removed as soon as he became aware of it. We appreciate those who brought it to our attention.
…
We not only recognize that our government is a republic, but we value and participate in this form of government with an elected board of education. The use of the word democracy underscores the type of republic found in the United States.

Huh? We have a democracy as our type of republic??? Read the rest of this entry »

Orson Scott Card is one of my favorite authors. As a child I read “Ender’s Game” and have been waiting for the movie for more than 20 years. Card is a registered Democrat (ie. not a right-winger for any educrats reading this) and lives in North Carolina where he writes a variety of books and plays, and even does some political commentary for his local newspaper. I came across this excellent article entitled “The Horse Ain’t Dead, Keep on Flogging” that relates to our education system and the destruction of our true American history from our school textbooks. If you’re short on time, here’s one salient clip.

https://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2010-02-21-1.html

It is time that tax-supported education cease promulgating the values of the extreme Leftist elite that dominates the university faculties and the educational establishment, and accept that the job of education is to transmit the values of the people who pay the taxes.

When we require people, under penalty of law, to send their children to the public schools, then there is a solemn responsibility to pass on to those children the culture that made our nation a light to the world. (Which it is, except in the delusional mindset of America-hating intellectuals who have no qualms about attacking America while sucking on the public udder.)

There are no educational experts; their “educational science” is a joke; and even if it were not, their expertise as “professional educators” would only extend to methodology, not content.

The content of courses is another matter entirely, and we all have a right to a voice in deciding that. Especially history courses, since those are the classes that create the American self-story for the next generation.

No one group should own the teaching of history in our schools — like our government, it should be a compromise among all the beliefs that are part of our polity. But the arbiter should always be the facts, not one ideology.

If you missed the Alpine School District Board Meeting on March 9, 2010, here’s a video provided by the Provo Daily Herald showing clips of many of the speakers. Contrary to the press article title about “angry parents”, the mood was quite calm and respectful.

Here are links to 2 press articles reporting on the event: