Utahs Republic

Posts Tagged ‘Alpine School District’

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

****************

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

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.

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.

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.

***************

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 »

Susan Schnell 3/9/10

Let me introduce myself. My name is Susan Schnell and I wrote the email that is circulating around the district. You might wonder why your motto, “Enculturating the Young into a Social and Political Democracy” is important enough to draw so much attention. Perhaps I can shed some light.

I am the daughter of an immigrant who was forced to flee her country when the Soviet Union under Stalin seized Ukraine and brought it under communist rule. The Soviets collectivized farms, burned down churches, took away their religion, their traditions and their heritage and then murdered many millions of Ukrainians. Just before they escaped, my mother overheard her parents say that the “Soviets are stealing away our children.” She understood well that this meant from the age of 3, the children would be sent to public schools where they would completely indoctrinate them into a new culture. The Ukrainian children were to “unlearn” everything their families taught them about their religion, history, culture, heritage and even their native language. The Soviets knew that to succeed, they had to control the minds of the children.  As Vladimir Lenin said,

“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted. Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.”

So my grandparents sacrificed everything they had, even their lives to come to America where their family would be free from oppression and their children free from indoctrination, or should I say “enculturation.” Because of this heritage, I have been warned my entire life to watch for warning signs of socialism. Freedom and education came at a very high price for my family.

I received my teaching degree from California State University in Sacramento. I am now painfully aware of why they named my major Liberal Studies instead of Elementary Education. I ended up receiving 4 years of liberal indoctrination instead of how to succeed as a teacher, so I am well aware of the training teachers receive before they go into the classroom.

We are seeing our great nation collapse because of socialistic ideas which are seeping into our government. Our Constitution is hanging by a thread, no doubt. But recently it has come to our attention that even our children right here in Alpine School District are being uninformed and misinformed of our great American heritage. We have been naïve, too trusting, and too busy to notice the awful situation that is now upon us. We put our trust in our government leaders, including this school board, and they have let us down. We think America is always going to be great just because it is America and we don’t have to do anything to stand up for it. Well, we have awakened! We now have a generation of millions of school children across the nation who are either going to save this nation or help to destroy it and it all rests in the hands of their parents and teachers. We know that in every state, children are being indoctrinated in schools because conspiring men know as Adolf Hitler said “He alone who owns the youth, gains the future.” There is a war going on to transform our nation and we are seeing it right in front of our eyes. Socialist educators like John Dewey, John Goodlad and Bill Ayers have been feeding the socialist agenda for years in many universities around the nation and yes, unfortunately, that includes universities here in Utah.

Right now in Texas, school book publishers are trying to change history by leaving out some of our Founding Fathers and the great men who fought for this country. These books will be distributed throughout the whole country. They are taking out patriots such as Ben Franklin, Davy Crocket, and Daniel Boone. In CA schools, my children learned that Christopher Columbus was a horrible man and that Abraham Lincoln was gay. In the high school, they were taught that parents and religion were old-fashioned and they should question the belief system they learned at home. This was fed to them everyday at school with posters, plays, rallies and school assignments.

I testified in front of the CA State Senate against a bill that would completely re-write our American history in school textbooks. I thought a school field trip with my 4th grader to the State Capitol Building in Sacramento would be a wonderful patriotic experience for the children. Instead, they were told that the Constitution was not inspired, but just an incomplete, living, breathing document with many errors that needed to be fixed or thrown out. They were shown Japanese internment camp displays for an hour while listening to speakers tell them how evil America is. They went away ashamed of America, not proud of their heritage. I believe Vladimir Lenin when he said, “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” Adolf Hitler echoed, “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” After putting up with so much indoctrination I finally took my children out of school to home school them so we could bring God and truth back into their daily academic lessons.

We moved from California to Utah a year and a half ago because we had hoped that this was a more conservative, religious environment to raise our children. I told my children they would be safe to go to school here because we didn’t have to fear indoctrination. Well I was wrong. Not only are they not being challenged academically but now we are finding out that the district is involved in pushing this dangerous progressive agenda whether they realize it or not. Through your motto, you are telling parents that their family’s culture isn’t good enough, so it is the school’s job now to enculturate the children into believing in a new culture, one of social and political democracy. From everything that I’ve studied, that means socialism or the next step towards it. Lenin said “Democracy is indispensable to socialism.” Karl Marx is quoted as saying “Democracy is the road to socialism.” Who are we following? Who are we using as our Founding Fathers? George Washington and James Madison, or Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and John Goodlad?

My father served in the United States military for decades defending this Republic. My mother sacrificed everything to come to this country of liberty and escape from communism. I have been taught my entire life to respect this country, to be thankful for the freedom I have and to fight any evil that seeks to destroy my liberties. I will not sit idly by as my children and the other children of this district are taught false statements about this country. If this nation does become “fundamentally transformed” like so many of our progressive government leaders are trying so hard to accomplish, I do not want to look my children in the eye and tell them I did nothing to save it. Correct education starts at home first. The schools should be an extension of those teachings, not an enculturation factory which undermines the family. We need a strong generation of educated and civic minded children. If our beloved Constitution is to be hanging by a thread, I want this generation of children to know how to restore it back to the original form the Founding Fathers intended it to be when they were inspired by God to write it. I ask you, please concentrate on academics, and when you do teach civics, be careful to follow the Founding Fathers who wrote our inspired Constitution and not the educated elite who follow a Socialist agenda.

For those of you that missed the show this morning, here’s the audio. I even got a pop question from someone who emailed the show asking, “if this is a Republic, should you even be looking at a petition, or should you be working through your locally elected school board to address the issues that you’re finding with the Alpine School District?”

Listen to the audio and see if you’re satisfied with my answer.

The Provo Daily Herald ripped Alpine School District for trying to brush Susan Schnell’s email under the rug and for telling the public that she misrepresented their views. After their own investigation, the Herald found everything Susan claimed and wondered why on earth ASD would be teaching our children that we live in a Social Democracy. Here’s a link and the fantastic ending to the article if you’re not going to read the whole thing.

Alpine District has explaining to do (2/28/10)

This business of “social democracy” deserves close scrutiny. “Social democracy” is a form of socialism, one that stresses political domination of society and the economy. It’s not the outright ownership of the means of production, but rather a sort of “socialism lite” found today in the welfare states of many European countries.

And this again raises the question why this is part of Alpine School District’s mission statement and emblazoned on big signs at district offices. If our educators use such a slogan knowing what social democracy is, they have considerably more explaining to do.

If they are unaware of what “social democracy” is, they should find other professions where ignorance of politics, history and economics wouldn’t be such a liability.

Audio: 9 Minutes

Today’s on air update covers this week’s Alpine School District board meeting where ASD claims they’ve been misrepresented by someone telling their own personal experience. How does that work? If it’s their experience of what a teacher said to their child and what they saw in the school district building, and what they found on the district’s website, and what they found on the website the district linked to…how exactly does that misrepresent the district? Senator Howard Stephenson offers the answer. Perhaps if ASD disagrees and has another answer they’d care to provide it below in the comments or to send it to me to publish in it’s own prominent post for the public to get the full story…