Communist Indoctrination or Common Core Mis-Education?

During a recent interview about life in communist Romania, Bill Muckler asked me a pointed question about the quality of education I received under a totalitarian system of government. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dkqlzM9USnQ

Aside from absurd courses such as Scientific Socialism and Socialist Economics, courses which were aimed at legitimizing an otherwise disastrous economic model of Five-Year Plans which were put in place by the Communist Party, by apparatchiks who often had grandiose pipe dreams but had no idea how to translate them into reality given the lack of resources and education of those in power, I received a good education in terms of the subjects taught. The indoctrination efforts did no work on me at all.

I had three years of Calculus in high school, eight years of various foreign languages, Latin, English, French, German, Italian, studied world literature and history, geography, chemistry, music, physics, physical education, and behavior. It is true that we had labs but we were not allowed to experiment with anything, nor did we have the money to do it, all classes were theoretical.

The literature class in high school was highlighted by an elderly gentleman from the old society that preceded communism. He came to class wearing an elegant and always pressed grey suit with his old violin passed on from his grandfather. He played with his eyes closed various classical compositions which he felt that they fit the mood of the literary selection we were studying that day. It was uplifting and I felt a sense of beauty and freedom beyond physical reach that flowed from his violin strings. It was mesmerizing.

We did not have calculators; we either figured complex calculations in our heads, with pen and paper, or, in colleges of engineering, with a slide rule. We did not study math based on the insane Common Core method which American students now largely do despite parental protests around the country. Occasionally, the teacher would demonstrate a simple chemical reaction with two elements which we were allowed to watch intently but not touch anything.

Common Core standards and curricula dumb down the education of American students. It is a cleverly designed program that prepares students to become busy working bees for various corporations and to destroy their own Christian faith at the expense of the “superior” religion of Islam. When it comes to Christianity, liberal educators scream about the division of church and state but welcome with open arms the theocracy called Islam.

As A.J. Cameron said, “Those behind the total, fundamental transformation of mankind know human nature, and are wickedly smart, deceptive, patient, and determined. Total control is the overall goal. They make sure we are chasing what they want us to see so that they can sneak in behind us with what we aren’t supposed to see. They also play both sides of the divides they deploy upon us, leading us to believe one side is the enemy and the other side is our friend.”

Steve Jobs limited his children’s use of the very technology he developed. “Why can’t parents see that what is taught in the classroom and promoted in life by the media is diametrically opposed to what they believe in and want their children to believe in?”

Communists believed that a student learned better if sports were included in the curriculum. It was not the type of competitive sports like in America that would lead to a football, basketball, or tennis career and millions of dollars in remuneration. It was sports for the sake of exercising one’s body and fueling the brain with oxygen from physical activity.

A few students, who were truly talented, were usually vetted and picked up by the sports associations existing in every large town, to develop their talent every day to competitive perfection. Thus parents lost a child to a rigorous gymnastics program that would eventually develop their progeny into an Olympic star. Parents did no generally object; they were grateful to the party for giving their child the opportunity to succeed and live better than they did.

Parents benefitted in the sense that the Communist Party would give them financial incentives if their child won international competitions. Nadia Comanici’s parents were awarded a small apartment as a thank you when their child won perfect scores in international gymnastics events. Tennis players were allowed to keep some of their earnings in international matches and generally lived a life that many Romanians envied.

To this day, a lot of talented mathematicians, physicists, computer programmers, and chemists come from Romania because they go through rigorous academic programs and they have a good work ethic. Parents do not object that the curriculum is too hard.

In this country parents complain that Johnny is failing tests not because Johnny’s talent or effort do not match the difficulty of the subject, it is because the curriculum is too hard and the teacher makes unfairly difficult tests. If curricula were dumbed down to Johnny’s level of comprehension and ability, Johnny would have perfect scores too.

Communist parents were shamed publicly during mandatory parent/teacher conferences if their progeny were not doing their homework, not studying, or not behaving according to the communist-prescribed code of behavior in and outside of school. These parents came home and spanked and punished their children because, unlike America, nobody put them in jail for doing so, and no child services removed their children from the home because they were disciplined to behave and speak properly.

Teachers and administrators were allowed to use a ruler for punishment and many children were made to stand in the corner for various infractions. Our principal, a tall man with a booming and intimidating voice, often slapped boys who misbehaved constantly and, on a few occasions, left a mark on their faces from his heavy gold ring. He was so dedicated to proper education of children that he attended every beginning of the year ceremony of the high school I attended, well into his nineties. On my visit five years ago, he was present at the ceremony of the remodeled school.

Students who did not perform, did not behave, missed school too much, had poor grades in some subjects, were held back to repeat the year. No pregnancies were tolerated in high school, and no child care was allowed on the premises of a school. During my four years of high school, I know of only one girl who became pregnant and she was forced, three weeks before graduation, to repeat the year during night school.

Night school was offered at all levels for such students like her and for those from rural areas who had never completed their basic education, or adults who never actually went to school as children because they came from large peasant families who worked in the fields and never had time for school or schools did not exist in their remote villages for lack of teachers.

Communist education did not emphasize individuality but the collective. We had to think and act collectively for the good of the community; the root Latin word, communis, means “shared.” Individuality and creative thinking were highly discouraged.

We all studied hard but we knew from the beginning that we were weeded out from elementary school, to middle school, to high school, and to college. College was a privilege for the communist elites and for those lucky enough to get placement in a highly competitive pool of other students who had perfect grades and test scores, just as good as yours, but were lucky to get in first before the number of places offered that year were filled. Often someone with a perfect 10 got in but someone with 9.99 did not. When I tried to study philology, there were ten spots available and thousands of candidates. So I chose Economics instead.

American journalist Lenora Chu spoke to NPR on September 28, 2017, about her experience with her three-year old son who attended Shanghai’s most prestigious Chinese public kindergarten. She was amazed how much better behaved he was and how, one day, he came home with a red star on his forehead, a reward for better behavior and how, her child refused to take it off and even wore it bed. It was a badge of honorable behavior conforming to prescribed standards for that age group. This conformity, she explained, extended to art classes where children were only allowed to draw rain coming straight down as if rain never came down sideways. http://www.npr.org/2017/09/28/554157393/little-soldiers-examines-the-effects-of-china-s-military-like-education-system

Chu said, “I realized immediately how they introduced conformity in the classroom, sometimes by physical methods.” Corporal punishment is obviously something that American parents object to vehemently and particularly liberal parents. I remember having my palm wacked by my elementary school teacher when I used my predominant left hand to write with – she forced me to learn to write right-handed. In a move of defiance, I started writing letters and numbers backwards with my right hand. I don’t remember how long that lasted, but it left an impression on me to this day. In my old age, I am trying to regain some of the left-handedness. Creativity and individual ability in the Romanian schools I attended were highly discouraged.

Chu emphasized the fact that the Chinese system “weeds out children” while in the American system we are concerned with “not leaving any child behind.” This of course can also mean that in America we tend to socially-promote students even though they did not master the required skills to be promoted to the next grade level thus graduating students who can barely read or write or are totally ignorant of geography, history, basic mathematics, and literature.

Conformity was clearly expressed in my elementary school teacher’s phrase.  She always used to say when she taught us addition, “two plus two is always four, children, even in the Soviet Union.” Everything we did or said had to be connected somehow with the experience of the Soviets because they were our role model of perfection.

Teachers in America spend a lot of time on discipline because the children we are sending to school are behaviorally challenged and are never raised to mind and respect authority. Their parents never taught them to behave properly in public or in school, no matter how bad they were, their progeny was always right and exceptional human beings.

This resulted in generations of students who believed they could do no wrong, always demanding trophies for participation, and passing classes without any effort. Failure was never an option for Americans even though it is part of life.

Nobody is good at everything. Follow your dreams and never let anyone discourage you from pursuing your passion are great catch phrases but, what if you are not good enough for that passion, should you not pursue something else that you are good at but not as passionate about and just carry the passion with you as a plan B?

My cousin told me recently that Romanians are now experimenting with new learning methodologies from the West (such as the Montessori school) as the quality of their education system seems to be declining. It is not that the education system has changed so much; it is the behavior of the students and their supportive parents who believe that anything bad in their child’s behavior must no longer be subjected to punishment.

The students themselves are divorced from any sense of history, of their Romanian roots; they are told constantly in school that they now must be global citizens. Since Romania joined the EU in 2007, this strong feeling of belonging to the world has superseded their feelings of belonging to their own people, family, and sovereign borders of their own country.

As the old adage says, education begins at home at an early age, and behavior and hard work are still its lynchpin.

 

Conformity and Collectivist Core

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During a late evening visit to our local restaurant, I witnessed a progressive middle-aged couple pleading with their young child to give up a toy she had taken from her playmate’s home. As they were arguing back and forth, loud enough for the entire restaurant to hear, all I could think of was, why bring a small child so late to a restaurant and, for God’s sake, isn’t anybody in charge of their children anymore?

Have parents relegated their parental authority and their rights to raise and educate their children entirely to schools, to progressive ideology, and to the federal government? Do parents even know what their children are taught and if so, do they care what their precious kids learn every day?

As a former college teacher, I know from experience that some parents cannot wait to get their children out of the house; some only care if they are fed and safe from harm; some only care that test scores are up and their children are promoted, even socially promoted, to the next grade; some only care that they get a diploma at the end of twelve years; others that their entrance exams are high enough to get them scholarships and admission to the college of their dreams; and some delude themselves that their children are getting a balanced education in line with our American values.

Do many parents bother to sit in a classroom to hear for themselves? Are parents even allowed anymore to sit in a class? Are parents allowed to express their opinions to the school board without being arrested for trespassing or thrown out of the meeting because they dared to ask an inconvenient question?

A Chinese American mom from Colorado was pleading with the school board in her county to reject Common Core because it is the same curriculum as the Communist Core in China. Lily Tang Williams, who came to America for freedom, grew up under Mao’s China. Nationalized standards represent communist indoctrination, she said, preparing students to be good little workers and not to think critically and independently.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAIetn6sE00

“Chinese children are not trained to be independent thinkers; they are trained to be cash machines and trained workers for corporations.”  She asked rhetorically, “What happened to individual rights and individual freedom in America? Where are the parents? Why Common Core, this top down education from the federal government with corporations holding the carrots and the federal government the sticks? Do you want your children to be cheap workers for American corporations? Do not follow China’s model! Their system produces great test-takers but not critical thinkers!” Pleading with the board, Lily said that it took her ten years to get rid of the brainwashing she suffered in her native China. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilaSvC9PGKk

The assault on our children and our parental rights is relentless. The government is dictating what we feed them, how we raise them, whether they are allowed to walk from school; they are going to weigh them in schools without parental consent, and they are going to collect biometrics on our children in order to build up a national database tracking them from cradle to grave. Ask yourselves why? What is happening to our privacy, God-given rights, and freedoms?

Teaching is an art and every child has God-given talents that must be nurtured individually as much as possible. Children are not numbers that can be neatly boxed into a rubric for the convenience of Conformity Core dictated by the government.  

Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) is testing for the Common Core which is supported by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. http://www.fsassessments.org/resources/?section=3-test-administrators

One young child, Sydney Smoot, a fourth grader at Brooksville Elementary School, spoke on March 17, 2015 to the Hernando County School Board, voicing very articulately and with aplomb, her concerns about FSA testing.

What are Sydney’s concerns? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogBuz4dU5Ew

1.       One test and one end-of- the-year score defines her as a failure or a success, regardless of anything else Sydney learned in five years of school.

2.       She cannot share anything nor discuss the test with her parents. Why if it involves her education and her future?

3.       Why should she be forced to take one test that has not been tested nor validated on other students in Florida? How could it be accurate and reflect what she knows?

4.       Why stress children the entire year, often eliminating recess and other fun activities, in order to prep for one test only, when they should be taught and tested throughout the year, measuring along the way what they have learned? To accurately measure progress and what they know, students should be tested at the beginning of the year, middle of the year, and end of the year.

Seasoned teachers, who understand what is at stake, are resigning in protest. Oklahoma City math teacher, Juli Sylvan, with more than 20 years teaching experience, expressed in her resignation letter her objection to the data-mining of children, the implementation of the Common Core standards in “defiance of state law,” and the fact that “It is a complete takeover of what is taught in the public school system. It takes away the individual’s freedom and joy of learning because of the one size fits all approach. All students don’t learn or express themselves in the same way. Common Core tends to do away with individualism — which is one of the attributes that makes America great. Diversity is one of our greatest resources, but Common Core erodes this great strength by taking parents, teachers, and elected officials out of the decision making process.” http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/20443-in-resignation-oklahoma-teacher-blows-whistle-on-common-core

 

According to Sylvan, even though Oklahoma passed a law ending Common Core in the state, education officials have continued implementing the Common Core standards in violation of the state law by using the scheme of Teacher Leadership Effectiveness (TLE) to coerce teachers into Common Core compliance.

Governor Mary Fallin signed into law HB 3399 on June 5, 2014, which withdrew Oklahoma from the Common Core Standards Initiative (CCSSI), “allowing the state to adopt its own public education standards.”  http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/2014/201406100.asp

 

Sylvan told The New American that “I was constantly being harassed and threatened with termination for not implementing Common Core components (data collection, testing, teaching strategies aligned to Common Core)”…  “As a teacher in the classroom in that environment with constantly being harassed, my ability to protect my students from Common Core was being rapidly diminished.” Her conscience did not allow her to “promote or contribute to the implementation of Common Core.”

 

And Common Core testing is now aligned with the national standardized testing for college entrance exams.

 

I came across a pamphlet from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) which is a non-profit organization launched in 1995 in D.C. with the purpose “to promote academic freedom, academic excellence, and accountability in higher education.”  

 

ACTA has a difficult job since colleges and universities in the U.S. are experiencing low academic standards, weak curricula, more than double the rate of inflation tuition fees, more demand for public and private funding, no accountability to students, alumni, and taxpayers, and attacks on anything American, on free thought and on free speech, usually relegated to a “free speech” zone, a tiny campus spot far away from the usual student foot traffic.

 

Teaching, learning, rational debate, free exchange of ideas, and the pursuit of truth are under attack, quite literally in some cases, where students were physically threatened and attacked by their teachers and the courts upheld this abominable behavior.

 

Professors have the freedom to speak their minds but students’ academic freedom is another story.  A scientific study commissioned by ACTA found that almost half of students attended classes in which professors frequently used political comments in their classes even though they were totally unrelated to the subject; 46% said that professors used the classroom to express personal political views;  and 42% “reported reading assignments that presented only one side of controversial issues.” A Zogby poll found that 58% of Americans believe bias in the classroom is a very serious problem.

 

With adult literacy and skills declining thanks to fluff courses and watered down curricula, and worthless degrees, the student loan debt has ballooned to $826 billion, larger than the credit card debt, while jobs for college graduates are scarce.

 

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that millions of college-educated Americans cannot understand newspaper editorials or instructions for taking medicine. As students learn less and less, they take longer and longer to graduate. In 2007, the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems reported a six-year graduation rate of 56.1 percent. The four-year graduation rate is so low that colleges no longer record it. www.goacta.org

 

The moral of the story is, if you want education to decline even further, and creative individualism that built such a successful America, the former envy of the world to disappear, and, if you want to transform American students into pliant proletariat workers for crony capitalist corporations, Common Core is the way to indoctrinate them into the collectivist utopian mindset.