The Education Bus and Community Organizers

Conservatives used to believe in the true liberation of people from the enslavement by big and encroaching governments. You could hardly tell that today judging by the huge national debt they’ve escalated under a Republican president and a Republican Senate. They have been as profligate spenders as the Democrats, yet we still don’t have a wall to stop the invasion of illegals through the southern border.

Liberals are not really interested in liberty as the term implies, but want to conserve in perpetuity a system that oppresses voters, legal and illegal, and citizens, based on a euphemistically defined socialist/Marxist indoctrination by the government as the benevolent provider of everything without which life would cease to exist.

It does not seem to matter who is in power in Congress or the White House, Cultural Marxism is winning and destroying our own culture by leaps and bounds thanks in no small part to the education system which is now run by cultural Marxists.

There are some Republicans, RINOs, and Independents (those who cannot make up their minds that they are truly Democrats) among the sea of Democrats who run education at all levels, but they have no voice or influence to stop the indoctrinating curriculum and the Marxist community organizing instruction of America’s children.

Liberals, who now call themselves “progressives” even though the term “regressive” would be more appropriate, have constantly used the false narrative that the United States is a “democracy”, but the United States is a Constitutional Republic. 

“Progressives” from all walks of life, with a microphone, a camera, a grade book, or a journalistic pen in front of them, have repeated this lie constantly. Democrat low information voters eventually believed the ‘we are a democracy’ lie and echoed it as an indisputable truth.

A recent case in point, the annual conference of the National Education Association (NEA) which met in Houston, Texas, has hosted sessions on any social justice activism and Democrat political topics imaginable to the detriment of curriculum and instruction issues. http://www.aei.org/publication/nea-embraces-the-woke-agenda-but-votes-down-student-learning/

The 6,000 NEA attendees voted down the resolution “to re-dedicate itself to the pursuit of increased student learning in every public school in America.” Instead, the delegates endorsed “the fundamental right to abortion under Roe v. Wade,” urged reparations for slave descendants, pledged their help with the 2020 U.S. Census, pledged support for the violent Black Lives Matter movement, urged the U.S. government to admit that the illegals crisis at the border is the U.S. government’s fault for destabilizing the Central American countries, and last, but not least, supported teaching the bizarre concept of “white fragility” produced by the “white supremacy culture.”

The NEA delegates seem to have relegated student learning to the back seat of the education bus. Racial justice, social justice, abortion, ethnic and minority affairs, illegal immigration, voting, and women’s issues took the front seats.

The community organizing aspect of NEA’s annual convention was further enhanced by the speakers, i.e., Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Bill de Blasio. NEA has 3 million members, but it is alleged that 60 percent of them have self-identified as Republicans and Independents. Did NEA’s socialist political platform represent them or teaching in general?

The most pressing problem that we face today is the indoctrination of our youth into Cultural Marxism. It is essential to redress the socialist direction this nation is driven into with the force of a leftist tidal wave.

But it will take more than 15 years, perhaps 30 to change this dangerous course back to the tenets of our constitutional republic especially when we have to fight our own brethren, Republicans and Democrats, bent on amending the Constitution under the excuse of reigning in out of control politicians. And you know instinctively it is a bad idea as Soros wants to have a Convention of States (COS). It is a red flag – a gut realization that they probably have their own global Constitution ready to go to replace our U.S. Constitution during a runaway COS. Should the COS run smoothly, and the delegates successfully amend our Constitution, since politicians ignore the current Constitution and lord over us with ever more intrusive legislation, an amended one would be equally ignored.

We must however continue to fight the powerful educational system and our own corrupt elected officials at all levels of government. They consider themselves the ultimate arbiters of wisdom to fundamentally transforming America into a global governance.

Education Gone Berserk

During my 30 years of teaching, I have experienced plenty of irrational teaching methods and behaviors coming from liberal teachers and administrators bent on controlling every move that students or faculty members made.

Every year administrators added extra pages to the official code of conduct. These were deliberate steps to restrict freedom and to punish real or potential bad behaviors. Needless to say, lawyers were busy defending ridiculous claims and actions that a person with common sense would have known to avoid or ignore. But liberals like to micromanage everything and everybody.

It was refreshing to see that a judge had the common sense to throw out Mayor Bloomberg’s ridiculous ban on large sodas. For every victory for common sense, more irrational progressive cases emerge.

A grade school in Michigan banned plastic soldiers decorating cupcakes. A seven year old was punished for biting his pop tart in the shape of a gun. I suppose there will be a ban on wooden toy guns next. Boys will no longer be able to play Cowboys and Indians. On second thought, the game may have been outlawed already as racist and insulting to Indians.

But it’s perfectly fine to mock the Bible by replaying the Genesis with “Adam and Steve” in South Hadley, Massachusetts at Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School (PVPA), “A public school dedicated to academic and artistic excellence," grades 7-12. http://www.pvpa.org/

As Caitlin Canty was quoted, “It’d be good for business, why not; maybe they’ll have a full audience. I really don’t see why it could be a problem and who would be offended. I’m surprised around here too, such a strong pretty liberal leaning community.”

The play, touted as a comedy, “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told,” is insulting to millions of Christians who do not like their religion disrespected.  It is a hateful school play mocking the Bible and Christianity with blatant homosexual themes. http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/local/hampden/High-school-preforms-controversial-play

Why can’t schools provide reading, writing, and mathematics instead of engaging in propaganda and pandering to various liberal agendas? It is shameful to use children as pawns to destroy the fabric of our society and its traditions.

There are so many examples of micromanaging and driving progressive agendas in schools.

-         Hugging and hand holding are banned in some schools.

-         Teachers are banned to grade papers with red ink because it stigmatizes those who do not study for tests. Red is too “confrontational” in some countries.

-         Dodge ball is too dangerous and aggressive.

-         Backpacks are apparently not safe in some Michigan classrooms.

-         Bake sales are too dangerous, the sweets may have been baked in unsanitary conditions and have no nutritional value.

-         Best friends make others feel uncomfortable and excluded.

-         Milk will be pushed out as “high in sugar, high in fat, high in protein, harmful to bone health,” if a vegan and physician group has its way.

-         Words like dinosaur, poverty, birthdays, Halloween, dancing, will be phased out because they “might elicit unpleasant emotions” in some children.

-         Competitive games during recess and winning stir emotions of worthlessness in students and should be banned.

-         Balls are banned in some schools because they may cause concussions when students fall.

-         Anything having to do with Christmas is already banned in many schools. We now have the holiday tree. We do not want to offend people of other religions who complain vociferously with the help of very deep-pocketed lobbies. I wonder why they did not stay in their countries if American traditions are so offensive. Why migrate to this country and expect the hosts to change their way of life in order to suit the guests’ traditions?

According to the Portland Tribune, one principal in Portland argued that a sandwich has “broader implications about race.” In a lesson plan last year, Verenice Gutierrez from Harvey Scott K-8 school explained that “the word sandwich is a subtle form of racism in language.” A peanut butter and jelly sandwich could be racist and socially unjust.

“What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches?” Gutierrez said, according to the Tribune. “Another way would be to say: ‘Americans eat peanut butter and jelly, do you have anything like that?’ Let them tell you. Maybe they eat torta. Or pita.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/11/is-peanut-butter-and-jelly-racist_n_1874905.html

It is absurd to consider a sandwich racist but schools across the nation are training teachers to indoctrinate students into “white privilege” social injustice, using racially-charged educational initiatives. Are the rest of us racists for disagreeing with progressives? It is shameful for any teacher to use propaganda methods to teach our children reverse racism.

Pacific Educational Group developed the “Courageous Conversations” program adopted in Portland to help minority students through initiatives that address educational disparities “intentionally, explicitly, and comprehensively,” through a “culturally proficient curriculum.” http://www.pacificeducationalgroup.com/pages/about

During my teaching career I have never encountered or used a “culturally proficient curriculum.” Based on evidence, I can assume the “culturally proficient curriculum” to be based on the failed multi-culturalism of Western Europe. Apparently there is a national association of multicultural education. A quick search revealed one such class in which teachers were told to “make a list of cultural groups in their classroom or school to include gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, exceptionalities, language, country of origin, and many more.” I can only imagine the caliber of instruction in mathematics and science, based on someone’s sexual orientation, gender, religion, and ethnicity.

How about teaching students how to think logically, how to read and write well, teach them grammar, how to spell, how to do math and percentages without the help of a calculator?

Proficiency in education should be based on a curriculum that emphasizes American exceptionalism, non-revisionist history, personal merit, performance, interest, and achievement. Howard Gardner of Harvard wrote his theory of “multiple intelligences” (visual, spatial, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, naturalistic, musical, logical-mathematical) as a guide to help learners understand how to use their dominant method of learning to their advantage because we are all born with strengths and weaknesses.

There is no race or “racial disparities” in education except those manufactured by educators with an agenda. We have left racial strife behind long time ago; there is no need to revisit it because everybody in America has the opportunity to excel and succeed if they have a burning desire to learn and are willing to work hard.

It is not surprising that more and more parents turn to home-schooling and private schools of their choice. As Rand Paul said in a recent speech, the federal government could save a lot of money ($70 billion a year) by closing the Department of Education and returning education spending and decisions to the states. (Rand Paul, CPAC speech, March 13, 2013)