Pushing Back the Socialist Agenda in Education

I watched during Thanksgiving a National Geographic special on the pilgrims landing at Jamestown, Virginia. The strong environmentalist language shocked me. Claiming that Europeans completely deforested the land, overfished to the point of emptying the lakes and rivers and causing a severe reduction of the teeming fish population, and of their size, was outrageous. Impressionable minds, who hear such broad, sweeping statements, are misled by design because no scientific data or evidence is offered to support these claims. The video continued that Europeans have brought with seeds of wheat and grain weeds such as dandelion, thus causing “biological imperialism.” If wind carries seeds of plants and weeds over large swaths of land in the natural process of plant life, is it still called “biological imperialism?”

These ridiculous statements fall in line with the environmental agenda of “man as the destroyer of the planet.” The earth is in danger because man has caused global warming and only by destroying our economic system, drastically reducing human population, and returning to a primitive lifestyle would assure the survival of the globe. I can see how frightening these made-up scenarios could be to an innocent young mind or the uninformed. Virginia is covered with beautiful lush forests. Areas where wood was harvested are restocked with seedlings for many reasons. Soil erosion prevention is one such important component of forest replacement.

Channel One News: Communism, platitudes, empty promises, lies, and slogans

As my children were growing up, Channel One News was part of their curriculum on a daily basis. Budding television stars on the left side of the political spectrum were indoctrinating students on issues dear to the heart of the left. Most parents had no idea that their children received such a one-sided view of the world but I knew. Having lived under communism, I could recognize all the platitudes, empty promises, lies, and slogans. Perusing Channel One News recently, I found the following links: The Obama Administration, U.S., World, Politics, Science, Revolution Earth, Life, Music, Teachers, and Quizzes. One of the videos touted National Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15-October 15, in honor of the anniversaries of independence of Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Who knew that celebrating the anniversaries of independence of South American countries was so important that we had to have a National Hispanic Heritage Month? As the video says, the face of America is changing and diversity is paramount. This is contradicting our country’s founding principles of “unity.” The leftist immigration policies emphasize “diversity.” The contributions of Hispanics to America included in the video were Sonya Sotomayor, a baseball player, and some unknown singer. Under Teaching Tools, there were lesson plans on history, sociology, and environmentalism: The History of Thanksgiving, The History of Hate, Our Disposable Lives, Mexican Drug Cartels, and The Haves and Have-Nots. The seeds of class envy, bigotry, and hate were planted solidly in these videos. Disliking something or disagreeing with someone was presented as hate. Under “The Obama Administration” link, Channel One headlined, “Obama pops into bookstore, backs small businesses.” Given the economic depression and the high unemployment rate in the country, this was hardly a truthful statement. Under “White House Profile, Channel One presented our president, “His life story, now familiar to many people, is unique but also quintessentially American.” This was definitely Soviet style disinformation. Revolution Earth was highlighting the Nature Conservancy with its Leaders for Environmental Action for the Future (LEAF) internships slated for environmental careers in green transportation solutions, protecting and caring for the environment. The video stated that such fields earn 25% more than non-environmental careers and the environmental green job field is growing three times as much as other jobs. Twisting the facts was bad enough. No mention was made of all the bankruptcies of alternative energy sources or the faux “green jobs.” Videos on biofuels, electric cars, going green, pollution cruise, green holiday shopping, oil spills, and the proverbial polar bears completed the environmental indoctrination and brainwashing. A whole section was dedicated to Islam and the Ground Zero mosque but no mention was made of the Christian persecution in the Middle East and all the killings and torture of innocents. The only mention of Christianity was in the headline, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Xmas at the White House,” not spelling out Christmas but using the Greek X as in the inscriptions found in the catacombs in Rome when Christians had to go underground to hide their religion. A video was dedicated to the “growing white Nazi hate groups,” exaggerating the numbers and the influence they have, and painting them as the Americans on the border fighting illegal immigration, making the disingenuous inference that those who oppose illegal immigration and want the laws of the land enforced are haters. One of my readers named Frank had a very interesting comment about illegal immigration. “You catch a burglar in YOUR house who insists that you built YOUR house FOR HIM. He demands that you move out to make room for him and all his friends and relatives. If you refuse to do this, you are a racist, bigot, homophobe, intolerant hate-monger, and whatever else the usurper can think of to intimidate you into surrendering your birthright to him. He calls this social plunder “redistribution of wealth,” and “social justice.” I quoted Frank because this is exactly the mentality inculcated into our children’s minds by the educational establishment. Home schooling is beginning to gain more traction with many parents who want to avoid their children’s socialist indoctrination in public schools. As Christopher Wright found out, Georgetown Law Center Professor, Robin L. West, made curious, fallacious, and uninformed arguments against home schooling.

• “Most home schooled children have fundamentalist Protestant parents who teach their kids ‘nothing but the Bible’”
• “Homeschooled children are at higher risk for child abuse”
• “Other harms justify strict regulation of homeschooling including curriculum reviews and invasive home visits”
• “It was a crime to keep children home from school until 30 years ago”

None of our Founding Fathers was the product of public schools yet they were brilliant. Students were doing quite well prior to 1979 when the Department of Education was established. Statistical data show that the level of education and student performance have decreased since 1979. Homeschooled children represent every demographic imaginable – pagans, atheists, lower income, upper income, conservative, liberal, Ph.D.’s, GED’s. Doctoral student Jeremy E. Uecker from the University of Texas conducted a nationwide phone survey in 2008 and “found very little effect of homeschooling on any aspect of adolescents’ religious views.” “Only 17 percent of suspected abuse reports are submitted by education personnel.”(Christopher Wright) Public school advocates, educational lefties, academics, and Marxists want “social engineering” of our children’s minds, as Dewey wrote, “social reconstruction,” well known in the circles of communism. Textbooks are generally written by college professors to slant history in the direction of the leftist view with total disregard for historical accuracy. An effort by the Prince William County Tea Party is underway in the State of Virginia to review all textbooks for accuracy of content. There are 11 states across the country that either have completed or are doing textbook reviews. “Our Living Constitution Then and Now,” a textbook used for grades 5-8 in American History classes, teaches our children that “Rights are special privileges the government gives you. You are also given the right to choose a religion.” The government does not give you a right; you have a God-given right. “The Bill of Rights lists the freedoms given to citizens.” Actually, the Bill of Rights lists the freedoms granted by the Constitution. “Because the government gives us rights, we have the duty to be good citizens. But what does it mean to be a good citizen? How can you be a part of giving back for the freedom you have?” The government does not give us rights and we are not required to give back restitution for our rights. The fallacies and falsehoods in this book alone are astounding. “On July 14, 2005, Governor Pawlenty signed the 128-page Minnesota Omnibus bill into law called The American Heritage in Public Education Act. Included are two important paragraphs that encourage schools to teach America’s Founding Principles from original sources and prevent the censorship of religious reference from those sources. Teachers can now introduce their students to America’s uncensored Judeo-Christian heritage without fear.” (edwatch.org) In a Virginia High School AP History Class, students were forbidden to use any outside help/reference/access to information or opinion for their work under the threat of disciplinary action and a failing grade. The students could not even discuss their assignments with their parents. Parent Amy Fuentes was shocked. The Westfield High School’s explanation was that the move was intended to create a level-playing field for all students because some did not have access to information. I found this hard to believe since most classrooms have computers; their libraries have computers, encyclopedias, and other reference sources. Furthermore, Fairfax County is one of the richest counties in the nation. Students were not allowed to discuss ideas, opinions, or ask questions of anybody but the teacher. This was an obvious attempt to control what students thought, allowing only the teacher’s point of view and that of the textbook writers. Delegate Rich Anderson, R-Woodbridge, now leads the State Commission on Civics in Education. The purpose of the commission is “to educate students on the importance of citizen involvement in a representative democracy, the promotion of the study of state and local government among the commonwealth citizenry, and the enhancement of communication and collaboration among organizations in the commonwealth that conduct civics education programs.” Adam Schaeffer, policy analyst with the Cato Center for Educational Freedom, argues in “The Public Education Tax Credit“ that “Educational freedom can most effectively be realized through nonrefundable education tax credits – for both parents’ education costs for their own children and taxpayer donations to nonprofit scholarship funds; tax credits enjoy practical, legal, and political advantages over school vouchers.” Schaeffer says, “Vouchers are grants of government funds, while tax credits are private funds.” The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn explained the distinction. Colorado stopped its voucher program because of a state constitutional provision that does not allow charitable, educational, industrial, or benevolent appropriations to any person, corporation, or community under the absolute control of the state. Pennsylvania has a similar provision with exception for higher education. American parents have begun to push back the socialist agenda and the public school indoctrination that their children have been subjected to for the past 40 years. This indoctrination is bearing fruit in the anarchic societal and economic confusion of the Occupy Wall Street denizens. The New Renaissance in Education (NRIE) promotes “a curriculum to teach America’s heritage to the next generation: liberty and limited government, America’s documents, America’s cultural heritage, free market economics, and western intellectual tradition.” This worthy educational program should spread across the nation with the help of dedicated parents, teachers, and freedom loving Americans.