Radical Indoctrination
A new California bill would establish a K-12 curriculum mandating classes in the ‘four I’s of oppression,’ ideological, institutional, interpersonal and internalized.
The bill has sailed through the Senate and Governor Gavin Newsom is expected to sign it according to a WSJ Editorial.
Last year California’s Assembly passed its ethnic-studies bill known as AB 331 by a 63-8 vote. Then the state department of education put forward a model curriculum so extreme and ethnocentric that the state Senate’s Democratic supermajority balked. The curriculum said among other things that “within Ethnic Studies, scholars are often very critical of the system of capitalism as research has shown that Native people and people of color are disproportionately exploited within the system.”
The bill was put on ice, but protests and riots in recent months gave Sacramento’s mavens of racial division more leverage. The model curriculum now on the education department’s website says the course should “build new possibilities for post-imperial life that promotes collective narratives of transformative resistance.”
Among the approved topics: “Racism, LGBTQ rights, immigration rights, access to quality health care, income inequality,” and so on.
What about the fifth “I” of indoctrination? One course outline tips its hat at this. “Students will write a paper detailing certain events in American history,” it says, “that have led to Jewish and Irish Americans gaining racial privilege.”
This is ugly stuff, a force-feeding to teenagers of the anti-liberal theories that have been percolating in campus critical studies departments for decades. Enforced identity politics and “intersectionality” are on their way to replacing civic nationalism as America’s creed.
The 1619 Project
The California Bill is related to thinking of the New York Times’ 1619 Project.
The goal of The 1619 Project is to reframe American history by considering what it would mean to regard 1619 as our nation’s birth year. Doing so requires us to place the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a country.
The WSJ Laments
Conservatives and fair-minded liberals are alarmed that high schools are drawing up plans to teach the “1619 project,” the New York Times ’ revisionist account of race and the American founding, in history classes. The reality is turning out to be worse. The largest state in the union is poised to become one of the first to mandate ethnic studies for all high-school students, and the model curriculum makes the radical “1619 project” look moderate and balanced.
These writers do not understand capitalism, free markets, or the path of destruction of countries like Venezuela.
Indoctrination Ideas
- Capitalism is bad
- The Irish and Jews unfairly got ahead
- We need slave reparations
- We need to teach “collective narratives of transformative resistance,” whatever the hell that means.
Radically Dangerous Ideas
These indoctrination ideas are radically dangerous.
Few understand the origins for what they are: union pandering for the primary benefit of the teachers who espouse the ideas.
Income Inequality is a Feature Not a Detriment
Indeed income inequality is actually a benefit of capitalism.
History teaches us what happens when the states take over farms and mandate everyone get the same rewards no matter how much they produce.
The extreme nature now is largely due to government and Fed interference that distorts capitalism, not capitalism itself.
That’s the curriculum that needs to be taught.
Mish
I am so sad to say but we are moving toward civil war.
The educational system is controlled by the socialists. Socialism is by definition rule by force. Socialism is built on the principal that aggression and force against an individual is justifiable, if that aggression provides a perceived benefit for the society.
Implementing a socialist system is perceived by the socialists to be justification for any tactic they can conceive including lying to school children with the specific purpose of brainwashing them into believing lies. The domestic terrorism in our streets is the direct result of the brainwashing which has been happening in our schools for some time, and which will continue to happen. The socialists have adopted New Speak as their educational language. Remember Truth are lies, and War is Peace…..
If I were African American I would be DEEPLY insulted by the idea of reparations. I would hate the history of slavery true, as everyone should. But both those that enslaved and those were enslaved, those that did this to my people are all now long dead. And reparations can only be seen as a punishment of the ENTIRE white race for the deeds of a very few of their slave holding ancestors, which is entirely unfair and you do not have to be white to understand the concept of fairness.
For one thing many black people are doing every bit as good as white. Getting reparations says “we know you cannot make it because you were discriminated against and your ancestors held as slaves.” You are like children who need cash money to pay off a blood debt, so here is a check and thank god we never have to tolerate crime and excuses or black whining again because you were paid in full.
To put an arbitrary monetary price on the history of a people when mostly we all just want what you do, and to revere those that were mistreated as martyrs. A check a few hundred years later because you feel bad is crap, and no matter how large it cannot be enough, you just mean it as a payoff to current generations and not as a true reparation in sorrow.
And what about when my grandkids are made to feel lesser because of their race? Are you just going to pay off every black child ever to be born? Or is this one time reparations payment going to be enough to make you feel better? And by paying off every person of African decent are you not saying we will give you money because your race means you can never be equal, or you as a person cannot ever attain what we can? Is it not recognition of superiority rather than genuine compensations to victims that are all now years and centuries dead?
I can just hear the white racists now, “those commie libs paid you people off so now you have no more excuses. And I can act any way toward you I want. No more special laws for you because you have been paid.” It is a can of worms that is utterly bottomless. That there are people who want to pay and people who want to collect means we are never going to see the end. It is all of history and all the unfairness and competition and conquest and death all wrapped up into a populist check that pays the rent on your conscience for now, but wich remains in arrears forever.
That is just one of many thoughts I have about it. I can think open mindedly about this because I belong to more than one minority group that is also hated and traditionally discriminated against, would I cash the check if I were sent one as a form of apology? Hell yes. But I would never ask for that check unless they start paying off those that were wronged by history and I seemed to be the only one NOT apologised to for the wrongs done to me and mine. That would piss me off.
Just putting government on notice, if you think you are going to assuage your guilty white consciences by writing checks to those your ancestors harmed and hated then you better buy a shit ton of ink, and make my check out for at least a couple million because I was just a teen you you riuned my life and made me a disabled vet.
Better we work to END permanently all forms of unequal justice and end the tilted economic playing field for the rich so that labor again pays a living wage than to start writing check I simply am not going to honor or pay for. Because I represent millions who feel the same way. You force people to pay rparations for something they did not have a part in and you break any and all social contracts, the gloves come off and it ends in war! Do not bother to bill me for reparations to anyone unless my name is on the list to get a check. Because my people have been more systematically and completely discriminated against in human history than any other minority that ever existed. Far worse than black who were allowed to live as slaves, my people have mostly been killed on sight. Our very name comes from the faggots of firewood they used to burn us alive. The word for that firewood lost it’s meaning over time, but that term still is used a thousand years later to describe me and my people. How would any of you like to be hunted and burned alive because of who you are and the name for you is the wood that they use to burn your body alive with? I can tell you first hand I am not pleased. But, even though you and your laws still hate me I do not demand a million bucks from you, or maybe I should be eh?
I am of Irish decent, my father came to North Ameerica in 1949, not only was he not a slave holder nor did he have slaave holders in his ancestry but the Irish people were themselves held as slaves for 900 years. Where is their/my reparations check? I might take it just because I can, but I would still be deeply wounded that they think you can just write a check and all that near thousand years of guilt and wrong is washed away. Sometimes we need to let history just be history. I do not NEED a check from those that murdered and discriminated and treated my ancestors like dirt, but a true and meaningful apology would help. A true recognition that Irish are equal to English would be nice, that they do not even understand what happened in the potato famine alone makes me want them punished, but not all English, just those that profited from our enslavemet. Especially the crown.
On the other hand as a gay man there are still laws on the books in many states that were never voided or removed against gay people. Just no longer enforced per SCOTUS. They know SCOTUS can and will under the right circumstances reverse itself and those laws will be on the books and acted upon that very day.
I was a teen when I was sexually abused by a man 20 years older than me in the air force, he had been a ranking sergeant working in the urology clinic of the base hospital. I went in at 17 and was from a remote region in California, we did not even get TV till I was a freshman in high school. I looked a lot younger than I was. That sergeant had been molesting boys in the clinic, and it was not till a major who’s son complained of being molested this sergeant was busted. What did the commander do? An informal signature on a piece of paper avoiding a court martial, the sergeant was busted two stripes and given another duty outside the urology clinic. They put him in charge of the hospital squadron barracks.
So I come along at 17 looking like 12 and report to my permanent duty base at March AFB and this guy says sorry the barracks is full. I have no room to assign you to. WTF? I am an airman in the USAF and I just traveled thousands of miles and report to my base and am told they have no room for me? One of the few things you never have to worry about in the military is food and shelter.
I told the guy, what am I supposed to do? Just not reporting is being AWOL, you have to send me somewhere on base for accomodation. Is officer’s quarters full?
He said well as dorm sarge I have a room to myself…… I think you can guess the rest of that story. It was hell. Seriously torture. I mean seriously I was tortured. And even when I was assigned a room in the barracks he made sure I had no roommates as much as possible because he had a master key and could let himself in at any hour. I got to the point where I was suicidal at 18. I finally talked to a guy I knew about it and that mother f^cker turned ME in. Ther first thing I was told was if you have indulged in any illegal drugs or homosexuality you will be charged by the OSI for that. In other words lie your ass off. They do not want to hear about messy problems. Either put up with it or we may allow you a other than 4 year honorable discharge. Or we may put you in prison.
Before you make a judgement about this story I would like to remind you that as an American citizen I have the same rights you do. Had this happened to YOU or to your kid or grandkid or brother how would you feel then?
When honesty means prison? Not for what you have done but for who you are and the preditory nature of others? Who knows how many other boys that man molested because I would have to decide between prison for telling the truth or telling them what they wanted to hear?
Hey, that is YOUR America. You like lies so you do not have to deal with shit like this don’t you? The problem is you fuck up so many people and you have to pay them off. You want to know why I am a 100% disabled vet? It is reparations.
It is also why I will never vote republican.
Indeed income inequality is actually a benefit of capitalism.
Not to the degree we’ve seen it today. Actually taking it to the extreme, assume 10 people had all the money in the world. That would not be a benefit to capitalism.
And yet, for all of America’s income equality, were the poorest 25% of America a nation, it would be the world’s 4th wealthiest, based on consumption, not just income.
Consumption measures the effects of the safety net. America, by far, has the world’s largest safety net, even factoring in the effect of the lack of single payer health insurance.
Capitalism, even done poorly like it is in the USA (crony capitalism anyone?) has generated benefits that far surpass any other economic system.
But it is this very development that has given the socialists traction in a society where it would not have existed if the income inequality hadn’t grown to such absurd proportions since around 1980.
Reaganomics, rather than being the “savior of capitalism” in America was actually its harbinger of doom.
When the wage ratio increases by 5x, 10x, 20x, etc. people eventually notice …
Crony capitalists bring about their own downfall every time … But so do Socialists and Communists …
RE: “Capitalism, even done poorly like it is in the USA (crony capitalism anyone?) has generated benefits that far surpass any other economic system.”
And eventually it ends up shooting itself in the head as “greed is good” (even the typo “greed is god” ends up applying) overwhelms everything else.
Agree with you. The best system is a balanced system. Once a system goes out of balance then it goes to crap. Pick any system. This is kind of the nature of all things in the universe.
“The Irish and Jews unfairly got ahead”:
I failed to find mentioning of Jews and Irish in the WSJ link nor the Bill link (below). Am I missing something?
It should be pointed out that former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover stated that the John Birch Society was an example of a “right-wing extremist” organization which did NOT deal in facts. Also, the FBI falsified every major predicate of JBS ideology. For details see: https://sites.google.com/site/ernie124102/jbs-1
Civil rights started in the 1960s in Anerica and teaching people that most white people were racist and owned slaves in 1619 is somehow wrong?
“…most white people were racist and owned slaves in 1619…”
LOL!!!
The Casual_Observer is also a Casual_Learner and Casual_Critical Thinker.
The truth is painful for some Thomas Jefferson abused his child slave and had children with her. Most authors of the constitution were slave owners and thought black people were only fit to be slaves. That’s the truth of America.
And your point is? Slavery has existed throughout human history in a variety of cultures.
My point is there is nothing wrong with teaching people that most white people owned slaves and that the United States was built on the backs of black people, and Asians and others non-white people too. The whole curriculum thing is much ado about nothing. It is being turned political because some people are simply scared of the truth.
First, most whites in America did not own slaves. Less than 10% did. Yes, those that did were almost universally white, but “most” did not own slaves.
The USA was built on the backs of blacks, asians, hispanics AND whites. You are aware that whites didn’t just sit around and do nothing for 400 years, right? Most whites didn’t own slaves, were farmers, and did incredible amounts of work clearing land, working the fields, sawing lumber, etc. Whites contributed far more to the construction of the USA than blacks did. They just did so freely, usually. Blacks were forced to contribute initially, but their forced contribution certainly wasn’t even half (probably not even a tenth), of the total effort.
I recommend taking a basic class on US history, not the black centric one you seem to have taken. You might learn something.
Yes, slavery was a human atrocity. That doesn’t mean it’s historically correct to demonize all whites and diminish their accomplishments. That’s a new form of racism.
I expected more from you.
Not demonizing. Are your feelings hurt ? The truth is everyone has contributed to the advancement of humans. Fair ?
Your last statement was better and more accurate.
Let’s just be honest about what we report and not state that most whites owned slaves. That’s just as dishonest as saying that blacks have it as easy as whites today.
I’m in favor of an honest narrative.
And no, feelings not hurt. Just pointing out important nuances that matter a great deal.
So you don’t think the books were skewed a certain way all this time ? They were in my country too which was pillaged by the British.
That’s just it. No books even remotely hint at most whites owning slaves. On the contrary, all historical records clearly show that very few whites ever owned a slave.
Virtually no one owned a slave before 1750, as the slave market didn’t really grow until the early 1800’s. Yes, it existed, but was quite uncommon.
And most American slaves came from the Caribbean, not Africa.
That’s the actual history, not the spin.
Many free black people also owned slaves in USA:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27648819
So to put the blame about slavery only on white people is a LIE and it is also intentional spreading of race based hatred against white people.
Most white people did NOT own slaves because most white people were TOO POOR to afford to own slaves.
Oh Joe I’m just speaking Trumpism. I’m sure some of them were great. But some were also rapists and thugs.
Civil rights in the South started in the 1960s, and when it comes to the racist opinions of most people who have been dead for nearly 400 years, that’s a tough one to prove. And most people didn’t own slaves because they were very expensive. And even some American Indian tribes owned slaves, so it wasn’t just a white thing way back then. And that’s not to say your race didn’t get a raw deal, just the same.
Judging by the comments on Mish’s blog most of you, if you vote? vote Democrat. This subject once debated and internalizes will be an accepted practice in political view point. Right now I think they all need a head shrink. The democratic leadership is extremely void of sound principles. When old Joe loses he won’t concede he will protest.
Racism is not a sound principle moron.
If you have hurt feelings because of white privilege I’m not sorry.
Someone also needs to explain why Venezuela was doing so well as a democratic socialist country where the government owned oil and invested profits back in the country. It was only when a military dictator took over things went south.
So Chavez was the answer? I think you could be an Author for the new text books they will need on California.
Read it again idiot. Chavez was the dictator. It was prior to Chavez that Venezuela prospered.
I agree. He needs to unload all of the toxic waste in his head, He should go to the bathroom and flush several times .
Rent free in your head.
Nobody EVER wants to force kids to be taught critical thinking.
These days, you are unemployable if you can think for yourself. Public school is just a 12-year prison sentence. Some get early release after 11 years for good behavior. Some escape. I feel sorry for those who think they need to take on debt to go to college. A good, useful college education can be had on the cheap, when you know how to think for yourself and evaluate low cost schooling options. Which takes us back to your point about intentionally not teaching kids about critical thinking.
Critical thinking actually requires looking at history critically and not from a white person’s point of view. Critical reasoning and thinking is too scary for people like you to contemplate. You cant wrap your head around it because you lack perspective It isnt your fault. It just is.
Wow, your comment hit the trifecta of racist, condescending, and pretentious all at the same time.
Not racist. The other two perhaps. I can live with that.
I was in a Gospel choir. What’s my race? Any person can be racist. Since you fixate on the white race as the defining characteristic, the only thing a white person can’t be is a ______ person (fill in the color). The only thing a ______ person can’t be is a white person. Every other characteristic any other person can have. It’s human.
You stated: “not from a white person’s point of view.” Asserting that “white people”, or any race of people, have a monolithic view of anything, is racist. You may not intend it to be racist, but it is. Hence the trifecta.
Plainly obvious to the Casual Observer is that all people, regardless of external descriptions applied to them, have a unique point of view in space-time. No two people ever have a similar view of the world. It is both physically and emotionally impossible.
No one is asking them to have the same view. That wouldnt be productive anyway. Most cultures are anthropocentric by nature. The only way to get any perspective is to understand things in the perspective of that fact.
Congratulations, you sent me to the dictionary …. let’s see, anthropocentric … “the belief that human beings are the most important entity in the universe.”
Nope, sorry, I’m not that arrogant.
“entity” … something that exists separately from other things and has a clear identity.
Okay, the most important “entity” in our local universe, from my point of view, is water and the fact that ice floats. Otherwise, the Earth would have frozen solid billions of years ago and we wouldn’t be having this nice, informative chat.
From my one my alma maters. Turns out slow, deliberative thinking actually enables critical thinking.
Sounds like a line straight out of Blazing Saddles.
Wow, Jews and the Irish are too blame?! Can pogroms be far behind?
Beware the red headed Hebrew!
Unfortunately the Democrats are completely complicit in this kind of rewriting of history. So my vote for Biden has to consider……..that the one-time party of the working class has now become the party of identity politics and special rights for special people. It’s not something I like or want…..maybe the lesser of the evils…but not by much.
good point sounds like you are sitting on the wall! 🙂
Trump 2020.
I gagged on being required to take a foreign language in high school. One of the most useless courses for someone who knew STEM was his life choice. I would have been better off with more STEM courses because I’ve met very few system engineers with enough depth and breadth of technology to architect something without a major flaw. One medical equipment research center I worked for was designed with a network that would not support the bandwidth needed for a centralized embedded control system. Making things worse, the Lead Systems Engineer felt empowered to ignore the problem. OOPS that cost at least $250M and 4 years of schedule.
As a homeschooling family, we are so thankful that COVID hasn’t affected our plans at all.
If I wasn’t homeschooling in California, I would be now for sure. This is nonsense.
I posted a link to this article on my page. People need to read what is happening.
What are you afraid of ? The truth.
What are you afraid of!
Every parent and their children should have a choice to where they want to send their kids. You can still send your kids the Public School cattle call…. no one is stopping you from polluting your kids minds .
The truth is history is ugly and complicated. It’s too complex and scary for the parents who want to shelter their children and make them believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. The home schoolers think the world is 5000 years old. LOL. get a freaking clue.
The public schools want to teach that there are multiple genders and that one plus one no longer has to equal two (yes, there are schools that actually do exactly that around here.)
So when that is considered, homeschoolers that want to teach the world is 10k years or less old but teach actual math, history and literature (and yes, science), blow away the public school students on achievement tests, out-earn their public school peers 2 to 1 and commit crimes at 20x a lower rate than their public school peers…..I’m totally in favor of that. Why aren’t you is the question.
You are aware that homeschoolers significantly outperform public schooled kids in every area, right?
I think it depends on the public schools you are referring to. Your level of success really depends on the zip code in which you live and how people around you do. Home schooling around where I live is not competitive with public schools. In fact they are about 2 years behind the average kid in public school. Then again I live in area with a high concentration of medical professionals, science, technology and engineering talent.
Not sure where you live, of course, but homeschoolers, in all 50 states, surpass publicly educated kids on standardized tests and average income earned after graduation.
Obviously, there may be local variances depending on who the local employer is (which influences education level of the parent) but on a state and federal level, homeschooling surpasses public education, even when accounting for the education level of the parent.
The point is, involved parents matter a great deal. You can get that in public ed as well of course, and many parents do a great job there. However, the very nature of public ed is a disincentive for parents taking charge of their kids education.
I helped start a private school and I now homeschool so I’m very involved in the education scene in our state here in NC.
I’m personally afraid that at some point we will have a civil war. It comforts me to know that people like you will be the first to go.
Why ? You think people like me dont own guns ?
No, not afraid of truth. One plus one will always equal 2.
I’m afraid schools aren’t teaching that anymore and are more philosophical than educational. Yes, philosophy is a part of education, but I’d very much prefer to be the one that teaches them that.
History that implicates Jews and Irish folks for the problems facing black America is absolute nonsense. That’s the sort of stuff that the Nazi party was built on.
Part of the CA problem is our Governor Gavin Newsom, who appears to also have presidential ambitions. Help get rid of Newsom and bury his presidential ambitions if you live in CA by signing the recall petition.
Perhaps this comes from the mistake of thinking that K-12 education is sufficient to prepare a modern citizen. Schools are skipping the necessary tools in favor of the rote conclusion.
The only thing a modern education requires in the USA is how to use the internet and how to text. And don’t use periods.
I disagree (and I will take this seriously, despite what seems the intent of your comment). No one can support themselves by Googling unknowns and texting about it, let alone confront any issues. My point, which seems to have been misunderstood, is that there is not enough time in K-12 education to develop a conclusion and its counterarguments, so we should focus instead on the tools by which knowledge is obtained. Without those tools, any political discussions, necessary for a modern citizen, are “yes, no” arguments, since it is not possible to debate the validity of the idea. In the face of this train of thought, people tend to invoke some sort of common sense, which is useless and often harmful when applied to unresolved issues in a complex, modern society. Instead, the approach seems to be to pick and choose some conclusions that are deemed necessary preparation, but have a metaphorical measure zero in the space of useful knowledge.
I’ll take your comment seriously, and expand upon it. I attended public school in the 5th wealthiest US county, at the time. Everyday was a fight with drugs, bullying, physical and verbal abuse, and that was just from the faculty. The students were even worse. By some miracle, I learned math and how to read. Until 10th grade everything else presented in the classroom as “learning” was total garbage. But by 10th grade, all the losers had dropped out, so the fighting ended, and a good student who survived to that point could thrive on Chemistry, Physics, Calculus, and maybe if the English teacher wasn’t a drunk, learn some effective composition skills. First year of college was practically remedial everything, and simply by brute force and the will to succeed, I got a reasonably worthwhile engineering degree. And everything else, I learned on my own, through a love of reading. So, based on that experience, what would I tell a young person today entering public school? You’re F**CKED ! Get that through your head now. You want to learn something and succeed? It’s all on you. If you are lucky, you’ll meet three teachers in 12 years, who will give you a hint on what is really important to learn, but I’ll give you the short cut. Learn to read, and read everything you can. Learn to write, because if you can’t write straight, you can’t think straight. Learn mathematics. It’s good discipline, and there is only one correct answer, still — the school board can’t mess that up, yet. Learn chemistry and physics. Again, real science has one answer when you do it correctly. You’ll love it that someone’s worthless opinion on the matter doesn’t change the answer.
Oh, and if you have any talent, play a sport. And if you have exceptional talent, really play that sport to the fullest. You can always go back and get your education when you can no longer play. But you can’t play when you get too old, and that’s sad to miss out on.
And if you are going to do sports, find a coach that really cares to see you succeed at that sport, and it doesn’t take a great coach, just a coach. I really loved baseball, but never had a coach to see me through it. I would have also liked that opportunity growing up.
RE: “You want to learn something and succeed? It’s all on you.”
Great advice …
RE: “Learn mathematics. It’s good discipline, and there is only one correct answer, still — the school board can’t mess that up, yet.”
Too many of today’s “educators” seem to despise any subject that does not kow-tow to the “There is no truth other than MY truth” dictum.
You cannot criticize this kind of radicalism without criticizing the entire Democratic party that has spawned it.
The Democratic party has evolved into the party of radical socialists and communists . They are intent on abolishing truthful history, and replacing it with their own created history. They are intent on destroying capitalism which has created the greatest prosperity ever known to man, and replace it with authoritarian communism.
Socialism cannot be separated from authoritarianism. They are one and the same. It is a small minority of tyrants dictating to the majority how they will live, what they will think, and demanding obedience to their rule over everyone.
There is a reason books like Animal Farm, and 1984 are no longer taught in public school.
The Democratic party, and the government school systems have proven they are dangerous radical people, and they are the enemy of America.
Too late, Mish. The “Radical Brainwashing” began the 1930s, when the Humanist Manifesto was signed. The goal was to use schools to indoctrinate children, in the hopes of making the world a better place. Nearly all of us have been subjected to it, to a certain extent. I always use this question, to test people’s understanding of history. “Name one event of significance that happened between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Crusades.” I have never yet gotten an answer, and the closest anyone gets is to say “that was the Dark Ages”. How dark was it? So, nothing happened?
In reality, there is a specific reason this time period is omitted, and not because nothing happened. One of the key events during that time period was the rise of Islam. Islam appeared, conquered all of Africa, and nearly conquered all of Europe as well, before their advance was stopped at the Battle of Tours in 732, where in a stunning surprise victory, French ground troops, led by Charles Martell, defeated the Arabic cavalry, one of the only times in history where ground forces defeated a cavalry.
Why is it important to omit this? If you go directly to the crusades, without any historical context, it is possible to paint Christians as military aggressors. Don’t get me wrong, here. The Christians had no business being a military aggressor in any case, but if you have the historical context, it is at least more understandable. To use a modern context, the US had no business blowing up Iraq, but if you factor in 9/11, it at least is easier to understand how and why it happened.
The signers of the Humanist Manifesto, and it’s successor documents, have been largely successful in their objectives. Education has moved away from core subjects to peripheral ones. The US once led the world in education, and now it is middle of the pack in academic subjects, but meanwhile, the US has become an increasingly humanist nation.
Thanks for the history lesson. I would have flunked your test, and I had not heard of the Humanist Manifesto that I can remember, but looked it up to see if Dewey had anything to do with it (check). We live in Dewey’s post-America: a “democracy” of intellectual conformists.
When I turned 40, I realized I had just spend the past 20 years unlearning all the b.s. I was force-fed in my first 20 years.
I’ll answer your question without looking anything up … “Name one event of significance that happened between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Crusades.”
The rise of monasteries as refuge for scholarship, and just as important, beer and cheese making.
The so-called Dark Ages were a period of enlightenment. Once the oppressive yoke of a stagnant, failed empire was cast aside, creativity could thrive again. So, there is still hope for mankind today.
The hunt for the Holy Grail occurred then. I believe the movie ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ provides a nice summary.
That has been standard extreme right propaganda for over 40 years! The reality is that our countrymen have virtually NO factual knowledge concerning how slaves were used, bought, sold OR how black families were torn apart by sale of children to different owners OR how black and asian laborers provided the physical labor which built our country OR about any of the horrific conditions which blacks lived under even after slavery was technically abolished. ALL of that was for the benefit of our “capitalist” system.
Words like “freedom”, “dignity”, “justice”, “liberty” “states rights” are a cruel joke when they are used to enslave and de-humanize people — whether in some foreign country or even here at home.
I agree that slavery existed in the dark ages, and the African slave trade had been initiated as early as the 7th Century. Therefore, it should be included in the teaching of the period between the Fall of the Roman Empire and the Crusades. Of course, during that time period, slaves were of a variety of races, and that should be taught as well. Nevertheless, none of that explains why that period is specifically omitted from the teaching of history, so I don’t really understand your point, especially where you mention “our country”. To clarify, what country are you from that was built by slaves during the time period 450AD to 1000AD?
Parents and their kids need to have the right to School of choice. Instead of this monolithic public school system that is polluting our kids minds with BS and nonsense and also with a little of propaganda mixed in to top it off. These Public School Teachers Union care about protecting the Teachers and not the children.
LOL! I guess you’ve never taken a company H.R. class
This always goes on . We now teach that slavery is wrong too.
A class in civics is brainwashing too
The moral of this story is that a majority of Jews are liberal and have brought this upon themselves. All the news channels are run by Jewish CEO’s and they have not allowed debates on issues and strayed from our Constitution, but taken a position-the liberal one. Then, you add the main social media channels and same thing. Those Jews that have contra opinioins and conservative have been brow beaten and bad mouthed by these main news channels. Literally called traitors and nazi’s just like conservative Black’s. This is a shame. Now we have Khmer Rouge taking over our governments with their Antifa nazi’s. My Dad was from Eastern Europe and he used to say that this country will break apart. If you want to see how good that is go to former Yugoslavia (destroyed by Clinton). All the young people are leaving for opportunities abroad due to corruption. You haven’t seen nothing yet here, but I tell you this that if a civil war comes here there will be blood to the knees and this country will be a 2-3rd rate country and opening itself up to invasion when we fight amongst ourselves just like the Roman Empire.
“The extreme nature now is largely due to government and Fed interference that distorts capitalism, not capitalism itself.”
…
Could not agree more. Light needs to be shone on current crony Kapitalism where (huge) profit is privatized and loss is socialized (taxpayers eat it).
It’s still a form of capitalism. I would argue all capitalism is crony capitalism.
Nope. I got my job because of my qualifications. No crony helped me. Also, as a white male, I had institutionalized racism (“women and minorities encouraged to apply”) working against me.
Same here but just because you got a job on merit doesn’t mean you aren’t working in a system of crony capitalism.
The curriculum is already very widespread in blue states, despite not being mandatory. Have I mentioned that my son’s freshman Lang Arts class was taught for the entire year with only books by and about blacks? In his SS class the teacher showed Fahrenheit 9/11. My daughter told me with a sigh about her junior high that “every class is about racism.”
Yeah, I can’t even watch The Daily Show any longer, as under Trevor Noah it has transformed into a show by, about and seemingly for a primary black audience. Most of the comic time is for the black comics and probably 70% of the interview guests are black and focused on some item in black culture, of which I personally don’t care anything about.
You hit the nail on the head. It isn’t really racism, it is a clash of cultures.
Parents want taxpayer-funded daycare so badly that they’ll turn a blind eye to the indoctrination and poor education.
This is true … but parents gotta work all the time, no practical choice. Thanks Fed!
But it sure is nice outside every day.
That nice weather might be the reason they have gone soft in the head. Not the same as hunting mastodons during an ice age.
Having dealt with Ozark, Missouri adopting the International Baccalaureate and trying to fight the socialist agenda that comes with it from coming into our children’s schools, the school systems have long been infiltrated. The John Birch Society calls the IB the UN on steroids. Great article if you haven’t read it. (Posted Below)
The sad thing is when parents had a chance to take a hold of their child’s education after years of calling the public schools indoctrination centers that don’t represent our values, COVID19 had the POTUS and many of these parents complaining these indoctrination centers weren’t open demanding they get them open to get the kids back in them ASAP. So much for local controls and taking control of your child’s education.
IB Program is the U.N. on Steroids (http://www.jbs.org/component/content/article/1009-commentary/6331-ib-program-is-the-un-on-steroids)
Beverly K. Eakman | John Birch Society (http://www.jbs.org/)
Monday, 07 June 2010
Back in the 1950s, international private academies, such as those in Washington, DC and New York City featured the International Baccalaureate (“IB” for short) because it was the choice of diplomats and others of European extraction. Sometimes parents there merely had a tour of duty in the U.S., but because their kids were expected to go home and take the International Baccalaureate test, their youngsters’ future prospects for college and career depended upon a rigorous scholastic regimen, which surpassed anything in American K-12 programs at that time. Many students flunked the test first time around. They got two more shots. Then it was either off to university, to trade school or something far less appealing.
The IB had its basis in the Swiss educational system. The Europeans, for all their faults, didn’t mess around with the basics of schooling back then. The curricula foreign kids got were much tougher than in America, even at most private schools. Not even pictures in elementary textbooks existed. Switzerland was considered la crème of the educational universe. If a parent had real money, that’s where they sent their kids. Former presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry, went to boarding school there. A common joke went: How do you tell a European student from an American pupil? Answer: The European kid takes three steps before his book-bag moves!
Those days are gone. Switzerland, France and most other nations are facing the same leftist ideology, political correctness and mental “health” exercises — all passed off as academics.
Nevertheless, folks are misled into believing today’s IB program is top-drawer, just like its predecessor. But the modern IB bears no resemblance to the 1950s-era program. From its inception in the 1940s, there were ideological biases toward socialism, but in areas such as math, science, literature, spelling, geography and history, it was the gold standard. Today, both the IB curricula and its tests have undergone profound changes.
Today’s IB (like most ordinary K-12 curriculums) operates in partnership with UNESCO, and therefore is consistent with United Nations dogma. The IB is U.N. dogma on steroids, and redistribution of wealth is an overriding, subliminal theme.
The biggest difference between the American creed and IB is that our Declaration of Independence insists that government is beholden to the people; it does not exist to protect itself. This view puts teeth into the notion of inalienable, individual rights, which is one reason socialist-leaning schools here at home gloss over the Declaration — as if it were Thomas Jefferson’s unsolicited opinion.
Under the U.S. Bill of Rights, government has only those rights that the people say it has. The U.N. takes the position, in its Universal Declaration on Human Rights (Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR] (http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml), Article 29, Section 3), that: “rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations” [italics mine]. This small phrase is key: Under the UDHR, people have only those rights the United Nations (ergo, government) says they have.
https://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml)
Take, for example, Flora High School in Richland County, Columbia, South Carolina. It started offering the IB program when the U.S. Department of Education announced $1.2 million targeted to fund the IB program in middle schools (2007). The idea was that they would become “feeder schools” for the IB’s high school diploma program in low-income school districts around the country. (This, by the way, is a typical method of extending potentially unpopular government programs: to start with one state, offer huge bucks to promote it as a “pilot project”; then, get the bugs out and take it national.)
The Earth Charter (http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/) comprises the backbone of IB science, ethics, literature and history programs, because that is UNESCO’s approach to foreign policy issues. Briefly, the primary elements of the Earth Charter are:
https://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/
The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are fundamentally opposite from the U.N.’s UDHR. A few examples:
If one doesn’t look too closely, IB curricula appears to mimic the American creed — that is, the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution: that all men and women are created equal; inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that government exists to protect those rights, and limited government. But the IB program, first of all, attempts to guarantee “happiness,” not just its pursuit. It also lacks the references to universal truths and values that once were staples of American classrooms. International curriculum standards promote UDHR as being the highest of all principles.
Today’s IB is committed not to a melting-pot concept, but to globalism and multiculturalism. Accurate history, correct geography, honoring perspectives or even other nationalities all wind up in a hodge-podge called “diversity” or “multiculturalism,” which is more about lip-service than substance. Globalism venerates the collective, not the individual; world government is celebrated over national sovereignty; centralization of power is honored over local control. That is why “social studies” are mostly about minimizing Western culture. So it is not surprising that American Indian and African worship would be taught in the IB program (with the more gruesome elements left out, of course, such as ritual mutilations, human sacrifice, female infanticide), while red and green ornaments at Christmas are banned from tax-supported U.S. educational institutions.
Today’s IB students approach ethics from the perspective of Muslims, Native Americans, Eastern Europeans, Africans, and so forth, without regard to their inherent rightness or wrongness, or even morality. The Judeo-Christian ethic is no longer a benchmark. Students are further expected to identify and root out cultural stereotypes. Even IB Theatre Arts integrates global concerns and international perspectives through a learning environment that emphasizes non-Western traditions.
In addition, modern IB students are steeped in fringe science. Even Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is blamed on global warming, for example. Meanwhile, medical breakthroughs such as those discovered through the Human Genome Project are beginning to be used to encourage support for selective breeding in humans. Naturally, kids who don’t even know basic science aren’t aware of this. What they don’t know will make “parent licensing” a lot easier to “sell” when it emerges full-blown in about 10 years — i.e., government deciding who is allowed to become a parent and which children should be aborted.
Health classes focus on topics like overpopulation and AIDS, not the inner workings of the human body. So, solutions to trendy pseudo-problems naturally revolve around abortion, condoms and sexual awareness, which have no track record of success, even if one were to accept the ethics. Indeed, humans are viewed as no more than complex animals.
While there is no actual course called “economics” in most IB programs, students do learn to convert various world currencies as part of a unit in social studies. But they are also immersed in redistribution theology and taught that evil consumerism in the West is denying the good life to people in Third World countries — never mind that political leaders in those countries never seem to get their act together and have a propensity for lining their own pockets with the donations supplied by those “evil consumers.”
When the IB’s public relations publications say the program utilizes a multidisciplinary approach in order to relate various curricula to each other, what kids actually see is mathematics fused with fringe science and environmental extremism. Thus they absorb flawed energy and conservation policies. As voters later on, this message is highly damaging. Combine this with biased history and, yes, you have a multidisciplinary approach, all right, but the pupils are getting a political agenda, not a well-rounded education or a coherent set of facts.
Ultimately, today’s IB is a red herring with extensive funding ties to interests advancing U.N. politics, as opposed to any transmission of substantive, core knowledge, as was the case pre-1955.
Beverly K. Eakman is a former educator and retired federal employee who served as speechwriter for the heads of three government agencies as well as editor-in-chief of NASA’s newspaper (Johnson Space Center). Today, she is a Washington, DC-based freelance writer, the author of five books, and a frequent keynote speaker on the lecture circuit. Her most recent book is Walking Targets: How Our Psychologized Classrooms Are Producing a Nation of Sitting Ducks (Midnight Whistler Publishers).
SOURCE:
“Ultimately, today’s IB is a red herring with extensive funding ties to interests advancing U.N. politics, as opposed to any transmission of substantive, core knowledge, as was the case pre-1955.”
We live in a financialized hellhole now. All, as in every single penny of wealth is simply doled out by The Fed to its favored welfare queens. There is no financial, hence nor power/influence benefit at all, accruing from being literate at all. From a “becoming successful” POV, it’s infinitely more important for a kid to mindlessly regurgitate the idiocies extolling the supposed “virtues” of central banks and unlimited government, than to know how to count beyond his fingers.
After all, being he child of a connected idiot, these kids are just going to run a hedge fund or VC, maximize “shareholder value” in an era where The Fed controls that 100%, drag someone more competent into kangaroo courts for a fleecing, collect massive pensions for being a “public servant” or some similar such nonsense anyway. Not much use wasting literacy and numeracy on that sort of mindless, actively anti-intellectual pap.
Back in the 50s, there was a Europe to rebuild. Competence at at least something, generally correlated somewhat with material success and power/influence. Which hasn’t been the case, at all, in any way, for the past 5 decades in the Ago world, nor the past 3 in Europe. Instead, every penny obtained, and every position of influence attained, by anyone; has simply been stolen from some sap who did bother to learn to count and/or do some useful work. So, why not celebrate, ad pursue, abject retardation? Billionaire style?
“Lack of principle” — I was fortunate enough to have enough education in philosophy, which I consider a basic tool, to be able to define such things as integrity. Moral language is tossed around completely absent of static definition, very much like how economic “-isms” are used in policy debate.
So instead of 3 “R”‘s, it’s the 4 “I”‘s?
LOL
Is ‘Rithmetic now racist too?
Remember when “4 eyes” was a slam to nerdy kids wearing glasses in school? Now I guess they’ll need reparations for being oppressed.
Perhaps the Fed could interfere little enough to prevent triggering wholesale brainwashing of an entire generation of kids. That brainwashing becomes accepted fact quickly once everyone in a generation believes. Not to mention the organic health our economy might have the opportunity to regenerate in the process. EDIT to admit yes, I realize I’m dreaming. But really this should not be dreamland stuff.
What does the curriculum say about “American Exceptionalism?”
Would you prefer the firing squad, noose, or “frying tonight?”
Probably nothing as equity education wants to tear down the American system.
Why is history dangerous Mish? In college I read People’s History of the United
States, a book, like all history books, with bias – however it shocked me that my public education never taught me about the facts of America’s history. The book benefits from having many primary sources – something public school history consistently lacked. I think this has its own problems, but considering how hollow history is now, it’s a step in the right direction.
What the hell does teaching capitalism is bad and “collective narratives of transformative resistance” have to do with history?
I didn’t see capitalism is bad anywhere in this curriculum.
It has a bias but there are primary sources available which were hidden from us. Ideally all history should just be a reading of primary sources and making up our own minds.
“…however it shocked me that my public education never taught me about the facts of America’s history.”
The problem is that the People’s History of the United States isn’t history. It’s “Howard Zen’s Unsubstantiated (but very creative!) Interpretation of US History”.
I wouldn’t worry about having to learn it … it will be imprinted on everyone’s chip soon enough ….