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A New And Improved Socialism??
By:  Theresa Harmon for The Federal Observer

According to John Dewey, the father of “progressive education" and a devout socialist, literacy is the greatest obstacle to socialism.  Got that?  Literacy, meaning real literacy (not “See Spot run"), is the greatest obstacle to socialism!!  After all, if people can’t read and grasp the causes and effects of historical data, what real understanding can they have of the pitfalls and problems associated with certain forms of government?  That’s right; none!  Of course, this is necessary if the future citizens of the United States are to be taught to view themselves as “global workers” in a “global economy” as opposed to United State citizens with all the inherent rights and responsibilities which that entails.

We, as parents, have been hearing quite a hullabaloo lately regarding “education reform” from the Bush administration and current national leaders, but just what do the power elite really mean by education reform?  We have been told that this new education system is a "return to the basics".  What, exactly, are the 'basics', you ask.  In document after document, the "basics" are defined as everything except academics.  In High Skills, High Wages, put out by the Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board, they define "basics" as "teamwork, critical thinking, making decisions, communication, adapting to change and understanding whole systems."  Notice that you’ll find no history, no literature and no reading comprehension here.

We have all also been informed that this new education system will raise the standards to meet world-class standards.  What?!?!   Up until the 1960s, this Country had the greatest education system in the world and, until the 1950s, didn’t have all the compulsory attendance laws in place to ensure our and our children’s forced participation!  That's why there are more foreigners found on American campuses than vice versa.  For the United States to change our curriculum to meet world class standards means that we must lower our standards, not raise them (just as we are seeing done in individual classrooms where the focus is now on “group” projects instead of individual achievements).

Parents are told that this new education system will produce the world class workers of the 21st century.   Workers?!  Only in socialist and communist countries are people referred to as workers.  In the United States, we refer to people as employees.  Quite obviously, with education reform, we are talking about turning the U.S. into a socialist society!

We have all been told how this new education system will provide school-to-work transition.  I attended a Workforce Development conference just this past winter that was attended by local business leaders and area “education” leaders that out-lined in great detail just how businesses would benefit from more involvement into education and what would occur after each child has demonstrated that he or she has mastered the valued processes — the wanted attitudes, values, and beliefs — the desired outcomes with just enough of the “basics” thrown in to keep the public happy and complacent!  Yesterday and this morning on our local news channel, the new Director of Schools (appointed, not voted in, mind you) stated that businesses who contributed to schools should “get results”.  What results, you might wonder?  Well…..the news article never elaborated on that part of the equation. Of course, you surely won’t see this same Director touting the fact that millions of American taxpayers (many of whom don’t have children in school) aren’t getting their desired results from their forced “contributions” and, what’s more, you won’t!

Young children are now being groomed to accept these new programs beginning in 1^st grade.  These programs begin kicking into high gear during the 8^th grade and really get rolling by grade 10.  For the next two years, the child will be put on a college pathway or a school-to-work pathway.  There are few children that, by  the age of sixteen, know what they want to do when they get out of school.  The reality of this is that children will be tracked into jobs just like they do in socialist countries and, be not deceived, these are mostly low paying positions and slots which local businesses need filled (remember the Director of Schools from above?).  According to Apple and Beane (ASCD, 1995) in Democratic Schools,

…”despite political and educational rhetoric to the contrary, most economic forecasts show that a large proportion of the jobs the modern economy is creating are low-skilled, part-time, and poorly paid.”

 If we get beyond the rhetoric to the reality, what we find is propaganda at its best.  Parents who are listening to the pretty phraseology aren’t realizing that things don’t really mean what they think.  Just as with America 2000 (under George Bush, Sr.) and Goals 2000 and School-to-Work (under Bill Clinton), this No Child Left Behind legislation is leading us toward an ultimate conclusion, one that will effectively restructure our Constitutional Republic into the Socialist States of Amerika without anyone ever having fired a single shot.  A brief look at real history tells us that the Communistic and Socialistic power-elite realized long ago that in order to “take over” the United States, they would have to do so from within and, people, that is EXACTLY what is happening!  Our Constitutional Republic has been (and is being) subverted in favor of a collectivist/socialistic state, and we have been sitting back and allowing it to happen, because we were afraid of being branded with whatever detrimental label was the current fad of the day!  The Country that we are leaving to our children in very few ways even resembles the Country given to us by our parents and bears practically no resemblance to the Country given us by our Founders.

 The current trends in education are making an even more radical jump to erasing all knowledge of what made this Country the greatest on earth from the minds of our children and, as in the past, most folks seem blissfully ignorant of where the road is leading.  Of course, the current generation of parents attended public schools during the 60s and 70s when the modes of socialist and collective thinking began to take hold in the Nation’s schoolhouses.  Therefore, most have no conception of just how far down this dangerous path we’ve already come nor how closely we are following in the footsteps of Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia.  Both governments fervently taught that socialism and collectivism were the foundations of government and prosperity as opposed to personal liberty and responsibility.  Both governments realized in their early days that to effectively control their citizenry, they must first control education.  Anyone read the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire lately? What about The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich?  Sadly, our own government has also realized this and is now making use of the same rhetoric used by Hitler and Stalin (along with an entire host of lesser dictators back to the Caesars of Rome) to effectively change the American value set and way of life into something that those in power have decided will “benefit” that global economy.  Just like the good Germans who refused to see what was happening under their very noses or who had no access to information other than the government written propaganda, we are blindly being led down the path to a new form of government right here at home, and few people seem to be remembering their history.

 Let me leave you with a quote that seems more than relevant in light of current “educational” trends and one that is proving more prophetic by the day:

 "Miracles do not cluster. Hold on to the Constitution of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands-- what has happened once in six thousand years may never happen again. Hold on to your Constitution, for if the American Constitution shall fail there will be anarchy throughout the world." -- Daniel Webster

 Are we going to hold on to our Constitution or are we going to continue watching as it is trod underfoot until it is no longer recognizable?  It’s a choice that each of us must make and make quickly if we are to leave to our children a Country that values  individuals and their potential instead of only seeing them as worker bees who can somehow benefit government and business.

For more of Theresa Harmon’s articles, see  

http://www.federalobserver.com/archive.php?section

=%3Ci%3EHarmon+on+Line%3C%2Fi%3E

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