PART IV
(Click here to read Parts
I,
II, and
III)
In our previous article, we revealed some of the atheistic plans designed by Horace Mann and John Dewey to change the thinking of this modern generation of students.
At this point we must emphasize that teachers and administrators of our public schooling system are not at fault for what happened during those experimental years. There are wonderful teachers who put their whole heart into their profession and love their students, and students love them. Principals and administrators have spent countless hours, days, weeks and years trying to solve the problems of Dewey’s educational delivery system. But as we will soon see, Dewey’s system is what has failed our children – not the teachers, and not the administrators. Dewey’s plan has actually succeeded in reaching the goal – which is to fail 80% of public school students nation-wide. The decline in academic and literacy standards became so scandalous that in April of 1983 the National Commission of Excellence in Education wrote in its historic report: “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves.”
FAILING IN READINGIn May of 1988, Jack Kilpatrick wrote in his syndicated column:
“Forty percent of high school graduates entering the armed services are reading only at the
ninth-grade level. Eleventh-graders, as a group, are appallingly ignorant of American literature. Their average score on 26 questions of historical chronology was a miserable 51 percent. More than two-thirds of them could not place the Civil War.”
In 1993, the Board of Education in Washington, D.C. reported that “over 700,000 graduating seniors [nation-wide] could not read their diplomas.” (Sills, Op. Cit., p. 2)
Two years later, The Washington Times printed an article, with the headline: “U.S. Pupils Continue Slide in Reading–4th-Grade Drop Worst in Virginia.” The article quoted Colorado’s education commissioner and chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, William T. Randall, who said:
“The results of the 1994 NAEP [National Assessment of Educational Progress] reading report should serve as a wake-up call to Americans, or, better yet, a whack on the head…. Reading — as a skill, as an information-gathering process and as a recreation — is in serious trouble. The decline in test scores among 12th grade students is itself cause for alarm.”
FAILING IN HISTORYStudent knowledge in the area of history is also shockingly poor. William C. Bennett, National Secretary of Education, wrote an article in December of 1986, and said:
“There is a reason to doubt that we are successfully educating Americans about the world. A Southern Governors’ Association report recently documented the ‘international illiteracy’ in American schools: 20% of 6th-grade students surveyed could not locate the United States on a map!
“A 1985 survey by the National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed that American 11th-graders knew astonishingly little of their own history. Two-thirds of them could not place the Civil War in the correct half-century. One-third of them failed the same test for the Declaration of Independence, for Columbus, and for World War I. Nearly a third could not say which two nations were our principal enemies in World War II. And to half of them, the names Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin were unfamiliar.
“…. Am I criticizing our children? I am not. If they do not know these things, it is in most cases not their fault. Blame for this situation falls on all of us whose job it is to educate American children.” (U.S. Department of Education release, 12/5/86)
A report from the Deseret News, Thursday, April 5, 1990, stated:
“Is there any field of learning in which America’s schools are not falling down on the job?
* “Barely half of 12-graders know that presidential candidates are nominated by national conventions, or that the Constitution guarantees religious freedom.
* “Among younger students, 62% of eighth graders apparently did not know that Congress makes laws. Nearly a third could not identify such historical figures as Benjamin Franklin or Abraham Lincoln. Only 25% knew that Lincoln’s main goal in the Civil War was to preserve the union.
* “Though more than half of fourth-graders knew the names of Columbus’ three ships, only 35% knew why the explorer sailed to America in the first place.”
FAILING IN MATHIn 1982, thousands of 12th-graders in various countries took an algebra test offered by the International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IAEEA). Hong Kong ranked first, barely ahead of Japan. The United States finished 14th among the 15 countries tested–just ahead of Thailand, and just behind Hungary (From Daily News Digest, Phoenix Arizona, 8/26/87, p. 4).
Fortune Magazine made this statement about schooling in America, in its February 1, 1988 issue “The progressive preference for utility and ‘effective living’ over the inspiring and instructive richness of our cultural heritage works its way all through the curriculum and powerfully shapes what high-schoolers learn, or don’t learn. These days cooking and driving courses count as much toward a high school diploma as English, history or science courses….
“Though progressive education has been doing its work for more than 60 years, it took the upheavals of the Sixties and early Seventies to exaggerate all its tendencies and hasten the evacuation of learning from the schools.” (p. 89)
An article in Time Magazine, dated June, 1988, states further that:
“Educators have been fretting for years about the state of math instruction in American public schools. In one attempt to get students on track, Congress in 1965 passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, sending a back-to-basics message that it hoped would improve achievement in math and other subjects. Last week the results of such efforts were totaled up in a newly released study titled The Mathematics Report Card–Are We Measuring Up? Its assessment of the performance of U.S. high school students in 1986: ‘Dismal.’
“The study was conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) of Princeton, N.J., and based on tests given to 150,000 pupils from 1972 to 1986. Among the findings:
* “More than a fourth of 13-year-old middle schoolers cannot handle elementary-school arithmetic.
* “Nearly one-third of eleventh-graders say they generally do not understand what the math teacher is talking about.
* “Only 5% of 17-year-olds can handle algebra or multi-step math problems.
* Scores for blacks and Hispanics, despite modest gains, lag 7% to 11% below those for whites.
* “…. the average Japanese high schooler does better at math than the top 5% of Americans taking college-prep courses….
“…Mary Lindquist, professor of math education at Columbus College in Georgia and a co-author of the report, comes down hard on teaching methods. ‘We have taught kids to be little calculators, but they do not know why they do what they do,’ she says, adding, ‘They don’t know what numbers mean.’”
The Third Wave: Alarmed Parents Challenge Violence and A Degenerate Social Environment at School
The third group of concerned parents who decided to home school their children were those who became fearful for the safety of their children. Parents observed their children being threatened both physically and spiritually by an ever-increasing violent and deviant behavior that became prevalent in many schools. It’s becoming DANGEROUS to send our children to school!
VIOLENCEIn a Newsweek article of February, 1988, the major problems in the schools were listed in order of their importance. Their list reveals the true problems on school campuses: According to an article published in the Deseret News on August 29, 1994, conditions at many schools are frightening at best. For example, this article states that:
* Every school day, 160,000 students stay home from school because they are afraid.
* One in 11 teachers has been attacked at school. * Many teachers have considered leaving the profession because of violence and intimidation.
* Every day, 135,000 juveniles carry guns to school.
* A new poll of adults by Phi Delta Kappa, the professional education fraternity, ranks violence as the No. 1 problem in public schools and poor discipline as No. 2.”
Daily inner-city news reports tell of missing children, or violence on the school grounds, in neighborhoods, and violence of every kind within nearly every sector of life.
GANGSThe Associated Press released an article from New Orleans in March of 1990 which gave some frightening statistics and observations about the activities of youth groups–commonly called “gangs.”
Apparently they are increasing at an alarming rate and feeding off the public schools as “gathering places”. As the article notes:
“Some of the issues raised at the 17th National Conference on Juvenile Justice…give the impression that America is not a great place to raise your kids.
“‘Gangs are coming to a community near you,’ Ronald Stephens, director of the National School Safety Center in Encino, Calif., told the conference….
“The number of gangs are growing, Stephens said, with total membership exceeding 100,000 in the nation’s three largest cities: Los Angeles has 800 gangs, Chicago 120 and New York 50. The average age of a gang member is 23.
“‘There’s a gang for everyone: both sexes, many ages and every ethnic group…. The members are violent, enterprising and often free of remorse,’ he said.
“‘Kids are coming into gangs at an earlier age and staying in a longer time,’ he said. ‘Female activities are growing. Many are mules, carrying drugs or weapons.’”
“Who belongs to gangs?” asks a Deseret News editor, March, 1990. Here we read:
“Youngsters of all races, colors and creeds. Frequently, membership is made up of minority youths, youngsters who have trouble in school, those with troubled home environments, those who are lonely or lack success in their lives and who seek and find acceptance in the gang culture.
“In areas where gangs operate, the temptation, the peer pressure, the ‘easy’ money from drugs and the physical intimidation of young people can introduce fear, compliance in criminal acts and drug use into the lives of youth who might otherwise avoid such behavior….
“Parents may do their best and still see children fall victim to other forces, but no community program can ever really replace the home in solving the problem of gangs.”
DEVIANT BEHAVIORDeviant behavior has been introduced into the school systems in a variety of ways. Most openly, by attempting to make these practices seem like they are merely”acceptable alternate life styles.” For example:
“School teachers in Madison, Wisconsin, are taught how they can integrate lesbian history into the public school curriculum. They are told in district-sponsored conferences that being gay is as acceptable as being heterosexual; that gay students need role models; that lesbian teachers in the district can provide those role models; and that those who disagree are ‘homophobic.’
“‘Subtlety is the key,’ the teachers are told. ‘Blatant, radical change only invites the negative reactions of Christian parents.’ The most effective way to incorporate homosexual ideas is through ‘the subtle introduction of terms, questions, stories involving lesbian couples and other hidden messages.’” (Focus on the Family Citizen, June 18, 1990, p. 10)
To see how far, how degenerate, and how brazen many have become, in the introduction of specific sex educational techniques in the classroom, one need only read the article printed in Education Reporter, in July of 1987, entitled: “‘Anatomical Dolls’ Stir Sex Ed Debate.”
Just a few years ago, a memorandum was sent out from the Los Angeles Unified School District, Office of Instruction, stating:
“On May 18, 1992, the Board of Education passed a resolution recognizing June of each year as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. The resolution is based on District policy contained in the “Educating for Diversity” document, which states as a District goal the development of “students who appreciate and respect diversity and understand the roles and contribution of people of diverse groups.” The document calls upon the District to include in the curriculum the historical and current role and treatment of homosexuals in society, “the contributions of gay and lesbian people in history and culture, and the current status of homosexuals as it relates to social policy, family diversity and human relations.” (Don Sills, Op. Cit., p. 1)
Other amoral behaviors are taught right in the classroom, in what are called “survival games.” These are killing games in disguise, a euthanistic, genocidal approach to solving problems. The students have to decide who will live and who will die. Writes author Dr. Murray Norris, president of Valley Christian University in Fresno, California:
“In one workshop for Oregon teachers, a group of teachers decided they would save a homosexual architect so he would be able to rebuild the world after a nuclear holocaust. At the same time, they would relegate to death, some other more normal person. Students playing the same game have given the same reason for saving the same person, while killing an older person they felt would not contribute as much to the community. Actually there is no real right answer to this game as all the answers are right when there is no right or wrong.
“These survival games, and other ‘reality’ games which teach cheating and bribery as part of everyday life, have come under fire by many parents. In Howard County, Maryland, the survival games have been dropped in public schools–that had provided them for children from kindergarten through grade twelve.” (“Weep For Your Children,” Op. Cit., p.8)
More appropriate for another study on the social, ethical, and moral trends of the nation would be the statistics of abortions, illegitimate births, crime, graft in high places, greed in low places, etc.–all of which are simply products of an educational system, inasmuch as people tend to behave according to what they believe. People believe in what they have been taught.
PERVERTED VALUES CLARIFICATIONOne of the areas of greatest concern for many parents who have elected to take their children home, is to protect them from the teaching of perverted values. One of the most popular ways of doing this is a process called “situation ethics.” One of the best examples of this teaching technique is recommended in a manual called “Sex Education: Teacher’s Guide and Resource Manual,” produced by Planned Parenthood of Santa Cruz, California. One of their major stories is entitled “Alligator River.”
Here is that story quoted directly from their manual:
(This information taken from the California Monitor of Education, September, 1981, p. 7)
"The Alligator River" story is a widely used technique to help people clarify their values and become more aware of their own attitudes. It tends to be a fun way to initiate classroom discussion.
It seems that students face confusion on every side. In addition to discussing stories like the one above in class, they watch adults in high places appear determined to crush any desire a young person might have to obey parental admonitions and remain virtuous. In 1987 the National Education Association endorsed the distribution of contraceptives to students at school health clinics “in an effort to reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy” (Ogden Standard Examiner, July 5, 1987, p. 10A).
SATANISMOne more area of “learning” that is growing by frightening proportions in the public school classroom, is the actual yet subtle study and teaching of Satanism. “An elementary reading textbook series called Impressions, published by Hold Rinehart and Winston of Canada, is alarming parents throughout the country. The curriculum celebrates witches in poems and encourages students to cast spells and find ‘familiar spirits.’ Some stories focus on violent death, while others have a New Age flavor. One story even centers on cannibalism. Artwork in the teacher’s edition is consistently dark and gruesome. Teachers are also advised in the guide that ‘there are no…universal truths.’ “Parents who complain to school boards about Impressions are told in several instances that the texts were part of an early Canadian edition not intended for the United States. But the offensive texts continue to appear in local school districts.
“A Northern California mother walked into her fifth-grader’s room during his school’s open house to find the youngsters gathered in a circle playing a Dungeons & Dragons-style game called The Wizard. The children cast spells on each other. A bulletin board explains the purpose of the game: to progress from one ‘spelling power’ level to the next. Humans are at the lowest end of the spectrum, having ‘very limited powers’ and ‘at the mercy of most monsters.’ Higher levels include enchanters, sorcerers, magicians and the Wizard.
“Shocked by what she saw, the parent questioned the teacher, who sees nothing wrong with the game. So, the mother began a lengthy curriculum challenge…. and the matter is still undecided.” (Focus on the Family Citizen, Op. Cit.)
No wonder parents–including former Secretary of Education, William Bennett–are crying out for sound moral education! His excellent symposium, as quoted in Insight Magazine, January 5, 1987, should be required reading for every teacher in public as well as private schools.
Summary of the Three Waves of EducationWe have already demonstrated that generally there are three types of families who are extremely concerned for the welfare of their children’s education:
We have already demonstrated that generally there are three types of families who are extremely concerned for the welfare of their children’s education:
1. Those who were part of the first wave, desiring more control over the CONTENT OF CURRICULUM being taught;
2. Those who were part of the second wave, desiring a greater level of ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT; and
3. Those who are part of the third wave, desiring an educational ENVIRONMENT free from violence and deviant behavior.
To further assess what parents are doing about these dangerous educational trends, we need to examine two vast groups who are steadily increasing in numbers across the entire nation: Home schooling families, and private schools.
