The De-Westernization Of Education

From "Common Core: Phasing Western Culture Out of Education":

This week, left-wing outlets, like NPR’s quiz show, Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me! and the Huffington Post, as well as the British Telegraph, expressed surprise and concern that the new national Common Core standards will destroy the love of literature. The leftist outlets focused on favorites like Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird, but couldn’t seem to connect this unconstitutional federalization of education with their favorite presidential candidate.

They should also be concerned about what the recently released test questions reveal about what the feds want: happy workers for the State.

The test questions, which will eventually be given to every single student, are the kind you could expect from a close pal of Bill Ayers, co-founder of the terrorist group Weatherman-turned-“Distinguished Professor of Education.” Ayers’s close colleague, Stanford Education Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, education director of Obama’s presidential transition team, heads content specifications for testing under one of the consortia, Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium which received $176 million in stimulus funds to develop testing under Common Core—now the law of the land, at least in 46 states. (The rest of the $360 million for testing was given to PARCC, Partnership for Assessment Readiness for College and Career.)

SBAC recently released 16 sample test questions. They reveal that the “transformation” of American education that Darling-Hammond had eagerly anticipated will be fulfilled—toward making students into global citizens, devoid of a sense of cultural heritage, and content with performing quick tasks that require little concentration.

[...]

There are no references to the “classic myths and stories” or “America’s Founding Documents”...

[...]

Apparently “twenty-first century skills” and “higher order thinking” don’t call for lengthy works of literature, like Shakespeare’s plays, Little House on the Prairie, or even favorite novels of liberals. More likely, students will be given a short passage and asked how a sod house affects the ecosystem. The wallpaper for the Teaching Matters website features a bulletin board with projects on biodiversity. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is advancing the use of their materials regarding environmental regulations for Common Core. California’s Invasive Plant Inventory is on the recommended informational reading list, as is EPA Executive Order 13423....

[...]

Literary works promote an American cultural identity, pass on Western Judeo-Christian values, inspire independent thought, and develop the imagination. Their elimination is likely to produce citizens incapable of understanding the proper–and limited–role of the state.

There is much more in the article, including embedded links.

If you have children or grandchildren in the public school system, you MUST read this article!

Plato had it right:

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.

So does Proverbs 22:6 (KJV):

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Are Obama's Ideas Un-American?

If not un-American, the ideas that propel Obama's re-election campaign are certainly unprecedented. 

The president's central case rests on the idea that individuals should view government as society's moral center, the engine of prosperity and the arbiter of fairness. Traditionally speaking, that's not a very American notion.

Surely, he's not the first president to think it, but he's probably the first to say it -- and he says it over and over again. Take Obama's recent remarks to a crowd in Roanoke, Va.: "Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own."

Supporters protested that Republicans were highlighting one line from the text, unfairly portraying Obama's comments as an attack on business owners (which they were). But the broader context of the remark is even worse, because it's the president's definition of "this unbelievable American system" that's the real problem.

Employing Obama's logic, one could argue that nearly everything the president uses in his everyday life exists only because of so-called profit-mongering and selfishness -- most often in spite of government. The Internet languished for years in obscurity because government is rarely sensitive to the needs of consumers. And does anyone believe that individuals working together voluntarily (maybe with the help of some fat cat private equity firms) would not have come up with similar technology -- or that they would be unable to build bridges or roads themselves?

Obama has it all backward. It is the charity of a prosperous free society that allows people to become community organizers or attain "free" health care. Washington rarely helps the free market prosper, but a prosperous private sector is what allows Washington to throw billions of dollars into unproductive but morally pleasing environmental projects and dependency programs favored by the president. Society needs the rule of law to function, not another parent.

Click on the title to read the whole article at Reason. 

Music: "America to Me"

This song always makes me cry tears of happiness and patriotism:




The choral version: