Nov. 12, 1997
In the event you had any lingering doubts that a movement exists
which is intent on turning the United States into one great unwashed mass
of "Stupid," last week's State Board of Education meeting in Austin should
settle the argument.
The radical movement of the 1960s has uncloaked after all these
years. Scary part is, they're now in charge at the White House, in Congress,
in the Governor's Mansion, in the Legislature, the Texas Education Agency,
in the newsrooms of major TV networks and daily newspapers, and in the
boardrooms of the big multinational corporations which rape our planet.
Unfortunately, it no longer looks like we can stop them. Like
those five courageous members of the State Board of Education who fought
against the adoption of "rain-forest algebra," we simply don't have the
votes.
In Texas, we now have an Outcomes-Based state curriculum guideline,
the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Thanks to the nine State
Board dolts in Austin — one of whom, unfortunately, represents us — our
kids will now have the opportunity to learn about everything except algebra
in algebra class.
Remember that big fight we had last summer over the TEKS? The
main argument against a more specific state curriculum was that the state
"can't dictate methodology." Yet in published reports on the state textbook
hearings, the argument in favor of "rain-forest algebra" was that it met
the state's guidelines for an "integrated" teaching methodology.
I'd echo a previous guest columnist and urge people to pull their
kids out of public schools, but I'm afraid that would only lead to jail
terms for parents. I don't doubt that our esteemed Legislature will soon
make "failure to parent properly" (read that: instill Politically Correct
values) some type of jailable offense, under the guise of "protecting the
children."
Lest you think such an idea utter nonsense, watch what happens
when your child is ill for a protracted period of time. I've personally
experienced over-zealous KISD bureaucrats threatening parents with legal
action, accusing them of "lying" about their children being sick.
What most rankles me is the subterfuge being employed to advance
this agenda. Any time you hear the phrase "... to protect the children,"
you can bet it will be another program to enable government to intrude
on privacy and individual freedom.
Humbug, you say? The federal government is currently developing
a microchip which can be implanted just under the skin of children, presumably
to track them in the event they're ever kidnapped, get lost or run away.
One of the people who helped develop this technology says it's already
been tested on a U.S. military base in New York in 1995.
What the government isn't going to tell you is that the same
technology can not only transmit data (ostensibly to help searchers find
kids) — it can also be programmed to receive data.
Texas is now developing its "Healthy Kids Corporation," to ensure
that all children have "adequate medical coverage." Wouldn't want to lose
any of them, now, would we?
I just wish folks like the President and the Governor would drop
the pretense: education "reform" doesn't have diddlysquat to do with "making
America competitive in a global economy." In fact, quite the reverse is
the real goal.
The end ideal is a socialist Utopia in which the United States
is merely a subject state to a greater world government; in which multi-national
corporations are protected entities; and in which 80 percent of schoolchildren
are programmed "from cradle to grave" to be happy, obedient servants to
the moneyed interests in charge of the planet.
They've been manipulating failure in the education system since
at least the late 1960s with the express intent of creating a "crisis"
in education — which, of course, they have the convenient "solution" for.