The Dumbing Down Of America: John Stossel Highlights Why Indoctrination In Our Schools Is So Devestating

One thing that we bloggers do which, by and large, the MSM does not, is we reference previous news stories and blog entries to give a greater understanding of how certain issues affect us or to show that those issues have a greater effect than is generally acknowledged. That is why John Stossel's column about the ignorance and lack of knowledge demonstrated by certain young voters reminded me of something I posted several weeks ago.

The National Education Association held a conference during which they hammered out their agenda for what they thought should be taught to children in public schools. It was quite a long list, but what is important to note are the things that were not included. Things like mathematics, history, science, reading and writing. No, instead, they proposed that children of all ages be indoctrinated in other topics like same-sex relationships, politics of global warming (not the science, the politcs as prescribed by Al Gore), political activism, gender politics, affirmative action quotas and the NEA also proposes that only state-licensed teacher do the indoctrinating so that parents are cut out of the loop as much as possible.

The National Education Association (NEA) Spells Out Its Policies
84rules
August 6, 2008

Well, John Stossel's column, which really exposes the lack of knowledge demonstrated by kids coming out of our public schools today, shows exactly what effect the efforts of the NEA and other leftist teacher's groups are having. He talked with some of those potential voters and got some very troubling responses to his questions. From ABC News:

Some people were knowledgeable. "There are two senators from each state, making a total of 100," one young voter said. Another knew that "the Bill of Rights is the first 10 amendments to the Constitution." But many of the young voters didn't seem very informed. Some didn't know how many states are in the U.S. or how many senators there are. Few could explain Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling upholding abortion rights. "Roe v. Wade is segregation maybe?" one new voter guessed. Another asked: "Was Roe v. Wade where we declared bankruptcy?" And still another wondered, "That was about a black person and a white person?"

How important those history lessons and civics classes seem now.

And it wasn't just the kids at rock concerts:

Maybe it's not fair to pick on kids at a rock concert. So "20/20" moved on to our nation's capital and spoke to prospective voters on the Washington Mall. Certainly people there will know more, won't they? People were shown some pictures of prominent Americans, like John McCain and Barack Obama. Everyone recognized Obama and McCain. And maybe half the people knew who Sarah Palin was. But Joe Biden? Most didn't recognize the Democratic vice presidential nominee. Few recognized Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, yet almost everyone recognized television's Judge Judy. "Maybe 75 percent of people can name the vice president. ... The public's knowledge of politics is shockingly low," economist Bryan Caplan said. In his book "The Myth of the Rational Voter," Caplan argues that people who know little about our government ought to stay home on Election Day. But aren't Americans always told it's their civic duty to vote?

There has been a major push for the last 30 years to dumb-down America and that push has come from leftists groups like the NEA. The effect is starting to show. Students' heads are being filled with alot of knowledge that is utterly useless to them, but useful to those who would like to control them.

We need to be taking a closer look at what our teachers are teaching our children and begin holding them accountable for failing to educate. Of course, this means that the NEA will come to their defense and demand even more indoctrination, but we have to stand firm against them too. Our children are too precious a resource to waste on the political agendas of the NEA and teacher's unions.

The end result will be voters who think there are 57 states and elected officials who pal around with domestic terrorists.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

Maybe It's Your Civic Duty Not To Vote
John Stossel
ABC News
October 9, 2008

The National Education Association (NEA) Spells Out Its Policies

Over the 4th of July weekend, the NEA held its annual convention in Washington D.C. and once again they showed the U.S. that they are not a force for educating our children, but a political lobbying group bent on taking money from taxpaying Americans and then giving that money to liberal politicians and far-left special interest groups.

They even went so far as to spell out their policies and not a single one of them has anything to do with teaching children how to read, write, do math, improve in science or understand history. They are all completely politcal and clearly show the NEA agenda as being one of indoctrination, especially when such indoctrination goes against the wishes of the parents, whom the NEA routinely ignore anyway.

From Phyllis Schlafly's July 28, 2008 column at TownHall:

The NEA fiercely opposes any competition for public schools, such as vouchers, tuition tax credits, parental option plans, or public support of any kind to non-public schools. The NEA strongly opposes designating English as our official language even though such a designation is supported by more than 80 percent of Americans. The NEA opposes home schooling unless children are taught by state-licensed teachers using a state-approved curriculum. The NEA wants to bar home-schooled students from participating in any extracurricular activities in public schools even though their parents pay school taxes, too. The NEA wants many additional (job-creating) services and programs to be provided by public schools such as early childhood education (i.e., baby-sitting for preschoolers). NEA resolutions call for "programs in the public schools for children from birth through age 8," and for "mandatory kindergarten with compulsory attendance." NEA resolutions include all the major feminist goals such as "the right to reproductive freedom" (i.e., abortion on demand); "comparable worth" (i.e., government control of wages according to feminist ideology rather than the free market); full funding for the feminist boondoggle called the Women's Educational Equity Act; and "the use of nonsexist language," i.e., censoring out all masculine words such as husband and father. The NEA even urges its affiliates to work for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. The ERA was declared dead by the U.S. Supreme Court 26 years ago. ... The NEA urges its members to offer "diverse role models" via the "hiring and promotion of diverse education employees in our public schools." The NEA puts "domestic partnerships, civil unions, and marriage" on an equal footing. The NEA wants every child, regardless of age, to have "direct and confidential access, without notification to parents, to comprehensive health education. That would include things such as learning how to use condoms for premarital sex, as well as social, and psychological programs and services." The NEA wants public schools to take over the physical and mental care of students through school clinics that provide services, diagnosis, treatment, family-planning counseling, and access to birth control methods "with instruction in their use." Family planning clinics are called on to "provide intensive counseling." The NEA wants all sex-education courses, textbooks, curricula, instructional materials and activities to include indoctrination about sexual orientation and gender identification plus warnings about homophobia. The NEA is very generous with taxpayer money spent on illegal immigrants. The NEA not only favors amnesty for illegal-immigrant students, but also in-state college tuition and financial aid to illegal-immigrant college students.

And yet American students in public schools continually lag behind other nations in terms of math and science. The NEA is just like their Socialist Dem peers in Congress. They are ignoring the important issues and pandering to a minority of far-left activists.

You can access the complete column on-line here:

The NEA Spells Out Its Policies
Phyllis Schlafly
TownHall.com
July 28, 2008