Posted on 11/29/2005 7:52:29 AM PST by rob777
On Jan. 22, 1997, President Bill Clinton made a speech to a suburban Chicago audience so friendly that it interrupted him with applause 29 times. One line in his speech, however, was greeted with stony silence: "We can no longer hide behind our love of local control of the schools."
Clinton is gone from the White House, but the federalization laws of his administration - Goals 2000, School-to-Work, and Workforce Investment - are still in place. President George W. Bush, who says the federal government has "a role to play in education," has merely substituted labels more comforting to Republicans: standards, tests, and accountability.
Now we find that the process is no longer just federalization; it's globalization. Who would have guessed that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization would be positioning itself to design curricula for U.S. schools?
Former President Ronald Reagan withdrew the United States from UNESCO on Dec. 31, 1984, because it was corrupt, anti-Western and a vehicle for far-left propaganda. Unfortunately, President George W. Bush rejoined UNESCO in 2003.
UNESCO's efforts in the 1960s and 1970s to influence U.S. school curricula were unsuccessful. But now UNESCO has found a sugar daddy.
On Nov. 17, 2004, at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, UNESCO signed a 26-page "Cooperation Agreement" with Microsoft Corp. to develop a "master curriculum (syllabus)" for teacher training in information technologies based on standards, guidelines, benchmarks and assessment techniques. The Agreement states that the syllabus will "form the basis for deriving training content to be delivered to teachers," and "UNESCO will explore how to facilitate content development."
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates initialed every page in his own handwriting. You can read the agreement at www.eagleforum.org/links, but Microsoft has fixed it so you can't print it out.
Following the signing of the agreement, UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura explained it in a speech. One of its goals, he said, is "fostering Web-based communities of practice including content development and worldwide curricula reflecting UNESCO values."
No doubt that is agreeable to Gates, because the agreement states "Microsoft supports the objectives of UNESCO as stipulated in UNESCO's constitution."
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has helped to finance the National Governors Association plan in Idaho to train students to work in the global economy. Idaho is one of six states selected by the National Governors Association for pilot projects.
The National Governors Report of December 2004, when Virginia's Democratic Gov. Mark Warner was chairman, makes clear that the purpose is to use the public schools to build a planned economy. The report speaks approvingly of "using schools to feed workers into selected corporations," "identifying their state's key industries and needs for skilled workers in order to define a common agenda between their work force and economic development programs," "the integration of education, economic development, and work force development policies," "seamless connections between the components of the (education) system and with the skill demands of the work place," and "connecting work force development to economic needs."
It's hard to see any difference between the 2004 National Governors Association plan and the earlier plans floated when Clinton was president. The plan uses a lot of mumbo jumbo to change the United States from free enterprise to a planned economy, and to turn public school students into a compliant work force for multinational corporations.
The new buzzwords are "career pathways," "education pipeline," "redesigning high schools," "smaller learning communities," and "cluster-based economic development strategies." Recycled buzzwords from prior years include "school-to-work," "work force development system reform," "business-education partnerships," and "meaningful outcome measures."
Six public hearings on the proposals were held in Idaho in October, and 500 people showed up at the Boise hearing. The reaction was overwhelmingly negative from both parents and teachers.
The Idaho Board of Education announced this month that after receiving "hundreds of comments," it has made "modifications to Idaho's plan to redesign high schools and middle schools," but those changes are minimal. The original plan would have required all sixth-grade students to select their learning plan for a specific career pathway and choose "career focused electives" to enter the work force.
Under the revised plan, students will have to do this only by the eighth grade. But how many eighth-graders do you know who can (or should) map out their career pathway and narrow their education options to meet that single goal?
What about the colossal conceit of politicians and businessmen who think they can predict the jobs that eighth-graders can or will want to fill in their future years? Planned economies are always a failure. Students should be educated to reach their potential- whatever it is.
We should of stayed out of it.
Hmmn. Open borders, globalizing everything. Sounds very conservative.
Being rich doesn't make one smart, does it?
Tech pings.
Seriously, this has more to do with politics than with tech.
If you ever get a chance, find a copy of Andrew Carnegie's speech "The Gospel of Wealth." It reminds me of Gates. I tried to find a link on the internet, but all I could find were excerpts which did not have the parts I was looking for. Carnegie basically justifies underpaying labor because they would just waste their money anyway. As a wealthy man, it is his responsibility to give them what they really need--libraries, schools, etc. He really did give lots of money for these things and that's admirable. But he didn't believe the poor should have control over their own spending and choices in life. While Gates certainly does not underpay labor, he seems to believe it is incumbent on him to determine things the rest of society needs--and finance it. It's a dangerous position, IMHO.
Speaking of flame wars--should we ping him?
I think this article is a dupe...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1530253/posts
Thanks, it does sound scary.
It isn't protected. And if it were, it's trivial to break.
"I think this article is a dupe..."
Oops, I usually am better about checking.
If Bill Gates is such a great capitalist then why does he even give the time of day to anything having to do with the UN? Conclusion, Bill Gates SUCKS as a capitalist. He's actually yet another child of the 1960s who is wealthy IN SPITE OF HIS OWN IDIOTIC, ANTI-CAPITALIST UTOPIAN LEANINGS!
It was purely for the flame value. :-)
I guess when I don't use MS, not only am I unAmerican, I am anti-UN, too.
1948 -- UNESCO president and Fabian Socialist, Sir Julian Huxley, calls for a radical eugenic policy in UNESCO: Its Purpose and Its Philosophy. He states: "Thus, even though it is quite true that any radical eugenic policy of controlled human breeding will be for many years politically and psychologically impossible, it will be important for UNESCO to see that the eugenic problem is examined with the greatest care and that the public mind is informed of the issues at stake that much that is now unthinkable may at least become thinkable."
here it is!
Yep! Itzlzha, you might be interested in this.
Hmm...and here I was thinking I was just "tin-foiling" when I began to suspect the Bush Clan of not exactly having America's best interests at heart...
More and more, I am REALLY beginning to hate the Bush/Klinton clans and their plans to bring down America...and their accomplices in both parties!
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