Posted on 06/23/2006 6:25:24 AM PDT by cinives
Several weeks ago, I was sitting in a hotel lobby sipping a Coke and visiting with my friend Michael Reagan who had just given a speech before several hundred people. Mike, as you may know, is a best-selling author, radio talk-show host, Fox News contributor, and eldest son of President Ronald Reagan.
A few minutes into our conversation, Mike remembered something he wanted to tell me. “Brannon,” he said, cocking his head in my direction, “I thought of you this morning when I read the newspaper.”
I wondered if he were about to crack a joke at my expense but noted that there was no trace of a smirk on Mike’s face. “Really?” I wondered, “What made you think of me?”
“Well,” Mike said before pausing for an instant (I wonder where he picked up that mannerism) “I was thinking of you because I read in the paper that Jeb Bush has become the first governor in America to sign into law a state-wide requirement that ninth-grade high school students pick a career major and focus on that major from ninth through twelfth grade. You’ve predicted something like that on my radio show more than once since 1993—also in your book for which I wrote the foreword.”
Mike was correct. It’s a prediction I hoped Americans would be wise enough to stop before it came to pass. As the education reporter and often the guest host of Michael Reagan’s program I had spend countless hours warning Mike’s listeners about Goals 2000, School-to-Work, Outcome-Based Education, HR6, No Child Left Behind, and other federal plans that have the goal of merging education with industrial production, thus turning our schools into vocational centers where students are “trained” rather than educated.
Republicans and Democrats alike are to blame for nailing this tenth plank of the Communist Manifesto into the educational foundation of schools right here in the good old U.S. of A. Lest you think I exaggerate, the tenth principle of the Communist Manifesto states that the goal of schooling for society’s children should be the “combination of education with industrial production.”
Starting in 1992, the transformation of America’s schools into vocational centers greatly accelerated. T.G. Stict, who served under Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, has observed, “Many companies have moved operations to places with cheap, relatively poorly educated labor. What may be crucial, they say, is the dependability of a labor force and how well it can be managed and trained, not its general education level.” In other words, as long as we can control people, who cares what they know?
Through programs like School-to-Work the “State” decides which children will go on to college and which go straight into the workforce following their “training certification.” State education authorities review a student's educational history and determine the career track the individual will follow. The desires of Big Brother, I mean, the State take precedent over the wishes of the individual and his or her parents. Those who conform to governmental standards are rewarded with further education and a good job. Those who do not reflect the liberal, Secular Humanist worldview will likely be pushed to vocational jobs where their Christian worldview is less likely to have an impact on the culture.
The California PTA has noted that “School-to-Work is based on the premise that government control can do a better job of training individuals, satisfying occupational demands and managing the development of economic activities than can the effort and initiative of millions of individuals.”
The draconian educational measures of the past fifteen years have made strange bedfellows. President George H. W. Bush gave us America 2000. Although President Clinton later changed the name to Goals 2000, he supported the program and pushed through several federal bills that further meshed education with industrial production. President George W. Bush expanded what his father and President Clinton had begun when he cozied up with Ted Kennedy to give us a massive federal program with the irresistible sound-bite name, No Child Left Behind. Florida Governor Jeb Bush then took advantage of federal funds available from his older brother’s program and on June 5, 2006 signed into law the ninth grade career major requirement. Florida is the first state in the nation to require this state-wide. Under Florida’s new law, career exploration will begin as early as sixth grade. By ninth grade, students will need to declare their career major. Several other states are not far behind and will soon join Florida in this radical American implementation of the Communist Manifesto.
Did you know what you wanted to do when you were in ninth grade? Do you wish the government had decided for you then what you would be doing for the rest of your life to earn a living? Would that seem like a heavy-handed restriction on your freedom to be self-determining? (In case you need help on this test, the right answers are No-No-Yes.)
Students will be encouraged to select a career that will direct them either along a vocational track or a college-bound track. With the assistance (or coercion, perhaps?) of school career counselors, students will be channeled into the path that is “right” for them. But here’s one of the big problems that is guaranteed to arise: If a ninth grade student who decides on the auto mechanic track, for example, changes his mind in the eleventh or twelfth grade, he’s stuck without the schooling needed to go to college upon graduation. At that point, a vocational track student will not have taken courses needed for acceptance into college.
Some of you may consider this a good idea since not everyone should be college bound. And I agree that in many regards, college is a waste of time and money unless a person aspires to be a doctor, lawyer, nurse, engineer, or other such professional. Several studies reveal that many, if not most, of America’s millionaires do not have college degrees. Such notables as Rush Limbaugh, Bill Gates, President Harry Truman, and the late Peter Jennings never graduated from college. Yet while a college degree is not needed for success, an academically sound education from kindergarten through twelfth grade is essential for every student regardless of their post-high school plans. It is the only way to have an informed citizenry.
Perhaps even more critical, the federal government is not qualified to project the supply and demand of the workforce two years—much less ten—from now. Trying to do so is one of the stultifying aspects of centrally planned economies (remember the Soviet Union?). Whether the plan is called ready-to-work, school-to-work, school-to-career, small learning communities, or any other soundbite-crafted moniker, it is still a fulfillment of the Communist Manifesto, not the Declaration of Independence or any other foundational American document.
The frightening reality is that codifying these programs will only make an already dangerous situation worse. Even without Florida-style programs solidly in place yet, many students are already finding themselves channeled where they don’t want to go. In part 2 of this series, we will examine several examples of how honor students that are also conservative Christians have been funneled into jobs as bartenders and waitresses. And bear in mind as elections approach that you can’t simply assume a given Republican or Democrat is for or against such programs just because of party affiliation. You’ll have to find out where each individual candidate stands. Educational communism is not a party-specific issue. So be careful not to vote for someone who will add a communist plank to an election platform.
I also hate the trend towards "public service" requirements for high school graduation. I propose replacing such things with one simple requirement: During the summer, get a job! If you know what you want to do, say plumbing, the high school can set you up with a part-time job with plumbers who are looking for extra help, and are willing to train somebody. If not plumbing, the school will have many other positions to choose from.
If you find your own job, great! If no job, an internship can fill the requirement. If you're too poorly motivated to find a job or internship before the summer starts, most schools are already set up to assign public service hours. (Sitting on your ass watching the tube all summer won't fulfill the requirement, sorry.)
It's important that the kids be allowed to pocket whatever money they earn with their summer jobs, because that teaches the most important lesson of all: work earns you money, your money, to spend on whatever you like. More and harder work earns more money, and money is good to have. As they gain skills, they also gain a work ethic, and all without displacing the education that makes free citizens.
High school vocational training doesn't teach that lesson. It teaches that work is as unrewarding a chore as math homework.
Community service doesn't teach that lesson. It teaches that work is something you owe to society as an onerous debt, which can be reneged on through shirking. Or they do it and get through their penance, thinking at the end, "well, that sucked".
A good job teaches that work is fun, and at the end of the summer they have more money than they've ever had in their lives. A bad job teaches the fate that awaits all who don't study hard enough in school to get into college. Either way, a winning lesson.
We can't confuse 'idiot' with 'subversive.'
Intelligent people are often the most effective Machiavellian evil-types. Jeb Bush, George W and George HW Bush, Bubba and Shrillery Clinton are all quite intelligent. Interestingly, they all work to implement policies that promote globalism, even if advertised as opposite.
I assert that ALL professional politicians had to sell their souls early-on in order to get to the national stage.
The article correctly points out that prominent scumbags from both major parties have supported this subversion. Both sides simply parrot the rhetoric their partisans want to hear and then implement the policies that destroy us.
The corruption has thoroughly permeated the ranks of 'professional' polticos. Anyone above perhaps the rank of dog-catcher is not working for us, and we're fools if we believe their promises.
Clearly Jeb was a product of an early version of this program. Loaded onto a leadership track in 9th grade. When he finally assumed the shape of his container they broke it off him and behold, habemus gubernator.
And your kids can be just as authentic if you give them a fresh start in the morning with Brother Jeb's No Child Left Alone, in 57 state-approved Jello-mold styles.
Fully endorsed (and hilariously defended by many moonbats) by both John Kerry and John Edwards in the primary season in 2004.
To my knowledge neither of them recanted, although they did wash their websites clean of the issue before November. Apparently there were enough wingless moonbats who resisted the urge to fling themselves over this cliff, and Kerry/Edwards realized it was a non-starter at best.
To agree with you 100%, I would have to accept nearly every conspiracy theory around.
Instead, my belief is that these people really are not that smart or that machievellian.
As politicans, they are slick and sly and good at fooling others, but they are also not intelligent enough to understand the true import of many policies that are recommended to them. Their own intellectual discourse on an issue does not go deep enough for them to follow and analyze many of the ramifications of a proposed idea.
They are, intellectually, idiots.
The bad influences on them come from "behind" them but plentiful enough and well placed enough to achieve their desired influence on the policies recommended to these idiots.
I do not think that Reagan was fooled by them as often.
He was like a Lincoln, in that his great intelligence allowed him to see to the heart of a matter, past the points it was being sold on - good or bad.
The press portrayed Reagan's looking right past their political lines as his stupidity, when their anger at him actually reflected just how stupid they were, and how far below Reagan they stood - they just didn't get it.
Where is our Reagan now?
As Reagan's Undersecretary of Education, she witnessed the agreement under which America adopted the Soviet education system.
The e-book, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, is now available as a free download.
Agreed, not everyone needs to go to college. In fact, I've had a lot of people in my classes who should never have been in college. They'd have been better off, personally and financially, learning a trade. But saying that is different from saying the school should have taught them a trade instead of aiming them for college, where they really didn't belong.
The object of the schools should be to turn out people who can vote intelligently, properly serve on a jury, understand what they read in a newspaper, make sense of things like timetables and maps, and otherwise function in a technological society. Let the employer teach them specific skills related to a particular job.
As others have noted in this thread, at age 18 (let alone age 14), most of us don't really know what career we want. As I look back, at age 18 I'd never have guessed how things actually turned out for me. I picked a good major in college, and it prepared me for a lot of what I've done, but I've never worked specifically in that major. I'm glad I didn't have some bureaucrat picking a career for me when I was 18.
Agreed. It is a team effort to subvert this country, not just the faces we see publically.
my belief is that these people really are not that smart or that machievellian.
Agreed.
If, however, one defines Machiavellian as willing to do whatever is necessary to achieve a goal, these folks have so 'whored themselves out' decades ago I would argue they are truly Machivellian.
On the other hand, if you mean the planning and strategizing aspect then yes, they aren't that smart.
The 'best and brightest' would never submit themselves to politics. It is the realm of 'clever' people. Intelligent enough to speak well and oily enough to sound sincere.
And even then - I graduated with a BA in econ and philosophy, and went into computer programming. Who'd a thought that ?
I lean towards the model that once you learn good reading, writing and arithmetic/algebra skills, everything else is a bonus. It's only our certification-mad society that requires years of academic schooling for occupations that are better taught via apprenticeships or simply by an infusion of a good work ethic, common sense and further study of your choice.
My great example is an article that ran in the Careers section of the Philly Inquirer two years ago, talking about job prospects for college grads. The thing that caught my eye was the interview with a Hertz-Rent-A-Car manager ho predicted Hertz would hire 6000-7000 graduates to staff teir Customer Service positions. Excuse me ??? Hertz can't use high school grads to man their counters ?
Fergawsake, I retired from running my business five years ago and I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up.
How about teaching them good reading, writing and math skills first ? Florida schools fail at that - do you think they'll do any better at teaching a job ?
Why assume a kid should be shunted into a particular job track when they're only 14 ?
Think about all the kids mislabeled into special ed - think those kids will be trained for anything other than janitorial or landscaping services ?
The elitist types are all the same, Republican or Democrat - they think they know better than you do how you should live your life. And, if you don't like their suggestion they'll force you.
There's a private high school near me that is for kids who are interested in the building trades. This H.S. teaches solid math and reading and writing skills along with a trade. The kid gets to try out a few classes in different trades before deciding on the one of interest. They graduate students who are snapped up by local contractors BECAUSE they can do more than just cut wood or weld joints. They are taught customer relations skills, a good work ethic, and take apprenticeships during the summer.
Why does this work ? Because the kids want to be there, they are subject to discipline or they are tossed out, and they are assured of a quality useful education that they have CHOSEN.
Why can't the state do this ? #1 - they won't enforce discipline and #2 - they can't even teach basic math or reading right now. Why do you think this would be successful in a government school ?
You are so right. It's always "MY kids school isn't like that." Sure it isn't. All you have to do is read their textbooks and listen to their teachers to know differently.
When I see schools teach reading successfully at a rate equal to what we had before 1850 and compulsory public schools, I'll think they can teach other things. Parents just don't get this.
The artcle is over the top. Vocational schools help kids from dropping out. This is a nonsense story if you ask me. Sounds like the guy needs a case of Reynolds wrap ...
Great idea. Right now a lot of kids ages 14-16 can't find summer jobs because there are so many barriers to work. Liability, work permits from the local school district, and the like keep kids unemployed.
I do think that parents should be involved in the choosing of a high school "major", in fact, parental permission should be required before a child is placed in one track or another. Also, basic requirements of English, math, etc. should a part of all the tracks. I think it work better if students could choose at a later time, say in 11th grade versus 9th grade, given that most apprentice programs are about two years long anyways, and most academic requirements can be done by the end of 10th grade. The basic idea of allowing students to learn a trade in school rather than putting everyone on the college track is something I don't have a problem with.
Your model of education is the same as Thomas Jefferson's model for public education, except that Jefferson thought school should start not before age 11, and be in session for 3 months for 3 years.
I wholeheartedly agree.
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