Updating Curriculum, Chavez Style

Goldwater Institute ^ | October 04, 2007 | Dan Lips

[GoldwaterInstitute1]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recently announced plans for a new curriculum for all Venezuela schools. Criticizing the old school model as "colonial, capitalist, and soul-destroying," Chavez promised a new model: "We want to create our own ideology collectively." Private schools will also be forced to embrace the new curriculum and those that don't comply will be closed or nationalized.

Exactly what the new curriculum will contain remains unclear, but one can guess it will closely follow Chavez's ideology. The Associated Press recently obtained a copy of a Venezuelan university curriculum; it consisted of required readings from Karl Marx and Fidel Castro and history lessons praising Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

Americans witnessing Venezuela's drift toward totalitarianism should consider how fortunate we are to live in a free society. Yet we should also take a moment to evaluate our own public education system and consider the role that government plays in educating the next generation. For most American children, important decisions about how they will be educated are largely decided by government officials, not their parents.

Consider the problems that government control of education can cause. Reasonable people often disagree on how to handle controversial curriculum decisions, such as sex education, American history, or evolution. Many parents are helplessly left to send their child to a school that teaches values at odds with their own.

Universal school choice would address the problems of government-run education. We can only begin to imagine what types of innovative schools and learning models could be possible if all parents had the power to decide how their children are educated.

Dan Lips is education analyst at the Heritage Foundation and a senior fellow with the Goldwater Institute. A longer version of this article was featured in the Heritage Foundation's Education Notebook.

[LibFreeOrDie]

a Venezuelan university curriculum; it consisted of required readings from Karl Marx and Fidel Castro and history lessons praising Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

Just like American universities!

[penowa]

Hugo should save himself the hassle of designing a commie curriculum for VZ schools and just borrow the one used in our schools.

[businessprofessor]

I would like to nominate some professors for his universities:

- Michael Moore, professor of crockumentaries and free health care,
- Sean Penn, professor of crony journalism,
- Jimma Carter, professor of dimwitted foreign policy,
- the one who wants to rule us, professor of thought suppression,
- Kevin Costner, Steven Speilberg, Jack Nicholson, Naomi Campbell, Robert Redford, Spike Lee, Sidney Pollack, Oliver Stone, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover, Ed Asner, Shirley MacLaine, Alanis Morissette, and Leonardo DiCaprio, joint professorship of Fidel worship
- Chevy Chase, professor of socialism works

Did I omit any other worthy nominees?

[penowa]

Perhaps we could include some of our esteemed politicians to that list like Teddy Kennedy for Driver’s Ed.

[businessprofessor]

Good idea. I should not limit the list to entertainers.

- Ted Kennedy, professor of Chivas beverages
- Patches Kennedy, professor of drunken driving while in office
- William Jefferson, professor of frozen assets
- Patty Murray, professor of terrorist charities
- Larry Craig, professor of restroom encounters
- Harry Reid, professor of asset transfers and rezoning
- Elliot Spitzer, professor of identity theft and social services theft

I am sure that Chavez would like some additional nominees.