Please watch the Glenn Beck video below. Have a very serious conversation with your child and find out what influences are affecting them at their school.
There is a war on parents in our public schools and parents need to find a way to get their children out of toxic environments. The problem is recognizing it’s actually happening right here in “conservative” Utah. Nobody takes action until it’s necessary and they recognize a problem, which means it’s often too late and damage is done.
Davis School District just fought to keep the book “Red Hood” in schools. I couldn’t even read this whole excerpt it’s so shocking. It’s x-rated explicit and being delivered to minors IN UTAH. There are many examples surfacing now of pornographic material being given to our children.
This mom in a Las Vegas school district had her microphone turned off for reading an excerpt from one book to a school board. She was quoting from an assignment her daughter was REQUIRED to do.
Another example that made national news, a Utah teacher in Lehi is on leave after indoctrinating 4th graders on the queer lifestyle.
7th graders in a Salt Lake City middle school were required to take notes on all the different kinds of genders and sexes (beyond male and female).
This war on parents has been going on for decades. A true effort to separate children from parents and get them to adopt a completely different set of values from what their parents have.
You will be shocked by some of the quotes on this page like these:
“Public education has served as a check on the power of parents, and this is another powerful reason for maintaining it.” – John Goodlad, Developing Democratic Character in the Young, pg. 165
“Most youth still hold the same values of their parents… if we do not alter this pattern, if we don’t resocialize, our system will decay.” – John Goodlad, Schooling for the Future, Issue #9, 1971
John Goodlad is a nationally prominent educator and was HIRED BY BYU. He worked there for a few years in the early 1980’s and then left to start a National Network for Educational Renewal (NNER). BYU’s education department was one of 11 colleges that became founding members and Goodlad was CLEARLY ANTI-FAMILY. BYU’s affiliation with his network continued until 2010 (when we pressured them enough to leave it) and every year’s conference was on topics like social justice and how to put the gay agenda in classrooms. BYU even HOSTED the 2006 NNER conference.
If you don’t think this influence has affected our schools in Utah, you are gravely mistaken.
Today’s rising generation is in a danger zone and so are many teachers who are trying to resist and do their best under hostile working conditions. Both students and many teachers are in a combat zone.
Unless we re-establish the fact that schools should solely teach academics and stay away from beliefs and actually get rid of the indoctrination and teachers pushing it, we are going to lose more and more children while parents are unaware of what’s happening out of sight.
Yes this is happening everywhere including Utah. CRT, SEL, CSE, and other garbage is taught right here in Utah. Children are tracked, teachers are indoctrinating, and students’ lives are being turned against their parents. Every school that embraces equity, inclusivity, and diversity programs, is engaged in this effort.
Watch this now, probably without kids in the room. Academics are dead, America has been turned by Leftists to sexual deviancy ripening us for the judgements of God. Pray that America repents and reverses this dangerous course.
For example, in Seattle, math isn’t taught from an academic standpoint anymore. It’s all SEL/CRT based. The 4 components or threads are:
Origins, identity, and agency
Power and Oppression
Reflection and Action
History of Resistance and Liberation
Total insanity. The future of America is one of utter desolation unless we reverse this.
If your school denies teaching CRT, just look for where they are teaching SEL because SEL is now completely linked to CRT. CASEL describes the purpose of education to be:
How Big Tech takes control of teaching and learning in our public schools
Utah taxpayers should say “NO” to Summit Learning, here is why.
Over the past five years Davis School district has progressively mandated Summit Learning in two High Schools and three Jr. High Schools without choice or transparency to taxpayers. This year, a new cohort of seventh graders at Mueller Park Jr. High means twelve-year-old’s I dearly love, hate learning with Summit. Summit Learning has no place in our public schools.
I’m an educator with twenty-five years of experience and several degrees, I read educational research as a hobby. I knew everything that was wrong the Summit Learning model. I didn’t understand how bad Summit Learning was until recently. Much of this article is informed by the National Education Policy Center’s Report on Summit Learning.
Summit Learning – Complete capture of your public schools by Big Tech
In 2015 a few online learning charter schools named, Summit Public Schools caught the imagination and funding of Big Tech. Since 2015, Summit Public Schools (SPS) has received philanthropic funding totaling at least $177.6 million. Donors include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Silicon Schools Fund, the Silicon Valley Community Fund, Meg Whitman, and the XQ Institute. The Hechinger Report shows the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) alone committed $142.1 million to SPS since 2016. CZI website reports providing $48.8 million to SPS between 2016 and 2020 and $40 million to T.L.P. Education, a non-profit which fronts Summit Learning, between 2018 and 2020. In-kind donations by Facebook developed the marketing strategy and engineered the platform for SPS to become Summit Learning.
The CZI, a for profit LLC, aggressively markets Summit Learning to public school districts through Gradient Learning, a non-profit which allows districts to bypass state privacy and curriculum adoption laws. Districts quietly “partner” with Summit Learning. In doing so they offer up control of learning and teaching to Summit Learning. Yes, District leaders are choosing this for your child. The Participation Requirements a district must accept to “partner” with Summit are staggering. https://www.summitlearning.org/join-us/program-requirements. These requirements make it clear, Taxpayers do not have local control with Summit Learning. This explains the lack of transparency when adopting Summit.
Once a “partner,” Summit Learning controls and dictates public school schedules, bi-yearly, MAP assessments (on the taxpayer’s dime). Summit requires districts use their Summit grading system for an entire Summit school or grade, making it difficult to compare Summit student achievement to traditional students within a district. Teachers are trained by Summit Learning to facilitate Summit and direct students on the platform instead of leading the classroom with proven pedagogy and instructing on content. Administrators are trained in Summit promotional rhetoric and check-in, two hours weekly with a Summit rep. All student learning is dictated, controlled and data mined by Summit including student-centered learning, project-based assignments, learning standards, content and curriculum in math, science, English and history, they call it the four-core. Summit is written from California and Oregon standards, the eighth and ninth worst schools in the nation. Utah schools are tenth best (according to U.S. News and World Report). Summit standards include the CRT, LBGTQ and social justice themes which is not core content. These social themes are driving ideals on the Gradient Learning website.
Data Privacy contracts grant Gradient Learning access and use of de-identified student data in perpetuity, which the CZI can convert to re-identifiable data. Contracts signed in 2018-2019 explicitly provide SPS to use de-identified student data “for any lawful purpose” (the same language appears in the current Data Privacy Addendum on the Summit Learning website). By extension, this means that the CZI, its technology partner, may also access de-identified student data to use in any way it wishes in perpetuity. Uses may include analyzing data for insights about student learning and psychology using big data statistical methods and selling it to third parties in perpetuity.
Reimagining education to increase control and profits for Big Tech at the cost of children’s growth and success
Summit Learning is not innovative or progressive, it is not a proven model and taxpayers are not resistant to change for rejecting its rhetoric. We know bad education when we see it. Summit Learning brings no empirical data to support its multitude of claims on student success. Summit refuses to participate in large scale educational research, a huge red flag. The “Science of Summit” document is ‘rooted in science,’ offering circular logic, rhetoric, and personal anecdotes, but no data. Most concerning for our children, Summit Learning has packaged together the least effective learning and teaching strategies for students, according to decades of mainstream research. These failed strategies posture students for the least success with learning. Learning is more difficult using Summit. If you are an underserved student, have an IEP, 405, are a poor reader or an ESL student, all the cards are stacked against your success when using Summit Learning.
Farmington High School Students claim they become expert at manipulating the platform to complete their work and receive points with little learning. Further, the lowest performing students at Farmington get all the attention from the teacher to help them pass while higher performing students are ignored. This is a poor, inequitable education model that only benefits Big Tech.
Personalized Learning adoption opens the door for Big Tech platforms
A June 2017 report to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative outlined public relations efforts to create social conditions amenable to widespread adoption of personalized learning. The report described the marketing efforts as part of a strategy to create “one consistent narrative” promoting a positive answer to the question of “Does Summit Learning work?”
Big Tech aggressively markets the ill-defined, unproven ideal of personalized learning to school district leaders, not because it is effective, but because it leads to 1:1 learning in public classrooms.
Public Schools were created to offer equitable content and skills to many children from differing backgrounds through direct instruction and quality feedback from professional educators using quality curriculum and daily practice. When public schools implement well defined, actionable, proven strategies, they can measurably improve student achievement, despite a student’s social-economic background. Summit Learning drives schools away from proven, high performing models of education, master teachers and proven curriculum.
The narrative that “Summit Learning works” is embraced by district leaders, who promote Summit Learning as an effective “whole school reform” to school board members and educators within their district. Summit’s slick rhetoric, seen in their YouTube videos, is used to train District leaders, administrators and teachers to become salesmen for Summit Learning. They no longer focus on the job of educating students in math, English, factual history, science and formal learning skills based on proven models. They are pushing Summit and endlessly trying to make it work. It does not work.
There are additional concerns with the dangers of excessive screen time to the mental and emotional health of students. Then there’s Summit’s easily manipulated computerized curriculum, that has not been adopted by state law or aligned to standards. Summit’s curriculum is governed by algorithms which are proven to reflect the bias of the creator. Summit states online tools can be, “manipulated and changed easily. We know, they can promote a narrative, or they can cancel ideas all together. There is no oversight of Summit Learning’s centrally programmed course content.
Utah Taxpayers should say “NO” to Summit Learning, Especially, Davis County taxpayers.
We can and should constantly improve our public schools by looking to proven models. Education is the great equalizer; it can lift every child. This is not the goal of Summit Learning.
Summit Learning is at the cost of educational excellence. It’s at the cost of proven teaching and learning strategies. It’s at the cost of local control. It’s at the cost of our children’s privacy. It’s at the cost of our children’s mental health. It’s at the cost of training master teachers and using proven, state vetted curriculum with oversight. It’s at the cost of student’s growth, their success and ultimately their self-esteem. It is at the cost of taxpayers.
Davis School District currently requires Summit Learning at Farmington High School, Clearfield High School, Farmington Jr. High, Centennial Jr. High, North Davis Jr. High and Mueller Park Jr. High.
*****
Big Claims, Little Evidence, Lots of Money: The Reality Behind the Summit Learning Program and the Push to Adopt Digital Personalized Learning Platforms
As many across the country are aware, a Lehi, Utah chemistry teacher was fire after the first day of school for going on a threatening anti-parent, pro-gay rant toward her students.
Instead of an atmosphere of inclusion and equity that left-wing teachers preach, they are the worst hypocrites for violating their own “standards.” Only when parents take control at the local level will this nonsense end by terminating teachers that can’t stick to their subject matter.
One mom in Alpine school district showed this video to her children and posted this on Facebook.
I showed this video to my 8th grade daughter who goes to Mountain Ridge. I told her that this video was making national news. She watched it, then I asked her what she thought. She said: “I don’t know why this is going viral. I hear stuff like this from my teachers all the time”.
I showed this video to my oldest who attended American Fork High School and is now at BYU. He watched it and said: “Mom, this is not new. I heard this in High School and I hear this at BYU.”
I knew snippets of their experiences, but now I am painfully aware that this mentality has permeated our local schools. I am sick about it.
That is 100% believable. BYU is one of the worst offenders for social justice and political correctness. Their education department actively promotes this garbage including through math.
Another mom just sent me this picture of a form her seventh grader received in an art class at the new Viewpoint Middle School in Lehi.
Beloved Music Teacher at Draper Park Middle School for being required to teach the Social Emotional Learning program “Second Step” (shared with permission). They didn’t even give his last 2 weeks:
My Dear DPMS families,
This is a difficult email to write.
I have given notice to the School and District of my resignation. I will be leaving Draper Park Middle School within the next two school weeks. This has been a heart-rending decision. I love working with your children, watching them grow and develop. I will miss being with them very much.
I know that this will come as a surprise. It has come as a surprise to me and my family. I intended to be at DPMS for years to come. Unfortunately the social emotional learning (SEL) curriculum, “Second Step” was rolled out to Draper Park MS this year. Because I felt uncomfortable when our Admin announced that we would be implementing this program, I spent time reviewing the lessons, videos, teacher scripts, and student handouts from unit 1 for 7th grade curriculum, which is what I would be teaching. The more I watched and read, the more uncomfortable I became.
As a rule, I think that most people will agree that the skills, which the Second Step curriculum is supposed to teach students, are good and helpful. But way that these skills are presented in the Second Step Curriculum is concerning enough to me that I cannot, in good conscience, present the material to my students; material which teaches students that their parents are “roadblocks” to their goals; material which contains propaganda, and encourages students to become activists, among other things. I am especially uncomfortable with the anti-family undertone I have found find in the “Second Step” curriculum (particularly regarding the relationship between the students and their parents, which the curriculum occasionally calls “other generations”.) I am very concerned that this is in our schools.
I shared a detailed list of my concerns with our school Administration, who referred the issue to School Performance at the District level. At every level of interaction with school and district administrators I was treated better than I expected to be. (Parenthetically, Dr. Watts is perhaps the finest, most evenhanded administrator that I have had the pleasure to work with. His hands are tied in this situation. But even so, he has done more than I deserve to support me as we wrestled through this issue. We are fortunate to have him at Draper Park Middle.) My concerns were listened to, and a group at the district have taken the time to look at the relevant content to understand my concerns. Unfortunately, in the end, district personnel kindly told me that that my concerns are unfounded, and that I was seeing what I was “looking for”. They further indicated that the program, as applied in other schools through the district, is working well and helping achieve what they want. I was told that, as a teacher in the district, I am required to teach the concepts from the provided “Second Step” curriculum.
As a kind of compromise, I was offered some small flexibility in the way that I teach the material to the students, as guided an assigned district personnel. But having someone else tell me what I have to teach from a curriculum, which I believe doesn’t belong in the school, is even less appealing than the alternative.
I have advocated for total transparency of the curriculum for parent review, and an opt-out option for parents who are uncomfortable with the course. Because “Second Step” is a copyrighted program requiring a purchased license to access the content, parents can only review the lessons being taught to their students by going into the district office and having district personnel show it to them. No opt-out option will be offered.
I don’t expect all of you to agree with my decision, or that, given the same material to review, you would all feel reason for concern. But I hope that you will understand why I have felt the need to resign: that I cannot teach content to your children that I believe is harmful.
I also want you to know that I have not shared, and will not share, all that I am sharing with you with my students. I do not want to influence your children’s perception of the school, the “Second Step” program, or give them preconceptions about things which might make their time at the school more difficult or stressful. I will tell them that I was asked by the district to do something that I couldn’t do with a clear conscience, but will indicate that I have written to you with more detail so that you can share as much or as little of my concerns as you feel is appropriate.
I hope that you, and your children, will think kindly of me as we part ways. I have tried all that I know to find an acceptable solution which would allow me to stay. I wish all of you, your students, the school and the choir program all the best.
Sincerely,
Sam Crowley
—-
His email with specific concerns sent to his school administration and the Canyons District School Performance office with more details:
Sam Crowley
“Thank you for taking time to visit and hear some of my concerns. Pursuant to our conversation this afternoon, here is a list of my specific concerns relative to the 7th grade (returning student) Second Step course. I acknowledge that my perspective will be different from others, and that not everyone will share my concerns about the material. With the first day of school looming, I have only taken time to go through the first unit of the 7th grade course, which is what I would be teaching. I have read all of the material, teacher notes and scripts, student handouts, scope and sequence, and the lessons which are presented to the class in unit 1. Most of the concepts in the scope and sequence are good skills that I have no objection to. It is in the narrative of the videos, the examples used, and the assignments students work on that I find the material which makes me so uncomfortable.
Before getting into the details of my specific concerns, I want to express my displeasure that curriculum content was not available to teachers and administrators earlier in the year for review. I also want to advocate strongly for total transparency to parents. After reviewing the material myself, I believe it is critical for absolute transparency – that parents have total access to all of the materials used to teach the curriculum; videos, scripts, lessons, student handouts and worksheets, all of it. Parents retain the right to manage the education of their children. I feel strongly that, if Second Step is going to be a mandated curriculum at our schools, there should be an opt-out option allowing parents to remove their children from Second Step SEL courses.
UNIT 1 – General concerns about the unit:
•No discussion of what a worthy goal is.
•No discussion of what to do when a goal is not reached/achieved, even when you plan and work hard.
•Distinct anti-family undertones
Lesson 1
From the introductory video (not the “video” section of the lesson):
1- Students are taught that other generations have not had to “think about the issues” that they to face today. If we follow that thought, that leads to the conclusion that other generations are not prepared to be helpful. Other generations is just nice language for parents, guardians, grandparents, etc. Teaching students that other generations, ie. their parents, are unprepared to help them is the same as saying that their trust and confidence should be in the system, and not the family. It is anti-family.
2- BLM propaganda is included in the video. I am happy to discuss being just and helping to end suffering. But when the only visual cue given to for the students to consider as the narrator speaks about the hardship of dealing with the “injustice and suffering” in the world is video footage of a Black Lives Matter protest, it is biased; it is propaganda. Propaganda has no place in our schools.
Lesson 2
From the video in the “video” section of the lesson
1- Video example promotes students becoming activists and starting campaigns around the school. Activism is loud, pushy, and almost always places people into a closed-mindset. This is counterproductive.
Lesson 3
Concerns across the lesson, video, script, and student handout
1- This lesson is poorly designed and left me with incorrect conclusions about the nature of mistakes and their relationship to progress or success. The lesson video tells the students that if the bridge hadn’t collapsed, the research that led to better, safer bridges wouldn’t have happened. Thus the lesson being taught is that ‘mistakes are necessary’. Or stated another way, we make mistakes to learn. This is wrong. We learn from our mistakes; but we don’t make mistakes to learn. The lesson promotes the idea that the building of the first bridge was not only justified because of what followed after the disaster, but that it was a good thing because progress was made. Not so. A good thing would have been to heed the warnings of engineers who were opposed to the cheaper project, conduct more research, and construct the bridge the right way the first time.
Lesson 4
Concerns across the lesson, video, script, and student handout
1- A discussion about reaching our goals and identifying and planning for “roadblocks” that might keep them from reaching a goal. The lesson gives the following scenario: student has a goal. The student’s parents say that the goal is not an appropriate goal for the student. The lesson asks the students to decide if the parents are an “internal roadblock” or an “external roadblock”. Teaching students that their parents are “roadblocks” is not acceptable. This is anti-family.
Lesson 5
Concerns from the lesson video in the “video” section and with the lesson conclusions
1- Game of Thrones reference in the video. Cartoon student has a book on the desk called “Game of Dragons”. Game of thrones is reprehensible media containing pornography, overt and explicit violence, and all manner of debauchery. The prequel series to game of thrones is ‘House of Dragons’. I discovered this when I googled ‘game of dragons’ to see what came up. There is no place for this in the schools.
2- The lesson promotes the incorrect idea that hard work, bravery, and careful planning will result in success. This is a fallacy. Sometimes, whatever you do, you lose, you don’t make it, you fail. No acknowledgement of this possibility, or the important skill of dealing with this kind of disappointment.
Lesson 7:
Concerns from the video, which is a repeat of the video shown in lesson 2, with the same
I am very uncomfortable that I am being required to teach this content to my students. I hope that I have expressed my thoughts and concerns clearly. I haven’t been able to review the entire course, but it seems reasonable to me to believe that there is sufficient evidence to pause and reconsider what we are teaching.
—
Music expresses feeling and thought, without language; it was below and before speech, and it is above and beyond all words. ~Robert G. Ingersoll
A few days ago I received an email sent from a Utah State Office of Education employee. I’ll leave the employee anonymous because it’s truly irrelevant since so many employees there are fully on board with this programming.
The email from the state employee is below my response. It was sent to teachers and administrators all over Utah.
******My Letter to this Employee & the State Board of Education
____________, in reviewing your recent email, I noticed this Ham4Progress scholarship you promoted is only available for children that are not white.
“The award is open to students who meet the following eligibility requirements: · Black, Latino/a, Indigenous, Asian, or Pacific Islander”
I see this is from a private entity so it’s apparently not state taxpayer funds being used to favor people based on race, but I am troubled why a state employee would promote a scholarship designed only for minorities.
Would you similarly promote a scholarship from another private entity if their scholarship was only for white children?
If not, why not? Would that be racist but this is not? I’m getting confused over how the new politically correct rules work when implemented because they clearly don’t work by logic.
Is the state not committing itself to the practice of “inclusion, diversity, and equity?” How is this inclusive? How does this promote diversity? How is this equitable? There are thousands of scholarship opportunities. Why would you promote this one that doesn’t fall in line with the new state policy???
Inclusive means comprehensive, yet the indoctrination taking place today has inclusive mean everyone but Caucasian. Diversity literally means having people from various ethnicities and backgrounds, but the indoctrination taking place is geared toward excluding Caucasians, conservatives, and Christians. Equity means being fair like the phrase “justice is blind,” but the indoctrination is straight out of Orwell’s “Animal Farm” where some pigs declared themselves “more equal” than others. Instead of equal opportunity, the preaching is for equal outcomes and the exalting of one over another.
The new “racism” is all about pointing the finger to make one race feel guilt, another pride, and the end result is exactly the division Karl Marx preached, not Martin Luther King.
It’s particularly troubling that a Social Studies specialist would send this out. My own deficient background in history and social studies is enough to recognize that all these idiotic policies being implemented lead to DIVISION, not UNION.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (George Santayana)
Preaching white fragility, original sin due to whiteness, reparations, micro aggressions, and so on, are anti-Christian teachings. For a state population that is highly Christian, it’s stunning so many have accepted these teachings instead of returning to what the preacher Martin Luther King taught, which is what Jesus taught. Love one another. That solves every problem. Every problem.
All this other nonsense (and that’s putting it mildly) leads to fear and anger, and you know what the wise sage of Star Wars said about that. It’s the path to the dark side and we can plainly discern that’s exactly what’s happening right now. More violence and less tolerance leading to ripping the public apart, the goal of every Marxist who wants revolution which is what the foundation of Antifa and Black Lives Matter is based on, setting race relations back decades in the process.
It is my hope that the state school board will stand up to this nonsense and recognize the incredible harm that this path is promoting. This isn’t a “conservative” issue. It’s not even a race issue. There are evil forces at work seeking to divide people every way they can and it’s unconscionable that the state of Utah is promoting these divisions to state employees.
In a sad way it’s funny that the exact point I’m making is being illustrated in this email that the preaching of inclusion is clearly leading to exclusion.
Only true doctrine changes hearts and minds. Love one another led to the success of the civil rights movement 60 years ago. Historically, that’s the only successful policy for healing racial tension. Go watch the movie Invictus. That terrorist (Nelson Mandela) repented and came to the truth about loving each other and healed his country. The American terrorist Bill Ayers has been preaching the anti-Christ doctrine of social justice for decades and warping the meanings of inclusion, equity, and diversity. It’s a perversion of truth and leads us into dark paths and he’s been wildly successful selling this hatred.
Moses 6: 54. “Hence came the saying abroad among the people, that the Son of God hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation of the world.”
We get what we preach. False doctrine leads to madness. Love conquers all.
Just a final word on your attached “Civil Dialogue” flier. It looks like yet another example of indoctrinating into these false beliefs.
“Teachers will…learn how to counter their own personal bias.”
Well what if a teacher just loves the children and helps them equally? Oh silly me, that can’t be happening. Teachers just don’t understand their own racism, right? This is insulting to teachers.
“Participants will be required to dedicate at least one class period Fall 2021 to practicing civil dialogue with their students…”
Does that mean other classes can be free from civil dialogue? Or is this just another thinly veiled indoctrination event? That would be my guess.
Dear State Board members, what direction do you really want to take Utah? This isn’t education. This isn’t progress.
Oak Norton
*********
Here is the email sent out along with the 2 attachments (1 referenced just above)
ABA Division of Public Ed Teacher Institute is Virtual This Year!
Judge John F. Grady Virtual Summer Teachers Institute
July 29th & August 5th, 2021
Here is the link to apply for the ABA Summer Teacher Institute:
Click Here For More Information and to Register
Utah 3Rs Project Civil Dialogue Training for Teachers (Flyer Attached)
The Utah 3Rs Project Civil Dialogue program will be held on the campus of Utah Valley University on Wednesday, July 28, 2021 from 9:00 am-3:00 pm. Optional tours of the Reflection Center and the Roots of Knowledge stained glass exhibit will immediately follow the end of the program.
Teacher incentives include:
The first 40 teachers to register will receive $100 stipends, which will be distributed after participants complete the evaluation for the in-service training and report on their Fall classroom civil dialogue session.
Participants will receive 6 re-licensure points for participating in the program.
If you are interested please contact Eleesha Tucker at the email address etucker@Utah3Rs.org to register.
Summer Professional Development Sessions from the OER Project Team
Virtual professional development sessions are coming up fast! Whether you’re new to OER Project courses or you’re already an active member of our community, this is your chance to strengthen your practice and prepare to guide your students through a year that will be like no other.
They have just launched their PD schedule page (bookmark it now!)
Professional Development Schedule Page and Registration
You are welcome to sign up for any session that interests you. They are opening registrations on a rolling basis, and encourage you to save the dates you’re interested in now.
Scholarship Opportunity – Ham4Progress
Gilder Lehrman is proud to partner with Hamilton on the Ham4Progress Award for Educational Advancement. This award supports college-bound high school students from communities that directly experience the consequences of injustice and discrimination.
The award is open to students who meet the following eligibility requirements:
Black, Latino/a, Indigenous, Asian, or Pacific Islander
College-bound high school junior
Minimum GPA of 3.2 on a 4.0 scale
Enrolled in a Gilder Lehrman Affiliate School
Recipients of the Ham4Progress award will receive $2,500 for educational purposes, such as
Test preparation courses
Tutoring
College visits
Technology (laptops, tablets, or other devices used for learning)
Applications are due June 30, 2021.
Please share thislink with other teachers in your district and pass it along to eligible students.
With permission I am publishing this Facebook post by Dr. Gary Thompson, one of my two favorite Utah doctors… :)
***
I received this letter last week from a political insider who worked during the Utah-Herbert/Cox Administration. I waited several days to do a background check on the writer before making this public. He/She checked out.
If you want to know why the Cox Administration will never meet with me, and quite frankly, why they are more than likely figuring out a nasty way to destroy my name and honor? Read on:
Doctor Thompson:
“Gary, you do not know me personally. I worked through__________and contacts on the UDOE, mainly ____________back in 2014-16, to try to stop the State’s work in digitizing children and creating electronic figure-prints, and using the data commercially. It was an epic failure.”
“You scared the hell out of the establishment. I suspect Gov. Herbert admin was especially concerned over the potential for you exposing them, and how they circumvented the intent of parental rights and stripped away all local control”
“And you would have exposed how they altered the legal language, so they could digitize minors for profit, while making parents responsible as the primary for exposing them, all while stripping parents of all editorial control over the classroom. You would have shown how digitizing minors completely ignored all the science behind the principle of “do no harm” .”
“And how it was never about improving educational outcomes. It was about them gaining power and the State profiting. In a word, you would have exposed the lie. And they knew you would.”
“What you may not know, is your battle exposed enough of their design as to prevent them from carrying it out in full. And it provided parents a way to take it back without having to fight the beast….”
Here is my [Gary’s] open response to the Cox Administration:
Dear Cox Administration:
I don’t want to fight you, expose you, or have ANY involvement with politics. I do not wish to be on TV, made famous by Tucker Carlson or any media talking head. I do not want to write a book, or receive monies from speaking engagements…..
All I want is to hang out with my beautiful wife and six kids, and to assist her with her efforts of providing trauma level services to the area of the State with the highest youth suicide rate in the country, and to raise my kids via the values passed on by several generations of African Americans in my family system.
Critical Race “Theory” goes directly against those values, and have a strong statistical possibility of harming both my marriage and my biracial children.
5 years ago I promised to “go away” quietly from the public spot light IF your future policies did not directly negatively affect my wife or kids.
I kept mine…but it appears to be that you may be under the direct influence of the Union, BLM, and other woke, left leaning entities which are championing CRT….thus it appears that you are thinking about breaking your promise.
I hope you have the fortitude to stop this harmful garbage in its tracks during the special legislative session coming next month. If not? You will leave me no choice but to come out like a bat out of hell to fight this on both a local and national level.
I won’t come out of this as a “winner”, but I do know this much: Neither will you.
I am more than willing to be “canceled” and shamed fighting for family my against CRT……are you willing to risk your political career and good name over this garbage?
Thank you for having the courage to advocate for your child! Gone are the days you can just sit back and hope your child will be safe at school. The following are some important steps to help you proactively advocate for your child. Please share with other concerned parents.
1) Get Educated on the Harmful Programs in Schools:
Social Emotional Learning programs groom your children to accept Critical Race Theory, Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Gender Ideology, BLM Curriculum, and intersectionality. Learn more here:
A perfect example of how they are trying to indoctrinate our teachers and students: Keynote from the Utah Pride Center’s conference for Utah Educators, held 1/23/2021 “Gender Creative Education: Building an Inclusive and Equitable Learning Community”
The school will not always tell you when something controversial is going to be taught unless you make your wishes known in unmistakable terms. These opt out forms will help you do just that!
Feel free to edit the forms to include anything not already mentioned that you do not consent to having your child taught or exposed to. For example:
“I do not consent to my child being read stories that include the topic of intersectionality, gender identity/orientation, or homosexuality ideology”
“I do not consent to my child participating in the Second Step program and I request that my child be allowed to go to the library to do an alternative assignment whenever the class is participating in these program materials.”
“I do not consent to my child participating in any discussions, activities, programs, or presentations on the topics of Cultural Proficiency/Competency/Revelance, Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, Privilege, White Fragility, Intersectionality, Anti-Racism, Systemic Racism, bias/sensitivity training, Critical/Crucial Conversations (i.e. Critical Race Theory), Social Justice, Racial Justice, etc.”
I would recommend that you add signature lines at the bottom of each form for the principal and teachers to sign showing they read and understand your desires. Have them sign two copies of each opt-out form, one for your records and one to be kept in your child’s official file.
3) Know the Laws – and how they pertain to your parental rights and child’s learning environment. Cite these laws whenever asserting your parental authority over your child’s education:
Be sure remind your school that yours and your child’s first amendment rights are guaranteed even at school – freedom of speech, religious freedoms, and rights of conscience – and that Utah code 53G-10-402(6) states that political, atheistic, sectarian, religious, or denominational doctrine may not be taught in the public schools (except as provided in Section 53G-10-202).
Constitutional free speech laws also protect against compelled speech of any kind (i.e. having to choose an identity group, having to state whether they are an oppressor or oppressed, having to state their own preferred pronouns, having to use someone else’s “preferred” pronouns, having to state their sexual orientation, having to admit guilt for something they didn’t do, having to say they are “racist”, have “privilege” or “power” etc.).
Utah laws protecting parental rights are cited in the attached opt-out form for “subversive content”.
You may want to edit the “sexual content” non-consent form to include the following Utah laws and Board Rules that require parental consent to be given before anything related to sexuality or gender orientation are discussed in class:
4) If your child is taught or exposed to inappropriate materials in their classroom or library:
1) Find out if your local school board approved the book, curriculum, or program. If they did not, have them remove the inappropriate materials from the classroom, and send out a formal apology to all parents in the school informing them of what happened and what actions they are taking to remedy the situation and ensure it does not happen again. If they did approve it have them remove it from the approved list.
2) Ask teacher/administrator what content on the opt-out forms have already been taught to your child so you can discuss the content with your child, share your family’s values and why these are important to you.
3) Report incident to the Utah Education Hotline: 801-538-7813, include the offending teacher or administrator’s name(s) if you suspect your complaint may require disciplinary action. Also, mail the State School Board with your concerns at board@schools.utah.gov.
5) Right to Know:
Parents have a right to know everything their children are taught. Assert your parental rights by visiting the school and insisting they let you see all books, curricula, resource materials, and computer programs being used. Ask to be logged in through the student portal so you can see what is only available through the student portals. Write down the names of any programs or curricula being used and research them at home. See attachments below for more helpful tips.
6) School Community Counsels:
Find out about your local school community councils on your school’s website and in the attachment below. This is where you as a parent can have a voice in what happens at your child’s school. Attend their meetings and work to get informed parents on the counsel or get on it yourself.
Teach them what is ok and not okay for them to be taught in school so they know when to call you. Not sure what to tell them to watch out for? Study the links in the “Get Educated” section at the beginning of this letter and then you will know.
Teach your child to trust their instincts. If something doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t. If your child is “sick” about what is being taught or presented in class or online, have them tell the teacher they “do not feel well” so they can go to the office and call you. Come up with a code word they can use when they call you so that you understand they need rescuing from the uncomfortable situation such as a fake name for a relative that if they mention it on the phone you know they are in distress (ex. “Did Uncle Charlie arrive safely?”). Be sure to follow up with the school about whatever it was that caused your child discomfort.
8) Utah Parents United:
Last, but not least, go to http://www.utahparentsunited.org/get-involved.html and join with other concerned parents and learn powerful ways you can advocate for your child! We must stand together to protect our children.
Thank you again for caring about your child enough to get involved!
Please watch these critically important videos from the 2021 Eagle Forum conference. These issues are here in Utah.
5:33 Gayle Ruzicka, Eagle Forum President speaking on the reproductive mutilation of children happening in our state. Ask your legislators to support HB 92 which prevents surgeons in Utah from performing transgender procedures on minors.
7:16 Jennie Earl (currently serving on the Utah state school board), on critical race theory and cultural Marxism.
7:35 Merrilee Boyack (Abortion-Free Utah and Family Watch International) on comprehensive sex ed in Utah schools.
7:50 Nicholeen Peck – discusses pornography happening in Utah schools through the databases children have access to. Ask your legislators to support HB 38 which requires Utah schools to block obscene and pornographic material from students.
To you teachers on the front lines trying your best to teach the truth to children while under assault from the many treasonous pressures brought to bear on you, I applaud you and pray for you. To you teachers seeking to indoctrinate our students, and to those other “useful idiots” of Lenin’s who are subverting good teachers everywhere, I pray for you for entirely different reasons.
Marxism in Common Core Standards?
In 2012, then Senator Margaret Dayton invited me to join her in a meeting with then Lt. Governor Greg Bell to discuss the Common Core standards and the agenda behind it. After introductions, the Lt. Gov. said something like, “I’ve read these standards and there’s no Marxism in them.” I immediately knew what had happened. Someone in the state office of education had told him that we believed the standards taught Marxism and that by reading them he would see we were just loonies and worried about nothing.
I explained this was a straw-man argument the state office set up to make us look bad and be easy to knock over. I explained that although the standards were weak, nobody had ever said they had Marxism in them. We then dove into other aspects of the Common Core agenda designed to take over the education system nationally and then globally, and everything I was aware of at that time.
Shall Exit vs. May Exit
The Lt. Governor took a page or two of notes and was very concerned about the state of things. He asked me to draft a bill to protect Utah from federal encroachment. That bill became SB 287 and was passed into law in the 2012 session with Governor Herbert signing it. Unfortunately, the language of the bill was amended to read “the state may exit” instead of my original language, “the state shall exit.” I believe this was done at the behest of the governor’s office, and of course the state office of education.
A couple years later, Governor Herbert appeared on The Blaze TV program with Glenn Beck and when asked about federal encroachment in education and Common Core said, citing this law, “We have a law that says if any of this federal overreach somehow gets into our [education] system, we are mandated to get out of it.” That was completely false since the bill didn’t pass into law that way, but it made the Governor sound strong and gave a false reassurance to people that Utah was protected.
Over these past years, despite being warned repeatedly about federal encroachment, nothing was ever done to get Utah out of these predicaments.
Warnings Ignored
One of the other things we’ve been warning about for over a decade is the influence of Bill Ayers, John Goodlad, Linda Darling-Hammond, and others in pushing dangerous agendas into our school system. What is this dangerous agenda? Marxism but in its most clever disguises. Not in the standards, but in the curriculum, the assessments, and pumped into the heads of teachers by perverted colleges of education and professional development classes that twist the truth to make America ugly.
Just as some declare the perverse idea that communism is a form of charitable living, Marxism today is being sold under the benign sounding banner of “social justice.” But what is it? It’s about treating different people unequally while claiming to make them equal. At its core, it’s an assault on all Western values – faith, family, and freedom. They know those are the obstacles to achieving political domination. Interestingly, the very people promoting social justice are the first to condemn fascism while simultaneously promoting its fraternal twin sibling, communism.
Marxism is “the socialist philosophy and political program developed by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels” (Wiktionary). Social justice is part and parcel of Marxism. As Orwell said, some are “more equal” than others in a supposedly equal system.
When Charlotte Iserbyt worked at the US Department of Education under Ronald Reagan, she was shocked at just how bad things were 40 years ago. She called the federal Department of “Education” a “Marxist factory” and for years smuggled out documents proving the case for what they were doing to American children. You can download a free pdf of the 900 page book she wrote called “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America” from here:
I highly recommend spending some time on her site. She has done a tremendous work and service to America.
I’m not sure if she was aware of this statement during her time there, but I know she would agree they achieved this goal.
“Among the elementary measures the American Soviet government will adopt to further the cultural revolution are…[a] National Department of Education…the studies will be revolutionized, being cleansed of religious, patriotic, and other features of the bourgeois ideology. The students will be taught the basis of Marxian dialectical materialism, internationalism and the general ethics of the new Socialist society.” –William Z. Foster, Toward Soviet America, 1932 National Chairman of the American Communist Party (1933-44, 1945-57)
The communists knew they had to get the youth and destroy their foundations. President Carter was the one who finally started up the national department of education. How did the communists get so entrenched into our education system? I’m glad you asked.
The Non-Profit Organizations
Do you know why the Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller non-profit organizations contribute millions of dollars to the education system? (Oh and I shouldn’t leave out the Gates Foundation but they weren’t around yet for this part.)
The Reese hearings back in the 1950’s took a close look at the tax-free foundations. Norman Dodd was the primary investigator. Alger Hiss was convicted as a Soviet spy while serving as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. A true Orwellian naming convention meaning the exact opposite. Hiss was replaced by Joseph Johnson. Dodd contacted Johnson to request an interview but Johnson was busy, and not yet knowing what he was sitting on, told Dodd he could just come look through the minutes of their meetings. Dodd pounced on this and found lengthy discussions about the actions of the foundations. From the 1911 minutes of the Carnegie group, they discussed the question, “Is there any means known to man more effective than war, assuming you wish to alter the life of an entire people?” After discussing this for a year, another set of minutes stated, “How do we involve the United States in a war?” In 1917, the minutes showed they congratulated themselves on the wisdom of their actions and had the brashness to telegram President Wilson informing him not to end the war too quickly. War devastates families and enriches those that own the military industrial complex companies.
Dodd then spoke with Rowan Gaither who was president of the Ford Foundation who openly said, the purpose of their foundation’s efforts was “to so alter life in the United States as to make possible a comfortable merger with the Soviet Union.“When Mr. Dodd suggested they make those efforts public, Mr. Gaither declined and stated that for public consumption they are guided by the 10 commandments and the constitution. This is the textbook definition of a “secret combination” or conspiracy. Publicly you put on one face while privately working to undermine a system.
These foundations have been promoting Marxism in gradual doses to bring America to the point it is a socialist nation.
The above information in this small section can be found in chapter 4 of the book, “How the World Really Works” by Alan B. Jones, which is in turn, a summary of “The Tax-Exempt Foundations” by William McIlhany.
Listen to former Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson share what Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev told him during a visit to America about gradual doses of socialism they were pumping into our nation.
The goal of Marxism is revolution, which stunningly, we see in America today with Black Lives Matter’s leadership openly stating they have been trained in Marxism and implementing revolution in the streets of America. It’s not about helping Black people, it’s about destroying capitalism and replacing our form of government with a communist utopia (dictatorship). This is why the de-fund police movement exists: to further push America into anarchy where institutions of law and order are eradicated and militarized Marxists fill the power vacuum. Anyone supporting this movement is an enemy of freedom and America.
Destroying Capitalism
How do you destroy capitalism? You have to destroy the middle class. Then you just have a working class where everyone is “equal” and needy, working for a ruling class that is just a little more equal. That is the essence of communism. Be in charge, till the next coup where you will be denounced and held out as a traitor for someone else to step into leadership. That’s the story of the transition of leadership in the USSR during the 20th century. Each leader was replaced by one who essentially called their predecessor’s traitors for living off the people…
The destruction of the middle class of America would never happen unless it was an inside job. The communists knew this and developed a comprehensive plan to accomplish it. Bring financial pressure on the people, erode their confidence in their own history, take over one or both of the major political parties, eliminate obscenity laws by calling them censorship, discredit the American Founding Fathers, take over the education system including schools of education where teachers are indoctrinated to in turn pass it on to students, and much more.
Cleon Skousen identified 45 of the communist goals for destroying America and that list was then entered into the official congressional record by a *Democrat* lawmaker from Florida in 1963. Here’s a link to read the 45 goals which every American should know.
Almost every single goal on the list can be clearly seen as accomplished. Six of them have to do with education such as softening our curriculum (ex. Common Core) and taking over our teacher’s unions and associations. It’s had tremendous success by well-placed change agents across all segments of America. Hollywood breaks down our culture, governmental officials push for straight out communism, our children are taught nonsense, and our rights are constantly under attack. Recent pandemic events are more evidence where middle class business owners were told to abandon their businesses for weeks and months on end, while big business interests with more power and clout were deemed *essential* and allowed to stay open. Tremendous damage was done to American lives, not from Covid-19, but from government intervention policies.
The Communist Manifesto: Free Public Education
When Marx and Engle wrote the Communist Manifesto, they included 10 core planks. One of them was to have a free public education system. It’s no wonder public education doesn’t teach about the dangers of Marxism. It’s got a vested self-interest in concealing the truth about its origin.
“Oh but Oak, Thomas Jefferson wanted free public education. See, our founders wanted it too!!!”
OK, what was the difference between Marx and Jefferson on public education?
Public Education Views
Jefferson
Marx
Goal
Preservation of our liberty through knowledge, character, and moral education
Workforce training and revolution
Responsibility
Equal opportunity for Students
Equal outcomes for Students – Teachers become levelers via social justice
Advancement
Meritocracy
End class-based society (by creating mass poverty)
Financing & Direction
Decentralized – Locally financed and operated
Centralized – State financed and operated (removed from locals)
Curriculum
Locally chosen
State chosen
Values
Judeo-Christian Biblical values
Morally relative atheism
It makes sense that locally, parents gather, talk about what’s best for their children, and ensure they get educated. The parents stay involved and they keep costs under control because they are directly responsible for them. No one gets between them and their children. With Marx, someone is always meddling with your family values and beliefs in the name of ensuring they are taught *the right things* by *the right people.* DANGER WILL ROBINSON.
Social Justice isn’t about Equality
Why was Common Core created the way it was? Listen to one of the authors…it was for social justice (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI11e3a0Q0k – 4:55 mark). The authors wanted to slow things down. Dumb down the bright students (see Charlotte’s work above if you’re in doubt of this) and give the lower capacity students a better chance to be at the same level. IE. Marx’s equal outcome.
Jefferson would have been strongly against social justice even in education. He was all about letting the best and the brightest of both the rich and the poor advance as far as they were able to. This is what Jefferson said on differences in public classes.
“By… [selecting] the youths of genius from among the classes of the poor, we hope to avail the State of those talents which nature has sown as liberally among the poor as the rich, but which perish without use if not sought for and cultivated.” –Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIV, 1782. ME 2:206
In other words, let all be educated, help all to excel, and hold no one back. No social justice here.
Here’s the truth. If you believe in social justice, you’re either ignorant of what it means, or you’re anti-American. Most Americans are ignorant of what social justice is because they don’t understand Marxism. They have been taught a perverted form of charity to take care of the poor using governmental powers to confiscate the hard-earned wealth of the producers (which never reaches the poor). For those of you in the ignorant camp, please read Thomas Sowell’s essay, “The Quest for Cosmic Justice.”
There is nothing “just” about social justice. It is injustice. Social justice is Marxism. It’s the gospel of greed and envy. It’s the systematic destruction of institutions that uphold society, particularly the traditional family values passed on from parent to child. Instead of “work hard, get a good education, and take care of your family,” it’s “we were wronged” or as they push on the other side, “we are guilty.”
To paraphrase a prophet in the Book of Mormon, if you want justice, be just. If you want mercy, be merciful. You cannot have justice while seeking revenge or reparations (Alma 41:14). He also said, (speaking to the poor who had built synagogues of worship and then got cast out of them because they were too poor for the rich to let them in), don’t revile against your oppressors “lest ye become sinners like unto them.” I think Martin Luther King would have shared these sentiments.
One cannot be a patriotic American and favor social justice because the very foundation of America is “all men are created equal.” Not “all men should be made equal.” A conservative or liberal can be a patriotic American. But a Leftist cannot be a patriotic American. By definition they seek to overthrow the freedom of every individual and institution of traditional America.
Today’s education system is infested by Leftists. Our college schools of education pass on these subversive ideas to students who will become teachers, and they in turn pass them on to children who are indoctrinated in principles of evil. Our schools today are indeed Marxist factories.
Today’s families will need to sacrifice more by homeschooling their children or very carefully selecting individual classes and teachers that their children will actually be safe in, and by safe, I mean free of indoctrination from those that would poison their minds. I was personally made aware of two Alpine school district middle school teachers about 10 years ago teaching children that “communism isn’t that bad.” The families involved were completely caught off guard. The teachers were nice people and they had no idea they had these sentiments. Unless you speak with your children about what they are actually learning, you’d never know.
If anyone is under the illusion this has stopped in Utah, feel free to keep your head buried in the sand.
National Education Indoctrination Association
Who else is pushing this indoctrination into our classrooms? Of course, there’s the National Education Association (NEA) who promotes social justice and gets all their affiliates to do it as well.
“Someone really is after us… (the NEA and its affiliates) have been singled out because of our political power and effectiveness at all levels — because we have the ability to help implement the type of liberal social and economic agenda that (they) find unacceptable.”
–Robert H. Chanin, National Education Association general counsel
The NEA is not about education. It’s about pushing an agenda.
Utah Education Indoctrination Assocation
In a recent conversation I got into on Facebook with former UEA president Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh, she indicated that “racial and social justice is critical” because that’s how to “create a great public school for EVERY child.” Yeah. It’s working out really well I think, if your goal is to INCREASE racial tension and disparity. Minorities feel underprivileged and envious, while white kids feel guilt. The truth is, there is no systemic racism in America. If you think there is, spend a little time on Prager U listening to some of the Black individuals like Larry Elder talking about real statistics:
School children should not be subjected to this indoctrination not only because it isn’t factual, but because their brains aren’t even developed to be able to handle this kind of information. That’s why the indoctrination is done early because children can’t tell what’s happening to them. They should be focused on getting an education in the core subjects and not be subjected to this nonsense.
If you are a teacher paying dues to the UEA, you are aiding and abetting in the demise of the U.S. Constitution. If you are doing it because you need insurance, look for an alternative.
Utah State Office of Education (now going by the name Utah State Board of Education)
The current Utah State Superintendent of education, Sydnee Dickson, in a recent streaming event mentioned a couple things of concern.
After announcing herself “as a white woman of privilege,” (2:24:08) she went on to share that “as leaders we have a responsibility to create mechanisms for systemic change” (2:25:10).
This is a statement of more changes to come, but what are some of the systemic changes Utah is currently experiencing?
“Most recently Sydnee served on the national CCSSO writing committees for the InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards and the refresh of the ISLLC standards for preparing school leaders.”
What is InTASC? It’s the “Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium” and they are creating social-emotional learning standards for our children. Hmmm, what’s that?
From this news article on the Canyon’s school district website, we see Superintendent Dickson tell us we have “evolved” from character and civic education and are now moving toward a program endorsed by the U.S. Dept. of Education (giant red flag) to teach the social-emotional learning children need through a program endorsed by CASEL.
“Having evolved from ‘character or civic education,’ it’s building momentum alongside a growing body of research supporting its use, says Utah’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sydnee Dickson, who also spoke at the symposium. ‘We know more about brain research than we ever have before, and social-emotional learning is part of that…’
The ‘Second Step’ curriculum that Canyons is adopting is endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education and the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL). It’s lessons are designed to help students from kindergarten to eighth grade manage emotions, solve problems in a positive way, demonstrate empathy, and focus during class.”
Who is CASEL? Their website homepage (https://casel.org/) says they “stand against racial injustice.” They created a program to combat this called Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and state, “SEL is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.”
That sounds just peachy! Lets fight racial injustice by helping children understand and manage emotions? But shouldn’t that just happen by building friendships? What’s their idea of how this will work? Have a look at their equity webinar (https://casel.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/equity-webinar-FINAL.pdf). On page 15 we see this:
“In addition to required funding, striving for educational equity challenges us to examine biases and interrupt inequitable practices. We can then create inclusive, multicultural school environments that reveal and cultivate the interests and talents of children, youth, and adults from diverse backgrounds (Nat’l Equity Project).”
“Justice-oriented global citizenship as a developmental imperative to address inequities (i.e., education, health, wealth and environment) and promote collective wellbeing ”
“Situated in global history of power, privilege, oppression, resistance, empowerment, and self-determination/liberation that is raced, classed, aged and gendered”
“Schools and classrooms as mini-polities”
“SEL as a viable lever for justice-oriented civic/sociopolitical development trajectories”
THIS IS STRAIGHT OUT MARXISM! Karl Marx couldn’t have written it better. In fact, I think CASEL channeled him to do it! Multi-culturalism, justice-oriented global citizenship (redistribution of wealth, global carbon taxes, etc…), treating minorities as “more equal” than majorities, and reorienting civics through emotional manipulation and behavior modification of our children, and Utah is implementing it with the full involvement of our State Superintendent!
Knowing Sydnee Dickson is a nice person to talk to, doesn’t mean she isn’t completely wrong on these things. She’s a product of dozens of conferences where this is all presented as the next best thing in education. Unless someone intentionally looks at Marxism and it’s goals and methods, you will not see why promoting these things CAUSES PROBLEMS INSTEAD OF SOLVING THEM. You become the problem instead of the solution. You get led where a change agent wants you to look so they can then alter your thinking by giving you a little truth and mixing in a set of lies and making it all sound important and right.
If you really want to know why kids are having mental and social issues in the classroom, how about being compelled to learn, sit in a chair for 990 hours a year, and have their core values and beliefs challenged as they are marched toward socialism and forced to confront things that aren’t natural for children to confront? This will inevitably lead to further intrusions into their home life which is where these people really want to affect change. We can clearly see this is the goal. Search this page for the word “family” and you’ll find some alarming things (https://www.utahnsagainstcommoncore.com/offfeded). More on the family assault below…
Change agents
Change agents use Marxist tactics of twisting truth to make it more palatable. Occasionally they spout off something that reveals their true motives and agenda. When someone or a group follows these people (like the UEA, a school district administration, a university education department), and they get confronted with a quote like those below, their typical answer is, “well, I don’t agree with that statement but they have a lot of other stuff they’ve said which is great.” That’s called being a useful idiot. Lending your support to an individual who at their core has an evil agenda simply because you support some others of their statements. Lets start with an example of the indoctrination CASEL put out in page 8 of their guide.
Look at this cute picture. Any educator looking at this graph knows this is what we want, right. We want each child to have the support to have a chance to eat the fruit. Some need more help.
In reality, what these programs do cannot be described as equality or equity. The first thing they do to help the *less smart* kids is cut off the legs of the other students who excel above them.
Then when they determine the poor student is still learning, they cut down the tree and tell them “eat all you want” while the fruit rots and the tree dies.
To make everyone a winner, nobody can be a winner.
Let me give you some examples. Ever heard of Jaime Escalante? He’s the teacher in California that taught the class of *rejected students* calculus and had such incredible success they made the movie “Stand and Deliver” about it. How did he do this? High expectations. He expected the “stupid kids” to reach the fruit. That “Equality” picture above was his classroom where the students couldn’t reach the fruit and he did what any great teacher does. He helped his students reach the fruit when nobody said they could and he did it by making them work hard and not putting up with anything less than success. He gave them legs to stand on. Watch the movie.
What ever happened to him? He was too successful and embarrassed other teachers so the school district shut down his program. Tree felled.
Around 2000, California created the “green dot standards” for math. This was a program where instead of “a mile wide and inch deep” standards everyone talks about, they put green dots next to some standards and told teachers to spend 85% of their time on those standards. They were the key to mathematical learning. What happened?
California experienced massive success in increasing proficiency in algebra by 8th grade. The most awesome success came among minorities as they experienced up to a 6x increase in proficiency. This is a direct result of having high expectations and standards, and helping every student achieve. Equity achieved, right?
Seeing this incredible success, what did California do?
Dropped the program and adopted Common Core.
Progress lost. Now everyone can be equally dumb. No more smart kids whether they are white, black, or other minorities. Then chop up the tree after it’s down by reducing the difficulty of college exams so everyone feels good about their dumbed-down learning.
When I served on the Utah Elementary Math Education Committee a few years ago, as part of an opportunity for parents to review Common Core standards, I tried to show the committee the amazing success California had with these green dot standards. I waited for an opportune moment when one of the state office of education employees, Diana Suddreth, left the room. I knew that was my chance to share this success story. I passed out a flier I’d prepared with some of this information to the 15 member panel and shared why I thought Utah should adopt these standards. Unfortunately, Diana returned and completely shut down the conversation. The state office is not interested in success stories that change the status quo. They have their fiefdom and don’t want it disturbed.
Change agents are at work in every aspect of education. They often don’t even know they’ve been co-opted to serve in that capacity because they’ve been indoctrinated by master change agents who make things sound so great and only occasionally reveal the underlying goal. One goal (of the communists mentioned above) is to modify the behaviors and attitudes of children and the first step is always to soften the curriculum and reduce learning so they aren’t able to clearly see what’s happening to them. Our masters want a dumbed-down population that can’t tell what’s happening to them.
Lets look at a few specific change agents who are fully aware of what they are doing.
In an address to the Childhood International Education Seminar in 1973, Dr. Chester M. Pierce, Harvard Professor of Education and Psychiatry, said:
“Every child in America entering school at the age of five is insane because he comes to school with certain allegiances to our founding fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being, and toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It’s up to you as teachers to make all these sick children well – by creating the international child of the future.”
Now what do you think Chester has been working on for decades in his research and instruction to teachers? Interestingly, he is also noted for coining the term microaggression.
Remember “Blooms hierarchy you learned about in school and how you become self-actualized at the highest level? Here’s a definition of his you probably didn’t hear about in school.
“…a student attains ‘higher order thinking’ when he no longer believes in right or wrong. A large part of what we call good teaching is a teacher´s ability to obtain affective objectives by challenging the student’s fixed beliefs. …a large part of what we call teaching is that the teacher should be able to use education to reorganize a child’s thoughts, attitudes, and feelings.”
-Benjamin Bloom, psychologist and educational theorist, “Major Categories in the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives,” pg. 185
Here’s a quote from John Goodlad, identified by Charlotte Iserbyt as “America’s premier change agent.” He was hired by “conservative” BYU and worked there from 1983 to 1985. Then he founded the National Network for Educational Renewal and BYU signed on as a charter university and stayed with his organization till 2010, even hosting one of his conferences in 2006 I believe.
Many of his conferences included how to put social justice and LGBT teaching into classrooms. The only reason they dropped the NNER affiliation is because we discovered it and made a stink about it and the education department said they were dropping their membership “for financial reasons.” Yeah, as word got out that they were taking instructions from an atheist, humanist, socialist, I’d guess some donors and trustees threatened to turn off the spigot.
This is Goodlad:
“Most youth still hold the same values of their parents… if we do not alter this pattern, if we don’t resocialize, our system will decay.”
– John Goodlad, Schooling for the Future, Issue #9, 1971
“Public education has served as a check on the power of parents, and this is another powerful reason for maintaining it.” – John Goodlad, Developing Democratic Character in the Young, pg. 165
“[schools] should liberate students from the ways of thinking imposed by religions and other traditions of thought.” -John Goodlad, “Education and Community,” in Democracy,Education, and the Schools, Roger Stone, pg. 92.
B. Y. U.
If “conservative” BYU has such serious issues, you know pretty much every other university does as well.
Goodlad worked with BYU to create a Public School Partnership that pushed his books and doctrine into 5 major school districts around BYU (Provo, Alpine, Nebo, Wasatch, and Jordan). This is why so many of them are promoting social justice, because it comes from a socialist into the teacher college, which teaches teachers, who teach our children. Here’s one specific example of a math educator at BYU who loves teaching new teachers all about social justice:
One of Marx’s goals was the destruction of the family. Social justice demands it. It isn’t fair that some kids get good families and others don’t.
I know a family that moved from one area in Alpine school district to another so they could switch schools because their straight A daughter was given a B on an assignment she did perfectly solely because the teacher wanted her to know what it was like to not get a perfect grade and be like everyone else. There’s social justice for you, a toxic teacher punishing a student doing her best in the name of fairness.
President Johnson’s war on poverty had a devastating effect on Black communities by subsidizing single parents but taking away the subsidies if they got married. This gave rise to unwed parents and a lack of fathers in the home, which in turn caused tremendous problems. Watch here for some shocking statistics compiled by Glenn Beck.
Then listen to this segment by Glenn on the groups of people with influence openly advocating that we need to do away with the traditional family concept because it promotes capitalism. The last 10-15 minutes of the audio is key for the quotes, but all 30 minutes is worth listening to.
Here’s a quote from Sophia Lewis who runs the “Family Story project”:
“That’s something I want to challenge, the idea that babies belong to anyone—the idea that the product of gestational labor gets transferred as property to a set of people.”
Pure Marxism. Abolish the family and make children the property of the community so they are raised away from parents who might influence their values toward a set of unacceptable beliefs (religious, liberty oriented, etc…)
Here’s a link to their twisted attack on the family, “embracing family justice for all.”
If you are for social justice, you are for the destruction of the family. You can’t separate ideology and say, “I’m for this piece of Marxism that I agree with, but not the rest.” By embracing any of it, you lend your voice and influence to all of it. You aid and abet the enemies of freedom. Your agreement with part gives others that trust you, permission and direction to embrace it and go further. Social justice warriors are promoting the destruction of the family, the end of capitalism, the end of the Constitution, the end of order, and the creation of a new world order: global communism headed by the world’s elites. We are living in “1984” and “Animal Farm.”
The 1619 Project: More Marxist Lies
The newest assault to destroy America is coming from the radical 1619 Project the New York Times is launching. This is yet another attempt to show how evil those white people were that came to America. This project will only further divide America, increase racial tension through promoting lies, and set back race relations by decades.
Even BYU has a web page on “Race, Equity, & Belonging” that links to the 1619 Project and other “anti-racism” readings which are loaded with social in-justice content.
I didn’t always know this stuff. I was oblivious to it for decades of my life. But at some point, a rational mind has to recognize the overwhelming relationship between these dots and make all these connections come together. One must conclude that people mean what they say and are working to overthrow the family and the American way of life. They’ve been saying it for decades and been dismissed. Now they have infiltrated every facet of government and public agencies, and worse, the hearts of so many sincere (but misguided) people that it’s been given a place to grow in America.
It used to be forbidden for Communists and their sympathizers to be teachers in schools. In 1952, a 6-3 Supreme Court ruling upheld a NEW YORK law that prohibited communists from teaching in schools. It was the Feinburg Law which banned anyone from the teaching profession who called for the overthrow of the government. This was overturned in 1967 by a revised Supreme Court that didn’t share the concerns of the prior court (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/supreme-court-rules-on-communist-teachers). In 2008, California overturned a state ban on communist activity in the schools with the full support of the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers (https://www.nysun.com/editorials/california-communists/74159/). It probably made sense to everyone to just come out and make it formal…
Are you awake yet? If you read this article, congratulations. Becoming informed is the first step. Now act. Save your family, and save your community.
Be Inspired
The world is turning right before our eyes. Men and women must act to save our freedoms which are being stripped away.
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
–Thomas Paine
“Revisiting the Revolutionary War is a bracing reminder that the fate of a continent, and the shape of the modern world, turned on the free choices of remarkably few Americans defying an empire.”
–George Will
“So that this nation may long endure, I urge you to follow in the hallowed footsteps of the great disobediences of history that freed exiles, founded religions, defeated tyrants, and yes, in the hands of an aroused rabble in arms and a few great men, by God’s grace, built this country.”
–Charlton Heston
ACT NOW: Make these calls
Call your school district and school board members. Ask if they are using the 1619 project in any of the schools. Get informed on it and tell them to not let it into your children’s schools. Tell them not to implement social-emotional learning programs. Point them at the CASEL document above. In their own words they are advocating Marxism. Then contact your state board member and ask them to prevent Utah schools from using these destructive curricula. Tell them we need local control and to be free of federal money and strings. We need local school boards at every school overseeing what’s happening locally. Find your rep here:
Even if your children are out of schools or don’t attend your local public school, make the calls. YOUR future is in the hands of those children and I don’t think anyone wants to live in a country fundamentally transformed by Marxists.
ACT NOW: Save your children and grandchildren
If you believe in America, the place that isn’t perfect, has made mistakes, but is still the greatest nation on earth with the greatest governance document ever crafted with the help of God, then it’s time to get your principles clear and pull your children out of public schools. The indoctrination has already done tremendous harm to our children and it’s just going to get worse. You’ve got to find alternatives for educating your children. Homeschool or private school, or selectively dual enroll them, it’s time to take action now to preserve your family.
If homeschooling scares you, there is a tremendous support structure in place to help you. It’s work, but probably not as much work as you think. Once you find a rhythm, most homeschool families love it and would never go back. Here’s a few videos that might inspire you.
There are loads of Facebook homeschool groups. Parents, grandparents, and single parents homeschool their children. If you want to do it, there is a way forward.
Something to Keep Your Eyes On
Now I think a question every Utahn should ask themselves is why the NEA gave Spencer Cox $75,000 for his campaign. Then we should know why Spencer Cox kept the money. He can’t be ignorant of the Leftist policies of the NEA. Assuming he is elected in the general election, what favors is he going to do for this Marxist organization? We can only hope and pray for divine intervention…
And now for something religious
If you are a Bible believer, try reading Revelation 13 again with this thought.
Verse 1: a blasphemous beast arises (Communism)
Verse 3: one of its heads is wounded to death (assumed death of communism), but his deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the beast (communism makes a comeback)
Verse 11: Another beast arises (socialism) which spake as a dragon (same old lies) and had two horns like a lamb (looks innocent)
Verse 12: This beast exercises the same power as the first beast and causes the earth to worship the first beast.
Verse 15: The second beast causes anyone that won’t worship an image of the first beast to be put to death. The new world order arises.
This is the history of socialism. It can’t stand truth and light so it ends the lives of those who oppose it. So far, the effort to create a great peaceful communist utopia has ended the lives of over 100 million people. How many more will be put to death is uncertain, but if we don’t act, America will fall.
Book reading list:
Want to be prepared for what’s happening? Here’s a short book list you should get very familiar with:
The Scriptures
None Dare Call it Conspiracy by Gary Allen
The Leipzig Connection by Paolo Lionni
The Naked Communist by Cleon Skousen
The Naked Capitalist by Cleon Skousen
The Law by Frederick Bastiat
The U.S. Constitution
How the World Really Works by Alan Jones
Many are Called but Few are Chosen by H. Verlan Anderson
(Featured Image of Marx by Anton Ivanov @123rf.com)
