By Doug Patton,
It is no secret that government schools across the United States have become indoctrination centers for the spreading of a social gospel that is anathema to the values of the majority of American parents. Public education is largely run by union bosses and liberal school boards protecting incompetent educrats who push an agenda that has nothing to do with teaching children how to think and everything to do with teaching them what to think. Hitler, Stalin and Mao would be proud.
You may be surprised to learn that this disease of so-called progressive education has spread far beyond the borders of blue states and big cities, and is now infecting even the most conservative areas of the country. Thanks to 21st century communications combined with a desire to be considered tolerant, diverse and multi-cultural, and facilitated by a dictatorial federal Department of Education, local school boards across the fruited plain are joyfully leaping into the propaganda business in direct defiance of the will of the people they purport to serve. In fact, this clash of standards has been brought to the heartland in one of the reddest of our red states.
In Nebraska, the board of education of the Omaha Public School district has taken another brazen leap toward brainwashing the thousands of children they hold captive. Using $130,000 of Obama stimulus money, this board has voted to buy 8,000 copies of a book called “The Cultural Proficiency Journey: Moving Beyond Ethical Barriers Toward Profound School Change.”
Three former teachers, Randall B. Lindsey, Franklin Campbell-Jones and his wife, Brenda Campbell-Jones, wrote this propaganda manual; and thanks to the Obama administration, every Omaha public school teacher, administrator and staff member — even custodians! — will get a copy. At $16.25 each. Paid for with your tax dollars.
The authors of the book claim that their intent is “to prepare educators to unshackle themselves from tradition and become facilitators for reconciliation of historical injustices.”
What exactly does that mean? Well, here are a few excerpts from their manual:
• “The government and social institutions in the United States have created advantages that disproportionately channel wealth, power and resources to white people.”
• “Colorblindness will not end racism. Pretending race doesn’t exist is not the same as creating equality.”
• “It is common for teachers to proclaim they do not see color in children. What this communicates to children of color is that their experience, in a racialized society, is to be discounted.”
• “One is compelled to recognize that oppressed groups seeking equality needed to be amended into the Constitution in their quest for justice. On the other hand, heterosexual white men as a group, the unstated norm, have never needed to be amended into the Constitution.”
• “It is common to see historically oppressed populations of children — African-American, Latino and Native-American — clustered in low-level academic courses, while upper-level courses are filled with historically advantaged groups, primarily Euro-American. The clear distribution of academic benefits for Whites and lack thereof for people of color is evident in the achievement data reported over the past two decades.”
• “We need to recognize and dismantle historical forms of oppression that are operational in schools. Schools can, by tradition, institutionalize sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, ableism, and homophobia, to list a few, through organizational policies and practices.”
I know. I, too, was ignorant of this latest lingo. Having lived in politically correct America for more years than I care to contemplate, I was more than acquainted with what the ridiculous radical left means when they whine and scream about sexism and racism. I was even familiar with their other silly terms, such as homophobia and ethnocentrism. But “ableism”? That was a new one — one of which I’m sure the three eggheads who wrote this tripe are very proud. It means discrimination or prejudice toward the disabled. Okay.
Lincoln was right. It is long past time we realize that tomorrow’s leaders are in the hands of Marxists who, from top to bottom, now permeate our education establishment. Our children will one day rule this nation. God help us if we do not rescue them from those who would indoctrinate their minds and crush their spirits.
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Doug Patton describes himself as a recovering political speechwriter who agrees with himself much more often than not. Now working as a freelance writer, his weekly columns of sage political analysis are published the world over by legions of discerning bloggers, courageous webmasters and open-minded newspaper editors. Astute supporters and inane detractors alike are encouraged to e-mail him with their pithy comments at dougpatton@cox.net.