BYU Dropped NNER…Or Did They?

Posted on October 28, 2010 by

The Daily Herald reported on July 2 that BYU had officially severed its partnership with the National Network for Educational Renewal (NNER). Started by openly socialist/humanist  John Goodlad, the NNER’s mission is to “Enculturate the Young into a Social and Political Democracy.” FOF applauds BYU’s decision to abandon an organization whose “Agenda for Education in a Democracy” runs contrary to the mission of BYU.

Four months after the announcement, the BYU McKay School of Education Web site remains unchanged. The site still says that is “directly affiliated” with the NNER. The links, descriptions, articles, and speeches describing BYU’s involvement with the NNER continue to persist on the site.

A call to CITES, BYU’s Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education and Schooling, the BYU organization with the closest ties to Goodlad’s NNER, went unreturned.

Posted in Alpine School District, Progressive Agenda | 2 Comments

Unrepentent Bomber Bill Ayers to Keynote at 2010 Goodlad Conference

Posted on June 15, 2010 by

Former bomber and unapologetic Marxist revolutionary Bill Ayers will be the keynote speaker at John Goodlad’s NNER 2010 conference in Normal, Illinois in October 2010.

In the 1960s, Ayers was an active member of the Weather Underground, a domestic terrorist group that bombed public buildings in the name of “democracy.” Ayers describes his group as the “militant arm” of Students for a Democratic Society. In his memoir Fugitive Days Ayers said “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.” (Yes, that Bill Ayers, the one who hosted a meet-and-greet for then-candidate Barack Obama. But I digress.)

What is Bill Ayers doing at a conference where educational reformers speak on such topics as “nurturing”, “democracy” and “moral dimensions?” Goodlad and Ayers are both social-progressive organizers, working hard to advance their vision of social democracy by “Enculturating the Young” in our public schools. They hold a similar antipathy toward parents, and believe that morals are not absolute and should be “defined by the community.” Both count John Dewey (atheist signer of the Humanist Manifesto) as a source of their inspiration.

Alpine School District in Utah County, Utah, is a Goodlad “partner district” with close ties to Goodlad. District superintendent Vern Henshaw is a former executive board member of Goodlad’s organization, NNER. It is unknown at this time if Henshaw will be speaking with Ayers at NNER 2010.

Posted in Alpine School District, National News & Issues, Progressive Agenda | 3 Comments

Public Schools, Not Government Schools

Posted on May 25, 2010 by

David Cox

I believe we have confused the term “public education” with “government schools.”  Public education is not necessarily government education.  It has just become that by government takeover.

Public education was created in the 1600s by the Puritans.  It predates this country.  Indeed it helped create the New England common people who were educated and independent enough to start the revolution that created our country!

For the first 250-300 years public education was NOT government education.  It was a publicly held, locally owned corporation where the local property owners (taxpayers) were the shareholders.  They controlled education.  This changed when, first the school districts in growing cities became big.  They became the flag ships that everyone looked to.  Their property values (and thus tax revenues) increased rapidly, while the rural, smaller districts did not.  The smaller districts coveted the revenues and begged for state revenue sharing.  That led to state control, which might not be so bad, but that led in the 1960 Presidential election to Kennedy blaming schools for Soviet space advances and at the same time promising federal funding for them.  That is what won the election for him, and THAT is when the change to becoming government schools started.  False philosophies had been around for 50 years and more.  They had some limited impact, but did not prevail until the national takeover began.

Public education isn’t the villain.  The villain is government intrusion, which has been bought with tax revenue.  Even the union isn’t the fault.  It is rather an indication and complicator of the problem.  The cancerous philosophy that government can guarantee success has grown exponentially in the last 50 years.  It is destroying self responsibility and initiative.  It also promotes and protects false philosophies.  Actually it is amazing how good the schools are given the situation.  That is a reflection of parents and teachers who have held to correct beliefs they grew up with and learned in their families and churches.  Otherwise the schools would be much worse, and are in some places.

A community coming together to do the education of their children is not the problem.  The problem is national interference and take over.  Eliminate that, including restoring districts to community size,  and education would be more likely to do a better job.

Posted in Quality Education | 2 Comments

Goodlad vs. the Family

Posted on May 25, 2010 by

John Goodlad, celebrated by progressive/socialist educators worldwide, writes frequently of the importance of state influence in “enculturating” young minds, particularly with regard to morals, social values and politics. At the same time he publicly advocates philosophies that are incompatible with traditional family values. Consider a sample of Goodlad’s writings, compared with traditional family values:

Goodlad Philosophies Family Values
Morals “Educators must resist the quest for certainty. If there were certainty there would be no scientific advancement.  So it is with
morals and patriotism.”		 Morals defined by God
Role of Parents “Parents do not own their children. They have no ‘natural right’ to control their education fully.”“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.” Parents have the primary responsibility to educate their children.
Education “A standardized curriculum of basic skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic cannot prepare people to participate in a democracy.””Enlightened social engineering is required to face situations that demand global action now.”(John Goodlad, Preface to J.M. Becker: Schooling for a Global Age) Academic excellence is critically important to the future success of the child.Schools should “develop within  students the intellectual and personal habits and skills upon which responsible, independent and productive lives are built, in the firm belief that such lives are the basis of a free and just society.”“Teach ye diligently…”
Desired Political System “The state we should strive for is better described in Deweyan terms as a social democracy.”(John Goodlad, 2001: Developing Democratic Character in the Young) A free Republic (U.S. Constitution, Art 4, Sec 4)
Posted in Progressive Agenda | 2 Comments

New Leadership Needed in Alpine District

Posted on May 25, 2010 by

New leadership is needed in the Alpine School District. Many of the incumbent board members, while well-intentioned, are out of step with the educational values of families in the district. The math problem has not been solved, and most recently the school board has confirmed that they will continue to actively promote progressive social engineer John Goodlad’s Moral Dimensions, over the objections of parents in the community. This is disappointing and surprising, considering that Goodlad’s philosophies are becoming known in the district.

In contrast, many of the candidates running against incumbents believe that it is the right of families, not social engineers, to direct the education of their children. A responsible  school board, once elected, will:

  • Restore focus on academic excellence, not the politics of social change.
  • Provide additional choices in math curriculum such as Saxon and Singapore math.
  • Provide additional choices in reading & writing curriculum, such as the Spalding reading & writing program.
  • Cultivate a climate of open, responsive communication with parents, teachers, and administrators

Please join me in getting to know the 2010 school board candidates, and specifically asking them about their position on John Goodlad. Then VOTE in the June 2010 primary election!

Posted in Alpine School District | Leave a comment

Schnell Email to Alpine District Parents

Posted on May 25, 2010 by

Some have asked to have Susie’s original Feb 2010 email published online. Here it is again (with her permission):

_____________________________________________________________________

WARNING TO ALL ALPINE SCHOOL DISTRICT PARENTS

Susie Schnell

I am a parent of 4 children in Alpine School District (ASD) in Utah and I just found out some alarming things that our district is promoting. Please take the time to read this as we need to come together as a community to fix a monumental problem which has crept into our local district. School board elections are coming up soon and we can fix this if we all work together quickly.

Many are aware that our country’s leaders are trying to transform this nation into democratic socialism. You already know that one of their main techniques is to indoctrinate school children around the nation into gradually believing Progressive ideology and move away from our great Constitutional heritage. I moved here in the heart of a conservative city and state from California hoping for a better education and environment for my children. However, I was shocked to find out recently that our own Alpine School District has been aligning itself with people who believe that we are NOT a great God-inspired Republic. They are teaching that our Founding Fathers were wrong in establishing a Republic, that the Constitution was set up by wealthy elitists who only wanted gain for themselves and that we should transform our Republic nation into a social and political Democracy by teaching this false doctrine to our children. They even went as far as linking their Mission Statement page with a California Green Party candidate who believes Jesus is a vampire. READ ON….

WHAT OUR SCHOOL DISTRICT IS TEACHING

Last week my daughter’s 6th grade history teacher was falsely teaching the class that the United States of America is not a Constitutional Republic but a Democracy even when my daughter corrected him twice. One of his main jobs at the school is to teach the Constitution to all 5th and 6th grade students. He also told her that a book she was reading made up of quotes from our Founding Fathers about the Constitution was “pure science fiction”.  Because she was not being challenged in any of her subjects and learning false ideas about our country, we decided to check her out of Alpine School District.  As we walked into the district office, my daughter and I were shocked to be greeted by a huge sign spanning about 30 feet down the hallway in 12 inch high letters that said:

“Enculturating the Young into a Social and Political Democracy”

I immediately wondered why the school district’s motto wasn’t “We Strive for Excellence in Education” or something similar. Nothing about education, only politics. I don’t want the schools teaching my children about politics or enculturating them into any other belief system other than what we teach at home. Enculturating is a brand new word invented by Progressives which means changing someone’s core belief system.

FALSE STATEMENTS ON THE MISSION STATEMENT PAGE

The ASD Mission Statement page says:

“Our current government is best symbolized as a representative democracy.”

(False! Our current government as set up by the Constitution is a Republic. There is NO mention of the words democracy or democratic anywhere in the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence.)

“The primary purpose of education is developing democratic citizens. Every teacher should have this major board objective in mind as he/she prepares the curriculum.”

(False! The primary goal of each teacher should be to teach the subject in which he/she specializes and leave out politics!)

Shouldn’t a music teacher’s goal be to teach music, a math teacher’s goal to teach math? Why are they teaching that “enculturating the young into a social and political democracy” is more important than teaching core subjects?

A link on the Mission Statement page led to America: Republic or Democracy? That page is an opinion piece (not a fact) by William P. Meyers who speaks about the dangerous and selfish goals of the Founding “Elitists”. He states that an example of a Republic is the “evil empire” of the former USSR and that the elitists started this country as a Republic, but it was a dangerous mistake so people for over two centuries have been trying to change it to a Democracy. Obviously by linking this statement directly to the website, our district believes this false idea.

(As word started to circulate publicly about Bill Meyer’s link, the district quietly stripped it off of their page this week, but we have proof that it was there. Even without Meyer’s link, the ASD has proven that they fully endorse the ideas contained on Meyer’s webpage which denigrate our Founding Fathers and refer to them as “predatory elitists”. This district is determined to teach this to the children in 71 schools in this district.)

You can look at Meyer’s shocking link here to see what the district deemed was important enough to add to their Mission Statement page.  http://www.williampmeyers.org/republic.html

DISTRICT LINKS ITSELF WITH RADICAL SOCIALIST WHO BELIEVES JESUS IS A VAMPIRE

The danger in teaching false ideas about our political system is that other false teachings can also creep into the curriculum. Radical socialist Bill Meyers was linked to our district’s website as the “expert” of why we should be a democracy, and why becoming democratic citizens needs to be the district’s number one goal to teach children and parents instead of traditional education.

Meyers believes in anarchy, pagan worship and that Jesus was just a leader of a small cult and is a REAL vampire! That’s right! He actually says that real vampires disguise themselves as Gods—they live forever and have rituals of drinking blood and eating flesh.

He advocates radical socialism, limiting families to 2 children, abortion to term, homosexuality, worshipping the sun instead of a “dead Jesus”, Mary was just an unwed pregnant teenager, and many other atheist and socialist political views. (Meyers is running for the CA Assembly in 2010 as a Green Party Candidate.)

All this was linked directly from Alpine School District’s website just 2 clicks from the district’s home page!

  • Why is the school district pushing this agenda?
  • Who is training the administrators and teachers to transform our Republic through indoctrinating our children?
  • Who authorized linking Bill Meyers to the district website and who knew about his atheistic and socialist views?
  • Where did this philosophy of teaching democracy instead of teaching our Constitution come from when our Founding Fathers made it very clear that democracy always leads to anarchy?

RESEARCH PROVES THAT THIS IS A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN

While I believe most of the teachers and administers don’t understand the danger of what they are teaching our children, it is clear that we need to demand that they go back to teaching basic traditional subjects and get out of the business of politicizing the curriculum. I’m sure they don’t realize that these dangerous ideas are linked to Bill Ayers and other radical socialists who have discovered that the best way to change a nation is to indoctrinate (enculturate) our children and their teachers through “democracy” training.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

In my research I found out that using the word “democracy” is not a mere mistake in language. There is a concerted national and state movement to re-write our history and move our form of government towards socialism by using linguistics. The first step is rewriting our history to make people believe that we are a democracy.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

  • Send this alert to others even if they are not in the district. This philosophy is making its way into many schools in America. Most people are good moral citizens who believe in standing up for the Constitution. It is time we realize what is being taught to our children about this country’s heritage and demand truth.
  • Demand more from our district, board members and superintendent. They need to hear from us. We elected them to represent us. PLEASE write all the board members about your concerns.

Barnes, Donna: barn099@alpine.k12.ut.us
Terry D. Peterson: tdpeterson@alpine.k12.ut.us
Fugal, Guy L.: fugal099@alpine.k12.ut.us
Hannemann, Chrissy: hann099@alpine.k12.ut.us
Henshaw, Vernon (Superintendent): vhenshaw@alpine.k12.ut.us
Osborn, Timothy S.: tosborn@alpine.k12.ut.us
Sundberg, JoDee: sund099@alpine.k12.ut.us
Taylor, Debbie: dctaylor@alpine.k12.ut.us

A quote from an LDS prophet:

“There are at least three dangers that threaten the Church within, and the authorities need to awaken to the fact that the people should be warned unceasingly against them. As I see these, they are flattery of prominent men in the world, false education ideas, and sexual impurity…  – Joseph F. Smith

With hope that you will stand with me for our children’s sake and for our country’s sake,

Susan Schnell

Posted in Alpine School District | Leave a comment

Eagle Forum: ASD Parents “Awakened”

Posted on May 25, 2010 by

Informative article from the Eagle Forum, summarizing what is happening in Alpine School District. Not a lot of new info (this was published in April 2010), but it’s nice to see a great organization like the Eagle Forum take note of what is happening in Alpine School District. FULL STORY

Posted in Alpine School District | Leave a comment