The Common Core Logo—shows a map of the USA with the States that have signed onto Common Core (CC) colored gold. The five States that have not yet adopted CC are shown in a darker color. They are Texas, Alaska, Nebraska, Virginia and half of Minnesota. [Minnesota accepted just half of the standards, those of English and reading, but not the math.]
Why the dark color for the non-compliant States?
Does that mean those States have not yet reached the state of
‘enlightenment’ of the other “brighter” States?
“Why did the creators of the logo choose the symbol of an incomplete dizzy-looking circle that can’t quite get it together? After doing the months of research that I have done on Common Core, I think the logo is a good choice. It shows the effect this curriculum is going to have on the students of our nation. Their education is going to be dumbed down, “incomplete.” They are going to be left in a dizzy, confused state, and won’t be able to get it together well enough to have a bright future.”
Orlean Koehle, State President Eagle Forum of California
What is Common Core? “The Common Core State Standards Initiative” is the official name for the new education program coming down from the Obama administration, preparing the way for “Race to the Top Assessments,” which will take place in 2014 when all the computer software is in place to test the minds of the nation’s children to see how well Common Core (CC) has been sufficiently taught.
CC pretends to be a benign “State” program, State-written and controlled. It is touted as being “more rigorous” [whatever that means] and that it will “better prepare students for college and the workplace.”
However, CC is really a deceptive Trojan Horse, a national program, written by a national team, supported by President Obama and the Federal Department of Education, and it is imposing national, top-down standards and curriculum on all of the 46 States that have signed onto it.
- What is so Bad about Nationalized, Top-Down Education? Those in support of CC say that it will make education standardized across the nation, so that if a student moves from one state to another, he will not miss anything. All education will be the same at the same grade level. That doesn't sound so bad, does it?
Yes, it does sound bad if one looks at other countries that have nationalized education, and we see nationalized propaganda. When education is top-down, with the federal government having so much control and power over education, it is very easy to promote a certain agenda and indoctrination is so much easier.
- Nationalization Disempowers the People: When there is a national education program in place, it is almost impossible to have any influence on changing policy or programs. Your local school board, state school board, state legislators, and the governor will be powerless to change it. As Lance Izumi, of the Pacific Research Institute states, “The further policy making is seated away from ordinary citizens, the less powerful and influential those citizens are.”
Jay Greene, professor at the University of Arkansas, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, and left this warning about the dangers of a national education system:
If we discover a mistake or wish to try a new and possibly better approach, we can’t switch. We are stuck with whatever national choices we make for a very long time. And if we make a mistake, we will impose it on the entire country. Izumi adds, “The most affected will be parents and their children.”
Example of National, Socialist Education at its Worse – NAZISM: Over the entrance to the NAZI concentration camp in Dachau, Germany, are the famous words: “Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it,” written by the Spanish philosopher George Santayana. This is a warning to all of us that if we do not learn from history, it could very well happen again.
One would think that we could remember and learn from the history of what happened in Germany. It was not that long ago, still during many of our lifetimes. From 1933 to 1945 Hitler rose to power and took over as the Fuhrer, supreme leader or dictator.
There are many similarities going on today to what happened back then as Hitler took over and nationalized and socialized the education of a nation. One of the first similarities one sees is how teachers’ freedoms were taken away. They could no longer teach their own tried and true methods. They could only teach the new Hitler prescribed methods, and if they could not conform, they lost their jobs. That is also what is happening with Common Core.
Here are some of the steps that were taken under Nazism as education and schools were transformed into national centers for indoctrination. I list them as a warning of where we could be headed? Some of them sound very familiar to Common Core all ready:
- A law was passed that helped promote the formation of a teachers’ union that became so powerful, no one could teach without belonging to it. The union was the National Socialist Teachers League (NSTL) and by the 1940s, 97% of all teachers belonged to it.
- Teachers were Weeded out who Could not Go Along with the New System. Those who were openly hostile to Nazism faced arrest and concentration camps. Teachers who wanted to keep their jobs were forced into silent acquiescence. Older teachers were replaced with younger ones who were more easily indoctrinated.
- Teachers who were Enthusiastic Supporters of Nazism Got Promoted. “Thus over time the NAZIS steadily increase their hold on German schools and by the 1940s had an increasingly compliant cadre of teachers.”
- The Curriculum was Rewritten to Provide a NAZI-Approved Curriculum. Teachers had much less leeway in the design of their lessons. The NAZI Party, in effect, instructed teachers as to what they could and could not teach.
- Anti-Intellectual Training: The focus of education became centered on physical development, party indoctrination, moral or character training [with a whole new concept of “morality” and “character,” nothing to do with religious faith]. It was an “education of the will,” rather than “a training of the mind.” A quote from a book written by two scholars about Hitler’s life describes this very well: “We cannot fight our way out of this deep crisis through intellectualism...The school for character ...which is a practical test of true comradeship in work and living is irreplaceable.”3
- The NSTL was Established for NAZI Ideological Training: Leaders of it were to ensure that teachers conformed to National Socialist doctrine.
- Leaders and Master Teachers in the NSTL Visited the Schools and Kept Data Files on Teachers: One of their main functions was to determine the political reliability of teachers and their loyalty to the NAZI Party in order to ensure proper placements and promotions.
- The NSTL Leaders Operated Through Both Propaganda and Intimidation: It was responsible for the ideological indoctrination of its members.
- Teachers were Encouraged to Join the NAZI Party Itself: Some did so out of party sympathies; others did so as a smart career choice. By 1936, 32 per cent of all teachers were NAZI Party members. This was reportedly twice as high as in most other professions.
- Racism and Data Collection by Teachers: Teachers were asked to play an active role in the NAZI racial program and applied the “principles” of racial science. They measured students' physical characteristics, including skull size and nose length, and recorded the color of hair and eyes to determine whether they belonged to the true “Aryan race.” This data was gathered and given to German officials. Jewish and Mischling (mixed Jewish-Aryan children) as well as Romani (Gypsy) students were often humiliated in the process.
Is this what is known as “differentiated recognition” in the Common Core Program, where teachers and schools have to report on students’ different socio-economic, racial, political background?
- True History Distorted and Right and Wrong Determined by NAZISM: “Munich Professors were warned: From now on it is not up to you to decide whether or not something is true, but whether it is in the interest of the national Socialist Revolution.”
- Students Taught to Spy on the Teachers: NAZI party officials taught children to spy and report back any discrepancies between what their teachers taught and Party doctrine.
- Hitler Youth Were Arrogant and Disrespectful: Teachers were concerned at the contempt for intellect held by the Hitler Youth and the arrogance they displayed to the teachers and to other students.4
- Children Belong to the State: “Parens Patria” is the Latin term for Hitler’s philosophy; literally translated—“the Fatherland is the parent.” The following quote from Adolf Hitler and picture below illustrate that philosophy even more:
When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already... What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.
Hitler 5
“German Youth Belong to the Fuhrer!”
This happy, smiling blue-eyed blond “Aryan” boy, dressed in the Hitler Youth uniform, is shown on the cover of a popular women’s magazine published during Hitler’s regime, 1936.
In the bottom left corner, appear the words, “Deutschland Jugend Gehort dem Fuhrer,” “German Youth Belong to the Leader!”
The name of the main article inside written for the women of Germany is “The Educational Principles of the New Germany,” Frauen-Warte, #22 (1936/37), pp. 692-693.
1 Lance T. Izumi, Obama’s Education Takeover, Pacific Research Institute, Encounter Books, 2012 (from the back cover.)
2 Izumi, p. 41.
3 J. Noakes and G. Pridham, Nazism: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts, 1919-1945, 1983, in cooperation with the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Exeter, UK., p. 441. http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/tnmfobe1196.html
4“The Educational Theory of Adolph Hitler,” http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Hitler.html.
5 Adolf Hitler, Speech November 1933, quoted in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer.
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For more information of why Common Core is so bad: We recommend that you link onto the talking points against common core, the power point presentation, the video presentation, and the links to other websites against Common Core.
List of Supporters of Californians United Against Common Core:
Eagle Forum of California – Orlean Koehle, President
Eagle Forum of Long Beach – Jeanne Goodin, President
Eagle Forum of Sonoma County – Carol Pascoe, Vice President
Pacific Justice Institute – Brad Dacus, President
Pacific Research Institute – Lance T. Izumi
David Geer – City Council Member Modesto
Redding Tea Party - Erin Ryan
Angela Weinzinger - President of Travis Unified School Board
Rosa Koire Director postsustainabilityinstitute.org - democratsagainstUNAgenda21.com
Nina Pellegrini - Californians For Property Rights
Heather Gass - President CitizensTownHall.org and East Bay Tea Party
Dr. Stan Monteith, Host of Radio Liberty
Links to other Recommended Websites Fighting Common Core:
http://www.CommonCoreFacts.com/
www.utahnsagainstcommoncore.com
www.smallhelmpress.org
www.eagleforum.org/educate
www.missourieducationwatchdog.com;
http://truthinamericaneducation.com/common-core-state-standards/
www.parentsacrossamerica.org;
http://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/author/christelswasey/;
www.americanprinciplesinaction.org.
https://www.facebook.com/ParentsAndEducatorsAgainstCCSS?fref=ts
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