America imports Soviet Education
Compiled by Diana Anderson, Former teacher, Oregon (2-3-02)
In 1996, a delegation of Russian teachers visited Southern Oregon schools, sponsored by Vera Katz (according to a local physician). The now defunct Medford Educational Institute published a newsletter which summarizes the Russians' perception of American schooling and enlightens us as to their pedagogy. They denounce Lenin's brutality and hard line communist party line in school curriculum, but adhere to "socializing a child, by the collective, for the collective and through the collective" (vospitanie). Anton Makarenko was revered in the newsletter as a teacher we might take a philosophical example from, emphasizing his "maxim of respect". Below are excerpts from a primary resource which clues us in as to his definition of respect. Teachers and the general public were lied to. Anton Makarenko was Lenin's education advisor! We have indeed, as every American school program reaches for a meaning for their “lifelong learners”, swallowing the Soviet/Chinese poly-technical pattern for education in America. Below is Makarenko's description of 'respect'.
"We must teach the worker discipline . . we must develop in him the sense of duty and the sense of honor . . . he must feel his own obligations toward his class. He must be able to subordinate himself to a comrade and he must be able to give orders to a comrade. He must know how to be courteous, severe, kind, and pitiless, depending on the circumstance of his life and struggle . . If the collective punishes him, he must respect both the collective and the punishment (p. 209, Yearbook) . . . A good deal of the attention paid to the training of character is wrongly directed, to my mind. It is usually concentrated on the unruly element. this, of course, is highly necessary, but it by no means exhaust the problem, the timid and modest, the little, gentle Jesuses, the column dodgers, the wasters, the idlers, and the dreamers usually evade its influence. Yet these characteristics are in fact as harmful as any (p. 210, Modern Philosophies in Education, Vol II, 1955, culled from "The Road to Life", by Anton Makarenko)
Note: Anton Seminovich Makrenko, was Lenin’s education advisor and the first to coin the phrase “politically correct”. Hitler used “socially correct”. (see a great read: America’s 30 Year’s War, by Balint Vazsonyi). This author perfectly explains the difference between the Rule of Law and living under the rule of Social Justice.
The salient points of Modern Philosophies in Education and Patterns in Lifelong Learning, hold the key to the most subtle design in the history of the United States. Those who conspire for changes regard their effort as ‘forecasting’ and ‘planning policies’. Those who for whom the changes are made regard their effort as a conspiracy.
Before reading any of these materials keep in mind that none are published by any right wing group. Neither are they published by people with any regard to our children our country, our freedom or our traditions. A brief historical outline helps to put progressive education (UNESCO’s) in perspective.
1949 - Unesco establishes framework for the “revision of textbook, particularly history” and initiates global “lifelong” education.
1955 - Nine educational philosophers from 9 major American universities contributed to the means of creating a 'learning' society “as they seek an educational policy to under-gird the efforts of UNESCO.” (p. 7, Modern Philosophies in Education, University of Chicago Press, Vol II, 1955) These biannual Yearbooks are published for private membership only, “not to be held by libraries, schools or other institutions, either directly or indirectly” (p. j, Appendix). Revealing quotes from this resource:
Introduction: “It is even difficult to tell whether the ills which beset us presently are the result of changing social conditions or the changes brought about in the schools by progressive education” (p. 7, Intro by John Brubacher)
1. “In the study of history, an intensive effort should now be made to avoid a narrow, nationalistic approach and to deal with the history of civilization, as such, not that of a single race or people, but the history of mankind.” (p.36, John Wild, a Realistic View)
2. “Religion is either something basic and overarching or nothing but words and meaningless acts. But to turn over the public schools and even important private institutions to a single sect would cause justifiable resentment and open conflict. this is also impossible”. (p. 53, John Wild, Prof. of Philosophy, Harvard)
3. “Now, if we consider the way in which adults perform their task with respect to youth, in practice and actual existence, it seems that more often than not children are victims of the grown-ups rather than the beneficiaries of their good services. Hence, progressive education might be described as expressing a kind of revolt against the reign of adults”. (p. 69, Jacques Maritian, who helped develop U. N. Human Rights Documents)
4. “In a truly liberal academic community, in contrast, it is taken for granted that each has something to contribute to the common good and that each has much to learn from his fellows. The laudable motto of early communism, from each according to his ability, to each according to his need, might well be adopted as the key formula of such a liberal school community.”(p. 118, Theodore H. Green, Prof. of Philosophy, Yale)
5. “It will be recognized that the experimentalist in philosophy is often a humanist in religion. He feels that commitment, motivation, and emotional stirring cannot be absent from any serious philosophy. But he feels that such stirrings have often been entirely absorbed by the supernatural, traditional, and institutionalized expressions of religion; whereas, his hope is that devotion so intense as to be religious can also be aroused by allegiance to the typically human qualities of creative intelligence and critical inquiry. (critical thinking attitudes for good thinking)”. (p. 173, George Geiger, Antioch College)
6. “Imagine an education an ladder of this sort: On the lowest rung would be the training of students in accordance with immediate local purposes, a mode of indoctrination designed to assert a narrowly partisan point of view in subjects of a controversial nature, and to deflect attention from any social philosophy at all in subjects of a 'free' nature, such as 'pure' literature.” (p. 283, Kenneth Burke, Teacher of Theory & Practice of Criticism, Bennington College, now deceased but has a Society named for him)
7. “In a world which utilizes to an ever increasing degree scientific knowledge for the improvement of life, a large part of education should be devoted to the acquisition of the scientific attitude and of an understanding of the problems and the results of the sciences, natural and social, pure as well as applied. this can be successful only if we include in the study of the sciences, or otherwise in the curriculum of studies throughout elementary, secondary, and higher education, appropriate measures of the history and the philosophy of science. Mere facts, figures, and formulas, important though their mastery is, will by themselves never suffice for an adequate apprehension of the scientific outlook. (This is Marxist education) It is my impression that the teaching of science could be made ever so much more attractive, enjoyable, and generally profitable by the sort of approach that is more frequently practiced in the arts and humanities.” (p. 337, Herbert Feigl, a former member of the Vienna Circle, Professor at University of Minnesota. Scientific inquiry is an aka for critical attitudes for good thinking.)
8. “At first glance, we appear to be cautioning skepticism, but such is not the case. It is the ignorant and the stupid and the slow whose minds are storehouses of beliefs. The intelligent know how to think and to judge; hence, a belief has a harder time getting into their minds. The process of education requires as much effort and time to unlearn (from his Theory of Unlearning) the wrong beliefs as it does to indoctrinate the right ones. Iit is the certainty of beliefs which must be placed under attack, for the fear of false knowledge is the beginning of wisdom.” (p. 345, Fiebleman, Prof. at Tulane University)
9. “The importance of the school to a new socialist order, faced with problems of construction which are more difficult and complex than the problems of mere criticism, is enormous; and it would be so no matter how the transition to such a new order of society might be carried out. the problems are caused by the novelty of the social relations under socialism. The democratic electoral road to socialism of the capitalist democracies would lead to cultural and educational difficulties as serious as those of the violent road traversed in Russia and China. In every case, it is essential to avoid any pseudomilitant destruction or denial of the previous social order’s culture; and likewise in every case the education of those whose major life experience has been under capitalist cultural forms must necessarily be one of respect and caution, of new experience and critical comparison with the old (American traditions). (p. 202, Robert S. Cohen, Asst. Prof of Philosophy and Physics, Wesleyan University)”
Each consultant (excepting Robert S. Cohen who represented the Marxists Philosophy on Education) was assigned a consultant, who helped put into practice the philosophical consensus of the 9 philosophies. They were Robert H. Beck (U of Minn.), Kenneth Benne (Boston U), H. S. Broudy (State Teachers Colllege, Mass), Donald Butler (Princeton), William f. Cunningham (Notre Dame), Lawrence G. Thomas (Stanford), Robert Ulich (Cambridge) and James E. Wheeler (U of Ala.) It is worth mentioning that Kenneth Benne (Kenneth Burke's consultant) was an 'expert' on group dynamics. Within the pages of Human Relations in Curriculum Change, by Kenneth D. Benne and Bozidar Muntyan, 1951, we find the following:
"One of the factors which has been shown to have a very important bearing on the success or failure of the re-educative process is the manner in which the new super-ego is introduced. The simplest solution seems to lie in outright enforcement of the new set of values and beliefs. In this case a new god is introduced who has to fight with the old god, now regarded as a devil. Two points may be made in this connection, illustrating the dilemma facing re-education in regard to the introduction of a new set of values. (p. 29, Ibid.)
1961 - The Supreme Court determined that “Humanism” is a religion.
Project Follow Through results in funding Nine progressive comprehensive school design models and ignoring the test results produced by “direct instruction” models (see Siegfried Englemann) Each of the Nine models reflects the consensus of the nine educational philosophies in the Yearbooks, retaining a common purpose of realizing a person-centered, nonsystem in the following resource.
The riddle of lifelong learning given in the 1973 reference below is solved by understanding the Theory of Unlearning (see quote # 8 above)
1973 - Patterns in Lifelong Learning published by Jossey Bass, 1973, describes the ways and means of implementing global education. It states, “Creating a person-centered, non-system, is tantamount to turning the Ten Commandments upside-down” (p. 53). They profess “relaxing the curriculum”, teaching correct attitudes, and planned a system whereby less students go to universities. Taskforce team members are listed in the appendix. Michigan State University is the example of a “lifelong learning” university. It leaves the reader with a riddle. “We sold them on adult and continuing education, now we are selling lifelong learning, which is nearly the opposite of extended learning ( pg. 53)."
The experts on lifelong learning describe this learning, not in terms that a child will love to learn, or pick up a book at the age of 30 or be willing to change their career at 40. Lifelong Learning is the opposite of extended learning which is the Theory of Unlearning, described by Fiebleman (quote #8 above).
The theory of unlearning is basic to the world core curriculums (i. e. espoused by the New World Order Faith). It specifies that everyone accept ALL value systems, thereby not adhering to just one, for which you would be willing to die for. We are to Un-learn our differences. Yes this is a BIG ORDER for world peace and not likely to come about too soon, as the faith declares it may take a thousand years. (Millennial reign?). The basis of all our Lord’s teaching lies in the agape love of God and instructs us to love even our enemies. The greatest demonstration of this love is that we might lay our life down for our friend. If future reforms have their way we would leave aside our most cherished principles to consent to a mushy Golden Rule which no one argues against. Do not do unto your comrad, which you would not be willing to accept the consequences yourself might be the Marxist golden rule which fits Makarenko's 'maxim of respect'.
Using critical thinking skills (which are “critical attitudes for good thinking in college texts) and conflict resolution skills, the schools perpetuate vospitanie (socializing) our children, via psychology and retard minds to any “set” of rigid rules (i.e. Ten Commandments). If children are not to be indoctrinated in ANY ’doctrine’ either political or religious the New World Order Faith posses a dilemma having a political and religious doctrine of their own making. Decision making based on patriotism, faith, personal preference, anything other than reasoning is mentally immature. Their articles on Covenant Breakers (former believers), is creepy. They state that these people are “irrational”.
Excepting some Catholic charities, I find that the New World Order Faith is the only faith in America classified as a “charitable organization”. All other faiths are classified as “religious organizations” by the IRS tax exempt rules. The New World Order Faith has its “verities” in every restructuring process in America. (See Dwight Allen and Bill Cosby’s a-book article on-line.) I have the external affairs papers, which state that the separation of church and state will not be a barrier to their effort, nor do they want to impose their world core curriculum at “too early of a stage” as it may thwart all their efforts. The New World Order Faith is the “rational religion”, “moral education” or “socializing of spirit” of vospitanie. Nothing in their scripture is Christian. A central function of their faith is called the “art of consultation” or consensus building. (Bipartisanship in politics).
1983 - A Nation at Risk discusses a new “Learning Society” but masks the intent of progressive educators. This “public report” of a 18 month study was a smoke screen for the eighties. Bush announced global education in 1989. A couple of paragraphs before the description of the supposedly academic nature of future standards, one word is italicized: urge. The word urge is emphasized to perpetuate Nietzsche’s “will to power” or empowerment, based on survival of the fittest if you wish. Interesting that they would highlight this word.
1991- Oregon signs up for the federal dollars - Goals 2000. Only needed a governor’s signature via a “state of emergency” clause. Restructuring education is discussed in a O.E.R.I. (Office of Educational Research and Improvement) manual as a "never ending process" (i. e. dialectical). Makes one wonder how much of the restructuring process is known by agents of change.
1995 - Oregon revises the “Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century” (Goals 2000). It should be required reading for all teachers. “Business and industry now direct an oversee school policy and curriculum”. Newspapers disguised this act under welfare reform articles in Iowa and Oregon.
An expert on Dialectic Materialism and psychology in public schools, said about Lifelong Learning: “Whenever I hear the phrase lifelong learning, I am reminded about Paul’s letter to Timothy.
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts. . Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2 Timothy 3:1-7
A professor at SOSU imparted a sort of didactic lesson regarding the comparison of an unschooled person and an educated person. The unschooled mind is like a small circle, where within the circle is contained all that which the person has experienced and learned. The circumference is also small and touches on only a fragment of the outside realm of what we do not know. The educated mind conversely touches on so much more of what we do not understand. However, thousands of educated people are sitting in their seats holding a piece of a puzzle, without the advantage of having the picture of lifelong learning on the box. Their piece seems to fit their world of understanding and so they fit it in their realm of experience and are changed a bit, until they receive the next piece. Today it is spiritually safer not to have an education if it partakes in designing lifelong learners. Rather, I like Dr. Roget’s synonyms for artless (uneducated): “natural, pure, native, simple, plain, inartificial, untutored, naive, sincere, frank; open, - as day; candid, ingenuous, guileless, unsuspicious, childlike, honest, innocent, undesigning, straightforward, unreserved, unvarnished (p. 254, Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, 1937)"
The political nature of lifelong learning is noted in last year's legislative session which moved to incorporate the "Education for Democracy Act" to enhance civics instruction. This tautological device (educating for democracy) is discussed in a 1995 publication by Unesco and World Bank researchers in Creating and Managing the Democratic School, 1995. The legislative act attempts to justify America's need for civics in the whereas sections, given by the sad state of civics instruction reported by O.E.C.D. The Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development participated in Patterns for Lifelong Learning as well. David Aspen stated in Chapter 2 of Creating and Managing the Democratic School, that students "indoctrinated" in any religious or political belief cannot be responsible for their actions . . this would put one "on par with animals, psychotics and babies" (p. 36)
I hope and pray that this information connects some dots for you. It is the duty of university personnel to set standards, not business and industry. For example, Linus Pauling sold America on excessive doses of Vitamin C as he was monetarily supported by grants from the largest producers of Vitamin C. Jacques Maritain is rewarded for Thomist views in education, but admits privately the side effects of progressive education as “creating a revolt between parent and child”. Truth and intellectual honesty have gone by the wayside. With your backgrounds I thought you might see why the continued experiments are still looking for “what works” in education. The “what” IS the theory of unlearning to undergird perestroika (restructuring) of a transformational society of lifelong learners.