Do you remember how the French thought the Maginot Line of bunkers and armaments would protect them from a future German invasion after World War I? So Hitler simply went around and came from another direction. The head of the same group whose ecstatic rejoicing over the passage of the WIOA in the US Senate tipped me off that something transformative was envisioned, announced in this video on “Rethinking Accountability” in education in June http://www.unfinishedbusiness.org/20140707-henderson-common-core-an-important-part-of-driving-equitable-change/ that ‘they’ were not going to let the US Constitution get in the way of achieving human rights for all as defined by the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That would be a human right to Just Economic Citizenship folks and an obligation for the rest of us to provide it.
Henderson does a shout-out to the 2 major US teachers unions, AFT and the NEA, and notes they are partners working on his Board as well as to his Vice-Chair, the General Counsel of maldef-the Mexican-American Legal Defense Education Fund. Legal amnesty and future citizenship for anyone who can make it to US soil is not a side issue. It is front and center of the Leadership Council’s (composed of 200 separate component groups) efforts to force the US towards Economic Justice and an Equitable Society and ‘building a More Ideal Union.’ Henderson points out that the “thousands of students who may not yet be citizens” need to be educated as if they were. You cannot watch that speech and especially the AFT President’s intro and not grasp that an invasion by migrants is viewed as a crucial means of fundamental transformation. It will radicalize education, the ballot box, and enable democratic local decision-making via participatory mandates of the relevant stakeholders in every community entitled to be consulted.
I want to pivot now to the suburbs because such a vision of Equality and Justice is simply impossible if suburban schools can still teach a solid curriculum of knowledge and students are allowed to retain the Axemaker Minds many brought from home. Now I could generalize about what I think will happen, but there is no need to do that. That same conference pointed https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/events/1201 to the new Consortium of Large Suburban School Districts as being essential to achieving its vision. Told you already that document was designed for trouble. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/deliberate-cultural-evolution-via-developmental-psychology-to-force-social-change-or-gypsy-supers-lobby-dc/
OK, you say, that’s a hugely troubling vision, but we still do not know precisely what the desired template is. But wait (no, this is not one of the Ronco commercials pushing Christmas presents no one really needs) one of the participating Consortium districts, Fulton County in Metro Atlanta (not coincidentally also involved in EdLeader 21, Digital Promise’s League of Innovative Schools, and with that new affirmative Student Code of Conduct) announced the vision in an article in a local paper. ‘Problem-based learning’ would be the new view of curriculum instead of icky textbooks. High School will become a place “for all learners…[where] students and teachers come together.” It is a place where ‘different types of learning styles are addressed’ that provides ‘collaborative learning opportunities.’ Lots of collaboration and chances to sing kumbaya in unison on a daily basis to build community spirit.
A bit of sarcasm there towards the end. I know perfectly well what is involved in Fostering a Community of Learners. That’s why FCL has its own tag on the blog connecting explanatory posts. Now, we could also pretend ‘problem-based learning’ is not in fact a euphemism for what radical Paulo Freire called the cultivation of a ‘critical consciousness’ in each student in how they will now perceive their cultural and historical reality. http://www.thinkingtogether.org/rcream/archive/110/CulturalAction.pdf That would be true and creating Guilt in the Fortunate Students is as crucial for transformative change as creating Anger in Latinos and Blacks and Gay Students and anyone else who can be made to believe the world as it currently exists must now be redesigned for their benefit. Vengeance will be a plus too.
Anyone paying attention might have been able to make that accurate connection though. What’s the fun in that? No, being a research maniac entitles us to more vital info than that on what’s coming. The links we have found to the Study Circles made me want to look at what are called Folk Schools in Scandinavia. Could those also be related to this new suburban vision for high school? UNESCO defines the current vision of such a school as a place “whose point of departure is today’s living conditions and the problems we face” and “which do their best to open up young people’s eyes by confronting them with more genuine experiences and broader philosophies of life.” Now I happen to know that high school is using the term ‘authentic’ instead of ‘genuine,’ but yes, we do have complete alignment.
I am going to bring this vision forward to award-winning Finland and what is now called the Human Dignity Paradigm suitable for a “Diversity-Positive Milieu.” That vision is said to enshrine what is called for by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. First though let’s go back to the year, 1948, when the UN adopted the Declaration to see why UNESCO wanted to push “The Danish Folk High School as an Instrument of Attitude Change.” It’s rather hard to escape the basic fundamental entry point needed for wholesale social change with a lead-off heading called “How to Create the Right Attitude of Mind in the Young.” Now in the No **** Sherlock Hall of Fame for all time great understatements in a bureaucratic report would be:
“the quickest and easiest way to create unity is to invoke terror.”
Now those readers who are Climate Skeptics may have a good idea where such a terror gambit may be lurking in the 21st century, but in general the report wants to create an ‘ethical standard’ that will force everyone to voluntarily cooperate by committing to “a higher consideration than themselves.” Of course some of us immediately see that for what it is-the Public Sector and Friends Full Employment Act until Time for a Taxpayer Funded Pension, but let’s pretend anyway so we can accurately recognize what is really intended. The word ‘folk’ concerns a whole people and the values they are all to share. Remember new humanistic values are the absolute inner core of all these global reform efforts by people who really do seem to believe Marx might have worked if the implementers had simply had enough supercomputers, data, and the psychological insights of the behavioral sciences.
A folk high school is designed to give each student a “comprehensive view of the world.” It stresses that “true life can only be possessed in common with one’s fellow man, and that some of the richest values a people possesses can be accepted and shared by all, rich and poor, high and low.” It is a place to build an “enlightened view of human and civil conditions” and a “blithe feeling of natural fellowship.” The latter is what we today might call a Positive School Climate. The folk school would be training its students in co-operation. Its value as a vision in today’s suburbs anywhere in the world is the fact that the typical Upper Middle Class student with educated parents who have made themselves available during those early years pretty much arrive at First Grade at close to the level of essential academic skills that are viewed as a long-term ceiling. To get to Justice and Equality for All obviously.
The folk school model then, and a widespread failure to comprehend the radical shift that has taken place, is an essential part of what is going on globally in education under the mischievous labels of ‘reform’ and ‘remaining internationally competitive.’ Hiding under those banners is an actual determination by public officials to force “a broad outlook and understanding” among all students of a given generation “so that co-operation” in all areas can succeed. This of course requires a “will to solidarity” in each student, which is why that affirmative Student Code of Conduct, Positive School Climate mandates, and requiring Principals to create Communities of Learners to be judged as Effective and thus entitled to promotion, are so crucial.
None of this is coincidental. It all fits like a Bespoke Glove because it has been custom designed to fit together to force the desired effects at the level of the school, classroom, and each student’s mind and personality this time. When that 1948 report sneers at ‘examination schools’ and their failure to create the “mentality required to rebuild the world through all-embracing co-operation,” just substitute high-achieving suburban schools with a traditional content transmission focus. Then update to the 21st century and its tendency to stress social and emotional learning because facts can simply be looked up.
The 1948 version with the same intention of cultivating a mindset suitable for fundamental change was to ask “what is needed by modern society?” The answer then by UNESCO was it’s “not what a man knows, but what he both can and will do in co-operation with others.” Furthermore, that “is a capacity that needs training. Teaching and school work must be so directed that the pupil both sees the value and feels the pleasure of performing a task in common.”
That same requirement now goes by the name Collaboration and is specifically listed as one of the 4Cs required for 21st Century Learning. We’ve gone long again. Next time we are off to Finland to get lots more details on what is envisioned.
Everywhere that has ever had a successful economy.
Especially anywhere that ever valued the individual.
Global.
Wait. Henderson actually spoke the phrase ” Harmonic Convergence”.
Uhm. WHAT? This guy is a robot. He parrots every major talking point in the playbook. And I’ll give it to him. He is smooth. He might even believe his own bs as long as his paycheck keeps showing up. But…..Harmonic Convergence??????
Is he channeling Assistant Sec-Gen Muller or Alice Bailey directly?
I need an adult beverage.
Mari-I am so glad you listened. This is a very powerful man. They do not care what the Constitution says. Somewhere else yesterday the educators were looking to Deepak Chopra.
I have also ordered Jeremy Rifkin’s book as it is being cited too. The one on creating a Global Consciousness to become the new kind of citizen.
http://pushbuffalo.org/Websites/pushbuffalo/files/Content/4375989/PUSH_Buffalo_MIT_Co_Lab_EconomicDemocracyReport_June_2014.pdf indicates that all these migrants are being organized and are led to believe that we can simply deign a new economic vision and this coalition can simply use its numbers to require it.
The Theory of Change model from the Casey Foundation is not only being used in education with the GPEE fellows who then go back to the Chamber or university or state agency or start writing Codes of Conduct to require empathy and backward mapping to force it via class activities and projects, it appears to be being used by virtually every charity or philanthropy of any size. All this coordination by the foundations to essentially jettison the US as traditionally known is horrific.
And I when I read this:
“the quickest and easiest way to create unity is to invoke terror.”
All I could think was the spirit of Robespierre must have been invoked via seance prior to the UNESCO acolytes writing of said document.
Hmm, and what concepts could you think of that anyone could be identified as using now that would inspire global “terror”?
It’d have to be something that concerned the entire globe. Probably requiring some countries, most helpfully those with lots of money, to be identified as uncaring or unfeeling. Sufficiently nebulous that you wouldn’t have to actually prove anything, just yell and point a lot.
You’d also need some fellow traveling thinkers to make it all sound reasonable and logical to the masses. Be great to have the ability to virtually control the main stream media and keep the message on track.
And think what you’d be able to do if you feed the little kiddies these concepts from the beginning! Continually re-enforcing the message so it wouldn’t get lost no matter what reality threw in their faces.
Be awfully close to climate change, wouldn’t it?
Mike-I am still reading it but last week the Leadership Council that Wade Henderson heads filed what is essentially a complaint with the UN on continued racial discrimination in the US.
http://www.civilrightsdocs.info/pdf/reports/CERD_Report.pdf
One can only guess that Danielle Allen may have come in from Princeton to help deliver it.
Will report back when I finish reading it.
Speaking of Princeton. Just got back from that campus yesterday after going on a college tour with my daughter. The admission officer in the first ten minutes of her sales pitch used the words Sustainable, Teaching and Learning, and Critical Thinking, and Engagement 5 times each. Not even kidding.
Those gorgeous buildings with ivy covered walls, one of which housed Congress many moons ago as Princeton acted as a temporary Capitol, are completely and thoroughly infiltrated by the slithering squid.
This predicament we are in is demoralizing.
Better take a look at this. We knew from A Crucible Report and the Lumina DPQ that the nature of college was changing to fit the Common Core. It was in the RTT apps as well. Now New America Foundation steps in to make sure the fit is there. http://www.newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/policydocs/CCGTC_7_18_2pm.pdf
Sad as the Arational Mind emphasis tied to group work in the community continues to strive to take the mental and fact knowledge and analytical thinking out.
I guess this could be called Competency Goes to College. Then of course Equity requires a Credential and then everyone wonders where are the jobs?
I spoke with someone who did an Ivy League tour this summer on a different campus and there reaction was the tours are being phoned in. If you are not connected or without singular amazing talent the college wants, forget about it. Except the universities know that suspending tours altogether would look bad.
Hi Robin-
CCSS goes to college indeed.
I forgot to mention as well that the admission officer told the breathless and ambitious high school students in the audience that Princeton now requires all freshman take a writing seminar.
Of Course they do. Because at this point even the kids that score 2400 on their SAT have no idea how to write a 5 paragraph essay.
I feel like singing the blues.
This is for you. http://aacu.org/liberaleducation/le-sp14/coleman.cfm Especially note the last paragraph and think about how little diversity of ideas there actually is now on campuses.
Note that the lawyer writer is affiliated with the law firm where the Consortium of large suburban school districts first got started. Supposedly to drive ‘local’ control of the schools. This is also the firm the author of the Conversion Charter and the drafter of the affirmative Student Code of Conduct are at. I would say fairly the law practice seems to have a Social Reconstruction view of the purpose of an education legal practice. Perfectly fair, but taxpayers and other lawyers need to grasp that crucial distinction. It truly is the Law as Progressive Policy Making, whatever the personal attentions of the lawyers involved. These theories of social change have an unambiguous history as my book describes.
Yup. It Is bad. There is only one way to consider the correct opinion that these free thinking college students will adopt.
The brochures for prospective students were over the top in their emphasis on diversity. It was a little obnoxious.
And the mind expanding study abroad programs designed for “research” all seemed to be in impoverished countries. No doubt where students can practice real life experiences of empathising with people who should be equal with all of us economically .
Robin,
Not sure if you’ve researched Connect All Schools on its One World Education website. It is the brainchild of the Qatar Foundation International and they have already funded school districts in Arizona. As a result they are teaching children how to speak Arabic. In addition, there is a troubling relationship to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Maybe you want to look into this and get back to us with your thoughts.
Thank you.
Vivian
Vivian-I am familiar with the Qatar Foundation and the annual conference now held there. I did not know about the schools in Arizona, but as I was reading The Fourth Revolution with its ties to Pearson through the Penguin Press publisher and its Economist reporter authors, I read statement after statement that would be beneficial as a factual matter to Islam and other groups. Basically if you make compassion for the so-called other and a belief that there is no fundamental difference beyond material deprivation among people the focus of all education beyond basic academic skills, the individual mind and any country fostering those beliefs and values has brought the Trojan Horse inside the walls basically.
I do not think it’s accidental. I imagine the Dutch people right now are rethinking their taught belief that empathy education is the answer to the world’s wrongs. It’s a dangerous world out there. It becomes ever more dangerous when K-12 and higher ed are actively cultivating false beliefs at the level of emotions and the unconscious. That book also made a mention of the Boao Forum on Asian integration that China is behind. I looked into it remembering Pearson and Sir Michael Barber’s Oceans of Innovation report from about a year ago that US Ed officials cooperated with. There’s the Gates Foundation and interviews with Bill and the fact it is now coming to Seattle in September. Only naive Americans think the Common Core is a stand alone initiative unrelated to what is going on elsewhere.
The book also mentioned those Confucius Institutes as a tool of the CCP in pushing their model of state-directed authoritarian capitalism on other countries. Of course the book went to press too late to add David Coleman’s embrace of those CI’s by the College Board back in May or his obsequious odd comment about “They are the sun and we are the moon.” With 100 already in the US, it’s hard not to think that the trade mission loving Governors and Chambers are not going to use the recently passed WIOA to build further on that model here.
Basically Radical Ed Reform removes the barrier within individual minds that would be a bulwark to bad ideas. I keep playing the role of Cassandra in the book or now on the blog as I look at real time initiatives and recognize from history and economics how they will really work and what the actual foreseeable consequences are.
I just came across Barber’s Oceans of Innovation recently and am curious if you’ve written about it? I’d love to hear your perspective on it. I’m halfway through your book now–Thank you (seriously, THANK YOU) for writing it.
Hi JT. Welcome to ISC. Here is the post where I first mentioned the Oceans of Innovationreport http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/descending-to-a-connected-kleptocracy-via-the-digital-learning-and-climate-change-ruses/. I regard both it and Michael Barber to be seminal to the actual global vision for ed. Barber has a tag that deals with his “pray, then Believe” edict for recalcitrant teachers, his UNESCO work, his Global Citizenship requirement for the UK now being replicated in the US, and lots of other things we should all be familiar with.
I appreciate your kind words on my book. Because I followed the actual end game of what the Common Core was intended to get to years ago, it’s an enduring book that will survive new names for the same initiatives. I wish every person who knows kids in public or private schools appreciated there actually is a book out that ties it all together in a way that fits everything that was ever attempted or will be in the name of education.
Robin.
Once again you are have succinctly summed up what is going on all over this country. I have seen it and continue to fight it in my own district. The educrats have bought into this nonsense hook, line and sinker. The sad reality is they actually believe heart and soul this about education and producing more highly educated children. Unfortunately you can’t fight stupid with facts.