Education Archives - Page 80 of 134

The Iron Cage of Educational Bureaucracy

November 22, 2017/in Culture War, Education, Politics, Regulation, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Catholic Thing

It is the nature of bureaucracy to get caught up in processes rather than persons; to focus on means and lose sight of the ends to be served by those means.

It was the nineteenth century “father of sociology” Max Weber who warned that bureaucracy would become an “iron cage,” a translation of the original German stahlhartes Gehäuse made popular by Talcott Parsons in the 1930s, but which more literally means a “steel-hard housing,” suggesting something that cannot be broken into.

Bureaucracies depend upon rigid rules to which all human affairs, no matter how complex, must be fitted. This can cause them to de-humanize persons into categories. Bureaucracies also tend to have a narrow focus, which can cause them to fail to see the good of the whole. This can put them in a perpetual trouble spot: too large to deal with individual needs and problems, and too narrow to serve the interests of the whole. With neither a vision broad enough to serve the common good nor a system flexible enough to provide for the individual, what do bureaucracies do well? Their claim is that they are “effective.”

But effective at what?

Alasdair MacIntyre in his groundbreaking book After Virtue describes the modern moral character he calls “the Manager” whose position is justified by the claim that he or she can coordinate materials and human resources most effectively to realize the goals of the corporation, whatever they are, which “the Manager” never questions. This is true enough, but MacIntyre’s description is too optimistic.

It often happens that the processes developed by mid-level managers become more important than the goals of the corporation. Requests that don’t fit into the current categories employed by the bureaucracy are taken to be “disruptive,” as are changes in the goals of the organization that disturb the mechanism of the bureaucratic process.

In a university, this can result in the needs and requests of students becoming an annoyance, even though the institution exists to serve them. And it can cause resistance to rededication to the mission of the institution when that mission has not been the animating principle for years. Such institutions are like the driver who, upon being told by his passenger consulting a map that they are going the wrong direction, responds: “Shut up, we’re making great time.” Too often, bureaucratic processes, created to serve an end, become the end to be served, and the tail begins to wag the dog.

It makes sense for leaders to delegate tasks to bureaucracies, but only if they understand their inherent weaknesses. A group involved with Catholic classical education told me a story of their appeal to the charismatic director of a major Catholic educational outreach program. “We need to be doing this!” he declared. “Let me put you in touch with my associate director.” After making the same impassioned appeal to the lower-level functionary, the response was: “We already do that,” which is the verbal equivalent of: “There is no problem.” Because, of course, if there were, they would have already fixed it. The processes work fine. End of discussion. This is the way to stifle innovation.

The claim isn’t that their current processes don’t work. No one would approach a broken institution with a new idea; you go to a working, dynamic one. The issue is whether a new approach might serve the students even better. But this is unthinkable to many mid-level bureaucrats. Their “effectiveness” is not measured by how well they foster new goals, but by how well they coordinate resources to meet current ones. Innovative ideas are a threat to a manager’s job security in one of two ways: because (a) they presume the current staff is not entirely self-sufficient and (b) they represent possible new priorities that, without new staff, will mean less efficiency at current priorities.

I once heard a prelate ask an assembled audience of academics to produce a resource to help his deacons understand the basic ideas of metaphysics. I spoke to him afterward and told him that the International Catholic University has a superb series of lectures on metaphysics by the late, great Ralph McInerny; that we could have them downloaded on each deacon’s computer for a minimal cost to each man; and that I could arrange on-line quizzes and tests if needed. “Wonderful!” he exclaimed, “Would you please contact Monsignor so-and-so.” I did, got a polite reply explaining they were “examining possibilities,” and then nary a word in response to any of my next five messages. I would be very surprised if the bishop ever got anything on metaphysics.

If leaders don’t know what ideas, facts, and potential innovations their staff is keeping from them, then they are like a mind floating in the mist without a body. We are an incarnational Church. It’s not enough to want good education for young people; you have to pry open the bureaucratic cage to make sure it happens.

If you really want something, you have to empower its implementation, saying: “I will send a note to my associate directing that this must be done, and I want a report in two weeks.” Anything less is an abdication of responsibility and simply an invitation for outsiders to beat their heads against the hard steel casing of the bureaucracy.

Pope St. John XXIII spoke about aggiornamento, about letting fresh air blow through the stuffy corridors of Church bureaucracy. If you hired someone from a mediocre school district to run yours simply because he or she had “experience,” what makes you think the results will be better? Maybe you should take a risk on some fresh blood.

If a person has been running a chancery office since the 1970s or 80s, he or she may not be innovating. Have things been good for the past 35 years or decaying? Someone should let that fresh breeze of the authentic Spirit blow, because the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.

Randall Smith

Randall B. Smith is the Scanlan Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. His most recent book, Reading the Sermons of Thomas Aquinas: A Beginner’s Guide, is now available at Amazon and from Emmaus Academic Press.

Stanford and Other Universities of ‘Gleichschaltung’ [Nazification]

November 21, 2017/in Education, Policy, Politics/by Jihad Watch

By Richard Sherman

Today in America, universities are generally places for free and open discussion and debate, with primarily one exception: if a person actively opposes anti-Semitism ( whether in Mein Kampf or the Koran) and fights for freedom of speech. Numerous individuals who hold these views — basic Enlightenment positions — have become pariahs on many college campuses. These universities, by the actions of their administrators, professors and students, have become 21st century bastions of Gleichschaltung.

Gleichschaltung, translated as Nazification, was applied to Freiburg University, Frankfurt University, Göttingen University and the other universities in 1930s Germany, as they marginalized, often brutalized, and then eliminated Jews and antifascists who opposed anti-Semitism and believed in free speech. Many German professors and students enthusiastically supported Gleichschaltung including the philosopher Martin Heidegger and lawyers Ernst Forsthoff and Otto Koellreuter.

Gleichschaltung-Schaubild [Nazification-Plot]

Stanford has emerged as the latest American university to demonstrate its commitment to Gleichschaltung. Robert Spencer, New York Times best selling author, free speech advocate and fighter against all things anti-Semitic, was effectively prevented from having an audience last week at Stanford. Rather than an administration that encourages young students to listen to disparate views, study them and make independent judgments without peer pressure, the administration at Stanford essentially made it impossible for anyone who wanted to listen to Mr. Spencer to do so, by having a group of student puppets fill the room and then walk out. Then they locked the doors, so that the people who were waiting outside and wanted to listen to and evaluate Mr. Spencer’s views could not.

This is Stanford’s version of the heckler’s veto, as conceived by President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Provost Persis Drell, Dean Snehal Naik and Dean Nanci Howe.

Considering the ferocity of Stanford’s opposition to Robert Spencer speaking about freedom of speech — a concept condemned by Gleichschaltung — one could speculate about whether President Tessier-Lavigne, Provost Drell, Dean Naik and Dean Howe have an intellectual allegiance to former Stanford President David Starr Jordan. According to Holocaust scholar Edwin Black:

Stanford President David Starr Jordan originated the notion of “race and blood”in his 1902 racial epistle “Blood of a Nation,” in which the university scholar declared that human qualities and conditions such as talent and poverty were passed through the blood.” (“Eugenics and the Nazis — the California Connection,” SF Gate, 11/9/03)

In May 2017, Mr. Spencer faced the more traditional heckler’s veto at another university that has embraced Gleichschaltung: the University at Buffalo. This was sanctioned by its President, Satish Tripathi.

As more university administrators and professors across America embrace Gleichschaltung, it is becoming a question of when, not if, those who oppose anti-Semitism and support free speech will face actual threats to their personal safety on college campuses. Gleichschaltung by definition has no regard for the safety of such individuals.

This issue of potential violence by those who view individuals who oppose anti-Semitism and support free speech such as Mr. Spencer as their enemy was observed by the Editorial Board of the Buffalo News in May 2017:

The ugliness being displayed on college campuses where protestors have been violent or threatened violence because of the conservative views of speakers would be disturbing in any context, but is especially so when it occurs on college campuses that should be havens for free speech. (5/5/17)

Clearly the administrators, professors and students across America’s universities who embrace Gleichschaltung are many; as demonstrated at Stanford by their violent words, these same individuals would not be uncomfortable with the brutality and violence associated with Gleichschaltung at those same German universities in the 1930s. Clearly that violent time is approaching here.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Hugh Fitzgerald: In Lebanon, Why Not A Sunni Militia?

Ibn Warraq: “It is time to listen to Robert Spencer”

Adobegate: Florida EPC, Miami-Dade School Board Picks the Winners; Norland Senior High & Detroit Public Schools Provide Refuge

November 15, 2017/in Education, Policy, Regulation, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Dr. Rich Swier

“For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God” – John 3:20-21.”

As citizen journalist Trevor Colestock exposed the Adobegate scandal over the past four years and exposed it to the proverbial disinfectant of sunlight, the administration of Miami-Dade County public schools, chiefly Alberto Carvalho and Enid Weisman, decided to retaliate against him.

Mr. Colestock’s trial is set to commence on March 12, 2018.

Logic was defied in Miami-Dade County, Florida, as union steward and school library media specialist Trevor Colestock uncovered a massive test cheating scandal, Adobegate, at Miami Norland Senior High School and was unlawfully transferred to another school as a result; his findings verified by the Final Miami-Dade OIG Report; and the strange firing of one teacher and suspension of the other who was equally involved.

Mrs. Muchnick returned to Norland High in early January 2014 after a menial suspension and no disciplinary action by the State while her accomplice, Mr. Fleurantin, was fired and recently disciplined by the Florida Education Practices Commission.

According to the Florida EPC Report issued on October 27, 2017, Mr. Fleurantin received a two year suspension, two years probation, and a $750 fine along with taking an ethics course and limitations on proctoring tests.

In the past, the Florida EPC revoked certificates of teachers who were implicated in minor instances of test cheating. Seems like both Fleurantin and Muchnick got a sweetheart deal.

To date, the teachers involved, Mr. Emmanuel Fleurantin and Mrs. Brenda Muchnick, were never arrested, charged, booked, and/or prosecuted as the State Attorney, the Florida Attorney General, and Governor Rick Scott refused to acknowledge this massive test cheating scandal and the almost $250,000 paid out through federal and state incentives to the faculty for an “A” grade for the 2011-12 school year tainted by cheating.

Each teacher at Miami Norland Senior High School received $1730.41.

Most crimes, such as theft and homicide, have varying degrees; test cheating does not and state law is straightforward and clear. In any given instance of test cheating, a role is a role; there is no distinguishing a major role from a minor role. Either one was involved or they were not.

Both Mr. Fleurantin and Mrs. Muchnick, according to the Miami-Dade OIG Final Report, allegedly “knowingly and willfully” violated test security rules irrespective of quantity of students in their respective roles.

When one reads that document and the Department of Administrative Hearings brief, issued by the School Board Attorney on January 8, 2014, justifying Mr. Fleurantin’s termination, one can reasonably conclude that Mrs. Muchnick is equally culpable, and a reasonable person would think her employment was up for termination as well.

In the meanwhile, the State of Florida or the USDOE, not to mention the Miami-Dade State Attorney and/or the U.S. District Attorney, declined to take action even though various crimes appear to have taken place akin to the test cheating scandals in Georgia and Texas, which have landed school administrators and teachers in jail.

Though the teachers got paid, the big winners from Norland’s academic successes tainted by cheating were school and district administrators: Reginald Lee went from being an assistant principal over the vocational department in which the cheating took place to the principal of Charles Drew Middle School and then Norland in November 2012; Luis Solano went from being the principal at Norland to the Associate Superintendent, Curriculum & Instruction at Collier County Public Schools in Naples and was recently hired as the Chief Operating Officer for Detroit Public Schools by Nikolai Vitti; Nikolai Vitti went from being the Assistant Superintendent of the Education Transformation Office (ETO) at M-DCPS to the Chief Academic Officer of M-DCPS and then became the Superintendent of Duval County Public Schools in Jacksonville and recently was hired as the Superintendent of Detroit Public Schools; and Superintendent Alberto Carvalho became the Florida and National Superintendent of the Year shortly thereafter and is still in charge of Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

Also, the Florida Department of Education recently released information that revealed that Miami Norland Senior High School had 96 FCAT/EOC test invalidations over the span of three school years (2011-2014).

Combined with the questionable U.S. History EOC scores at Norland for the 2016-17 school year, it appears that test cheating is condoned and rewarded.

U.S. History EOC scores at Norland from the exam’s inception: 31% (2013), 47% (2014), 43% (2015), 41% (2016), and 83% (2017).

A reasonable person may assume that Miami-Dade County Public Schools “created a culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation” when it chose to transfer and retaliate against Mr. Colestock for reporting, exposing, and publishing articles about the test cheating while returning Mrs. Muchnick to Norland and never seeking her or Mr. Fleurantin’s prosecution.

The implied message to teachers in Miami-Dade seems to be “keep your mouth shut about test cheating lest you want to end up like Mr. Colestock.”

The lack of inaction by the federal and state governments seem to condone M-DCPS’s actions and test cheating in general.

Like Atlanta, the victims in Miami-Dade County, Florida, besides the taxpayer, were low-income minority (mostly black) school children who were denied the remedial help they needed as false and misleading test scores suggested otherwise and graduated with worthless Adobe credentials.

Despite the exposure of these issues over the past four years, it seems strange how the NAACP and the Black Lives Matter movement has been stunningly silent.

References:

2016 Spring NGSSS US History EOC Results by School Summaries (Xls) (Gives a 4 year overview of test scores)

2017 NGSSS US History Results By School (Compares the last two years of test scores)

Teacher warns that Islamist ideology makes teaching Muslim refugees impossible

November 14, 2017/in Culture War, Education, Policy, Politics/by Ann Corcoran

This is the cold hard truth….

Muslim school girl refused to shake hands with German President as he visited a model school attempting to show that integration was going along smoothly.

When the number of devout Muslims increase to a certain level in any city or country in the western world, a tipping point is reached. It is not about economic costs to communities, and not about the degree of vetting the migrants receive, it is all about demography, Islamic supremacism and the unraveling of western civil society (the primary goal of the hijra!)….

….while decent people, fearing being called racist haters and Islamophobes, stay silent.

Here we have news from Germany where the whole (honest) western world can see that they have admitted too many migrants for the country to absorb and assimilate.

At a certain population level most devout Muslims won’t even integrate (the Left’s favorite word), let alone assimilate and accept German values. Why should they?

From Breitbart London (hat tip: Charles):

Whistleblower Schoolteacher: Mass Migration, Radical Islam Making Education Impossible

An experienced [brave!–ed] teacher from a heavily migrant-occupied neighbourhood in a German city has said the spread of radical Islamism is creating divisions in society and turning young children against education.

The claim that educational attainment, as well as attitudes towards work and school, have all suffered recently because of a “gigantic integration problem” and radical Islam comes just days after a new report revealed the number of teachers being forced to report their elementary-aged pupils to the authorities for radical Salafist***views is rising.

Writing for Germany’s Welt broadsheet, teacher Ingrid König described her local area as an economically deprived one, sandwiched between an arterial road and a railway, which suffers from lack of investment and which has long been a home to migrant communities. Yet the teacher has chosen to speak out only now to describe a sudden change in the attitude of new migrant arrivals, which she finds distinct from earlier generations of Turks, Yugoslavs, Poles, Romanians, and Russians whose children she has taught from past migrant waves.

Remarking “every immigrant generation had its difficulties, but you could handle that”, König said the new Syrian and Afghan migrant children were years behind their migrant counterparts from previous generations of arrivals in learning ability — a discrepancy she blamed on “the radicalisation of Islam”.

Identifying “a gigantic integration problem that has been ignored for far too long” which requires “tremendous manpower and resources to be overcome”, the teacher said in addition to language barriers, the “fully veiled” migrant parents of her pupils also had “mental disorders”, were alcoholics, or just could not get out of bed in the morning. These parents do not encourage their children to do any additional study at home, nor do they tell their children to respect their teachers, she said.

Continue reading here. She says the parents are already radicalized.

It is a numbers issue—when the population of ‘devout’ Muslims reach a certain level (being reached now in Europe) there is no incentive to ‘integrate’ or heavan-forbid ‘assimilate’ because in their minds they are almost there—domination is only a few short years away.

Maybe we should thank Germany for showing us the future, so perhaps we can stop it from happening to America!

See posts going back many years on the ‘Invasion of Europe’ by clicking here.

***In Europe, Germany in particular, they use the word Salafist to describe those who espouse what we (wrongly) call “radical” Islam. See a discussion about Salafist jihad here:

Salafism has become associated with literalist, strict and puritanical approaches to Islam – and, particularly in the West, with the Salafi Jihadis who espouse violent jihad against those they deem to be enemies of Islam as a legitimate expression of Islam.

RELATED VIDEO: Muslim Violence in German Schools

VIDEO: Hollywood Actress — Why I Homeschool My Kids

November 13, 2017/in Education, Policy, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Signal

My name is Sam Sorbo. I’m a mom to three wonderful children, and the author of “They’re YOUR Kids: An Inspirational Journey from Self-Doubter to Home School Advocate.”

Home schooling seems like a radical idea—but only because we are conditioned to think of it that way. Why? Because most of us attended school. But after nine overhauls of our public education system in less than 30 years, according to Pew Research Center data, the U.S. has fallen in world standings for education, to 39th in math and 24th in reading. We are officially behind Estonia. … The schools aren’t getting the job done.

If you feel incapable of teaching your own children it’s because you were taught that you were not capable. Don’t handicap your child by insisting on sending her to an institution for eight hours a day.

We need to rethink education in this country. My mission is to empower parents to be the lead learners for their children. I say lead learner because education is not about downloading information into the child. Education should focus on how to learn, not what. Especially in today’s economic environment, where technological advances change the business landscape so quickly, we need elasticity in our abilities, and that comes from being able to teach ourselves.

But instead, public schools teach children that they must be in a classroom with an instructor to learn. This predicated the snowflake crisis in our universities, where young people feel “triggered” by diverse ideas. They only know what they’ve been taught, and cannot think for themselves, so anything that challenges their worldview is perceived as hostile, and they lose their self-confidence and self-control.

Public school forms a wedge between the child and the parent—that’s inevitable.

“Mommy, you have to sign this. The teacher says so.” Or, “Mommy, don’t use plastic bags for my lunch. You’re killing dolphins.” The school challenges the parent’s authority from Day One.

It’s no wonder teenagers rebel. By that time, the parent’s authority has been completely undermined by a system that insists on its way above all else. Parents surrender their precious children to literal strangers, to be taught values and principles and sex-ed and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights … and then they are confused when their children disagree with them.

What is it about a child turning 5 that immediately incapacitates his parents as teachers, forcing him into kindergarten, often when he’s not yet ready to give up his nap?

Instead of being utterly enervating, home schooling is empowering. My children have taught me. My goal is for parents to realize the incredible relationship and experience that is home education facilitates if they only would choose to keep their children close.

Have you ever done homework with your child? Then you have home schooled. You’re just doing it at the end of the day, when everyone is tired and cranky and hungry. My way, home schooling, is easier, and a lot more fun.

COMMENTARY BY

Sam Sorbo

Sam Sorbo is a radio host, actress, and author of “They’re Your Kids: An Inspirational Journey from Self-Doubter to Home School Advocate.” Twitter: @thesamsorboshow.

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Florida Education Practices Commission Snakebit by ‘Orgasmic Teacher’

November 11, 2017/in Courts & Law, Education, Policy, Politics/by Dr. Rich Swier

“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” – Randall Terry, American Celebrity

Christine Jane Kirchner

It appears that the Florida Education Practice Commission (EPC) was apparently snakebit and fooled by Christine Jane Kirchner, a teacher that was the subject of a story published in 2014.

After she was given a slap on the wrist by the EPC over three years ago, Mrs. Kirchner proceeded to step her egregious actions up a notch six months later after she was initially sanctioned.

Ms. Kirchner was a language arts teacher and union steward at Coral Reef Senior High School, Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Ms. Kirchner in 2008 was appointed by the Miami-Dade School Board to the Lesson Plan Development Task Group. Kirchner was elected Vice President At-Large and sat on the Executive Board of the United Teachers of Dade (UTD).

So what’s so special about Christine Jane Kirchner?

According to the April 4, 2014 FLDOE Education Practices Commission of the State of Florida report:

During the 2012-2013 school year, Respondent [Kirchner] discussed inappropriate topics, such as sex, virginity and masturbation, with her language arts class. The conversations made several students feel uncomfortable or embarrassed.
During the 2012-2013 school year, during a lesson with her language arts class, Respondent [Kirchner] simulated having an orgasm. The simulation made several students feel uncomfortable or embarrassed.
During the 2012-2013 school year, Respondent [Kirchner] gave massages to students of her language arts class. The massages made several students feel uncomfortable or embarrassed.

Kirchner was found guilty of “gross immorality or an act involving moral turpitude” and that she violated “the Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession.” Kirchner was found to have violated Florida State Statute 1012.795, paragraphs (1)(d) and (1)(j), respectively.

What was the punishment given Kirchner?

The Florida Department of Education accepted a “Settlement Agreement”. The settlement agreement consisted of a letter of reprimand and placing Kirchner on two years probation. Kirchner accepted the Settlement Agreement.

Kirchner returned to her classroom at Coral Reef High School and retained her position on the Executive Board of the UTD. She retired last June and did not seek reelection to the UTD Executive Board.

However, six months after she was initially sanctioned by the EPC, she engaged in other acts that seem to be more outrageous according to a finalized EPC report issued last month.

According to the October 27, 2017, EPC Report:

On November 7, 2013, the Commissioner of Education issued an Administrative Complaint seeking to sanction the Respondent’s Florida Educator’s Certificate after she discussed topics such as sex, virginity and masturbation, simulated an orgasm in class and gave several massages to students in her class.
On April 4, 2014, the Educational Practices Commission issued a Final Order incorporating the parties Settlement Agreement which included a two (2) year probation period with specific conditions.
During the 2014-2015 school year, Respondent made several racially and sexually inappropriate comments to her students on school grounds and during school These comments include, but are not limited to, the following:

(a) In or around November 2014, Respondent called – a student in her classroom, an “asshole” and ‘jackass” or words to that effect;

(b) In or around November 2014, Respondent referred to —————- work, as “shit” or words to that effect;

(c) In or around November 2014, Respondent called – a student in her classroom, a “jackass” or words to that effect;

(d) In or around November 2014, Respondent told an African-American student in her class, to not steal from her classroom because he would be blamed for said theft on the basis of his race;

(e) In or around November 2014, Respondent inappropriately discussed the similarities and differences between the female nipple and clitoris with a female student in her class; and

(f) In or around November 2014, Respondent referred to students as “retarded” or “retards” or words to that effect.

That, as a result of Respondent’s actions described herein, Respondent violated one or more of the conditions of her probation.

What was the punishment for these new offenses?

For the second time, The Florida Department of Education accepted a “Settlement Agreement.” This recent settlement agreement consists of a letter of reprimand and placing Kirchner on a six month suspension, three years probation, taking an ethics course, and a $750 fine. Kirchner accepted the Settlement Agreement.

Though she retired from Miami-Dade County Public schools last month, at the completion of her six month suspension, she will be eligible to teach anywhere in the State of Florida.

Should she be allowed to?

We report, you decide.

Delaware, Beware, of Kids Choosing Their own Race

November 8, 2017/in Culture War, Education, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Family Research Council

“White boys could soon self-identify as black girls in Delaware.” So begins one of the latest columns of Fox News’s Todd Starnes, reporting on what parents probably wish was fake news. Unfortunately for the families in The First State, reality may soon be optional for kids in Delaware public schools. In one of the more incredible headlines of the year, local officials in the state’s Department of Education are actually debating a regulation that would let students choose their race and their gender!

If it sounds unbelievable, that’s because it is. For the last few years, families have been shocked that they’d have to defend traditional biology in places as sacred as restrooms, showers, locker and changing rooms. Now, the proponents of this government-sponsored make believe are trying to make everything self-subjective. It’s the campaign for these “protected characteristics,” local liberals argue, that would give children the ability to redefine their most defining traits. And without ever calling home! Under “Regulation 225 Prohibition of Discrimination,” students can make these determinations without letting their parents know.

“Prior to requesting permission from a parent or legal guardian, the school should consult and work closely with the student to access the degree to which, if any, the parent or legal guardian is aware of the Protected Characteristic and is supportive of the student, and the school shall take into consideration the safety, health, and well-being of the student in deciding whether to request permission from the parent or legal guardian,” the proposal states.

“Literally,” Delaware Family Policy Council President Nicole Theis told Starnes, “if a parent affirms their child’s biological sex, and now race, they are [considered] discriminatory through policies like Regulation 225. These policies are setting parents up as… unsupportive, even abusive, if they affirm their child’s biological realities…”

Of course, the irony is that someone’s being abusive, according to the American College of Pediatricians — and it isn’t parents! This is exactly the kind of agenda they classify as “child abuse.” Theis is calling on people across the state to get involved in stopping state officials from putting kids in dangerous situations — and keeping parents in the dark about it.

By law, the people of Delaware have 30 days to “comment” about the regulation, but the agency is under no obligation to change it. Hopefully, parents can apply enough pressure to force the governor to back away from the idea. Join Nicole and other concerned citizens by pushing back on this madness! If you’re from Delaware, click here to speak up!

Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.

Also in the November 8 Washington Update:

Silver Linings in Blue Victories

The Korean War on Faith

Tales from the Crypt of Catholic Education

November 8, 2017/in Culture War, Education, Policy, Politics, Religion/by The Catholic Thing

A Note from Robert Royal: Before we turn to Professor Smith’s valuable insights about our current need for truly independent institutions – and his plea that we support them generously – I have to appeal to your generosity for support of The Catholic Thing. We only ask our readers for donations twice a year, during the Easter season and then again towards the end of the year. But reader support is what makes TCT possible. Literally: Without your support we would cease to exist. Some readers see me or Fr. Murray on EWTN, or follow Brad Miner in his own media appearances, and assume we must be getting paid handsomely. The truth is that we never receive anything for these appearances and, in fact, we often spend days of our own time preparing for them. The same is true of the coverage we’ve offered here of everything from the 2013 conclave to the synods and other events at the Vatican. Our main focus is always TCT itself – which is to say: we labor to bring you the very best material we can every morning, every day of the year. As do our very gifted writers who could be getting much greater compensation doing other things, but like the TCT staff stay at this work because we know how crucial it is for the Church, and through the Church for the world. You must think that too. Our business manager Hannah Russo predicted there would be 30,000 email subscribers to TCT by the end of the year. For the first time, she was wrong: we passed that number early, two weeks ago. We already have 1,000,000 more hits this year than last year (with almost two months left to go), and from what people tell me as I travel around America and other parts of the world, we’re quite far from reaching our limit. Given the challenges inside and outside the Church, we believe TCT is more needed now than ever. If you are one of our TCT regulars, or are one of the many who have only just come to know us lately, we need you to do your part. There are few sites where you will find as steadily Catholic news and analysis as you see here every day. So can you give: $50, $75, $100, $500, $1000 to Our Thing? I always like to remind people that you can also set up smaller, painless monthly donations that make a big difference to our program planning. It’s easy too: Just click on the Donate button or, if you prefer, you can mail your donation to the Faith & Reason Institute office. (All donations are fully tax-deductible.) With your help, TCT will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2018. Please, if you’ve appreciated what we’ve done in the past and see what desperately needs to be done for the future, don’t delay. Support TCT today. – RR

I was out the other night and saw little ones dressed as witches and monsters, which put me in mind of a television show from years ago called Tales from the Crypt, a spin-off of a comic book series I had seen years before. Not being a fan of the “horror” genre, I didn’t watch the show much. But whenever I did, it usually involved a grisly story of some poor unfortunate, unsuspectingly getting caught up in some macabre affair. A couple adopts a boy, plotting something horrible, but the boy turns out to be something even more horrible. The blood or gore did not make the show terrifying; it was the macabre and the unexpected.

I had that same “What-macabre-alternate-dimension-am-I-in?” reaction of many of the show’s characters when I heard a story from my friend about his son and his troubles at a diocesan Catholic high school. The young man graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappafrom college, spent over a year teaching junior high kids in Iraq and English to Iraqi Christian women, and then distinguished himself as a top student at Oxford where he co-authored several publications with an Oxford professor.

As his stint teaching Catholics in Iraq suggests, this is a young man dedicated to his faith, to learning, and to service in the Church. So when he finally got back home to the States, he naturally (and oh-so-naively) decided he wanted to dedicate himself to teaching at a diocesan Catholic high school.

And so, off he goes to interview at a diocesan Catholic high school in his town, which just happened to have several openings. Four people interview him; they all love him; this looks like a no-brainer. But just as in Tales from the Crypt, where seemingly joyous moments were always followed by a macabre “twist” (revealing an underlying malevolence), so too with our poor, unsuspecting young Oxford scholar.

The topic suddenly turned to whether he has a teaching certificate. (Don’t these people read resumes?) “Oh, so sorry. That might be a problem.” The interviewers exchange meaningful glances. They clear their throats. They mumble something about having to ask the diocesan education office for a waiver to hire him. And the interview is at an end.

The next day, the geniuses devoted to Catholic educational excellence at the diocesan bureaucracy nix the hire. Why hire a guy who risked his life to teach Catholic women in Iraq, has high honors and a degree from Oxford when you get someone with a bachelor’s degree in education from Southwestern Community College, Springfield Village Mall Branch, who has – praise be to God! – a teaching certificate.

I mean, sure the Oxford kid may be smart, but how do you know he can teach unless he has a teaching certificate? It would be like thinking someone could be a great artist or a great poet without having one of those Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees. Joseph Ratzinger: brilliant guy, sure, but would you put him in front of a classroom full of diocesan high school students? Do you have any idea how much reading that guy assigns?

The Oxford kid who was undeterred by Al-Qaeda in Iraq couldn’t quite make it past the Catholic diocesan educational bureaucracy in his own hometown. Institutions so devoted to shooting themselves in the foot in order to please the town bully should not be puzzled why they have so much trouble walking – and why running is a mere memory from the distant past.

As I said, I never really liked Tales from the Crypt. I prefer happy endings. So perhaps I should mention that, two days later, another Catholic school in the area, one not micro-managed by the diocese, got the young man’s resume, called him instantly, and hired him after a fifteen-minute phone interview.

Horror stories leave you wondering whether there is a monster hiding in your closet, waiting until no one is looking to jump out at you. Certainly, this particular horror story is unique, not a monster stalking your children. How I wish it were not so.

One more tale: A gifted young woman I know was consistently being undermined by the administration at the local Catholic high school where she taught theology. “The main task of the theology teacher is to attend the student’s football games and activities, to show them that the Church is there for them.” “With all this reading, you are destroying our child’s faith.” She left that school and now teaches at one of the finest Catholic classical schools in the country, one much less expensive than the mediocre diocesan high school where she taught before.

The teachers at her current school are told to make students responsible for their own work. They expect excellence, and they get it. And when she asks for help, she gets it. Last year, an older, award-winning teacher had taken her under her wing and they were having frequent conversations about teaching. The principal put a stop to that, announcing: “She has to sink or swim on her own.”

Interesting thought; but as long as he was on the subject of “sinking,” this gentleman might want to remember Christ’s warning about “anyone who causes one of these little ones – those who believe in me – to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

I call these “Tales from the Crypt” because it suggests a dead, moribund institution. The good news is that these “crypt keepers” are part of a larger entity that specializes in resurrection from the dead. Signs of new life and growth are springing up all over; usually not on the stone-hard crypt, but around them, in the fertile, loamy soil where the seed of the sower can take root, grow, and flourish.

Please look for these signs of life and support them – generously.

Randall Smith

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is titled The Sower by Vincent van Gogh, 1888 [Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands]. © 2017 The Catholic Thing. All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to: info@frinstitute.org. The Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary. Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own.

What’s in Our Schools?

November 7, 2017/in Education, Policy, Politics/by Karen Schoen

While everyone focuses on college, let’s focus on the real problem, K-12. Every coup d’etat has roots in school. The progressive/communist/globalists/socialist (POGS) agenda calls for rewriting history. The children must be indoctrinated. The children must be coerced. The children must be trained to give up individual choice. They must think the same, get the same grades and have the same future outcome. One problem… if everyone is the same, what makes individuals different? The only identifier left is visual. RACE becomes the tool of choice. Children trained in social justice (which is Anti-American) become racist adults, dividing people into groups demanding results from those groups.

Racism MUST BE LEARNED. Racism is trained in school through psychological manipulation using technology. There are 400 data points that are monitored, re-monitored, analyzed, re-analyzed, reconfigured constantly making inferences to nudge and then monitor reactions. We see this happing now as males are being coached to take classes to remove those horrid masculine traits. I can just imagine what horrible actions these men will be responsible for in the future as they lose their self esteem and have to ‘prove’ their existence in some manner.

A dumb populace is mandated deliberately because POGS follow Lenin, “”Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” – Vladimir Lenin. It is no surprise why students favor socialism. THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE TAUGHT.

Why the children? Once children are indoctrinated, “Group Think” takes over and going against the crowd is intolerable. Actually anyone not a believer is evil and should not be tolerated. If I said NFL, you should understand why continuing this communist education will destroy America. America’s children ARE BEING TAUGHT TO HATE AMERICA. “American social engineers have systematically gone about destroying the intellect of millions of American children for the purpose of leading the American people into a socialist world government controlled by behavioral and social scientists…..” Charlotte Iserbyt, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America.

As I review some of the texts the students use, I find the biggest error is omission. If a child is not taught the constitution, they have no idea what it means. How can they fight for something they have no clue exists? Aside from spitting in America’s face, the students are fighting a cause that has no merit. Just like the Trump/Russia story is a lie, so is their education. When you use a lie to create a policy, the policy will fail. Let’s correct a few misguided points…

There is no guarantee of free speech in a private work place. If you use free speech to offend, you will face consequences. Free speech refers to a public form.
Article IV Section 4: The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union, A REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT. America IS NOT a democracy.
Illegals have NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS: “The Citizenship Clause is the first sentence of Section 1 in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”. Subject to the jurisdiction thereof is the key. An illegal is not subject to the jurisdiction of America, they are subjects of their home country. They have not pledged allegiance to America. When you start with an illegal act, everything that follows is illegal.
Common Sense: Sadly, statistics/statistical analysis show (one reason not to teach math) Blacks commit more crimes. Therefore Blacks have more interaction with the police. The problem is not with the police; it is with their life experiences i.e: broken home, morality, education. Let’s tackle the problem, not the symptom.
There are no statistics to support NFL players claim. America is not rampant with racism. Yes there are isolated incidents. But if Blacks commit more crimes, then it stands to reason they interact more with the police.
When an ideology, like the one the POGS promote “individual sameness”, the only way to identify/be individual with differences is visual by race. You no longer can be identified by ability. You must be identified by race. America identifies by ability. POGS identify by race.

As much as we are told that the problems we suffer today are new, the reality is these are just the same problems suffered from the past. Same policy; new name. Only now are we getting a glimpse of the truth. Russians are influencing our government. They have been influencing our government for a long time. But not just the government, they are in education and bureaucratic policies as well. I have put together some omitted facts that will help us to understand our world today.

Education Update 52% Say Textbooks More Concerned With Political Correctness

The Government is experimenting with our kid’s brains. And we are letting them. The following link is to an education time line so you can connect the dots.

The Timeline

Here are some highlights:

1885 – Democrat President Grover Cleveland condemned Islamic terrorism committed against Armenian Christians in Turkey, December 2, 1895:

“Massacres of Christians in Armenia and the development there … of a spirit of fanatic hostility to Christian influences naturally excited apprehension …

1916 – Socialist and Islam join forces:

Socialist influence within the Sarekat Islam was already evident at the movement’s congress in 1916, where the Prophet Muhammad was proclaimed to be “the father of Socialism and the pioneer of democracy” and “the Socialist par excellence.”

He certainly excelled at wealth redistribution.

In Java and elsewhere, “Islam” provided a banner for Muslim merchants to contest economic encroachment by non-Muslims

1918 – Rockefeller & Carnegie Foundation planned the demise of Traditional Academic Education – Rockefeller to be in charge of US – Carnegie International Education.

1934 – Carnegie Institute releases its pamphlet Conclusions recommending changing history to social studies infusing “social justice and acceptable behavior through psychology into our schools. Read Conclusions on, read Charlotte Iserbyt’s summary.

1945 – Creation of the United Nations and playing a very large role in that was the U.S. Chamber of Commerce along with cooperation from the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace and the Rockefeller Foundation. Large banks and trusts could see future profits for themselves if they cooperated with the Chamber. UNESCO was to implement worldwide education programs. With the population scattered, the plan was to use Climate Change to scare the public in order to push sustainability (control). Sustainable developments (once called city-states in Union of Socialist Republics aka USSR aka Russia) would become mega cities where millions could live in a government controlled environment. Elimination of the auto (less mobility) and private property (for fairness) is the indoctrinated utopia now sought by the elite. Detroit was to be the role model. Huge cities run by corrupt politicians are now filled with the uber rich and poor. Disease, garbage, feces, urine homeless, bordered buildings, crime now litter once magnificent mega cities like Detroit, NYC, Chicago, Atlanta.

1958 – Eisenhower sent a delegation to the Soviet Union (USSR) for a cultural exchange. What was brought back, was studied and later implemented. This was the beginning of the school –to-work training programming used unsuccessfully in the USSR.

1950’s-1970’s – MK ULTRA was the program used by the CIA. Experimenting on humans, intended to identify and develop drugs, alcohol, stick and poke tattoos, and procedures to be used in interrogations and torture, in order to weaken the individual to force confessions through mind control. Organized through the Scientific Intelligence Division of the CIA, the project coordinated with the Special Operations Division of the U.S. Army’s Chemical Corps. The program began in the early 1950s, was officially sanctioned in 1953, was reduced in scope in 1964, further curtailed in 1967 and officially halted in 1973. The program engaged in many illegal activities; in particular it used unwitting U.S. and Canadian citizens as its test subjects, which led to controversy regarding its legitimacy. MK Ultra used numerous methodologies to manipulate people’s mental states and alter brain functions, including the surreptitious administration of drugs (especially LSD) and other chemicals, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse, as well as various forms of torture. Subliminal messaging was the tool of choice in a variety of films and documentaries.

1960 to 1975 – Teaching became a draft exempt job. Unsuspecting new teachers were trained in the Modern Education promoted by John Dewey focusing on psychological manipulation training for the desired outcome of the populace. The PC culture was implemented. Dewey’s NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH (which I attended) was the training ground for unsuspecting future teachers were trained to integrate the media and Hollywood into our lessons. Today you can not see a movie, series or documentary which does not carry some government message especially climate.

1976 – The Russian book, The Scientific and Technological Revolution and the Revolution in Education, translated and imported to the U.S.A., helped lay the foundation for the philosophy behind Outcome-based Education.

1978 – Project Global 2000: Planning for a New Century, in which Robert Muller (United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for 40 years) and Margaret Mead (American cultural anthropologist) challenged the people of the world to prepare for the year 2000 by a ‘worldwide collaborative process of unparalleled thinking, education and planning for a just and sustainable human world order.’

1979 – Jimmy Carter – Signs into law the Federal Department of Education. American education begins to decline.

1989 – Shirley McClune from the McRel Foundation told the Association of Governors that education was now changed:

from individualism to collectivism,
from fact to value,
from education to training.

Bush 41 was President. Clinton was president of the National Governors Association. Jeb Bush, FL GOV, partnered Florida with UNESCO to promote sustainability in all subject areas. America was always in the top 10 worldwide. After implementation of these plans America is 27-40.

1996 – Hillary Rodam Clinton mentored by Marxist Saul Alinsky published her book: “It Takes A Village”. She prompted parents to give their child to the school (state). After all the state knows best.

Americans follow: “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” … Thomas Jefferson: …

POGS: “Uneducated people require more from their govt” Uneducated people vote to get more. POGS lie and do not deliver. But POGS know A lie told often enough becomes the truth. — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin . Uneducated people accept the lies as truth.

After the failures of School to Work, Goals 2000, Sustainable America, No Child Left Behind, UNESCO partnered with Bill Gates/Microsoft and created an experimental/education program the ultimate dumbing machine: Worldwide Common Core.

2004 – Bill Gates signed a Microsoft / UNESCO (United Nations Educational Science and Cultural Organization) agreement for worldwide Common Core while we were told: “This is state led. The governors asked for it.” Gates started his solicitation for H1B visas saying Americans are too stupid to work, they need to compete globally to become global citizens setting the stage for open borders.

2005 – Jeb Bush delivered Florida to UNESCO in a partnership agreement pledging Florida to be the most sustainable state. Sustainability programs entered the schools under the new NCLB/Common Core.

The purpose of education: Money, Power, Control

The NEA stated that their goal is more money for the Association. Every administration unveils a new federal education program. A new name is given to the old soviet education model of training to work. New books, new programs, new supplemental materials, new assessments, new classes with a cost of billions to the taxpayer are making millions for the publishers, editors, coders, etc.

Using the technique called the Hegelian Dialectic, scaring people into submission by having scientists regulate the outcome (the ends justify the means) the man made, global warming, climate change crisis was escalated into new heights. Christina Figueres, UN Climate VP, said that the purpose of the UN climate policy is to remake the world economy, to redistribute the wealth of the WEST. Why are we teaching this in school? Because in order to buy into the very lucrative green energy, sustainability industry you need the scare of climate change. The purpose of the sustainability program is to eliminate private property: land, business, person. Private property is not fair. The government makes everything fair. You learn this in school.

The UN Johannesburg Implementation Plan page 108, calls for NGOs, Non- profits and regional Councils aka COGS – Councils of Government to implement the climate control plan crucial for eliminating local governments. NGA and CCSSO are examples of NGO’s. Regional councils were called Soviets.

2007 – Gates & Eli Broad Foundations pledged $60M to inject their education vision into the 2008 campaigns.

2008 – Gates Foundation awarded the Hunt Institute for Educ. Leadership $2.2M to work with the governors and other “stakeholders” to promote the adoption of the national standards. The following month the Hunt Institute and the NGA hosted a symposium to explore education strategies

2008 – The National Governors Association, (NGA aka a lobby group) state education commissioners and other groups begin accepting the common standards in math and English language arts for grades K-12. written by David Coleman and Linda Darling Hammond (NOT educators)

This UNESCO/UN policy needed a way to implement its program in America. The POGS created NGO’s and regional councils (Non-government organizations) to help eliminate elected officials. (* There is no need for elected officials, policies are created by direct referendum. People can vote on line. Majority rules.) In the name of sustainability, learned in schools by state/UN partnerships, grown children now in government, are unknowingly implementing phases of control. Others just comply. By complying, we give the new “experts”: Water Management Districts, Army Corp of Engineers, IRS power over us. We live with their regulation mistakes. How can people given erroneous information solve a problem? Wait, but it is what they learn in school so it must be true…Our future suffers from the mistakes. Bill Gates Mistakes. Generations decline. As a result of eliminating the life skills required like: responsibility, self esteem, self respect, respect of others, innovation, curiosity we now have lost generations of non-functioning kids.

The school is following Marx:

Money buys the Media, Hollywood, thousands of organizations and K-12, universities and corporations. With the schools pushing social programs not education, and all of these outlets indoctrinating 24/7, the populace becomes lost and can only speak in the verbiage they were told to use. The more the populace believes they are the ONLY GOOD and everyone who does not believe along with them are evil. Control is complete.

See the lists of texts used in our schools. Do you know what your students are reading? Look at the center of the page for links to textbook reviews.

“The high office of the President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the American’s freedom and before I leave office, I must inform the citizen of this plight.” President John Fitzgerald Kennedy – In a speech made to Columbia University on Nov. 12, 1963, ten days before his assassination. This speech is rarely mentioned.

For current information click here.

What can you do?

Share the Message. Run For Office. Support people not parties. Volunteer to lobby Tallahassee 2018 (or your state legislators). Contact Joe Rosario for details 786- 651-6947.

Go to school board meetings. What are the kids reading?

Use quotes from our founders etc. with your family.

Textbook reviewers are needed. New Florida Law HR989 lets residents have input in textbooks and curricula.

The CCS/Florida Sunshine State Standards advocates are furious.

Textbook reviews can go to school boards, and lobby legislators.

Join FloridaCitizensAlliance.com.

Roy White from Texas is conducting the training for the textbook reviewers. Please tell volunteers to email Roy to sign up for on-line classes. tnt.textbooks@gmail.com. Problem? call 214.924.9033.

The Magnet for illegal immigration is WORK. Sign the petition for Florida to require EVerify.

Unsure of anything, call me, 954-864-0530 or email kbschoen@bellsouth.net

Listen to: American Freedom Watch Radio

Call to hear the show: 347-857-4364 press 1 to join the show

Or listen on line to Blog Talk Radio American Statesman.

Duke University Sued Over Religious Discrimination Against Pro-Life Nurse

October 30, 2017/in Courts & Law, Education, Policy, Science, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Thomas More Law Center

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed a federal lawsuit last Friday on behalf of Sara T. Pedro, a Catholic nurse in the Emergency Department of Duke University Hospital, who was discriminated and retaliated against after her employer learned of her pro-life religious beliefs. Named as defendants in the lawsuit are both Duke University and Duke University Health System, Inc. (“Duke”).

Tyler Brooks, the TMLC attorney handling the case, commented: “This case illustrates the unfortunate dangers faced today by individuals who seek to remain faithful to their religious beliefs in the workplace.”

“With this lawsuit, however, we intend to show that even very large employers must respect the civil rights of their Christian employees,” said Mr. Brooks.

The complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, describes how Ms. Pedro compiled an unblemished record during her eight years of work as a nurse prior to being hired by Duke.

During a classroom orientation, a group of newly-hired nurses that included Ms. Pedro was told by a nursing supervisor that Duke categorically refuses to grant religious accommodations for Emergency Department employees who object to assisting in abortions. Learning about Duke’s pro-abortion policy for the first time, Ms. Pedro made written requests for religious accommodation because of her opposition to abortion. Her requests motivated acts of discrimination and retaliation by Duke in violation of federal and state laws.

Duke’s policy and actions violate several federal and state laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Labor Standards Act, North Carolina’s Wage and Hour Act, and North Carolina common law.

The federal lawsuit details several specific acts of retaliation as a result of Ms. Pedro’s requests for religious accommodation. For example, Duke refused to advance Ms. Pedro from training status to regular duty, issued her a written warning for vague and unsubstantiated reasons, and then placed her on administrative leave when she attempted to formally dispute the warning.

To this day, nearly a year after it was first made, Duke has not issued a final decision on Ms. Pedro’s request to be excused from assisting in abortions. In her complaint, Ms. Pedro alleges that Duke sought to force her out of her job rather than accommodate her religious beliefs as required by Title VII.

The first two paragraphs of TMLC’s complaint describe the essence of the lawsuit:

“At its heart, this case presents a simple yet important question: Must a devout Catholic abandon fundamental tenets of her faith if she wishes to be employed as a nurse at Duke University Hospital? Despite the fact that Defendant Duke has answered ‘yes’ to this question, federal and state civil rights laws say otherwise. Therefore, Plaintiff Sara Theresa Pedro brings this action to vindicate her rights under the law.

An employee does not forfeit her right to practice her religion and abide by the tenets of her faith when she enters the workplace.”

Read TMLCs entire Federal Complaint here.

ABOUT THE THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and moral values. It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America. The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Students Protest Abraham Lincoln Statue Because ‘He Owned Slaves’

October 25, 2017/in Culture War, Education, Elections, National Security, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by The Daily Signal

There’s a common quote, frequently attributed to G.K. Chesterton: “Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up.”

In our modern context, this should be rephrased a bit: “Don’t try to pull down a statue if you have no idea who or what the statue was really about.”

During a 2016 Columbus Day protest conducted by Wunk Sheek, a Native American student organization, activists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus hosted a “die-in” at Bascom Hall, near a statue of President Abraham Lincoln.

According to The Daily Cardinal, a campus newspaper, the protest ended with the group hanging a sign on the Lincoln monument that said “#DecolonizeOurCampus.”

The activist group is now demanding a disclaimer be put up saying Lincoln was complicit in the murder of Native Americans.

Why would they be so angry about Lincoln?

“Everyone thinks of Lincoln as the great, you know, freer of slaves, but let’s be real: He owned slaves, and as natives, we want people to know that he ordered the execution of native men,” said one of the protesters.

“Just to have him here at the top of Bascom is just really belittling.”

This claim from the protester is patently false. The Great Emancipator grew up in poverty and never owned slaves.

Not only that, but his debates with fellow Illinois statesman Stephen A. Douglas offer some of the clearest reasons for why the institution of slavery violated the American creed.

Lincoln saved the union and brought about the end of slavery. Period.

In fairness to the activists, Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate JoAnne Kloppenburg also made the mistake of saying Lincoln owned slaves last year.

Wisconsin educators, it appears you have some work to do. This is a basic fact that most Americans should learn before graduating high school, let alone while attending an institution of higher learning.

But beyond that basic ignorance, simply stating the fact that U.S. soldiers executed Sioux Indians while Lincoln was president doesn’t begin to do justice to what was a very complex situation in the middle of the Civil War.

During the war, Minnesota was in a state of chaos due to soldiers abandoning their posts and armies moving east to join the main war effort. On top of that, the Office of Indian Affairs was mired in corruption that was exacerbated by wartime negligence.

As a result, money promised to the Sioux tribe in Minnesota in exchange for its land wasn’t coming through, and many of its people starved.

This led to a bloody uprising called the “Dakota War,” which the U.S. government eventually put down.

Over 300 Sioux were sentenced to death for connection to the rebellion. Lincoln saw this as extreme, however, and pardoned all but 38 of the alleged perpetrators, whom he believed were guilty of the worst crimes such as rape and murder.

It was the largest mass hanging in American history, but it could have been much worse if not for Lincoln’s compassion. He believed that the Sioux were getting a raw deal, but needed to ensure peace on America’s borders in a time when the future of the United States was seriously in question.

It’s amazing that Lincoln acted at all in this matter, given that the nation was gripped by a bloody civil war more deadly than all of our other wars combined.

As Matt Vespa wrote in Townhall, “It’s not one of our nation’s best moments, but Lincoln was also fighting a much more existential threat to the country[:] an army from the southern states that at the time … was winning the American Civil War.”

It’s silly to judge Lincoln’s actions without some understanding of the circumstances of the time. But this is generally what has sustained the iconoclast statue movement.

Figures of our past are dehumanized, their actions put in a vacuum, only to be narrowly judged by the increasingly absurd, ever-evolving standards of our time.

This is why it was such a short jump from attacking statues of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to Lincoln, even though these men stood on opposite sides of the conflict that shook our nation and decided what we would become in the centuries that followed.

The anti-statue crusade thrives on shallow 21st-century moralizing—the privilege of the prosperous and comfortable, far removed from the suffering and difficulties of earlier times—coupled with the sheer ignorance of a generation that has little understanding of the basic facts of our history.

But the iconoclasts do not just see Confederates or Christopher Columbus or Lincoln as problematic. The movement is about more than these individuals. It’s an attempt to delegitimize and erase the very foundation of our civilization, which to them, is irreparably flawed.

This article has been updated to note when the University of Wisconsin-Madison protest took place.

COMMENTARY BY

Jarrett Stepman

Jarrett Stepman is an editor for The Daily Signal. Send an email to Jarrett. Twitter: @JarrettStepman.

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Europe’s New Official History Erases Christianity, Promotes Islam

October 21, 2017/in Education, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Jihad Watch

The new Europe, apparently, will be one that erases Christianity and all its benefits, and bolsters Islam.

That’s according to the talk of the intellectual world, many members of which just met to issue the “Paris Statement,” rejecting “the false Christendom of universal human rights” and the “utopian, pseudo-religious crusade for a borderless world.”

Here, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere proposed a new policy that embraces and recognizes the Muslim holidays as part and parcel of Europe-wide celebrations.

Europe is undergoing a massive fight for cultural identity, and as certain intellectuals would have it, Islam — not Christianity — is going to be the religion that guides.

The Gatestone Institute reports:

A few days ago, some of Europe’s most important intellectuals — including British philosopher Roger Scruton, former Polish Education Minister Ryszard Legutko, German scholar Robert Spaemann and Professor Rémi Brague from the Sorbonne in France — issued “The Paris Statement”. In their ambitious statement, they rejected the “false Christendom of universal human rights” and the “utopian, pseudo-religious crusade for a borderless world”. Instead, they called for a Europe based on “Christian roots”, drawing inspiration from the “Classical tradition” and rejecting multiculturalism:

“The patrons of the false Europe are bewitched by superstitions of inevitable progress. They believe that History is on their side, and this faith makes them haughty and disdainful, unable to acknowledge the defects in the post-national, post-cultural world they are constructing. Moreover, they are ignorant of the true sources of the humane decencies they themselves hold dear — as do we. They ignore, even repudiate the Christian roots of Europe. At the same time they take great care not to offend Muslims, who they imagine will cheerfully adopt their secular, multicultural outlook”.

In 2007, reflecting on the cultural crisis of the continent, Pope Benedict said that Europe is now “doubting its very identity”. In 2017, Europe took a further step: creating a post-Christian pro-Islam identity. Europe’s official buildings and exhibitions have indeed been erasing Christianity and welcoming Islam.

One kind of official museum recently opened by the European Parliament, the “House of the European History”, costing 56 million euros. The idea was to create a historical narrative of the postwar period around the pro-EU message of unification. The building is a beautiful example of Art Deco in Brussels. As the Dutch scholar Arnold Huijgen wrote, however, the house is culturally “empty”:

“The French Revolution seems to be the birthplace of Europe; there is little room for anything that may have preceded it. The Napoleonic Code and the philosophy of Karl Marx receive a prominent place, while slavery and colonialism are highlighted as the darker sides of European culture (…) But the most remarkable thing about the House is that.as far as its account is concerned, it is as if religion does not exist. In fact, it never existed and never impacted the history of the continent (…) No longer is European secularism fighting the Christian religion; it simply ignores every religious aspect in life altogether”.

The Brussels bureaucracy even deleted the Catholic roots of its official flag, the twelve stars symbolizing the ideal of unity, solidarity and harmony among the peoples of Europe. It was drawn by the French Catholic designer Arséne Heitz, who apparently took his inspiration from the Christian iconography of Virgin Mary. But the European Union’s official explanation of the flag makes no mention of these Christian roots.

The European Monetary and Economic Department of the European Commission then ordered Slovakia to redesign its commemorative coins by eliminating the Christian Saints Cyril and Methonius. There is no mention of Christianity in the 75,000 words of the aborted draft of the European Constitution.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, of Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democratic Party, recently suggested introducing Muslim public holidays. “In places where there are many Muslims, why can’t we think about introducing a Muslim public holiday?”, he said.

“The submission is moving ahead,” replied Erika Steinbach, the influential former chair of the Federation of Expellees — Germans expelled from various Eastern European countries during and after World War II.

Beatrix von Storch, a leading politician from Alternative for Germany Party (AfD), just tweeted: “NO! NO! NO!”.

De Maizière’s proposal shows that when it comes to Islam, Europe’s official “post-Christian” secularism is simply missing in action.

A few weeks ago, a European Union-funded exhibition, “Islam, It’s also our history!”, was hosted in Brussels. The exhibition tracks the impact of Islam in Europe. An official statement claims:

“The historical evidence displayed by the exhibition – the reality of an old-age Muslim presence in Europe and the complex interplay of two civilisations that fought against each other but also interpenetrated each other – underpins an educational and political endeavour: helping European Muslims and non Muslims alike to better grasp their common cultural roots and cultivate their shared citizenship”.

Isabelle Benoit, a historian who helped design the exhibition, told AP: “We want to make clear to Europeans that Islam is part of European civilisation and that it isn’t a recent import but has roots going back 13 centuries”.

The official European establishment has turned its back on Christianity. The establishment appear unaware of the extent to which the continent and its people still depend on the moral guidance of its humanitarian values, especially at a time when radical Islam has launched a civilization challenge to the West. “It is simply a problem of a packing that tends to fill a ‘void’”, just wrote Ernesto Galli della Loggia in the Italian daily newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.

“It is impossible to ignore that behind the packing are two great theological and political traditions — that of the Russian Orthodoxy and Islam — while behind the ‘void’ there is only the fading of the Christian consciousness of the European West”.

That is why it is hard to understand the “logic” behind the official European animosity toward Christianity and its attraction to a basically totalitarian Islam. Europe could easily be secular without being militantly anti-Christian. It is easier to understand why thousands of Poles just took part in a mass protest along Poland’s borders to voice their opposition to “secularization and Islam’s influence”, which is exactly the same as the official crazy EU credo.

During the Second World War, the Allies avoided bombing Brussels, because it was to be the site of European rebirth. If the European elite continue with this cultural repudiation of their Judeo-Christian-Humanistic culture, the city could be its grave.

This College Professor Is Under Siege for Challenging Transgender Orthodoxy

October 16, 2017/in Culture War, Education, Policy, Politics/by The Daily Signal

A Boise State University professor recently learned what happens when you challenge left-wing social narratives on college campuses.

Scott Yenor, a tenured professor, has been under siege on campus after publishing articles with The Heritage Foundation and The Daily Signal about feminism and the transgender movement.

In those articles, Yenor explained the similarity in philosophy between the early feminists and modern transgender movement and how they aim at undermining traditional family values.

He wrote in a Daily Signal article on Aug. 2:

Transgender rights activists are seeking to abridge parental rights by elevating the independent choices of young children. Respecting the sexual and gender “choices” of ever-younger children erodes parental rights and compromises the integrity of the family as an independent unit.

In response, students, activists, and even staff members at Boise State are now waging a relentless campaign to get Yenor fired or shut down.

A petition to have Yenor fired—which has now gained thousands of signatures—has been passed around on campus. Activists have posted flyers attacking him, and some have called for other faculty to come out and officially condemn him.

Despite these calls, Boise State has said it will not fire Yenor, according to The College Fix.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy sailing for Yenor, who continues to be lambasted and isolated.

In an interview with The Daily Signal, Yenor explained how the crusade against his work and others that challenge left-wing orthodoxy on campus is undercutting free speech at our colleges and universities.

The result of the reaction to his work, Yenor said, is that “there has been a very chilling effect on not only my speech, but those who would speak in defense of me both on the substance, and on the principle of academic freedom.”

The blowback came in earnest, according to Yenor, when the School of Public Service posted his article on its Facebook page. The dean received immediate negative reactions and anger from students and LGBT activists.

The dean, Corey Cook, then posted a statement on Facebook saying that while Yenor had a right to publish, his work violated the university’s aspirations of diversity and civility.

This didn’t stop the waves of attacks that would soon come upon Yenor.

The campaign against him became a “cause célèbre” for the new student diversity and inclusion hire, Francisco Salinas, according to Yenor.

In August, Salinas wrote an article condemning Yenor and tying his work to the recent events in Charlottesville and to Nazism.

And at an Aug. 29 faculty senate meeting, Boise State professor Lynn Lubamersky said that while she believes in free expression, she thinks that because of the opinions expressed in The Daily Signal article, Yenor “violated clear policies that govern our institution, our statement of shared values, and the State Board of Education policy regarding academic freedom and most important, our concern for our students.”

“The majority of our university is made up of women and transgendered people,” Lubamersky continued. “[Yenor’s] public statements published with the byline: Boise State University (BSU) professor of political science, a real violation of the rights of women and transgendered students.”

Lubamersky said:

When someone expresses bigoted, homophobic, and misogynistic views as a representative of a university, I think that we do have the right and responsibility to at least make a statement that we do not share these values and they are not represented of our university.

Since Yenor published the Daily Signal article in August, he received a constant stream of criticism and calls for his work to be shut down.

“The position seems to be that anyone who would do research in areas that don’t affirm the contemporary views, should be shut down,” Yenor said.

Boise State student Ryan Orlando called for his school to “part ways” with Yenor in an article he penned for The Odyssey.

“There are a multitude of morally reprehensible notions in Yenor’s writing which constitute a dangerous ideology that warrants separation from the university,” Orlando wrote.

“In our belief, this is hate speech, and it’s alienating a lot of folks in this Boise State community,” said Joe Goode, a member of the Boise State Young Democrats, according to KTVB.

“We want to show that our university stands for more than hate, we are a community of equality and inclusivity.”

While he has received withering personal attacks over his research, Yenor said that few have engaged with the ideas or have seriously attempted to refute his arguments.

Yenor said the personal attacks don’t bother him, but he worries about the long-term impact on people worried that their views will not be argued with, but simply attacked on campus.

“That’s been one of the most disappointing things,” Yenor said. “Everyone in academia could live with having a debate about ideas, but a debate has to start with an understanding what the other person is arguing.”

“It strikes me that there has really been, first of all, no effort to first understand what I’m arguing, and second of all, to get anywhere beyond name-calling and labeling,” Yenor said.

Yenor said only a handful of students have come out to publicly defend him or even make the simple argument that he should be allowed to speak on his views without getting fired, though he has received a lot of private support.

Yenor said he’s made new friendships, especially among those who privately share his views or actually want to understand what he has to say.

Nevertheless, he said he now feels like an “alien” on campus.

“There’s a kind of feeling that there’s a mob,” Yenor said. “And you don’t run across a mob.”

What’s been worst about all the flak he’s received on campus, according to Yenor, is this larger impact on speech.

While Yenor said he will not back down about writing about gender and other areas that he studies, he is worried about what the attacks mean for free speech and others who are afraid to have their careers derailed.

“The problem with what is happening is that the idea that I’m in violation of the campus civility policies is intended to have a chilling effect on my speech and the speech of anyone who would agree with me,” Yenor said. “That is the bottom line with how I’m being injured.”

This, according to Yenor, will damage institutions of higher learning.

“What is primarily at stake in my case, I think, is the development of a culture of victimization on campus or a social justice framework for understanding education,” Yenor said in a follow-up email.

The article has been corrected to reflect that the quotes from the Aug. 29 faculty meeting were from Professor Lynn Lubamersky.

COMMENTARY BY

Jarrett Stepman

Jarrett Stepman is an editor for The Daily Signal. Send an email to Jarrett. Twitter: @JarrettStepman

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EDITORS NOTE: Emphasis has been added to this column by Mr. Stepman that was not in the original op-ed.

Watch the Premiere of ‘Islam in Our Schools’

October 13, 2017/in Culture War, Education, National Security, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by Martin Mawyer

“America needs a national awakening to be aware of the growing number of public schools that are attempting to convert children to Islam and turn them into evangelists for the Islamic faith”

Watch the Premiere of “Islam in Our Schools”

The live stream of the premiere was a success! If you missed it live you can still watch the video of the event including an excellent question and answer session with me and Ryan Mauro.

Plus, an additional SURPRISE guest joins in and gives some great insight to the increasing issue of…. “Islam in Our Schools”

New Report on Impact of Legal Pot in Colorado Schools

October 11, 2017/in Education, Healthcare, Policy, Politics, Waste, Fraud and Abuse/by National Families in Action

This week, the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area released its fifth annual report titled The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado: The Impact, Volume 5. We devote today’s issue of The Marijuana Report newsletter to highlighting a few of many significant findings the report contains.

National Families in Action has remade some of the graphs and charts in the report to emphasize key findings. This one shows how many of Colorado’s students were expelled, referred to law enforcement, or suspended in the 2015-2016 school year. This is the first year the Colorado Department of Education differentiated marijuana violations from all drug violations, and this year’s report will serve as a baseline to determine whether marijuana violations increase, decrease, or stay fundamentally the same.

Read The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado: The Impact, Volume 5 here. This information appears on page 41 (PDF page 49).

The new report explains that although Colorado created its own Healthy Kids Survey, the combination of a poor response rate and the fact that several major counties with large populations had low or no participation rendered the 2015 survey’s results invalid. For a discussion of this see page 33 (PDF page 41). Volume 5 relies on the National Survey on Drug Use and Health to compare Colorado marijuana use with the national average for ages 12-17, 18-25, and 26 & older over a ten year period (2005-2006 to 2014-2015).

See data for these graphs on the following pages:

Ages 12-17, page 36 (PDF page 44)
Ages 18-25, page 56 (PDF page 64)
Ages 26 & Older, page 60 (PDF page 68)

Read The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado: The Impact, Volume 5 here.

The report notes that data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2006-2011 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), and 2012-2016 Colorado Department of Transportation show that drivers testing positive for marijuana who were killed in traffic crashes rose from 6 percent of all traffic deaths in 2006 to 20 percent eleven years later. Marijuana-related traffic deaths jumped from 9 percent to 14 percent once the state commercialized marijuana for medical use and from 11 percent to 20 percent after legalizing the drug for recreational use.

Read more about marijuana-related driving in Colorado here starting on page 13 (PDF page 21).

In 2016, more than one-third of Colorado drivers who tested positive for marijuana had marijuana only in their systems. Another 36 percent had marijuana and alcohol. Slightly over one-fifth tested positive for marijuana and other drugs but no alcohol, while 7 percent had marijuana, alcohol, and other drugs on board.

See page 18 (PDF page 26) in The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado: The Impact, Volume 5 here.