The problems begin before university

Submitted by Info Tech Guy (United States), Apr 13, 2005 at 08:54

I sat in a roomful of College Republicans at a DC convention back in the 80s when Arnaud de Borchgrave and Newt Gingrich criticised universities for their Left-wing bias, suppression of debate, hostility toward conservative students, hostility to conservative ideas, and lack of university professors offering some conservative balance to the overwhelmingly "progressive", Leftist university teaching and social environment.

Though the burning issues have changed --democratic opposition to communism is now replaced by the global fight against islamic extremism, I think that the critique of American universities is still very accurate and has just become worse with years as the entrenchment of "multiculturalist" ideas has become deeper and affecting students at an earlier age.

I'm not at all shocked that MLA apparatcheks bristle and spit venom at the comments of Daniel Pipes. (Like his father, Richard, he excels at infuriating the Left.) But, I must offer this note of added alarm. Leftist groups such as the MLA and the radical NEA have successfully undermined American values and critical thinking in the public schools well in advance of university/college. (They have partners in most state departments of education and "professional" organisations -- even those for school administrators.)

Conservatives should take note of the insidious multiculturalist, egalitarian and socialist disease afflicting public schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels. The very textbooks used and teaching methods established by groups such as the MLA are sharply at odds with conservatism.

Yet, the primary focus of criticism from conservatives in the public schools has been on creation v. evolution conflict in science departments. (Understandably, this of great concern to religious Christians and Jews.) Not to diminish the importance of this conflict but the point must be made very clearly that the problems are far, far wider in scope. (It is not just an issue of test performance amid lamentations that "Johnny can't read or do mathematics".)

I make these observations with considerable "insider" knowledge as the husband of a long time public school teacher who is also a "stealth conservative" member of both the NEA and the MLA.

Conservatives (especially conservative intellectuals and office holders) must understand that American students are being "lost" well before they reach university. They are already being "programmed" into a Leftist morality and world view which no amount of balance at the university level can ever completely undo.

Therefore, I submit that It is well to fight the fight at the university level but conservatives **must** focus on the public schools, elementary, middle and high schools, and move beyond the alleged "fixes" of No Child Left Behind and the battle over evolution v. creationism. The war of ideas must move into the public school classrooms. Leftist ideology must be rooted out and balance representing real American values must become the norm in our public schools

Conservatives must move beyond pulling some children out of the caves of public education. This is a half-measure insufficient to stave off the slide of our society into Leftist mediocrity and decline.

Conservatives must destroy the conditions which make our public schools "caves". This will require concerted action and the involvement of conservative intellectuals working in concert with state and national office holders.

This will require direct challenges to the established teaching standards in place all over the U.S. These standards are at the core of teaching programs all over the U.S. and they are riddled with the unacceptable ideology and destructive value system emanating from groups such as the MLA, the NEA and bureacrats in the state departments of education. These teaching standards are the fruit of the poisoned tree.

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