I’ve been saying saying the same thing for years – and remember that it was the Frankfurt School and Gramsci that said for the Socialist / Communists to take over the ramparts of culture. Now we are seeing that they were successful (emphasis mine):
ANALYSIS: TRUE. OU professor: Youths’ attraction to Sanders shows education failure. “It’s disheartening that an avowed socialist is a viable candidate for president of the United States. Socialism is a dead end. For hundreds of years, it has failed everywhere it’s been adopted. The enthusiasm of our youth for the candidacy of Bernie Sanders is a symptom of our failure to educate them, not only in history, government and economics, but also basic morality.”
And it has been by design. If you don’t know your own history, you will believe what somebody else says your history is. As the Left has said for centuries – he who controls the present controls the past. They control our education system now so our history is not what my generation learned. The change has been anti-capitalism, anti-Constitution, anti-Founding Fathers, and anti-religion.
Not only that, they can’t put two sentences or three logical thoughts together at the same time. Math is being dismantled as I write this. And as I have said before, the current Education system is instructing budding teachers to not trust parents, either. So consider our education system to be anti-parent (and thus, anti-family).
Younger parents with school aged kids? Start home-schooling. Hard work, long hours, frustrating situations. But at the end, you kids will run rings around their peers and, you know actually get jobs.
(H/T: Instapundit)
UPDATE – Forgot I had bookmarked this (emphasis mine):
Confronting the hard truths of America’s civic illiteracy
With the primary and caucus season beginning today, voters will no doubt have heard candidates’ calls for tuition-free college or easier access to higher education. They have yet to hear those candidates call for education that prepares graduates for informed citizenship. Before considering college without cost, the nation should ensure college is worthwhile as our institutions prepare a new generation of leaders.
We have strayed far from the vision of Thomas Jefferson, who said, “No nation is permitted to live in ignorance with impunity.” If universities, legislators, and the citizenry ignore this crisis, these words will continue to haunt us as we confront the hard truths of American civic illiteracy that can turn democracy to chaos.
Recently, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) released a major report: “The Crisis in Civic Education.” ACTA’s curricular survey of over 1,100 colleges and universities shows that only 18 percent of them require students to take a course in U.S. history or government. In secondary education, the results are equally dismal. In 2014, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) revealed through their civics test that one in four high-school seniors did not have “proficient” civic knowledge. Moreover, over one-third of 12th-grade students did not have “basic” knowledge of American civics. The NAEP governing board has since shot the messenger that brings such bad news by eliminating the high school civics test.
The report documents the appalling consequences of our educational failure. Less than 20 percent of American college graduates knew what the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation were; nearly half could not identify the correct term lengths of Congress; and almost 10 percent thought Judith Sheindlin “Judge Judy” served on the Supreme Court.
Most of the attempts to address civic education conflate rhetoric with results. The Department of Education’s “A Crucible Moment” and the Lumina Foundation’s “Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP)” emphasize “civic engagement.” But with a flaccid commitment to setting clear course requirements with real testing for results, reports like these promise little beyond verbose abstraction. Neither report delivers where it counts. Both fail to recommend robust curricular reform that would reflect the foundational knowledge of American history and government essential to a healthy republic. The DQP revealingly asserts that “course equivalents are not proxies for proficiency.” In other words, the report makes the absurd claim that requiring a course in civics has nothing to do with civic proficiency.
Without sacrificing academic freedom, colleges and universities must uphold their responsibilities to the public by cultivating curricula that prepare students for engaged citizenship. They must hire faculty who have expertise in America’s military, diplomatic, and constitutional history. Furthermore, state legislatures should follow the examples of Nevada, Oklahoma, Georgia and Texas, whose governing bodies have stipulated that their states’ public institutions require the study of American history and government.
An engaged citizen must understand all the triumphs and tragedies that comprise our complex history and identity. Robert Penn Warren, citing Polish author Adam De Gurowski, said that “America is unique among nations because other nations are accidents of geography or race, but America is based on an idea. Behind the comedy of proclaiming that idea from Fourth of July platforms there is the solemn notion, Believe and ye shall be saved. That abstraction sometimes does become concrete [and] is a part of the American experience — and of the American problem — the lag between idea and fact, between word and flesh.”
America’s “lag between idea and fact, between word and flesh” is the crux of her identity. An honest and comprehensive study of her history and constitution is the only guarantee of the cultivation of an informed electorate. Education is the prerequisite for engaged citizenship. Knowing how America has succeeded and failed to bridge the gap between abstract text and concrete independence is essential to the incarnation of life, liberty, and happiness and the more perfect union for which we strive.
Eric Bledsoe is the Program Officer for Curricular Reform at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. You can follow him on Twitter @EricMBledsoe.
