Parents With Backbone

Parents with backbone

Thomas Sowell

February 26, 2004


Parents in Fairfax, Virginia, have succeeded in getting rid of one of
the endless series of fad programs that distract American public
schools from real education in real subjects. Like most fad programs,
this one had a high-sounding name: The International Baccalaureate
Curriculum.

It also has a left-wing hidden agenda, as so many other fad programs
do. One of the program's supporters gushed that it teaches students
"how to think globally" and "how to make us part of the world."

One of the parents critical of the program put it quite differently.
She said it "promotes socialism, disarmament, radical
environmentalism, and moral relativism, while attempting to undermine
Christian religious values and national sovereignty."

None of this is new. This kind of indoctrination has been going on for
decades, and the kind of thinking behind it goes back a hundred years,
when education guru John Dewey began promoting the idea that schools
should be instruments of "social change."

By substituting back-door indoctrination in place of education, John
Dewey has done more damage than anyone without an army.

What is new is that some parents are finally waking up and fighting
back. They refuse to be conned by pious rhetoric or pacified by bumper
stickers that say things like "My child was student of the month at
Jordan Middle School" or even intimidated by the standard line, "You
are the only one who has complained."

Education bureaucrats will use that line even if you are not even
among the first 20 who have complained about some program or practice
locally or among the first thousand nationally. There may be court
cases all across the country over some program or practice, and they
will still tell you that you are the only one who has complained.

While the parents in Fairfax have had the backbone to get this junk
program thrown out of their school, largely because it displaced so
much real education that their children would have trouble getting
into quality colleges, the battle is still raging in nearby Reston,
Virginia, where the education bureaucrats are determined to create a
generation of internationalists.

"After all," a school spokesmen said, "it is our students who will
change the world."

That the kinds of shallow, ill-educated and fad-ridden people who run
our public schools should take it upon themselves to decide how the
world needs changing is truly staggering. On the other hand, it has
long been said that fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

A very different battle has been going on in the District of Columbia.
Here the issue is whether any of the predominantly black students will
be allowed to escape the failing and dangerous public schools by
having vouchers to go elsewhere.

The teachers unions say no -- and the teachers unions are the
800-pound gorilla of the Democratic Party, whom they supply with money
and with people to walk the precincts on election days. Some
Republicans are also afraid to get on the bad side of the teachers
union, even if that means watching another whole generation of poor
kids go down the drain for lack of a decent education.

Among the parents who have not been intimidated is a black woman named
Virginia Walden-Ford. She has not only confronted members of Congress
in hearings, her organization of parents has taken out ads in the
states represented by Congressmen who voted against vouchers.

These ads point out that liberal politicians who send their own
children to private schools are preventing black parents from having
that same choice. These parents don't hesitate to compare liberals
like Ted Kennedy to Southern segregationists of the past like George
Wallace and Bull Connor, who tried to block the advancement of blacks.

It would never occur to our more delicate Republicans to say such a
thing. But their children are not at risk.

The time is long overdue for more parents to show some backbone if
their children are not to continue to be used for classroom
indoctrination or as pawns in the games of teachers unions.

mejercit RemoveThis @hotmail.com (Michael Ejercito) wrote:
>Parents with backbone
>
>Thomas Sowell
>
>February 26, 2004
>
>Parents in Fairfax, Virginia, have succeeded in getting rid of one of
>the endless series of fad programs that distract American public
>schools from real education in real subjects. Like most fad programs,
>this one had a high-sounding name: The International Baccalaureate
>Curriculum.

Actually, it was one high school, and their reasons had nothing to do
with what Sowell wrote in his article.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040117-115053-8186r.htm
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040117-115053-3268r.htm
gives a better idea of the issues. It says that getting a mediocre
grade on an IB test or two is not worth much. On needs to get the IB
diploma to gain the prestige of the program.

Fairfax County still offers the IB program at several high schools,
where it is usually an OPTION (not mandatory). The IB diploma program
is generally considered to be a prestige program - it is damned
difficult. But as the article noted, Woodson was apparently having
kids take IB courses when they weren't seeking an IB degree, in order
to try to get college credit like the AP course program. But IB isn't
a college credit program - it is a solid education program:
>'If you are at an IB school and you are not going for the IB diploma,
> don't waste your time applying to UVa. or any other top-rated
> schools'

http://www.ibo.org/ibo/index.cfm?page=/ibo/programmes/prg_dip/prg_dip_...languag
http://www.ibo.org/ibo/index.cfm?page=/ibo/programmes/prg_dip/prg_dip_...demic&l

Kids who get an IB diploma know how to think, how to write, know a
foreign language, and have a well-rounded education in depth. They
pass a fairly difficult exit examination. They just don't necessarily
get college credit for this. So what?

>It also has a left-wing hidden agenda, as so many other fad programs
>do. One of the program's supporters gushed that it teaches students
>"how to think globally" and "how to make us part of the world."
>
>One of the parents critical of the program put it quite differently.
>She said it "promotes socialism, disarmament, radical
>environmentalism, and moral relativism, while attempting to undermine
>Christian religious values and national sovereignty."

I looked on the net for criticisms of the IB program. The right
winger who have sites on the topic are, to put it frankly, deluded
seers-of-black-helicopters. Most of the things they criticize are in
the standard non-IB curriculum, and are quite mainstream.

>By substituting back-door indoctrination in place of education, John
>Dewey has done more damage than anyone without an army.

"Back door", my eyebrow.

Thomas Jefferson:
>"The objects of... primary education [which] determine its character
> and limits [are]: To give to every citizen the information he needs
> for the transaction of his own business; to enable him to calculate
> for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and
> accounts in writing; to improve, by reading, his morals and
> faculties; to understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and
> to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either;
> to know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he
> retains, to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he
> delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor
> and judgment; and in general, to observe with intelligence and
> faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be
> placed." --Thomas Jefferson: Report for University of Virginia, 1818.

Horace Mann (cannot easily be excerpted)
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/16.htm

>While the parents in Fairfax have had the backbone to get this junk
>program thrown out of their school,

It isn't a junk program.

>largely because it displaced so
>much real education that their children would have trouble getting
>into quality colleges,

Misrepresentation.

IB courses without the IB diploma are relatively meaningless. AP
backs its courses with a test. IB's test comes at the end of the
diploma program. The kids would not have trouble getting into
colleges with an IB diploma.

>the battle is still raging in nearby Reston,
>Virginia, where the education bureaucrats are determined to create a
>generation of internationalists.

Another misrepresentation.

lojbab
--
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Bob LeChevalier, Founder, The Logical Language Group
(Opinions are my own; I do not speak for the organization.)
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban: http://www.lojban.org