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Brave New Schools

Chapter 1
New Beliefs for a Global Village1
by Berit Kjos
Skip down to The Little Red Hen or Aldous Huxley
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"The purpose of education and the schools is to change the thoughts, feelings and actions of students." [2] Professor Benjamin Bloom, called "Father of Outcome-based Education"

"Nations that stick to stale old notions and ideologies will falter and fail. So I'm here today to say, America will move forward.... New schools for a new world.... Re-invent--literally start from scratch and reinvent the America school.... Our challenge amounts to nothing less than a revolution in American education."[3] Former President George Bush, announcing America 2000

"You can only have a new society... if you change the education of the younger generation...."[4] Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy
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"Come to the Medicine Wheel!" The teacher's cheery voice beckoned the Iowa fourth graders to a fun Native American ritual. "And wear your medicine bags."
Jonathan grabbed his little brown pouch and hurried to his place. His favorite teacher made school so exciting! She brought Indian beliefs about nature into all the subjects--science, history, art, reading... She even helped the class start The Medicine Wheel Publishing Company to make writing more fun.
She taught Jonathan to make his own medicine bag--a deer skin pouch filled with special things, such as a red stone that symbolized his place on the Medicine Wheel astrology chart. This magic pouch would empower him in times of need--such as when taking tests. Jonathan wanted to show it to his parents, but his teacher said no. He didn't know why.
Sitting crosslegged in the circle, the class chanted a song to honor the earth: "The Earth is our Mother, We're taking care of her.... Hey younga, Ho..." Then the teacher read an Indian myth from the popular classroom book, Keepers of the Earth. It told about a beautiful spirit woman who came to save a starving tribe of Sioux Indians. This mystical savior brought sage to purify the people, and she showed them how to use the Sacred Pipe--a symbol of "the unity of all things"--for guidance and prayer to the Great Spirit.
Few could miss the point of the story: all is one--the earth, people and animals--around the world. As long as the tribe remembered "that all things were connected as the parts of the Pipe, they lived happily and well."[5] Spiritual oneness, not Western individualism, would bring happiness. In the teacher's guide, the authors Michael Caduto and Joseph Bruchac explain that this blend of myth and ecology meets today's need for "spiritual and religious values," including "deeper spiritual ties with the Earth."[6]
From coast to coast, the same kind of multicultural experiences inspire students to stretch their view of God--an essential part of today's social transformation. Connecticut fourth-graders use guided imagery to "experience" Indian tribal life and meet "wise" spirit helpers.[7] Colorado sixth graders enjoy "spirit dances" wearing their class-made masks.[8] Oregon students celebrate Winter Solstice by acting the roles of the Sun God, Moon Goddess, drummers and animal spirits.[9] California students wear masks that help them identify with their favorite Greek gods and goddesses.[10] Earth-centered religions are in.
During a public school dedication of a small parcel of Colorado land, an officiating pastor said, "Now we are going to stomp our feet like tom-toms and pray to the Great Spirit." After the ceremony, a mother explained to her confused son, "No, the Great Spirit is not the same as God."[11]
Having rejected biblical Christianity, educational "change agents"[12] have realized that some kind of global spirituality is needed to fuel a collective pursuit of global unity. Although Native American spirituality provides the perfect model--and brings the least resistance from concerned parents--any of the world's New Age or Neo-pagan religions will do. Offering a common alternative to the biblical God, they all blend. . .
Pantheism: all is god and god is all, since a universal force infuses all things with spiritual life. Today's popularized version encourages everyone to "look within" for the strength, wisdom and guidance needed to "empower" oneself for success.
Monism: all is one, joined together through the pantheistic spiritituality. Today it has become a subtle way of turning children against private ownership, parents as sole custodians of children, etc. After all, they are told, the American Indians shared everything! [Actually, personal possessions like scalps and horses were status symbols among the Sioux.[13]]
Polytheism: many gods. Since the pantheistic deity makes everything sacred, people can worship anything or anyone they choose. Children learn that in the end, all the world's gods lead to the same happy spirit world.
Few classroom texts dare mention the terrors and tortures that have always oppressed pagan cultures--those that sought power and wisdom from occult forces. Instead, ancient paganism has donned a new mask. Sometimes called Neo-paganism, it is simply an idealized blend of any of the world's pagan religions. Disguised as personal empowerment and harmony with nature, this global or earth-centered spirituality seduces both young and old who ignore the tragic lessons of history.[14]
Oneness is the heartbeat of global spirituality. Taught to believe in the basic oneness of all life, students are trained to demonstrate this unity through a planned set of values, attitudes and behaviors. The "right" kinds of assignments bypass reason and establish the new ideals in their minds. So when sixth graders in North Carolina had to design a global postage stamp that would show "what the world would need to make it a better place," they used their imagination, not facts, to form new goals. When ninth graders wrote a "constitution for a perfect society,"[15] they practiced building their dreams on mythical idealism, not the truth about human nature. Chapter 3 will show you how easily these fragile foundations can be manipulated for political purposes.
"The teaching profession prepares the leaders of the future," wrote NEA (National Education Association) leader William Carr, secretary of the Educational Policies Commission. "The statesmen, the industrialists, the lawyers, the newspapermen... all the leaders of tomorrow are in schools today."[16] Half a century ago, he called for the global beliefs and values that infuse education today:
"The psychological foundations for wider loyalties must be laid.... Teach those attitudes which will result ultimately in the creation of a world citizenship and world government... we can and should teach those skills and attitudes which will help to create a society in which world citizenship is possible." [17]
Today students across the country are asked to demonstrate those "skills" and attitudes" on standardized tests. Traditional knowledge and reason have been replaced by a radical new emphasis on politically correct attitudes that supposedly demonstrate the mental health needed for world citizenship. These attitudes are included in the "competencies" and work "skills" defined by the Department of Labor.[18]
The process for change is already in place. Initiated by former President Bush, the new education system cuts across partisan lines. Focused on socialization rather than traditional education, it fits as easily into the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the Department of Labor as into an Education Department. Many of the new functions--such as national testing and the school-to-work linkage--now operate through private organizations which are not accountable to concerned parents.
Students who resist the change face growing intolerance and pressures to conform. Unless the process is reversed, they will fail to earn their entrance pass to work or higher education.[19] The following story about Matt Piecora gives a small glimpse of the confusion faced by children who cling to traditional beliefs.

No room for traditional beliefs. Matt Piecora was only following instructions. The fifth grader at Mark Twain Elementary School near Seattle didn't know that his answers had to fit the new cultural standard. So when his teacher told him to complete the sentence, "If I could wish for three things, I would wish for..." Matt wrote "infinitely more wishes, to meet God, and for all my friends to be Christians."
Since each student's personal expressions would be posted on a wall for open house, they had to be just right. Matt's didn't pass. The teacher told him that his last wish could hurt people who didn't share his beliefs. To avoid offense, he agreed to add "if they want to be."
Another sentence to be completed began, "If I could meet anyone, I would like to meet..." Matt wrote: "God because he is the one who made us!" The teacher urged him to add "in my opinion."
When Debbie Piecora, Matt's mother, bent down to read her son's paper posted on the bottom of the wall, she immediately noticed the phrases that followed Matt's original sentences. "How come you wrote this?" she asked him.
"The teacher didn't want me to hurt other people's feelings like Mormons and people like that," he answered.
"But these are just your wishes..."
"I thought so, Mom." Matt looked puzzled.
Defending her actions, the teacher later explained that she wanted diversity in her multi-grade classroom and was just looking out for her other students. If the public display was supposed to "express the students' diverse views," why did she censor Matt's views? Troubled, Dan and Debbie Piecora pondered the paradox. Didn't their son's expression fit the needed "diversity"?
Apparently not. Like other parents across the country, the Piecoras are realizing that Judeo-Christian absolutes have become intolerable to educators who seek more "universal values". To match international as well as national goals, schools must train students to open their minds to new possibilities and to discard the old truths that block "progress" toward global oneness. In the name of tolerance, diversity and understanding, traditional beliefs are being quenched and more "inclusive" earth-centered beliefs are filling the vacuum.
The following chart, which compares the new meaning of "Good Thinking" with the new meaning of "Poor Thinking" illustrates these ambiguous values and deceptive labels. Part of a proposed Core Curriculum for Los Altos, California, it presents local guidelines designed to match national standards. Notice the bizarre logic bias in the introduction. Ponder the two-pronged guidelines that disqualify belief in biblical absolutes and encourage students to try new paths. Consider these question: Would Matt be considered a good or poor thinker? Would your child?

Good Thinking vs. Poor Thinking[20]
This model helps us make some valid and useful distinctions between good and poor thinking. Here we wish to distance ourselves from those who equate good thinking with a long list of discrete mental operations and those who describe poor thinking in terms of several logical errors.
Good thinkers are willing to think and may even find thinking enjoyable. They can carry out searches when necessary and suspend judgment. They value rationality, believing that thinking is useful for solving problems, reaching decisions, and making judgments. Poor thinkers, in contrast, need certainty, avoid thinking, must reach closure quickly, are impulsive, and rely too heavily on intuition. [Emphasis added]

THE GOOD THINKER
THE POOR THINKER:

Welcomes problematic situations and is tolerant of ambiguity
Searches for certainty and is intolerant of ambiguity

Looks for alternative possibilities...
...is satisfied with first attempts.

Is reflective, ...searches extensively when appropriate
...is overconfident of the correctness of initial ideas

Revises goals when necessary
Does not revise goals

Is open to multiple possibilities
Does not seek alternatives to initial possibilities


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This formula for "good" thinking may help students solve rational problems, but it forces students like Matt to rethink their home-taught beliefs and values. Contemporary change agents know that well, therefore they use it to turn students of all ages from time-tested truths and factual knowledge to the shifting sands of shifting sands of myth, speculation and planned ambiguity--or what the Kansas State Board of Education called "new thinking, new strategies, new behavior, and new beliefs."[21]
The above formula for thinking lies at the core of psychological strategies such as critical thinking and values clarification. Designed to sound good to an unsuspecting public, it undermines rational resistance to the new social philosophy. Raymond English, Vice President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, summarized the scheme well. In 1987, he told the National Advisory Council on Educational Research and Improvement that
[C]ritical thinking means not only learning how to think for oneself, but it also means learning how to subvert the traditional values in your society. You're not thinking "critically" if you're accepting the values that mommy and daddy taught you. That's not "critical."[22]
No wonder parents are concerned. "I try to instill God's truths in my son, but it seems like the school wants to remove them," said Dan Piecora.
He is right. The old Judeo-Christian beliefs must be crushed before the new beliefs and values can be established. A student's right to free expression means little to those who put social change above constitutional freedom. While educational change agents used "separation between church and state" to ban biblical truth from public schools, many of the same leaders now wholeheartedly endorse pagan indoctrination. A public school in St. Paul, Minnesota, which openly practices Native American spiritism, illustrates today's strange partiality toward the "right" spiritual foundation for world-class education.
Indian spirituality fits global model. When Rachel Holm,[23] a Minnesota mother, visited Mounds Park All-Nations School, she found magic dreamcatchers in every classroom, mystical drawings of a spiritualized earth, and a ring of stones in the school yard for Medicine Wheel ceremonies. She heard politically correct assumptions about the evils of Western culture and the goodness of pagan spirituality. How can public schools promote Native American rituals--but censure Christianity? she wondered.
Her tour of the school began in the All-Nations room, where the student body had gathered for Monday morning "circle time"--a time of "peer teaching" and "cooperative learning." She listened as eighth graders, one by one, imparted their wisdom to the younger students--much like tribal elders would impart advice to younger braves.
A celebration of ritual drumming and dancing followed. "During the drumming, if you have a good feeling, you look at the drum," explained Laura, a student assigned to guide Mrs. Holm for the day. "Suddenly, the top of the drum becomes black and smoky and you see a face on the drum. It's a human face that is neither happy nor sad."
One of the boys mentioned that women must never touch the drum, because "the spirit of a woman" inside the drum could be offended if another female touched it.
The circular walls of the All-Nations room were covered with large medicine shields made by sixth graders. "They're made from things that symbolize each person's dreams and feelings," explained Laura. "They protect us from all kinds of dangers such as kidnappers and bad spirits."
A glass case in the main foyer displayed drawings of an Ojibwe Indian creation myth. "Is this story true?" asked Mrs. Holm. "Oh, yes," answered Laura.
"How do you know?"
"Well, I've heard it two or three times." Laura's revealing answer illustrates an important shift in classroom emphasis. Children are learning to base their conclusions--even their understanding of God and His creation--on myth and imagination instead of truth and reason.
Every classroom displayed at least one dreamcatcher--a magical spider web inside a sacred circle. The students explained that dreamcatchers protect them from evil spirits and nightmares by catching the bad dreams but permitting good dreams to pass though the center. According to fourth grade teacher Ms Preston, the amber crystal in the center of her dreamcatcher meant proper spiritual alignment with the energy of the universe.
This cosmic energy was defined in an article by the principal, Dr. Cornel Pewewardy, which Mrs. Holm had read before her tour:
"In Native American philosophy and thought, 'medicine' is a vital energy source that we draw upon and use for direction and for wholeness. Holistic education equates to responsibility for the whole universe: We are all related."[24]
In the same article, Dr. Pewewardy explained that "the school attracts students, staff and volunteers who do more than emphasize a Native American philosophy, we espouse and live it. We do so for the betterment of our children, ourselves and our world--one world."
What happened to the separation between church and state? Apparently, today's purveyors of earth-centered religions have sidestepped this question by changing the labels. Native American spirituality is not "church" in today's politically correct circles. "We don't call it religion--we call it spirituality," explained Mounds Park eighth grade teacher, Jackie Lannon. "For the Native American, their spirituality is their culture and their culture is their spirituality... you can't really separate the two."[25]
The same can be said for Christianity, but today's change agents don't seem to listen. They have changed the rules and revised our history. Good and evil have been turned upside down--and our children are learning to follow the lies.

History from a pagan perspective. Students in a public elementary school in Texas were enjoying a classroom assignment called the "Witches Brew." They had to match all kinds of exciting people--witches, warlocks, astrologers and shamans--to the corresponding "occupation." Then they linked a list of magic practices to the right definition. It was easy! Television, books and cartoons had already taught them a lot about how those occult practices could give them spiritual power.
The occult words and meanings made sense to the students. Why shouldn't they empower themselves with the spiritual forces in nature? Captain Planet and other superheroes do it all the time! What could possibly be wrong with the old rituals that used to connect people to Mother Earth? Those nice tribal people had real power. Besides, the introduction to the lesson showed how it all fit into history:
"Once upon a time witches could be seen gathering on Walpurgis Night (the eve of may Day) in the Harz Mountains in Germany for the witches' Sabbath. Once upon a time wizards were consulted by leaders of government, and astrologers influenced world events. If these things seem bizarre (outlandish, peculiar) today, they shouldn't. For the second half of the twentieth century has seen a rekindling of interest in the occult arts.
"On more than one college campus warlocks conjure, and in the cities witches brew magic potions and cast spells. In such circumstances it is wise to know some of the terminology associated with witchcraft."[26]
Ask yourself, Is this story true? Is it good? Why might your answer differ from that of a contemporary change agent?
On the surface, lessons like the "Witches Brew" seem designed to bolster a student's vocabulary. But that's not all. Fulfilling a far more significant purpose, they are part of a plan to restructure not only what schools teach but also what children think and believe. This assignment illustrates a four-pronged assault on traditional values. Notice how it...
Validates witchcraft, one of the many masks for the all-inclusive global spirituality.
Invalidates objections based on Christian convictions.
Prepares students to accept occult terms and explore pagan concepts.
Encourages students to welcome today's revival of pagan spirituality.
No part of the assignment mentions the dangers of occult connections. The old adage, "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but..." simply doesn't fit anymore.
Contemporary lessons in multiculturalism are designed to sell earth-centered beliefs and values, not simply to build objective understanding of the world's diverse cultures. Facts that disprove the intended conclusions are simply censured. After all, if students were allowed an unbiased view of paganism--one that showed all the relevant facts and presented all the fears, oppressions and terrors that accompany polytheism--rational children would shun it.
Global-minded educators and environmentalists can't allow that to happen. They know that the new beliefs and values must be couched in some kind of religious faith and experience.
"Every transformation," writes Lewis Mumford in Robert Muller's World Core Curriculum Journal," ...has rested on a new metaphysical and ideological base...a new picture of the cosmos and the nature of man."[27]
It doesn't matter if the "new ideological base" is actually old and tried--as long as it takes civilization beyond the Western or Christian culture. The change agents who planned the 21st Century "global village" have recognized the importance of a global spirituality that emphasizes universal oneness rather than national or religious loyalties.
Of course, the biblical basis for oneness was unacceptable. It was an obstacle. So in the early sixties, Humanist activism closed the door to Biblical truth in public schools. Three decades later, many of the same humanist leaders are calling for a return to the sacred. They have experienced the powerlessness of atheism and seek answers in the world's timeless alternatives to God.

http://www.crossroad.to/Books/BraveNewSchools/1-globalvillage.html




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