Archive for the ‘faith’ Tag
Reporters from both the Deseret News and ABC Channel 4 t.v. surprised me last week by asking for interviews –on the subject of prayer, which I’d written about a few days earlier. I was really, really surprised to learn that praying is perceived as news. Or, at least, asking people to pray is perceived as news.
There is so much that is extremely damaging, and therefore extremely newsworthy about the Common Core Initiative– so much that is anti-intellectual, anti-parent, anti-teacher, anti-local-control. The reporters didn’t ask about any of that. They wanted to talk about the prayers my friends and blogpost-readers are praying to escape the Common Core by a miracle. That praying was their news. All I can say is that many of us are grateful to Ben Woods and Brian Carlson, the reporters, for shedding light on the subject, and I do consider the fact that they reported on this, part of the answer to many fervent prayers.
Because many people do care and do pray, others are becoming more aware every day that Common Core hurts: it hurts academics, hurts students and teachers, hurts privacy rights, hurts parental rights, hurts local control, hurts state sovereignty, hurts freedom. Even Fox news is helping; big surprise! I saw a poll today on Fox, asking millions of readers whether they are for or against Common Core. At the time that I voted in the poll, 57% said they were against Common Core. I hope you take that poll. It’s another blessing, right there.
So, here are the links to what the Deseret News and ABC 4 had to say about the fact that we are praying.
Links:
The Deseret News article is here.
The ABC Channel 4 news report (text version) is here.
The ABC Channel 4 (t.v. version) of that same report is here, but you have to first watch the video of the school grading report (which is very important also) and then after that report and an ad, then comes the report on the request for prayers.
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… I just can’t help but wonder when the media will report about the enormously newsworthy things –terrible things that folks don’t know, but should know.
I hope to see many news reports about:
SLDS — The fact that parents have no rights over, and no ability to opt their children out of, the current school-originated, federally paid for, federally interoperable, citizen surveillance program known as States’ Longitudinal Database Systems (SLDS) that follows people from the time they’re tiny children until at least adulthood without their consent –or even their knowledge. That’s huge, considering all the scandals on the federal stage right now: (Ed Snowden exposing the unconstitutional activities of the federal government spying on the innocent; the IRS using data to favor and disfavor certain people and organizations without the right to do so; the FBI being sued by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC); the Department of Education also being sued by EPIC for similar violations to human privacy; etc. etc.) But people don’t know it’s real. And they can’t protect their kids if they don’t know what’s going on.
EXPERIMENT ON KIDS — The fact that Common Core standards are an experiment on our children. They lack any empirical studies or proof that they can do anything they claim/hope to do. They have been condemned by the main English Language Arts validation member, Dr. Sandra Stotsky, and have been condemned by the main mathematician on the Common Core validation committee, Dr. James Milgram. They are an academic step down for many states.
EDUCATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION — The fact that Common Core ends local control. The standards are under private copyright by two unaccountable, unelected private groups that are a national superintendents’ club (CCSSO) and a national governors’ club (NGA). Not all superintendents or governors belong. No voter can affect what they do. The federal government put a shackle over that copyright when it mandated that no state may add more than 15% to the common standards.
CORPORATE MONOPOLY ON THOUGHT — The fact that Bill Gates, Pearson and other corporate interests are circumventing the American voter in educational decision making and privacy controls, decisions that negatively affect children. The fact that corporate “alignment” of new technologies, curricula, books and educational products to the very same standards that Gates bankrolled, is conflict of interest and creates a monopoly on anything having to do with education, and limits innovative thought nationwide.
PARENTS HAVE NO VOICE — Example: Common Core recommends that its students read literature of pedophilia (The Bluest Eye) it will be on high school reading lists (Lehi High School) and will be read by Utah students, even if the state school board has not technically recommended it. Why? Because the board adopted Common Core. And teachers are under pressure to have their students perform well on high stakes tests that are aligned to Common Core. Governance is confused; D.C. groups end up calling the shots for Utah students, under Common Core. Parents are totally left out of the discussion of what children should read.
CONSTITUTIONALITY — The fact that G.E.P.A. law and the U.S. Constitution have been broken by the Department of Education’s foray into state educational business. Also, federal privacy law (FERPA) has been shredded by the Department of Education. Although the Department of Education has rightly been sued, they’ll most likely get away with it because WHO IS CHECKING UP ON THEM? Not congress. Not state departments of education. Not the media. Just parents like you and me. We The People.
NO DISSENT ALLOWED — The Common Core tests can’t be seen by parents. Also, the Utah State School Board appointing/electing process includes taking a questionnaire that asks (First question) Do you support the Utah Core? (Remember, Utah Core = Common Core for all English and Math classes, K-12) So nobody who dissents can run for the incredibly powerful and important office of state school board member.
I hope many of you will write letters to the editor, opinion editorials, or email your legislators and school board representatives to make your voices heard. This is still America. And we are the people. We, the voters and taxpayers –and yes, the pray-ers– are the real bosses of this great country. Make your voice count.
Parents are under command to bring up their children in light and truth (see D&C 93:40). Parents cannot leave decision making about teaching up to school boards school teachers (or Sunday School teachers) alone; these other teachers are here to assist parents in an ultimate responsibility that rests primarily on parents.
It is not enough to educate children academically– reading, math, geography, languages, history, music– we must also make sure they know how to identify light and truth.
The following teachings were suggested by President Hinckley for parents to teach their children: http://www.lds.org/pa/library/0,17905,7461-1,00.html
• Teach them to develop good friendships.
• Teach them the importance of education. Youth will be amply rewarded for their efforts to obtain an education. The Church will also be blessed by their increased capacities and skills.
• Teach them self-respect. The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles encourage modest dress, and discourage tattoos and the piercing of the body other than the minimal piercing of the ears by women for one pair of earrings.
• Teach them to stay away from drugs. Those who use illegal drugs or misuse legal drugs lose self-control.
• Teach them the virtue of honesty.
• Teach them to be virtuous. Sexual urges must be controlled with self-discipline and respect.
• Teach them to look forward to the time when they may be married in the house of the Lord.
• Teach them to pray. It is a miracle that we can approach God in prayer and be heard.
Over the past three months, I’ve learned so much about education reforms in America and what they are doing to our freedoms. It is not pretty. It makes me very sad. But I would not want to go back to my ignorance about Common Core. Now I’m reading more and more about freedom and the Constitution on issues connected to education reforms either directly or indirectly.
I’m going to give three links to free online books that I am reading right now, in case anyone out there wants to join me on the learning curve. I think of this as a self-directed, no credit class called on “How to Save American Freedom of Education Via the United States Constitution and Faith in God 101”.
First, THE BOOK OF MORMON http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne?lang=eng
and the HOLY BIBLE: http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bible?lang=eng.
Both of these books have lots to say about history, about liberty, about the end of the world, the control efforts of wicked forces upon good forces, and the battles for freedom.
Second, THE BOOK OF MORMON AND THE CONSTITUTION – by H. Verlan Andersen
http://www.inspiredconstitution.org/bofmc/index.html 
H. Verlan Andersen, a general authority and a close friend of President Ezra Taft Benson, is the author of “The Book of Mormon and the Constitution,” which I just started reading last week and am in love with. It explains so clearly what is going on in America today (including in education reforms) from the angle of faith in Christ and His prophets.
I never knew it was available online for free until today. Happy reading!
Third book: NONE DARE CALL IT CONSPIRACY by Gary Allen
Another book that I want to read, and haven’t yet, is “None Dare Call it Conspiracy,” by Gary Allen. This book was recommended by my father, by many other smart and patriotic people I’ve known.
President Ezra Taft Benson, a prophet, recommended this book. (See clip below)
Click for the book: http://www.whale.to/b/allen_b1.html –and it is online, free.
Click for the recommendation by President Ezra Taft Benson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJNMcD2IY_k This is a YouTube video of Ezra Taft Benson speaking in a 1972 conference and recommending this book. In the same talk, President Benson says that there is no Book of Mormon Conspiracy Theory. It is a Book of Mormon Conspiracy Fact.
Nations were extinguished, the Book of Mormon history shows, because of secret combinations that the good people upheld because they were deceived by them, and/or they profited from them.
Fourth book: THE DELIBERATE DUMBING DOWN by Charlotte Iserbyt
Even though I have only scanned the first few pages of this book and seen half of the hour-long YouTube interview, I want to share the links to her interview and to the book. I sense its importance. I have seen Charlotte Iserbyt interviewed about her life story –incredible story you can see on YouTube (an hour long). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezTIYd5UFRY&noredirect=1
So, this a must-read for me, for sure. Charlotte Iserbyt was a whistle blower who realized there really is an agenda of power and money that damages and controls public education, that overrides what’s best for children and American freedom in treacherous ways. http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/MomsPDFs/DDDoA.sml.pdf (Link to her free book PDF online.)
Iserbyt served as the head of policy at the Department of Education during the first administration of Ronald Reagan. While working there, she discovered a long term strategic plan by the tax exempt foundations to transform America from a nation of rugged individualists and problem solvers to a country of servile, brainwashed simpletons, easy to control, who regurgitate whatever they’re told.
Sound like Common Core? Of course.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND RELIGIOUS SPEECH
How does freedom of religion apply to new changes in education, such as the COMMON CORE and FERPA (Family Educational Rights Privacy Act) regulations? Do these “educational reforms” not take away parental control of children’s data, and does not full implementation of Common Core nationalized education come with a federally perusable individual-child data collection plan? Doesn’t the government ascend above parents in authority thereby?
Bring on the LDS “Proclamation on the Family.” http://www.lds.org/family/proclamation
Education reforms of late have brought out the mother bear in me. I become angry when I see forces who have no respect for student privacy, for parental authority, and for educational freedom (but they do respect federal rule over education, federal rule over children, and federal rule over privacy). I also become angry that more parents don’t care, won’t study it, and blindly believe without verifying, what the Dept of Education and the USOE is saying.
Rather than attack with angry words, I try to educate with peaceable boldness and truth.
In this book, H. Verlan Andersen, a general authority of the Church (LDS) and a close friend of President Ezra Taft Benson, wrote:
“Of course we should avoid contention both in the Church and without. Many scriptures affirm this and declare that the penalty therefore is exclusion from the Kingdom of God. Where the Lord dwells there is harmony… but do we become one by keeping our differences to ourselves? Can we achieve unity by remaining silent? Obviously we cannot. To become of one heart and one mind demands a free exchange of ideas and views in an atmosphere of love and harmony.”
It is vitally important to be courageous enough to get involved with political and educational issues. While the Church officially takes a politically neutral stand, the church also counsels members not to! It counsels members to be active politically.
The First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” — So the prohibition is against the government pushing its own ideas or religions on us (for example, the ‘religion’ of extreme environmentalism that they push in schools is not permissable). The prohibition is not against individuals or private organizations being involved in politics. In fact, the First Amendment guarantees that right.
And the church calls political involvement a responsibility as well as a right.
THE RESPONSIBILITY TO BE POLITICALLY INVOLVED AGAINST SOCIALISM AND FOR FREEDOM
President David O. McKay said, “We wish all our citizens throughout the land were participating in some type of organized self-education in order that they could better appreciate what is happening and know what they can do about it… various organizations that are attempting to awaken the people through educational means is a policy we warmly endorse“
So, how can the church be politically neutral yet stand up for Constitutional laws and freedom of religion, speech and press? Because political stands refer to candidates and voting, not to eternal principles like free agency and wise limitations on human governments.
President McKay said, “We have no intention of trying to interfere with the fullest and freest exercise of the political franchise of our members under and within our Constitution, which the Lord declared he established ‘by the hands of wise men whom [he] raised up for this very purpose’ (D&C 101:80) and which…Joseph Smith, dedicating the Kirtland Temple, prayed should be ‘established forever’ (D&C 109:54). The Church does not yield any of its devotion to or convictions about safeguarding the American principles… The position of this Church on the subject of Communism has never changed. We consider it the greatest satanical threat to peace, prosperity, and the spread of God’s work among men that exists on the face of the earth.”
President Ezra Taft Benson wrote that the “enhancement of political power at the expense of individual rights, so often disguised as ‘democracy’ or ‘freedom’ or ‘civil rights’ is socialism, no matter what name tag it bears.” He also said that “We must keep the people informed that collectivism, another word for socialism, is a part of the communist strategy. Communism is essentially socialism.” (This Nation Shall Endure, p. 90)
Is it too much to suggest that Common Core, the commonizing of education, is a move toward socialism and communism? Well, we have to share all things in common with all other states (not like the Lord’s law of consecration, where you choose to share; this is the “must” version, where you have to share or you get financially and in other ways, punished).
President Ezra Taft Benson wrote, “God, with his infinite foreknowledge, so molded the Book of Mormon that we might see the error and how to combat false educational, political, religious and philosophical concepts of our time.” (Ensign, Jan. 1988)
The Jaredites in the Book of Mormon corrupted their laws and political power and were destroyed.
The Nephites in the Book of Mormon corrupted their laws, too. Part of the reason was that the righteous people were deceived into allowing the law to become corrupt. Are we repeating their mistakes? Yes.
Verlan Anderson wrote, “The only place the great majority of us use force to affect the freedom of others is through the agency of government, and so our political [and educational] decisions are, in reality, decisions about human freedom.”
It’s important to distinguish between laws and regulations that are constitutional and those which are not; the penalties for failing to obey the Lord’s political commandments are severe.
President David O. McKay said, “A fundamental principle of the Gospel is free agency, and references in the scriptures show that this principle is 1) essential to man’s salvation and 2) may become a measuring rod by which the actions of men, of organizations, of nations may be judged.”
So, free agency is a measuring rod to judge Common Core by. Does Common Core support or take away from the principle of free agency?
1. It cannot be amended by us. It is under copyright by the NGA/CCSSO. We are not free to change it.
2. It requires states to “address barriers in state law” that would stand in the way of its full implementation, making us more subject to national, rather than local, decision-making. We are not free to maintain such state laws as FERPA which stand in the way of the desire of Common Core to get easy governmental and research agency-access to our children’s personally identifiable information without parental consent.
3. It requires teachers and students to spend much time on a testing system they had no say in building and cannot amend (Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium). These tests are given to state and federal agencies, dis-aggregated, and will be used to “guide” and control citizens. 
4. Common Core requires teachers and students to follow CCSS standards, which will not allow many good things any longer. CCSS won’t allow Calculus to be taught in high schools any more, and will severely limit the amount of classic literature that is permissable in the English classroom, in favor of info-texts.
It makes many other requirements for educational standards which may be more rigorous, or may be less so, but the point is that we MUST obey these standards; we are not free to change them and as time goes by, we will be less and less able to withdraw from the system, being financially interwoven with it.
5. The document written by Arne Duncan of the Federal Department of Education, entitled “Cooperative Agreement between the U.S. Dept of Education and the SBAC” (and Utah’s bound by it) –uses words like “comply,” compliance,” “requirements,” “enforce,” “enforcement” and “must” –repeatedly– which are words which do not support the idea of voluntarism or free agency. http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/sbac-cooperative-agreement.pdf
How far have we come from Constitutional freedom of education? The tenth article of the Communist Manifesto cites “free education for all children” and “combination of education with industrial production” as its goals. The Common Core does combine education with industrial production, as Utah’s new P-20 workforce (Preschool to age 20 and workforce) councils strive to do. The idea is to track and guide students into the workforce that the government determines fits that student best because kids are seen as “human capital” belonging to the state.
So many people in Utah today have been deceived into giving up important freedoms over education and privacy, by the pretty promises of Common Core. The Common Core push was able to succeed in this deception because of legitimate, troubling problems of low educational outcomes in our state. We have so many people taking remedial classes at the college level. We have literacy problems and we need to improve education.
But commonizing and nationalizing education via the Common Core should never have been chosen as the answer to these serious problems. In choosing Common Core, we voted against our own freedom.
COMMON CORE 