17). At its "core," Common Core is a social engineering experiment. Common Core's lead architect, David Coleman, explains that the initiative is all about standards. It's about preparing students for a competitive work force in this developing age. But just as we can understand a program or policy by looking at its architect (Ezekiel Emmanuel and the IPAB, or "death panel" created by Obamacare; Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood; Obama and the administration's hostility to religion; Adolf Hitler and the final solution, etc), a look at Coleman's background is equally enlightening.
David Coleman says he believes in the value of a liberal-arts education. The problem is nobody asked what a liberal-arts education means to him. Reading his background puts new meaning to the word "liberal" in liberal arts. American Thinker did an expose on him. Coleman lives in trendy Greenwich Village and was educated at Yale, Oxford, and Cambridge universities (all liberal). He has never been a classroom teacher and wants to replace traditional subjects with broad learning. He believes there is "a massive social injustice in this country" and that education is "the engine of social justice." His upbringing is certainly in line with this progressive mindset. His mother and greatest influence, Elizabeth Coleman, president of Bennington College in Vermont, is of the view that school curriculum should be designed to address "political-social challenges." She emphasizes an "action-oriented curriculum" where "students continuously move outside the classroom to engage the world directly." In short: indoctrination through propaganda in education as the vehicle for social transformation.
Mrs. Coleman founded a social justice initiative - the Center for the Advancement of Public Action (she called it a "secular church") - "which invites students to put the world's most pressing problems at the center of their education." She was a professor of humanities at the far left New School for Social Research, which was begun by progressives in 1932 and modeled itself after the neo-Marxist social theory of the Frankfurt School. She fights for "social values," and a "secular democracy," saying "fundamentalist ...values (are) the absolutes of a theocracy."
The foundational philosophy of Common Core is to create students ready for social action so they can force a social-justice agenda. Common Core is not about students who actually have a grasp of the intricate facts of a true set of what E.D. Hirsch would call "core knowledge." Common Core is about, as David Feith would say "an obsession with race, class, gender, and sexuality as the forces of history and political identity." Nationalizing education via Common Core is about promoting an agenda of Anti-capitalism, sustainability, white guilt, global citizenship, self-esteem, affective math, and culture sensitive spelling and language. This is done in the name of consciousness raising, moral relativity, fairness, diversity, and multiculturalism.
Common Core is not actually about standards, it's about gaining control over the education system in a futile attempt to create a Progressive utopia using the important sounding academic umbrella of "standards." But ask yourself, haven't educators always had standards, guidelines, or benchmarks to guide curriculum? What is different all of sudden? The difference is that we have an administration that has put progressive secularism at the top of its agenda. All we need to do is connect the dots.
The bottom line is this: Regardless of whether the standards are horrible or phenomenal, the fact is that whenever unelected oligarchs or philanthropists are permitted to facilitate and institute public policy, the voting public gets cut out of the process and self-determination and governance by the people dies. Free thinking is no longer rewarded as a mechanism of success. Blending in, or being indoctrinated on how to "step in" to a "useful place" in society (specifically, in the workforce) is promoted. The intent is to facilitate through Common Core a generation of followers not leaders who would in turn NOT challenge the system, but mindlessly conform to and perpetuate it. To many, this sounds an awful lot like Communism.
References:
Heritage Foundation Conference (panel discussion) on Common Core: "Putting the Brakes on Common Core" -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=P40GaKlIwb8 (Panelists included Lindsey Burke of the Heritage Foundation, Jim Stergios of Pioneer Institute, Ted Rebarber of Accountability Works, Heather Crossin of Hoosiers Against Common Core, and Christel Swasey. Michele Malkin was a guest speaker)
Bob Luebke, "Common Core Will Impose an Unproven One-Size-Fits-All Curriculum on North Carolina," Civitas Institute, March 18, 2013. Referenced at:
http://www.nccivitas.org/2013/common-core-imposes-one-size-fits-all-curriculum/
Bob Luebke, "Common Core: Worse Than You Think," Civitas Institute, April 11, 2013. Referenced at: http://www.nccivitas.org/2013/common-core-worse-than-you-think/
Dean Kalahar, "Common Core: Nationalized State-Run Education," American Thinker, April 12, 2013. Referenced at:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/04/common_core_nationalized_state-run_education.html
Mallory Sauer, "Data Mining Students Through Common Core, New American, April 25, 2013. Referenced at:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/15213-data-mining-students-through-common-core
Rachel Alexander, "Common Core Curriculum: A Look Behind the Curtain of Hidden Language," Christian Post, April 18, 2013. Referenced at:
http://www.christianpost.com/news/common-core-cirriculum-a-look-behind-the-curtain-of-hidden-language-92070/
Data Mining, on the Glen Beck Show -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NjqOBEc3HU
Valerie Strauss, " A Tough Critique of Common Core on Early Childhood Education," The Washington Post, January 29, 2013. Referenced at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/01/29/a-tough-critique-of-common-core-on-early-childhood-education/
Kelsey Rupp, "The Twisted Nature of Common Core," Carolina Journal, April 1, 2013. Referenced at: http://carolinareview.org/2013/04/the-twisted-nature-of-the-common-core/
Reality Check: The Truth About Common Core -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdiCGgxj58
Report of the Legislative Research Commission (
on Common Core), April 24, 2015.
The John Locke Foundation: "Spotlight on Common Core: The Way Forward." Referenced at:
http://www.johnlocke.org/acrobat/spotlights/Spotlight450CommonCore.pdf
VIDEO: Dr. Sidney Pesta.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2265&v=Si-kx5-MKSE
VIDEO: Professor Terrence O. Moore, Hillsdale College.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=355&v=xCoOv_DwaAk
Diane Rufino, ""Common Core" or 'Rotten to the Core' - You Decide," May 11, 2013. www.forloveofgodandcountry.com
Roger Landry, "Common Core: Gates & Global Oligarchs Controlling the Future Through Our Children," The Liberty Beacon, November 24, 2014. Referenced at: http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2014/11/24/common-core-gates-global-oligarchs-controlling-the-future-through-our-children
Iowa state Rep. Sandy Salmon, District #63, "Summary of Common Core," Referenced at: file:///C:/POLITICAL%20STUFF/COMMON%20CORE%20-%20overview%20(by%20Concerned%20Women%20for%20America,%20for%20Presentation%20in%20Iowa).pdf
Publisher's note: Contributor Diane Rufino also serves of co-publisher for Pitt County NOW.
