IS ALABAMA STRIKING A BLOW FOR EDUCATIONAL FREEDOM?

7 Apr. 2019

Dear Friends and Patriots,

          Each and every one of you should be familiar with Common Core (CC) educational standards. Those who are most familiar understand its background and how the Obama administration levered their Race To The Top (RTTT) educational policy to push states to adopt CC.   The mechanism for that was to create competitive grants to states based on their submitted plans to implement standardized curricula in public schools. At the time (over ten years ago now) the only thing around was Common Core. How convenient! Even CC wasn’t a fully-fleshed product; it was more of a developing concept than anything else, and a mighty poor one at that.

          Alabama signed on to implementing CC, and submitted the state’s grant application to the US Dept. of Education. Nothing ever came of it. Not one red cent of RTTT grant money came to the state to help offset the many millions of dollars that were needed to implement CC. People of the state started figuring out what was going on and the Tea Parties led a fight to stop the implementation effort. The response by the Alabama State Board of Education was to completely ignore the Tea Parties and others involved in fighting CC, other than to do one thing. They changed the name. Instead of Common Core, in Alabama the same system is known as College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS). A rotten egg by any other name still stinks, though. And CCRS stinks just as much as CC.

          The state has been stuck with CCRS for a few years now, and the dividends are evident. The state had an overall ranking of 25^th in the nation the year before CCRS was implemented. That was due to a new Alabama educational standard that had been in place only a handful of years. The Alabama standard had seen the state rise from the cellar to the exact middle of the pack. But, after only two years of CCRS Alabama was once again sitting at the bottom of the heap. It’s oscillated between 48^th and 49^th in the nation for the past four years. Finally, thanks only to the new political ambition of the Alabama Senate President Pro-Tempore, Adelbert Carl “Del” Marsh, we see a sign of hope. It seems Del Marsh wants to run against the current Democrat Alabama sent to the US Senate, Doug Jones, and all of a sudden he has an overwhelming desire to show his solidarity with the families of the state. Everyone who lives in Alabama knows Del Marsh almost single-handedly kept all bills related to repealing Common Core off the floor of the state’s Senate. The man has some brass, you have to give him that. Now, he’s the sponsor of the bill intended to put the nail in Common Core’s coffin, SB119.

          SB119 is an interesting piece of legislation. It refers to CC and CCRS both, just to make sure there’s no possibility of escape. It refers to the Alabama standards in use immediately prior to the implementation of CCRS and requires those standards to be immediately reinstated, pending a determination of a more permanent educational solution for the state. The bill has another interesting part that caught my eye:

SB119 Section 1. (f) The Legislature further prohibits the adoption or implementation of any national standards from any source, or the use of any assessments aligned with them, that cede control of Alabama educational standards in any manner, including, but not limited to, the Next Generation Science Standards, History Standards, Social Studies Standards, or Sexuality Standards.

I’ve heard that there were other things in our schools that were disturbing, but this was the first time I’d seen a listing. Do all of you understand that the progressives have been hard at work devising a plan to impose complete educational standardization on the entire nation?

          Before I delve much more into this subject, I want all of you to reflect on a bigger picture about what all these standards imply. This is the “It Takes A Village” concept progressives have always believed in, only dressed up as educational standards. The prevailing notion is your children and grandchildren are not yours. They’re just in your custody, but are indeed property of the state. They’re national assets, and through these standards the state will program them to be what IT wants, not what YOU want. Your job is to house, feed, clothe, and otherwise provide for their basic needs, but their intellectual and moral development is the province of the state. Understand this, if nothing else. Now, back to the investigation.

          I looked at the Next Generation Science Standards. I won’t detail them here, but will state with 100% assurance that our children are all taught that Newton may have been a man for his time, but that Darwin rocks! Everything is evolution, except for the parts where man is talked about. Man’s place on the planet doesn’t seem to be very planet-friendly. The Science Standards promotes the idea that Mother Earth is alive and dynamic, and that mankind is slowly killing her off. The Standards also promotes the debunked theories of Global Warming and Global Climate Change. It’s sold as “consensus,” which has no actual place in science, and as “settled science,” which is a nonsense term. If you want to know why your children and grandchildren are such ardent proponents of progressive ideology regarding science, look at the Standards. Then get a few science texts and read them for yourself. You should be a bit shocked that today’s children are being taught a politicized aberration of science.   Then again, maybe you already know, but didn’t know why.   The Next Generation Science Standards are the ‘why.’

          As bad as I think the Next Generation Science Standards are the History and Social Studies Standards are worse. Want to know why our young seem to be ignorant of American history and have a generally negative feeling toward our country? Do you wonder why they seem so accepting of habits, customs, and lifestyles considered to be abnormal only 30 years ago? Try reading and understanding these two standards and you’ll come pretty close to the truth. Read the textbooks, if you can get your hands on them. They’ll make your hair curl.

          The worst standard is the last one mentioned above. The National Sexuality Education Standards. Even the fact it exists should raise all kinds of flags with you. This is the standard where all the PC nonsense really hits home. Here are a few tidbits from it.

          The Standards themselves are: 1. Core Concepts, 2. Analyzing Influences, 3. Accessing Information, 4. Interpersonal Communication, 5. Decision-Making, 6. Goal- Setting, 7. Self Management, and 8. Advocacy. The titles seem fairly innocuous, and the definitions that accompany the titles are also relatively innocuous. That’s part of the way these things are sold to teachers – everything seems innocuous until you stand back and see what’s actually going on. They aren’t sold to parents at all. Hardly any parents know these standards even exist.

The Standards are broken down by at least seven topics: Anatomy and Physiology, Puberty and Adolescent Development, Identity, Pregnancy and Reproduction, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV, Healthy Relationships, and Personal Safety. Two of those topics may be especially problematic: Identity and Healthy Relationships.

          When you get into the meat of the standards by grade-level you find things like on the K-2 sheet. Under the topic of Healthy Relationships the Core Concept the children are supposed to master is HR.2.CC.1: Identify different kinds of family structures. Sound innocuous? That same topic has under Interpersonal Communication - HR.2.IC.1: Demonstrate ways to show respect for different types of families. Yes, my friends, if your thought is they’re teaching about same-sex families, it’s true. That’s exactly what a 2^nd Grader learns today.

          In the 5^th Grade, under the topic of Identity there is a Core Concept that reads: ID.5.CC.1: Define sexual orientation as the romantic attraction of an individual to someone of the same gender or a different gender. Under Self Management you will find: ID.5.SM.1: Demonstrate ways to treat each other with dignity and respect. Yes, total acceptance is required here.

          In the 8^th Grade, under the topic of Identity the Core Concept reads: ID.8.CC.1: Differentiate between gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation. Under Analyzing Influences you find: ID.8.INF.1: Analyze external influences that have an impact on one’s attitudes about gender, sexual orientation and gender identity. Under Accessing Information there is: ID.8.AI.1: Access accurate information about gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation.   Under Advocacy there is: ID.8.ADV.1: Develop a plan to promote dignity and respect for all people in the school community.   Under the topic of Pregnancy and Reproduction there is another Core Concept worth noting: PR.8.CC.4:   Define emergency contraception and its use.   Under Accessing Information is: PR.8.AI.2: Identify medically-accurate information about emergency contraception.  Under the topic of Healthy Relationships there is a Core Concept that states: HR.8.CC.4: Describe a range of ways people express affection within various types of relationships.  You should get the implication that by the 8^th grade the expectation is that our children will be accepting of any and all kinds of sexual expression.   They’re taught, “It’s all good!”

          The 12^th Grade section is the most compete and detailed. Under the topic of Identity you find a Core Concept stating: ID.12.CC.1: Differentiate between biological sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression. You will also find a Core Concept that states: PR.12.CC.6: Compare and contrast the laws relating to pregnancy, adoption, abortion, and parenting.

          As troubling as these national standards may seem, there’s something out there not being addressed by SB119 that could also prove problematic. It’s a companion and something of an enabler of CC and CCRS, a product of the American School Counselor Association called the “ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors for Student Success: College-and Career-Readiness Standards for Every Student.” I heard about this last month. It is a comprehensive counseling program that requires periodic screening of each and every student. As the name implies the goal is to document mindsets and behaviors to be used by school administrators in determining the future of children in their charge. I’ve downloaded the entire program but haven’t studied it yet. I can already tell there are templates that give guidance to the counselors in how to respond to various situations and questions posed by students and also spreadsheets that are used to capture observational data during visits by students. I’m given to understand many of the questions asked of students are intrusive and the results of the data capture can potentially handicap the ability of some in pursuing their academic desires as they progress through school. I promise to start peeling that onion to see what all is there that parents might need to pay attention to.

          There are several aspects to this communication. One is to inform you of SB119 and the potential that Alabama could soon be rid of Common Core and all national standards. “Could” is the operative word, though. I never get my hopes up too high whenever I have to rely on any politicians. The second thing I hope to bring to everyone’s attention regards the proliferation of national standards for just about every aspect of the school experience.   While part of me understands such standards can be good, I’m almost certain what we currently have in place in most states isn’t. What I keep seeing is evidence of the progressive plan to control schools, control children, indoctrinate, propagandize, and to strip parents of their role as leaders of their families. Instead of schools being supportive of parents and families it appears more that through the implementation of all these common standards the children of our nation are being systematically removed from most parental influence. They are now uniformly taught what to think and how. They’re taught beliefs and behaviors that are alien to their families and expected to assimilate those alien beliefs. The students in our public schools are total wards of the state in all respects except their actual residence. They are not free to do and be as they and their parents wish. They’re only free to do and be as they’re allowed by the standards.

          I’ll rephrase a bit of that last paragraph. Even though our schools are institutions controlled by progressives that fact can’t diminish the truth that healthy family relationships where the parent-child communications are strong and trusting can always prevail over anything devised by those who would make our children subjects instead of citizens. Any child with enough support can be free and can chart his or her own course in America. The educational system might seek to retard a young person’s progress, but that system can be successfully fought if parents understand and fulfill their proper rolls. It’s not all doom and gloom. There are still some vestiges of freedom for those who understand.

          By and large we are living in a dystopian age. Everything progressives touch is contrived and controlled. Anyone who believes differently is asleep and is living in denial.

In Liberty,
Steve