OUR EDUCATIONAL TROY!

Having spent the majority of my adult life in and around the educational sphere and teaching in 'good' South Australian schools up until about 7 years ago I was shocked by how educational standards had deteriorated. I was also pretty bemused by the attitudes displayed by many 'educators' who have themselves been indoctrinated to see their role as that of 'social conscience warriors' who must change this corrupt and 'privileged' society rather than equipping students in the classics of education in order to become contributors to society.

It was an important reason for our choosing to home-school our youngest son. Another factor is reflected in the very first question that the majority of people ask when they discover that we home-school, i.e. "don't you worry about his socialisation?"

The answer to that one is quite simple. No! We don't worry about his social skills for the simple reason that being home-schooled has afforded him an ability to interact with people from many different strata and ages. He has a great group of friends his own age but also interact with adults quite comfortably and has learned to be self-disciplined, a self starter and how to lead. We also engage in meaningful discussions and debates during the school period because I am learning almost as much as he is.

One of the problems I identified at school and one that we have experienced with our two older children who went the whole way through the 'system' was that this so-called 'socialisation' of children moving through the grades as a single cohort actually often does (in my opinion) more harm than good. Obviously there are exceptions to every rule and some schools are much better than others at ameliorating the harm done, but it is a given that within such groups that one finds bullying of the 'different' and significant peer pressure to conform with the 'ruling paradigm' which; if the strongest personality(s) of the cohort are good ones then the class will generally achieve well, but if the ruling personality's are negative then the whole group becomes similarly infected. What teacher hasn't been amazed at how whole classes seem to have a commonality of purpose whether good or bad.

Another emerging problem I currently observe and that almost overshadows these everyday problems associated with mass education is how the Cultural Marxists (usually identified as the 'hard-Left') have emerged from their heretofore concealed attacks on the West, and having infiltrated the educational faculties (amongst other primary institutions) for many years as part of their long-term strategy a.k.a. "the long march through the institutions', are beginning to articulate their aims quite openly.

For years, the Edina Public Schools have been one of the brightest stars of Minnesota public education… But today, test scores are sinking. One in five Edina High School students can’t read at grade level and one in three can’t do grade-level math. These test results dropped EHS’s ranking among Minnesota high schools from 5th to 29th in reading proficiency, and from 10th to 40th in math proficiency between 2014 and 2017… There’s been a profound shift in district leaders’ educational philosophy. In place of academic excellence for all, the district’s primary mission is now to ensure that students think correctly on social and political issues — most importantly, on race and “white privilege.” […] The school is pervaded by an obsession with race. Katie Mahoney, Highlands Elementary School’s “racially conscious” principal, was hired in 2016. This fall, she announced that the school’s “challenges” for 2017-18 are to teach children “how to embrace ancestry, genetic code and melanin,” and to how “to be change-makers.”(Katherine Kersten)

and.......................

Two Canadian professors have developed an approach they call “Trojan horse pedagogy” to peddle social justice to otherwise unassuming students. Sal Renshaw and Renee Valiquette, both of whom teach at Nipissing University in Ontario, detailed their extensive “ruse” in a recently published book, boasting that their “Introduction to Interdisciplinary Analysis” class is actually a “social justice” course in disguise… “Our goal in this class is to move both hearts and minds, in part by ‘forcing’ an encounter with at least some knowledges that students have already decided they are not interested in,” Renshaw and Valiquette explain, adding that the classes are “rooted in… post-structural feminist theory.” ( Toni Airaksinen )

We are witnessing it in Australia under the banner of the 'Safe Schools Project' an Orwellian maxim if ever there was one.