Friday, July 22, 2011

The Radical Education Elite and Agenda 21

"The overarching goal of Agenda 21 is to establish international norms of personal behavior that are dictated by a group of the world's so-called 'enlightened elite' who believe they know best how people ought to live therefore they should be allowed to tell the how they should live."

Americans and the American news media are all but ignoring the shenanigans by those who worship at the altar of the United Nations. The big story these days is the conflict between the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama over the proposed debt ceiling increase, cuts in spending and the Democrat Party's favorite activity: Raising taxes on the rich (anyone making more than $200,000 per year).

Far too many conservatives are failing to pay attention to the rise of global socialism at the hands of the United Nations through its Agenda 21. It is easy to overlook world governance schemes when Americans are inundated with information regarding local and national events.

Also, the problem with the media coverage of this United Nations labyrinth known as Agenda 21 is that it was created in 1992 and implemented in incremental actions by the U.N. and its supporters in the U.S., E.U., and other countries whose populations are eager to benefit from the work of others especially those enjoying success in the United States.

But make no mistake, even though Congress never approved the implementation of Agenda 21 programs in education, economics, the environment and other areas. Presidents as far back as George H.W. Bush have signed Executive Orders allowing implementation of Agenda 21's programs. In fact, the U.N. has ignored the federal government and through its Agenda 21 International Council of Local Environmental Initiative and made deals with local governments numbering upwards of 600 cities, towns and villages.

Compounding this is the fact that Agenda 21 is a dull topic, and it becomes understandable how it has been able to fly mostly under the radar since 1992, slowly working its way into our cities and counties. To understand how serious the left is about United Nations rule, look at some of the proponents of Agenda 21: billionaire George Soros has provided millions of dollars to ICLEI. Former Obama czar Van Jones' Green for All and the Tides Foundations' Apollo Alliance are also reportedly ICLEI contributors.

The truth is, Agenda 21 promotes European socialism that by its nature will infringe upon our freedoms and liberties. Most of its vague, lofty sounding phrases cause the average person's eyes to glaze over, making it easier to sneak into our communities.

Besides its radical environmental agenda, the U.N. wishes to change consumption patterns, including ownership of property and automobile ownership, and successfully promote social justice.

Part of this lofty goal -- possibly the most important part -- is the inclusion of indoctrination programs in U.S. government schools. Berit Kjos, author of Brave New Schools, warns that Agenda 21 will indoctrinate the very young to accept the outcome of its programs.

The Government Schools Indoctrination

In the United States, the Agenda 21 National Coordinating Body is the President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD).

The U.S. Constitution requires that consensus on public policy be hammered out in public by elected officials, not by 28 appointed individuals, carefully selected because of their known support of the principles expressed in Agenda 21. This UN description of the PCSD is found in a section of the report entitled "Integrated Decision-making," also known as the "consensus" process.

All federal agencies have now adopted this "consensus" process to by-pass Congress and other elected bodies, to build consensus on Agenda 21 activities at the local, state, and national levels. The UN report describes America's progress in each of the activity areas in glowing terms.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the progressives laid the foundation for Agenda 21 in the 1960s when it became unlawful to pray in government schools. In place of prayer, schools began sex education classes with the rationale that such a curriculum would prevent unwanted pregnancies. Of course, the program was a failure and the progressives simply changed the objective of sex education programs to preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

Now sex education includes children being exposed to gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender sex. In addition, U.S. schools -- while prohibiting even a hint of Christianity in classrooms -- have actually directed children to play-act the part of Muslims, complete with Islamic texts, Muslim costumes and holiday festivities.

Sustainable Development in School Curriculum" is one of the 32 specific objectives of Agenda 21. This objective has been achieved in 63% of the participating nations, and in process in another 17%.

Education is a key ingredient in the transformation to a sustainable society. The UN Commission on Sustainable Development reports that in America, "the national strategy on education is prepared by the Department of Education and includes such programs as Goals 2000 and School to Work.

The National Environmental Education Advisory Council to the Department of Education consists of eleven individuals appointed by the EPA Administrator and includes representatives of women's groups, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), and local authorities (visioning councils). The U.S. State Department reported to the UN that: "At the primary school level, school curricula have already been reviewed and revised, and at the secondary school level, the revision of school curricula is being undertaken currently to address environment and development as a cross cutting issue."

The State Department also told the UN: "The U.S. has been involved in several awareness raising programs and activities aimed at the population at large (Earth Day, industry supported campaigns, Ad Council, Program KAB, Arbor Day, GLOBE Program, Discovery Channel, National Geographic program, CNN, ZooQ, As it Happens, and water clean-up programs."

Agenda 21 embraces virtually every aspect of human life; it is being implemented aggressively in the United States. Congress has never examined the totality of the Agenda. Instead, Congress is fed only bits and pieces in the context of "protecting the environment." The ultimate objective of Agenda 21 is to establish "international norms" of personal behavior that are dictated by a handful of the world's enlightened elite who believe they know best how people ought to live therefore they should be allowed to tell people how they should live.

SOURCE




Colleges drop SAT req, but still make underhand use of it

Colleges from Bowdoin in Maine to Pitzer in California dropped the SAT entrance exam as a requirement, saying it favors the affluent, penalizes minorities, and doesn’t predict academic success. What they don’t advertise is that they find future students by buying names of those who do well on the test.

Pitzer buys as many as 100,000 names a year based on test scores from the College Board, owner of the SAT, to search for applicants, even after the school became “test-optional’’ in the 2003-2004 year. Wake Forest University, which stopped requiring the SAT or rival ACT test for students entering in 2009, also buys names, as does Bowdoin.

Students are being duped by some schools into thinking that test scores don’t matter, when they matter a great deal for marketing outreach and prestige, said Leon Botstein, president of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., which neither requires the tests nor buys names. Test-optional colleges that buy names of high-scoring students are hypocritical, he said. “They take a stance that looks principled but is strategic,’’ Botstein said in an interview.

The College Board and ACT Inc., both nonprofit, sell names for 33 cents apiece.

In 1969, Bowdoin became the first school to become test optional, according to FairTest, a nonprofit advocacy group in Boston. Since then, dozens of schools have followed suit, as more colleges questioned possible biases in the tests.

That hasn’t stopped universities from using the test in other ways. Smith College, the all-women’s school in Northampton, Mass., paid the College Board about $20,000 in the past academic year for names of students with “above-average’’ scores, according to Audrey Smith, the dean of enrollment.

“This is one of the very few ways to directly get at young women who we know are going to college next year,’’ Smith said. “This is a good way to introduce ourselves.’’

Almost all schools that used the College Board’s Student Search Service - with a database of some 6.5 million student names - before going test optional continue to use it to recruit applicants, said Kathleen Steinberg, a spokeswoman for the College Board.

Another benefit to test-optional colleges of recruiting students with high test results is that it can help raise their average entrance-exam scores, a metric used in determining some national rankings and a measure of prestige.

In 2002, Pitzer ranked 70th in the US News & World Report list of liberal arts colleges. That year, the school’s average SAT score for verbal and math combined was 1,234, according to Pitzer data. By 2010, it ranked 46th, while the score reached 1,293. “It helped certainly to improve our rankings,’’ Pitzer president Laura Trombley said. “That’s going to have a positive effect if our SAT scores improved.’’

The school doesn’t have the name recognition of some schools and needs to seek out qualified students, said Trombley, who sees no contradiction in buying the names. “We wanted to welcome more students and not eliminate a pool of students,’’ she said.

SOURCE




High-minded British school in attempted coverup

Steiner school faces £100,000 payout to whistle-blowing teacher

A Steiner school is facing a compensation payout of up to £100,000 to a whistle-blowing teacher after ignoring her complaint about an alleged assault on her daughter.

Jo Sawfoot, 42, was designated child protection officer at Norfolk Initiative Steiner Schools kindergarten in Norwich.

Ms Sawfoot, a Cambridge University graduate, complained that her six-year-old daughter - a pupil at the private school - had been hurt by colleague Anna Letts.

Ms Letts had seized Ms Sawfoot's daughter by the arm as she sat on the floor refusing to move, a tribunal heard. The school's policy was that physical restraint should only be used as a last resort.

But school managers - who rely on a laissez-faire teaching philosophy unique to Steiner schools - failed to investigate the incident. They instead gave a misleading report to social services about the girl biting Ms Letts.

They decided that Ms Sawfoot was an "irritant" and made damaging allegations about her teaching skills to social services, the tribunal found.

Ms Sawfoot felt she had no choice but to resign and remove her daughter from the school. Her departure triggered protests outside the school by parents who felt she had been bullied.

Norwich Employment Tribunal ruled that the girl was inappropriately restrained by Ms Letts. It upheld Ms Sawfoot's claims that she was constructively dismissed and mistreated by the school after making public interest disclosures as a whistleblower. Ms Sawfoot, of Norwich, is now set to receive substantial damages for loss of earnings and injury to feelings.

Employment Judge Martin Warren highlighted the school's failure to investigate her grievance and misrepresentations to social services. He said: "The school had failed to recognise that there had been a child protection incident and failed to deal with it appropriately. "This was a matter for concern to Ms Sawfoot, not just as a parent but as the child protection officer".

Steiner schools are based on the philosophy of Rudolph Steiner, who founded his first school in Germany in 1919. There are now over 900 worldwide. While in some countries they are publicly funded, most of the 30-plus in the UK, including £5,300-a-year NISS are fee-paying.

Steiner schools do not follow the national curriculum and believe that tests like Sats are harmful for pupils. They give priority to educating the whole child through unconventional creative activities such as gardening. Former Steiner pupils include actress Jennifer Aniston, singer Annie Lennox and broadcaster Emma Freud.

Ms Sawfoot's solicitor Lawrence Davies, of law firm Equal Justice, is demanding that Ofsted now investigates practices at the school. He said: "There needs to be closer scrutiny of non-mainstream schools such as Steiner schools and faith schools. "We have seen honest, professional teachers who whistle-blow being victimised. "We are calling for Ofsted to investigate."

Speaking after the judgment, Ms Sawfoot said: "I am still passionately committed to the Steiner movement. But my grievance was swept under the carpet by the school. "Instead, I was subjected to a hostile working environment. They labelled me a bad parent and then a bad teacher."

Ms Sawfoot graduated from Cambridge University's Corpus Christi College in 1991 with a degree in English literature. She had 14 years teaching experience when she joined NISS in August 2007, two years after the school was founded.

In May 2009, Ms Sawfoot complained that her daughter had been hurt by Ms Letts alleged assault but the school failed to act. The next month, school administrator Sandie Tolhurst reported the incident to social services. She claimed that the girl was restrained after biting Ms Letts when she, in fact, bit her because she was being held.

Ms Tolhurst also cast doubt for the first time on Ms Sawfoot's professionalism and performance, saying she had been shouting in her classroom. Ms Sawfoot resigned the same month.

Judge Warren concluded: "We find that the misrepresentation was made because Ms Sawfoot had made a protected disclosure. "No action was taken against Ms Letts and from her own account of the incident taken from the incident book, her actions were inappropriate in terms of the schools own physical restraint policy. "We are satisfied that this difficult and obstructive line taken by the school is because they have come to regard Ms Sawfoot as an irritant because of the complaint."

He said that Ms Sawfoot could not reasonably be expected to continue in the schools employment. The tribunal is set to award Ms Sawfoot compensation at a hearing later this year.

In a statement, the school said that it was still studying the judgment. It said: "It is a long and complicated assessment and we will continue to consider it in detail and consult with our legal team at this stage of the process. "

SOURCE

No comments: