-- www.reformationlutheranconference.org – In This Issue ... Vol. 2, No. 5 So Very Wrong, So Very Right . So Very Wrong, So Very Right……………………………………….p. 3 Featured in this issue are four articles that Prof. Egbert Schaller wrote Academic Quackery…………………………………………………...p. 4 on education. We reprint them in the order they appeared in the The Tragic Dilemma of Public Education…………………………….p. 7 Northwestern Lutheran (WELS): 4-23-50, 1-28-51, 6-17-51, 3-17-57. An Insupportable Premium on Public Service………...……………..p. 10 All appeared under the heading, “From a Wider Field.” Parochial Schools Detrimental?...... p. 12 That Prof. Schaller could be profoundly wrong in a matter of truly To the Point – User-Friendly………………………………………...p. 16 fundamental importance is shown by the half dozen places in these A Host of Heroic Whistleblowers……………………………………p. 17 articles where his assumption that state-sponsored education is a necessity becomes apparent. Even two generations ago, this is virtually “Free education for all children in government schools.” (From the 10th of inexplicable, given the great perception with which he otherwise the 10 planks of the Communist Manifesto; 1848) comments on education. “ Does someone say … he [a teacher in a state school] is teaching some “ Public education is necessary lest a large portion of the nation’s purely secular course, without any such maiming of his subjects or prejudicing youth grow up, not only godless, but illiterate as well,” he wrote in 1951 of Christianity? If his teaching is more than a temporary dealing with some (p. 12 below). A mere four years later Rudolf Flesch wrote on p. 2 in the corner of education, the fact will be found to be that it is tacitly anti-Christian; overt assaults are not made, but there is a studied avoidance which is in effect opening chapter, entitled “A Letter to Johnny’s Mother,” of Why Johnny hostile ….” (Robert Dabney, as quoted by Marvin Olasky on p. 32 of the Aug. Can’t Read – And What You Can Do About It: “What I found is 24, 2002, issue of World magazine) absolutely fantastic. The teaching of reading – all over the United States, “Whoever fairly faces the question must admit that the same set of arguments in all the schools, in all the textbooks – is totally wrong and flies in the which condemns a national religion also condemns a national system of face of all logic and common sense. Johnny couldn’t read until half a education. It is hard to pronounce sentence on the one and absolve the other. year ago for the simple reason that nobody ever showed him how. Does a national church compel some to support a system to which they are Johnny’s only problem was that he was unfortunately exposed to an opposed? So does a national system of education. Does the one exalt the ordinary American school.” In 1981 this was followed by the same principle of majorities over the individual conscience? So does the other. Does author’s Why Johnny Still Can’t Read – A New Look at the Scandal of a national church imply a distrust of the people, of their willingness to make Our Schools. Note also: “… The literacy rate in Massachusetts has never sacrifices, of their capacity to manage their own affairs? So does a national been as high as it was before compulsory schooling was instituted. system of education.” (Auberon Herbert, The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State, and Other Essays, LibertyClassics, 1978, p. 73) Before 1850, when Massachusetts became the first state in the United Addendum to the compilation beginning on p. 17: The Twelve-Year States to force children to go to school, literacy was at 98 percent.” Sentence – Radical Views of Compulsory schooling, edited by William F. (Sheldon Richman, Separating School and State, 1994, p. 38) Rickenbacker (Open Court Publishing, Inc., 1974) contains useful Why shouldn’t education be an entirely private matter? In fact, how bibliographical material, both legal and general. Also, a good organization with dare the state be involved in it, since it is an essentially religious (or anti- which to become familiar is the Alliance for the Separation of School and State, religious) undertaking? founded in 1994. On the other hand, the key to understanding how public education has become prevention of education lies in recognizing the conspiratorial The current staff of this bimonthly publication of the RLC is R.E. machinations of self-appointed elites to control and remake education. Wehrwein (editor), Derek Wehrwein, and Shannon Steensma. In this direction we are so very rightly pointed by Prof. Schaller, who Subscriptions are $10 per year. The editor’s addresses are 1121 S. rendered the great service, in the article immediately following, of Jefferson St., New Ulm, MN 56073; [email protected] quoting someone who could see where blame needed to be fixed already in the middle of the last century. – R.E. Wehrwein home. Then prepare to enroll your child there. To neglect an Academic Quackery . opportunity for Christian education is to place a mortgage upon the spiritual future of our youth. Thousands of Lutheran children are looking forward to their graduation from eighth grade, and their parents are viewing the prospects of enrolling them in available high schools, come autumn. Other There is the story of the man who complained that he just couldn’t see thousands of little Lutherans are impatiently awaiting the dawning of the woods from his window because there were so many trees directly in their first day in the grades after vacation months are again past. Our the way. The peculiar blindness from which he suffered is rather church has often spoken to parents and children of the Christian common even among intelligent people – so common, in fact, that we education obtainable through church-supported parochial schools and speak of it proverbially as “not being able to see the wood for the trees.” high schools. This affliction is a notorious defect among many who speak with Mr. Albert Lynd recently made some comments in this connection, ponderous authority or with sprightly energy in matters pertaining to the and his views are interesting. Mr. Lynd, a former history teacher of Church, as the following item reveals. A survey of religious conditions Stanford and of Harvard, at present is an advertising executive, and has in Great Britain was conducted among Methodist pastors in that country. served on the school board of a small town in Massachusetts. Religious News Service reports the results. “The pastors agreed that ‘much dogmatism’ has disappeared and church union … is now nearer In an Atlantic Monthly article he states that our public schools today consummation.” (Italics ours.) This is listed as a favorable change since are controlled by what he calls academic “quackery.” He takes a very 1914 or thereabouts. We shall come back to this finding in a moment. dim view of the average quality of public school instructors, but asserts But the pastors also found adverse effects and changes which are to be that the fault lies, not with the teachers, parents, or school boards, but deplored. Here they are: with “the super-professionals who determine the kind of education to which your child must submit … the professors of education in the larger “ Congregations are smaller, have a smaller proportion of men and universities and teachers’ colleges.” The chief failing which Mr. Lynd young people, and there has been a decline in the number of lay workers. sees in public education is the lack of “culture,” both in the pupils and in “ There is much less Bible reading and consequently less scriptural the teachers. This is allegedly to be attributed to the professors in the knowledge. schools which train teachers … schools which Mr. Lynd calls “ There are fewer prayer meetings, and there has been a marked “intellectual bargain basements.” decline in the number of class meetings ‘which used to be such an outstanding feature of the life of the Methodist Church.’ Those are harsh words; we do not venture either to refute or to “Many parents lack strong ties with the Church and are careless of support them. We desired, for reasons quite other than his, to lead our their children’s needs, so that the youngsters do not even possess the readers up to the suggestion offered by Mr. Lynd to parents desiring an background which their elders had.” adequate education for their children: “Mortgage your house and put your youngster in one of the good private schools, where the best Now what could be the cause for these adverse changes, this lessening teaching today is done by high-quality liberal arts graduates ….” May of spiritual character and activity? The pastors thought hard and then we say that it is not necessary to mortgage your home in order to send laid the blame at the door of “the growing secularization of life, and the your children to one of our fine Lutheran schools? Perhaps there is a influence exerted by the radio, the cinema, television, and the Lutheran parish school in your congregation or in your vicinity. And as automobile. Also, the ‘increasing entertainment at week ends,’ which for high schools, your pastor will direct you to the one nearest your has had the effect in some families of ‘lessening powers of personal concentration on spiritual values, causing less churchgoing’.” So we come back to our little story about the woods and the trees. The pastors rejoiced that “much dogmatism” had disappeared. There is a The Tragic Dilemma of Public Education . dogmatism of the wrong kind; but we won’t go into that, because it evidently is not what these pastors meant. They found, rather, that pastors and congregations are no longer insisting so strictly on certain A most interesting story is found written in the reports that have come dogmas, or doctrines, anymore. They do not teach and confess so from the five-day sessions of the Mid-century White House Conference positively as formerly. They no longer say so definitely: This is divine on children and youth, held in Washington early in December. This was Truth. Thus saith the Lord. This change in policy will, of course, have the fifth of a series of such meetings held approximately every 10 years brought “church union” much nearer consummation; for when churches since 1909, when they were originated under President Theodore no longer teach Biblical doctrine with authority, agreement in doctrine is Roosevelt. This conference brought together 5,000 delegates no longer important. representing many organizations that deal with youth and educational problems – educators, physicians, probation officers, clergymen, and Nothing will empty churches more effectively, or turn men away from parents. The purpose and goal of the meeting was in part expressed in the Gospel more quickly, or destroy the practice of Bible reading more the following: “To consider how we can develop in children the mental, thoroughly, than the apostasy of pastors and congregations from the emotional, and spiritual qualities essential to individual happiness ….” study requirement which St. Paul laid upon Timothy: “Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this, thou With such a goal before the delegates, it was self-evident that they shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.” [I Tim. 4:16] Why would find themselves confronted with the key question in education: search the sky and the earth, why look into every automobile and the importance of religion in the child’s development. weekend party, for causes of the sad changes in British Methodism and elsewhere? The answer lies before men’s eyes: less doctrine. As was likewise to be expected, the conference found itself sorely divided on the approach to this problem. After hearing youth Significantly the report continues: “The pastors noted that the fear of representatives bear witness that they needed spiritual guidance which death and hell played a prominent part in religious life earlier in the was not offered them in the schools, after hearing the Rev. Dr. Buttrick century. This fear, they said, was the keynote of much preaching and a warn that our education is secular and that young people were becoming big influence in the attitude of the average man toward religion.” corrupted by a philosophy of materialism, and after agreeing that religious education is a must for every child, the delegates received a The jailor at Philippi, who had a real taste of the fear of death and resolution calling upon the schools to offer community-wide religious hell, really enjoyed the blessed preachment of the apostle Paul. Death education “in keeping with the laws of the state and the desires of the and hell, as well as the Cross of Christ, are doctrines. Doctrines are parents” – and promptly voted it down. facts, are the ultimate realities in our lives, to be proclaimed, known, understood, dealt with, and believed by the power of the Holy Spirit at Then, by a vote of 1181 to 682, the conference adopted a substitute work through them. “To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not resolution which reads as follows: “Recognizing knowledge and according to this word, it is because there is no light in them,” Is. 8:30. understanding of religious and ethical concepts as essential to the development of spiritual values, and that nothing is of greater importance The kind permission of Northwestern Publishing House to to the moral and spiritual health of our nation than the work of religious reprint these NL articles is gratefully acknowledged. education in our homes and families and in our institutions of organized religion, we nevertheless strongly affirm the principle of separatism of Church and State which has been the keystone of our American a problem insoluble by the means at its disposal. democracy and declare ourselves unalterably opposed to the use of the The charge of the conference “that the churches are failing to reach public schools directly or indirectly for religious educational purposes.” the nation’s children with adequate and effective religious education” sounds a bit plaintive; its appeal that “churches of various faiths The adoption of this resolution was a notable victory for the forces of coordinate, strengthen, and expand their religious services and activities constitutional democracy. Advocates of religious instruction sponsored for people of inadequate income” does not touch the real heart of the by the state and the public school system have taken to excusing the loss difficulty. For the failure of the churches lies not merely in their limited of the first resolution by saying that it was hastily drawn up and poorly coverage of the nation’s youth, but also in the crazy-quilt training worded. While this may be true, the overwhelming adoption of the program which the dominant position of the State in the educational field second resolution, as quoted above, leaves no doubt as to the mind of the has forced upon the churches. This program tries to make an educational assembly. It realized that religion is essential in the education of the success of the often contradictory combination of Sunday school, child, but that the public schools cannot offer this necessary factor release-time instruction, and public schooling, a system which so easily without destroying themselves and the religious freedom which is more departmentalizes religion, makes it a secondary consideration, and important to us than secular learning itself. hinders it from permeating the entire life of the child. But at least the eyes of the conference delegates were gazing in the right direction. If it is true, as has been said, that these White House conferences have in the past exerted a profound influence on child life in this country, we The State has erred in assuming that it can discharge the task of have reason to hope that this conference by its action will help prevent education. The churches have failed in surrendering that responsibility the success of those who are determined to make the public schools an to the State. Of approximately 1,400 Protestant parochial schools in our agent of religious training. It is gratifying to see that, in this age of utter land today, almost 90% are found within the Synodical Conference. It is religious confusion, when not a few even of the nation’s religious leaders in this department that the churches most need to “expand their religious quite evidently do not know what true religion is, there can be found a services and activities.” To the extent that public [this word seems out of huge assembly from all walks of life and shades of religious thought place – RW] education of the young can be taken over by the Christian whose majority remains sober enough to realize that only the Church, Church, to the extent that the Savior Jesus Christ is its center and object, never the State, must seek to offer training in spiritual truths and values. to that extent only will America be able to train future generations to meet life and death with the weapons and bulwarks of the spirit. At the same time, the conflict at the conference points up the tragic dilemma of public education. It must, and yet it cannot, truly educate. But such a prospect, unfortunately, seems remote. Too many Men must denounce education without religion, yet must offer the very churches have forsaken the revealed Gospel, the power of God, for a thing they reject as futile and dangerous. The conference was warned synthetic religion of social uplift and economic betterment; they have that “the United States is in danger of raising a generation of atheists” in embraced fanatically the causes of race relations, United Nations policy, its schools; yet it cannot offer the power which will prevent this. It and atomic warfare strategy. They have devoted themselves to the mint, cannot offer the Gospel of Jesus Christ, partly because this would be a anise, and cumin, but have abandoned the weightier things of God’s denial of the rights of non-Christian citizens, and partly because the Word. It is not likely that they will renounce their present devotion and Gospel would certainly be corrupted and made worse than useless if give themselves expensively to the enormous assignment of rearing a administered by governmental agencies and under their regulations. And nation conscious of the One Thing needful. Nevertheless we testify to so the conference, keenly aware of its failure in achieving the goal set, the desperate need of Christian education in the hope that some may must suffer itself to be condemned by Cardinal Spellman as listen; and we value the force with which the debates and resolutions of “antireligious,” when actually it wrestled with an impossible purpose and the mid-century conference gave expression to that need. Boone News-Republican explained in an editorial: “Undoubtedly he (Shorb) wanted a renewal of his contract but he refused to let the school . An Insupportable Premium on Public Service board tell him to which school he could or could not send his children. Let’s see, now, what were those four freedoms again?” Although the last word in the case has by no means been spoken, even after two months, most of the evidence seems to be in hand and thus The board got a jolt when the Boone Junior Chamber of Commerce permits some comment at this time on one of the most interesting and adopted a vigorous resolution condemning the action of the board and thought-provoking church-state conflicts to arise in many a day. Most demanding reconsideration. A two-hour public hearing was the result, at newspaper readers have read brief accounts of this issue. Mr. Robert which two attorneys spoke for Mr. Shorb and the audience was vocally Shorb teaches in the high school at Boone, Iowa. He is an instructor in in sympathy with the teacher. However, the board refused to reconsider the vocational machine shop. He is 33 years of age, a veteran of World its ruling. It was reported that the American Civil Liberties Union is War II, is married, and sends his son Michael, age 7, to Sacred Heart “looking thoroughly into the matter,” and may step in with legal action. Roman Catholic Parochial School in Boone. Glenn L. Archer, executive secretary of Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State, released a statement sharply In April, the school board discovered this fact. The board advised Mr. criticizing the board for its action. Mr. Shorb, incidentally, is now Shorb that, while there was no law governing the situation, the board had fighting his case, and further developments may have occurred before a “gentleman’s agreement” that they would not retain teachers whose this page reaches our readers. children attended parochial rather than public schools. As might be expected, some irresponsible things were allegedly said After some reflection and consultation, Mr. Shorb advised the board on both sides of the case. Feelings always become bitter when religious that he could not allow his contract to be renewed on any such terms. convictions are involved. Mr. Shorb has been accused of “caustic The board regarded that as a resignation or a rejection of contract remarks.” The president of the board is quoted as suggesting that Mr. renewal and considered Mr. Shorb’s services terminated as of the end of Shorb’s opportunity for a position elsewhere might be made doubtful. the present semester. Such expressions are unfortunate and obscure the issue.

Very briefly all was quiet, and then the matter exploded. Everybody What is the issue? The board says it is not religious. It is a matter, began talking at once, and Boone became a sharply divided town. The they declare, of allegiance. The school supports Mr. Shorb, so Mr. Shorb position of the board was that Mr. Shorb was not fired, but declined ought to support the school. As board member Mrs. Sutton put it: “Mr. renewal of contract. The attitude of those opposing the board is that the Shorb is criticizing our schools when he sends his boy to a parochial board has violated the constitutional right of an individual to worship as school.” he pleases and to educate his children as he chooses. The board’s attitude, as expressed by its president, Mr. Doran, is “that anyone Just what loyalties have the public schools a right to expect of the teaching in the public schools owes allegiance to them.” citizens? Is it wholesome to air that question? We support many government projects with our taxes. Presumably these projects are in the Mr. Shorb is greatly to be admired for the courage of his convictions; public interest, and we finance them. Certainly we pay dearly for public and in that respect we can only say that we wish there were many education, because it is a necessity. A citizen may even enter into the Lutherans of equal staunchness. Surprisingly enough, Mr. Shorb has service of such a public agency and contribute what he can to make it found more than admiration in other quarters. Quite apart from his own serve a good, useful purpose. But the citizen still owns the public school, church, powerful voices have been raised in his behalf. The newspaper and the public school does not own the citizen. The obligation of loyalty runs the other way. Any public service which takes captive the personal, publicity for those quoted remarks of Dr. Oscar Benson, president of the private rights of any citizen becomes a tyrannical monster. Augustana (Swedish) Lutheran Church: “I am also disturbed very much by the tendency of Lutheran churches everywhere to establish parochial We cannot always regard as adequate any governmental project which schools.” we support. We can recognize the need of the public school system without considering it desirable for our own children. This may seem That was the sentiment which prevailed at the annual meeting of the contradictory to some; but it is not so. Life presents many analogies. National Lutheran Council. The Council is an association in which eight There is war, for example. No one wants it, no one ever really wins it, Lutheran church bodies are represented, among them the American everybody loses by it; yet there are times when the utter need of self- Lutheran Church, the United Lutheran Church, and, of course, the preservation makes it unavoidable, and we ourselves enter into the Augustana Synod. The news reports imply that it was due largely to the service of war. This does not mean that we want it for our children. influence exerted by Dr. Benson that the resolution adopted by the Council rapped the Christian day schools so hard, allowing only that Public education is necessary lest a large portion of the nation’s youth “under special circumstances parochial schools have a place.” grow up, not only godless, but illiterate as well. Yet for the making of a Christian citizenry, which is what we want for our children and what our The thinking of Dr. Benson is indicated in his assertion that in many country needs, the public school system is in its very nature not areas of our country the promotion of parish schools “has tended to stifle equipped, for it cannot and does not operate with the Gospel of Jesus and vitiate the ability of the public schools to get the kind of support they Christ. need.”

If we have something better, we use it. This must not deprive us of It is only fair to say that this complaint was directed chiefly at the any intrinsic rights which we as citizens have in the public school Roman Catholic Church. And it is true that, in seeking recognition of its system. Let the Boone school board by all means inform Mr. Shorb that right as the “only true Church” on earth, the Roman Church holds to his services are no longer needed, if they have found a more suitable certain principles which are not encouraging to public education as we instructor for the machine shop. But to demand his child as the price for have it in our country. In part, the conflict between the Roman Catholic a contract is to put a premium upon public service which is views on education and the educational efforts of the government is due insupportable. to the arrogant claims of the Papacy. The encyclical of Pope Pius XI, dated Dec. 31, 1929, established the Roman Catholic attitude that “it is especially the duty of the state … to promote the education and . Parochial Schools Detrimental? instruction of youth … by favoring and aiding the work undertaken by Just at a time when thoughtful people of evangelical Christian the Church (Roman Catholic, of course) and the family .…” Unless the confession in increasing number were beginning to recognize the value state is willing with its funds and facilities to foster the educational of Christian day schools as agencies for the training of a truly Christian interests of Rome, it often receives hostility rather than support from the citizenship and for the development of Christian congregations that have Roman hierarchy. solid confessional strength, along comes a prominent Lutheran leader and publicly deplores the spread of the parish school idea. But Dr. Benson’s attack on parochial schools goes far beyond this point of conflict. He is opposed to the growth of the parochial school To say that it was in all the papers may be saying too much. But system; and the National Lutheran Council has gone on record favoring certainly it was reported in most newspapers around here because that is public schools as the “chief instrument of general education.” This the kind of news which the world delights to hear. There was no lack of demonstrates a lack of Christian insight so profound that those afflicted by it must be prepared to forfeit all right to our regard as leaders in the Christian Church. If, instead of being able to quote them with approval, with God’s help to the right formation of the Christian life, is false and we call on the Pope himself to refute their position, it will merely serve full of error; and every way and method of educating youth, which gives to show that they have brought Lutheran theology’s name to a new low. no consideration, or scarcely any, to the transmission of original sin from our first parents to all posterity, and so relies wholly on the mere powers It is contrary to fact to suggest that Lutheran parochial schools are of nature, strays completely from the truth.” detrimental to the public school system. Lutherans who enjoy the privilege of offering their children an integrated, sound Christian Whatever false and harmful conclusions the Pope may draw from that education in a private school will be the last people to neglect the premise, the premise at least is wholly true, as is also the following: obligations they have toward the state schools. They willingly* bear a “The family, then, holds directly from the Creator the duty and the right double burden: that of maintaining their own school and that of paying to educate its offspring; and since this right cannot be cast aside, because their full share of taxes toward the public school. They know full well it is connected with a very serious obligation, it has precedence over any that they are unable to offer private schooling to all children, yet they right of civil society and of the state, and for this reason no power on understand the right of every child to an education. And does nobody earth may infringe upon it …. want to acknowledge the substantial support which parochial schools offer the public school system in their very existence? The dignified “From this duty of educating, which especially belongs to the Church clerical gainsayers of our day schools might have very undignified faces and the family, not only do the greatest advantages, as we have seen, if they were to look at their tax bill after all parochial schools closed their emanate into all society, but no harm can befall the true and proper rights doors and transferred their children to the doorstep of the public school of the state, insofar as it pertains to the education of citizens, according system, which even now is overcrowded. to the order established by God. These rights are assigned to civil society by the Author of nature himself, not by the right of fatherhood, as Although public education is necessary, it suffers from a weakness of the Church and of the family, but on account of the authority which is which renders it unfit to be the “chief instrument of general education.” in Him for promoting the common good on earth, which indeed is its There is nothing that can be done about this without destroying God’s proper end …. Therefore, as far as education is concerned, it is the right order in Church and State and without destroying religious freedom; and or, to speak more accurately, the office of the state to guard the priority one would expect every Lutheran leader worthy of the name to realize right of the family by its laws, as we have mentioned above; that is, of this far better than Pope Pius XI, whose words we must quote with educating offspring in the Christian manner, and so of acknowledging approval: “… Every form of teaching children, which, confined to the the supernatural right of the Church in such a Christian education.” mere forces of nature, rejects or neglects those matters which contribute z If we can forget that “Church” as used by the Pope means “Roman Catholic Church,” and substitute in our minds the meaning “Christian *Because the word “unwillingly” appeared here in the original instead Church on earth,” we can say that his excellent words put certain of “willingly,” a correction was prominently displayed in the very next “Lutheran” theologians to shame. issue, March 17, 1957, p. 83: “In the March 3 number of the Northwestern Lutheran there occurred a most unfortunate typographical Behold, Mr. Editor, what a long letter I have written you. It sounds error. Since the appearance of the word ‘unwillingly’ for ‘willingly’ more like a lecture than a letter, I’m sorry to say; but that’s the way it is. flatly contradicts the author’s meaning in a very important point, we One never knows when one gets on a subject like this. By the way, in think it necessary to reprint most of the paragraph from the feature in case you want to check, all papal quotations are taken from Denzinger’s which the error occurred ….” Sources of Catholic Dogma, 1955. Cordially yours. Reprinted with permission.

To the Point! John Parcher A Host of Heroic Whistleblowers

USER-FRIENDLY Live long enough, and you’ve heard it all before. Few people have a greater claim to our admiration than the many courageous z “The motion picture is destined to revolutionize individuals over the decades who have labored to expose the forces out to our educational system and … in a few years it will supplant the use of capture our educational system. Let’s meet a few of them. Charlotte Iserbyt, born in 1930, was uniquely positioned during Reagan’s textbooks.” So said Thomas Edison in 1922. Twenty-three years later, a first term to gain an understanding of what was happening. Supplementing this Cleveland school administrator, William Levenson, predicted another knowledge with additional research, she produced the monumental compilation, scenario: “The time may come when a portable radio receiver will be as perhaps unmatched as a documentary record of the subversion of American common in the classroom as is the blackboard.” education, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, which can be accessed In the 60s psychologist B.F. Skinner said: “With the help of teaching on the Internet. (The individual she names and quotes at length on p. 110, after machines and programmed instruction, students can learn twice as much being baptized and confirmed in the Wisconsin Synod, was thereafter in the ….” More recently President Clinton campaigned to enthusiastic Missouri Synod and again the WELS before becoming a member of Mighty audiences on the pledge of: “A bridge to the 21st century … where Fortress Orthodox Lutheran Church in Anaheim, Cal., both when it was in the computers are as much a part of the classroom as blackboards.” Illinois Lutheran Conference and later when it became independent. She now So where’s the wave of creative and brilliant students entering, or has church at home.) On p. 48 you will learn how Senator Norman Dodd’s research for the Reece Committee resulted in his being warned that he would be leaving, college? Three years ago the Department of Education killed if he proceeded with his investigation of the Ford Foundation as outlined. demonstrated that more than half of American college graduates cannot Iserbyt’s website on American Deception should also be consulted. read a bus schedule. Nor could they figure out how much change they From Beverly K. Eakman we have Educating for the ‘New World Order,’ should get after putting down $3 to pay for a 60-cent bowl of soup and a Microchipped, Cloning of the American Mind, and Walking Targets, not to $1.95 sandwich. mention many speeches and articles. Wild enthusiasm for the latest technology, grandiose promises that are Still another indefatigable researcher is Berit Kjos. Communist infiltration of not realized, and then the lucrative cycle starts all over again. the churches is discussed in parts two and three of her Internet article, “Real The church is not immune to this morbid fascination for the latest Conspiracies.” Manning Johnson’s 1953 testimony is quoted: "The plan was to novelty, and the notion that faster and easier is better. People drag their make the seminaries the neck of a funnel through which thousands of computer lingo with them as they search for a “user-friendly” church. A potential clergymen would issue forth, carrying with them, in varying degrees, place that offers entertaining and diversionary activities to people who an ideology and slant which would aid in neutralizing the anti-Communist character of the church and also to use the clergy to spearhead important are not interested in religion in the first place. Communist projects .... This policy was successful beyond even Communist Prayer, Scripture study, and a sanctified life require time, effort, and expectations.” self-discipline. There’s nothing colorful or mechanical about Sam Blumenfeld has written The New Illiterates, Is Public Education commitment to the will of God or personal penitence. Necessary?, NEA – Trojan Horse in American Education, and other books. In Information is not education, and tools of the trade are not the trade. the preface to the second-named (p. ix), he writes: “But one question As the shop teacher said: “I teach carpentry, not hammer.” No particularly intrigued me. Knowing that our country began its remarkable replacement has yet been found for an inspired, inspiring teacher who history without public education – except for some local common schools in has in his heart a love for his students and his subject. He’ll do just fine New England – and that the federal Constitution did not even mention with a computer at hand, and do just as well with a piece of chalk. education, I was curious as to why Americans had given up educational freedom The answer, by the way, is 45 cents. for educational statism so early in their history, adopting the notion that the government should assume the responsibility of educating our children. I thought I could find the answer quickly and put it in an opening chapter. evidence that it has been a disaster throughout its history,” 65. “What, after all Instead, it took me four years and twelve chapters to get the answer.” this time, is the purpose of mass-schooling supposed to be? Reading, writing, Blumenfeld has focused much attention on teaching reading. “For example, I and arithmetic can’t be the answer, because properly approached those things tutored a Boston University medical student who had been taught to read by take less than a hundred hours to transmit – and we have abundant evidence that Dick and Jane at an expensive private school. He hated to read and didn’t know each is readily self-taught in the right setting and time,” 67. “But lying for why. … He simply had no idea what an alphabetic writing system was about. It personal advantage is the operational standard in all large institutions; it is took him several weeks before he finally understood that the alphabet was a set considered part of the game in schools. Parents, for the most part, are lied to or of symbols representing speech sounds.” (Internet article, “Why America still told half-truths, as they are usually considered adversaries. At least that’s been has a reading problem – and it has nothing to do with ‘dyslexia’.”) “‘Last July true in every school I ever worked in,” 71. “… A move seems to be afoot to do there was an article in the Boston Globe about Boston’s reading problem,’ says the reverse, to enlarge substantially the bite that schooling takes out of a young Blumenfeld. ‘Mayor Menino had launched a literacy program five years ago in person’s family time, community time, and private time. Trial balloons are an attempt to wipe out illiteracy among Boston’s school children. Now five floated about constantly in the press and on TV …,” 73. “It [mass schooling] years later, they’re still talking about this reading problem. The educators now has been picking our pockets just as Socrates predicted it would thousands of tell us that they have a new “balanced” reading program which combines whole years ago. One of the surest ways to recognize education is that it doesn’t cost language with phonics. That’s the worst of all possible worlds because you very much …,” 77. “Don’t be panicked by scare tactics into surrendering your totally confuse a child as to what kind of reading system we have.’” (Internet children to experts,” 103. article on Sam Blumenfeld, “Reformer of the month.”) You’ll also want to become familiar with Gatto’s An Underground History of Let’s Kill Dick and Jane by Harold Henderson and The Great Reading American Education (2001). Rob Shearer’s May 20, 2009, review of his most Disaster by Mona McNee and Alice Coleman are important recent books recent book, Weapons of Mass Instruction (2008), can be accessed on the dealing with the teaching of reading. Greenleaf Press website. Perhaps this will further whet your appetite: “Well- John Taylor Gatto, born in 1935, and a public school teacher for three schooled people are conditioned to dread being alone …,” xxii. (This brings to decades, pulls no punches in his various books, as can be seen from passages mind the statements of J. Gresham Machen (Education, Christianity, and the from Dumbing Us Down – The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling State, p. 126): “What is the explanation of this emptiness of American life? (1992). “Kept contained, the occasional teacher who makes a discovery like The explanation is that the average American is not educated. An uneducated mine is at worst an annoyance to the chain of command (which has evolved man shrinks from quiet. An educated man longs for it.” Machen lived from automatic defenses to isolate such bacilli and then neutralize or destroy them). 1881-1937.) “Two congressional investigations, one in 1915 and one in 1959, But once loose the idea could imperil the central assumptions which allow the came to the identical conclusion that school policy in the new pedagogical order institutional school to sustain itself, such as the false assumption that it is was being deliberately created far from public oversight …,” 3-4. “How many difficult to learn to read, or that kids resist learning, and many more,” xiii. “Pick schoolteachers were aware of what they actually were a part of? Surely a up a fifth-grade math or rhetoric textbook from 1850 and you’ll see that the texts number close to zero,” 6. “As I’ve grown older I’ve come to believe that good were pitched then on what would today be considered college level,” 13. teachers are more dangerous than bad ones. They keep this sick institution “School has become the replacement for church in our secular society …. You alive,” 82. “I can’t believe that centralized schooling is allowed to exist at all as must understand that first and foremost the business I am in is a jobs project and a gigantic indoctrinating and sorting machine, robbing people of their children,” an agency for letting contracts,” 19. “… Thousands of humane, caring people 86. “School disconnects, as it was charged to do. … Children are divided from work in schools, as teachers and aides and administrators, but the abstract logic their families, their traditions, their communities, their religions …,” p. 130. of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions,” 25. “For 140 years “To learn to read and to like it takes about thirty contact hours under the right this nation has tried to impose objectives downward form a lofty command circumstances, sometimes a few more, sometimes a few less,” 152. “We center made up of ‘experts,’ a central elite of social engineers,” 33. “… Think [teachers] must behave like noble termites, tunneling the current structure until it of the New York City public school system, where I work, one of the largest dissolves of its own dead weight: we must encourage schoolpeople to sabotage business organizations on planet Earth. While the education administered by the system while pretending not to,” 154. “… I concluded long ago that some this abstract parent is ill-regarded by everybody, the institution’s right to compel deliberate intent was (and is) at work on the school institution, that it operates its clientele to accept such dubious service is still guaranteed by the police. And far from public access, and until it is confronted the term ‘school reform’ is forces are gathering to expand its reach still further – in the face of every meaningless,” 179. “But then, parents have had no significant voice in school for over a century,” 195. – Compiled by R.E. Wehrwein