Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Chickens Coming Home To Roost

What do Bernie Maddow, Marcus Schrenker and Arthur Nadel have in common? Answer: Bilking the public of millions and millions of dollars through investment scams! I think we can expect to see more of these sorts of situations. Why? Because of the moral climate in America, today.

So, how did we get here? The answer to this question is not flattering.

You see, we've deliberately structured our society for immorality and selfishness through our educational system. Over 50 years of indoctrination and behavioral modification have resulted in a culture that rejects objective morality and absolute truth.

It came together in the 1960's with major educational changes. Changes that reflected the reality created by over 30 years of Humanistic educational philosophy. A cadre of young people, many college students, took to the streets advocating the destruction of society, as it was. We call it the "Turbulent 60's" but it was a seminal moment in our history.

In 1960, the U.S. Department of H.E.W. published a blueprint for restructuring the school system called, "Soviet Education Programs: Foundations, Curriculums, Teacher Preparation." It was built on B.F. Skinner's 'Behavioral Modification' theories.

In 1976, the President of the National Education Association said, "First we will help all of our people undersand that school is a concept and not a place. We will not confuse "schooling" with education. The school will be the community, the community, the school."

This is when Basic Skill Courses took a back seat to affective education courses. What had taken up 90% of a student's educational time, was now relegated to about 40%. The new Global Student was being prepared for a very different world.

What had to be sacrificed was objective morality. The idea that some things are right and some things are wrong. Not because the individual thought so but because God said so. The new Global Citizen had to shed this out-dated and old-fashioned idea and embrace his own set of values. And it was the Educational System that would provide those values.

In the 1970's, Jimmy Carter established the Department of Education which effectively moved the seat of education from the State to the Federal Government. In 1989, George H.W. Bush gave us a new educational policy, called "Goals 2000," setting in concrete the whole behavioral modification movement. In 2001, George W. Bush gave us "No Child Left Behind," which meant teachers would now be essentially teaching to the test.

Along the way the S.A.T.'s have been watered down, Direct Educational techniques have been outlawed, Traditional Values were declared personal non gratia and all objective morality has been removed from the classroom. Teachers now work to prepare children to be good citizens, not good students.

In the end we cannot educate our children. Our entire educational system is an embarassment. But worse than that, we are completely without a moral compass. Sexually transmitted diseases are rampant, children as young as 11 years of age are being required to receive injections to prevent cervical cancer, a condition not all that prevalent among monogamus females, the details of sexual intercourse are freely discussed in co-educational health classes and preventative devices are distributed by the State, through the school system.

Arguments are made on both sides to explain why 40% of our children cannot read or why they do not graduate High School. But I am convinced there is a direct connection between the elimination of objective morality and educational proficiency.

The bottom line: The general impression among Americans is that whatever it takes to be successful, is morally acceptable. It's the new definition of capitalism: the idea that Greed is Good!

Is there a way to move the hands of the clock backward? Yes. Bring God back into our educational system and into our society.

Will that happen? There doesn't seem to be any hope of that in the near future. Keep that in mind when you send little Johnny or Janey off to the Federal Propaganda Institution we call our "Public" school system.