The Wrong March
Despite America’s veer to the right in the recent election, Gramsci’s “long march through the institutions” goes on unimpeded.
Antonio Gramsci, an early 20th Century Marxist, believed that it was most effective to spread revolutionary ideology slowly and incrementally. By doing it gradually, he thought that enough people would eventually be won over to Marxist thought. Gramsci’s approach came to be called the “long march through the institutions.”
Clearly the long march is well under way in our schools. Kyle Olson’s Indoctrination: How ‘Useful Idiots’ Are Using Our Schools to Subvert American Exceptionalism, which I reviewed when the book came out over five years ago, is a good place to start if the subject is new to you. Very simply, many school districts and their unions have an agenda for your kids that goes way beyond teaching them math formulas or how to write a declarative sentence.
In California, the state’s school board spends much of its time involved in social engineering. Typical is the new Social Studies Framework, which includes the following: “Through studying the stories of a very diverse collection of families, such as immigrant families, families with lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender parents and their children, families of color, step- and blended families, families headed by single parents, extended families, multi-generational families, families with disabled members, families from different religious traditions, and adoptive families, students can both locate themselves and their own families in history and learn about the lives and historical struggles of their peers.” The Framework seems to embrace everyone except conservatives and Ronald Reagan, who’s the target of periodic pot shots.
The latest NAEP results in California reveal that the state’s 4th graders rank 49th in the country in reading and 48th in math. Maybe one day the State Board of Education will get around to addressing these dismal results and figure out our kids need real education rather than intense political indoctrination. But then again, maybe not.
In Los Angeles, the teachers union is pushing for a curriculum that sanitizes the Black Panther Party, the revolutionary socialist group from the 1960s. At the same time, The United Teachers of Los Angeles also encouraged its teachers to spread the word that February 20th was to be celebrated as “Not My President’s Day,” as a way to delegitimize President Trump.
Ivy Bailey, the local teacher union leader in Detroit, is not overly concerned that the illiteracy rate in the Motor City is 47 percent. Instead, her main focus these days is on sanctuary schools, which she hopes Detroit will implement.
In Illinois, an upscale Chicago-area high school is planning presentations and seminars centered on race and progressive messaging. Invoking the late Howard Zinn, the seminar comes with a one-way message: white people must admit their unjust privilege and make amends for the oppression from which they continue to profit. Zinn is the perfect avatar for this project. A professional America-hater and author of the vile pseudo-textbook A People’s History of the United States, his philosophy often dominates our classrooms: “Objectivity is impossible and it is also undesirable.” Zinn felt that the teaching of history “should serve society in some way.” Maybe a seminar on why almost 40 percent of Chicago school teachers send their kids to private schools would be enlightening.
In Washington State, kindergartners are now being taught about the joys of gender expression and the many ways to express it. By 4th grade, students will be expected to “define sexual orientation.”
In Austin, Texas, teacher union members are instructing their students how to deal with immigration officials. Apparently the unionistas are in a snit because immigration enforcement has been carrying out “Operation Cross Check,” which has resulted in 51 arrests of illegal immigrants in the Austin area, including 23 who have criminal convictions.
A flyer, produced by the Schenectady (NY) Federation of Teachers, was sent home with every child in the school. It asked parents to help to “shield” students from President Trump and Betsy DeVos, his Secretary of Education, by besieging their legislators, whose phone numbers were included in the call-to-arms.
(H/T Daily Gazette)
The National Education Association is now fully on board the global warming train. At its last convention, the union voted to encourage state and local affiliates “to create and promote climate literacy resolutions in their own communities.” And no one is more excited than Bill Bigelow, who taught high school social studies in Oregon for almost 30 years. He is now – God help us – the co-director of the Zinn Education Project. A true believer, Bigelow is incensed that textbooks actually use conditional language of “may” and “might” when discussing climate change. Bigelow is also ticked that a popular textbook begins its second of three paragraphs on climate change: “Not all scientists agree with the theory of the greenhouse effect.” In any event, thanks to NEA’s and Zinn’s fake science, look for changes when new editions of textbooks are issued.
Gramsci’s long march is well under way and will be very hard to stop, no matter who controls the White House, governorships and state houses. The first thing that parents must do is check in with their kids daily and deprogram them if necessary. If there is evidence of indoctrination, they should try to find a school (most likely charter or private) that more closely reflects their values. The hour is late; there is no time to waste. The future of the country depends on it.
Larry Sand, a former classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers and the general public with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues. The views presented here are strictly his own.