Modern Education - Where No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

In just a few days I've come across two stories of public school students getting into trouble with their respective school authorities.  We're they drinking or doing drugs?  Nope!  We're they skipping classes?  Nope!  Did they "offend" someone with "politically incorrect" speech or clothing?  Not even that!  Well, just what were these high crimes and misdemeanors?

1. Briar MacLean, a 7th grader at Sir John A McDonald School in Calgary, Alberta broke up a knife fight by pushing the knife-wielding student against the wall.  He most likely prevented a stabbing.
2. Erin Cox, a senior at North Andover School in Massachusetts, was called by a friend who asked her to take her home; the latter was intoxicated.  The police broke up the party when she arrived.  Even though the police vouched for Erin, she is suffering inappropriate punishment.

Here you have it - two selfless kids being punished by their idiot-school officials for performing actions that can only be called kind and even heroic.  I wish I could say these were just cases of school bureaucrats slavishly adhering to mindless rules, but I think there's more than meets the eye here.  Couple this with the stories a little while ago with children being treated like criminals for playing with imaginary guns and maybe you'll get the picture.

Having studied secondary education while in college, I was told in no uncertain terms that John Dewey is considered the "father of modern education".  That is arguably a true statement. John Dewey was a signer of the first Humanist Manifesto.  Go to the American Humanist website and examine this, and the subsequent versions.  The humanist world view is there for all to see.  It is this world view that the teachers are being trained to impart to their students, regardless of the wishes of their parents.  Now this is not true for all public school teachers for there remain some whom the progressives have not yet expunged.  By and large, the public school system aims to train its students to be useful cogs in the New World Order.  That is best accomplished by brainwashing the kids into becoming passive and hedonistic automatons.

Both Briar and Erin have demonstrated that they won't fit into that cookie-cutter mold.  Both have demonstrated initiative, decisiveness, selflessness and - most threatening to the progressives controlling the schools - a propensity to think outside the box.  The public-school lemmings cannot have such independence among their students.  Heaven forbid they might start thinking independently and start eschewing the largess and directives of the politically-correct statists.   Good heavens!  They might even tear down barry-cades when they get older!  The school-nazis simply can't have that going on now, can they?

Thus we see the completely ludicrous punishments being heaped upon these two kids.  Thankfully their parents are standing by them, as are large percentages of their respective communities.  I understand that at least Erin's mother has retained legal counsel.  Good for her.

On Wednesday Michael Voris will be doing a program focusing on the snake in the grass called Common Core.  I've no doubt its tentacles are manifest in Briar's and Erin's plights.  Here is the link; I plan to watch it.

Things From The Uterus Belong To The State

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, in a so-called "public service announcement", engaged in a moment of inadvertent candor when she opined that "children belong to whole communities" as opposed to being the responsibility of their parents. This is presumably after the "things in the uterus turn into humans", to quote her previous statement.  She is clearly an apt spokesperson for public education - and I am not being facetious, but I do digress.

Getting back to her Freudian slip about children belonging to "the collective", many of my colleagues are shocked at this revelation; I am not.  This has been the game plan all along of the denizens of public education.  I minored in secondary education at the University of Maryland so my knowledge of the matter is not trivial.  We were taught in no uncertain terms that John Dewey was the "father of modern education".  Arguably he was, as he left his humanistic paw prints all over the place.  And yes, he was a signer of the Humanist Manifesto.

Paula Bolyard of PJMedia asks the question (a very good question) "Has a century of progressive education turned us into obedient sheep?"  I'd suggest that all read it.  The obvious answer to her question is a resounding "yes".  And that is by intent!

Read closely the Humanist Manifesto - and then read of the various "efforts" of the National Education Association.  The production of passive "sheeple" following the dictates of oligarchies such as the one fronted by the Messiah Most Miserable has been its thinly-disguised goal.  In other words, the public education system is following the playbook written long ago by John Dewey.

Here's the MSNBC video below.

Education in the Messianic Crosshairs

Anyone with their eyes half open knows that one of the worst things to happen to education in this country is the Department of Education.  It might just be as well known as the Department of Stupifying and Brainwashing.  Having a minor in secondary education from the University of Maryland, I know that John Dewey is held to be the undisputed "father of modern education".  He most likely is.  He also was a signer of the first Humanist Manifesto.  Go to this link and read the principles enumerated in the various versions.  You'll see that many of them are very much implemented and taught in public education today.

But the process of education take-over must have been deemed by the Messiah to be incomplete - and he is working (behind Congress' back) to "rectify" that situation by dictating new standards.  Again, this is White House fiat, a flat-out exercise in dictatorship.

We also see a state-by-state initiative to corrupt our youngsters.  Watch the clip below from American Life League (If you cannot see embedded videos, click here).

The Myth of the "Good Enough" Catholic

There's no doubt that many of us have wondered how the Catholic Church today has been reduced to a pathetic shadow of what she was a mere hundred years ago - or even fifty.  I've spent some time reading about the matter to try to understand the myriad influences, both internal and external, that have contributed to the Church's obvious decline (and western civilization's too, for that matter).  On the website, I've listed some books to read and now repeat those recommendations.  In addition, please examine the Land O'Lakes Statement that has provided the game plan for undermining Catholic higher education and the various versions of the Humanist Manifesto (the first one was signed by John Dewey, reputed "father of American public education").  I also recommend the book "Behind the Lodge Door" by Paul A. Fisher.  Google the title and many sites (including Amazon) appear, from where you can order the book.  In that book is discussed the many ways that Freemasonry has had detrimental impacts on American culture.  I'd also recommend the dvd movie "Maafa 21" that details the rise of the pro-death movement in America.  Hint: watch the movie and read Fisher's book together; there are common linkages!

So now that I've described some detrimental and even demonic influences upon American and Catholic culture, did all that mean we were doomed sitting ducks?  I think not, but that means more questions must be answered.  Consider the generation that fought in World War II, the so-called "Greatest Generation."  Now let me be clear; they did indeed, at great sacrifice, fend off and defeat some of the worst totalitarians ever to walk the earth.  Because of them, civilization was saved - for the time being.  Yet we must admit that much mischief happened just a few years later, when this Greatest Generation had laid aside its military uniforms and weapons and took their places in political offices.  Under their watch, Lyndon Johnson foisted the so-called "Great Society" with its destructive welfare system on us.  Crime skyrocketed.  To top things off, the Roe v Wade decision came down, courtesy of justices appointed by presidents who were WWII veterans.  We can only conclude that they were indeed asleep at the switch.  It seems that many (not all!) forgot that "the price of liberty is eternal vigilance" - with emphasis on the word "eternal".

While I think that much can be explained by Carlin's book (again, check the website book list), something more fundamental went awry.  In the December issue of Homiletic and Pastoral Review is an article written by John Young entitled "From Order to Chaos in Ten Years".  (It's not online yet, but when it is, I'll post the link.)  He points out that the current problems in the Church didn't just magically appear during the turbulent 1960s.  He mentions that Pope St Pius X understood the problem of modernism and issued Pascendi Dominici Gregis.  His encyclical was followed by Pope Pius XII's encyclical Hamani Generis. (Go to the side bar to see encyclicals from Leo XIII onward).

He then talks of his experience of Catholicism in his life and his fellow Catholics.  I was a child during that time, but a fairly observant one.  I can corroborate what Young says based on my own observations.  He points out that while the "rank and file" Catholic during the 1950s generally didn't question what they were taught, they really didn't have a deep grasp of the truths of their faith.  They (like I) could recite the Baltimore Catechism, but couldn't give answers that represented intellectual depth and integration of the truths into their personal lives. They didn't take it seriously.  They did not strive for the highest level of sanctity that they could achieve.  In a word, they didn't make the Faith to heart and make it their own.  In fact, while they may have accepted the directives of the Magisterium in matters of faith and morals, many of them chafed under what they thought were joy-robbing restrictions.  This was particularly true in matters pertaining to sexuality.

At that time, the 1930 Lambeth Conference had already occurred - that conference in which the Anglicans shamed themselves by admitting the usage of contraception.  After the Vatican II conference (and the various misinterpretations regarding it), many matters of discipline were relaxed (fasting before Communion, etc).  There was talk of the Church admitting the usage of contraception.  Of course, that didn't happen - Humanae Vitae happened instead.

I write all this to explain what I believe are the reasons for the faith of Catholics melting like snow in hell during the 1960s: how fairly loyal Catholics could just fall like dominoes into rebellion against the True Church and ultimately against Our Lord Himself.  They did not make heaven their ultimate aim in life.  They did not make holiness a prime personal goal.  I think Mr. Young's lessons are worth the read.

Advent started today, as did a new liturgical year.  This would be an excellent time to take stock, to make the Kingdom of God our ultimate aim.  There is no such thing as a "good enough" Catholic.  The minute anyone thinks he or she is "good enough", that may well be a warning sign of complacency or worse.