Anyone who is surprised by the direction our political leaders are trying to take education just hasn't been pay attention.
IT IS THE OKLAHOMA GOP PLATFORM. Here it is. Killing off public education is all but a stated goal. It reads closer to a church statement of beliefs, but without the love and forgiveness. Ironically, this is a lesson we did NOT learn from Kansas when they repeatedly get beat down on the introducing religion via education lesson.
Quick, where is this quote from:Our Great Fathers based our Constitution, Jihad for Independence, rights of men, and laws on the Koran and on traditional Sharia Law, as well as Muslim ethics and values. We believe these documents are the basis for law, order, and behavior of all but the infidel.
Actually, I barely changed the real quote from the OK GOP Platform:
Our Founding Fathers based our Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and laws on the Bible and on traditional Judeo-Christian ethics and values. We believe these documents are the basis for law, order, and behavior.
Can you imagine the outrage at the first sentence?
It goes on and on about advocating the exact thing we all pretend to be surprised by: the "homosexual agenda," making "sodomy" illegal, drug testing welfare recipients, religious freedom to discriminate laws...everything that the media has made fun of and the Facebook Memes have mocked is right there in the platform. Including all of Sally Kern's hate. She isn't an outlier, it's the platform.
Anyway... back on education. Here is what they have to say about education, and I am not using mock quotes:
II. EDUCATION
Preamble:
We acknowledge our dependence upon Almighty God and ask His blessings upon our students and their parents, teachers, and nation.
That's the first sentence in education. Starting off strong by invoking God in the first sentence on educational curriculum more than the founding fathers did in the entire Constitution...
It is the right and responsibility of parents (hereafter to mean parents and/or legal guardians) to direct their children’s upbringing and education whether public, private, charter, or home school without interference, regulation, or penalty from the government. The primary goal of public schools should be to teach proficiency in the basic subjects of phonics-based reading, written and oral communication, mathematics, sciences, history, founding documents, Godly heritage of our nation, critical thinking skills, basic morals, and civics. Locally elected school boards should have the authority to determine and implement all public school curricula, policies, and procedures for their districts. We demand excellence and accountability from all tax-funded institutions of education in Oklahoma. The federal government has no constitutional role in education; furthermore, we support the creation of a free-market education system, including the use of vouchers and/or tax credits. We believe Oklahoma students are among the best and brightest and deserve a quality education.
If that isn't clear enough of an intention statement, lets clarify...
1. The traditional family unit, consisting of a (husband) man, (wife) woman, and child(ren) is the foundation of our social structure. The Oklahoma Department of Education and the various Boards of
Regents should uphold and teach this definition of traditional family at all levels of public and higher education.
8. The Ten Commandments should never be barred from view in public schools as a means of moral guidance along with our national motto "In God We Trust" and the Bill of Rights. Public schools shall not prohibit the teaching of the Judeo-Christian worldview upon which our country was founded.
B. Curriculum
1. The heritage of the United States of America should be taught in public schools and include representative government, limited government, the lives and beliefs of the Founders, influence of the
Bible and religion on our laws and principles, and the concept of free enterprise.
Do you think they really want Thomas Jefferson's views on religion taught? Let alone Franklin's?
2. Where evolution is taught, intelligent design and competing origin theories must be taught as well.
No, that's not how science class works. "Physicists, astronomers, and geologists might be right - but it is also possible that the
Flying Spaghetti Monster touched us all with His Noodly Appendage and the world became his meatball." Please don't teach my kid that. He's messed up enough as it is. If I want to teach him my religious perspective on how the world was born, I will. Also, pesky matter of the US Constitution forbidding this type of thing for the last couple of generations.
It gets so bad I just have to paste the whole thing:
3. Local school boards should exercise their right to choose curriculum and textbooks, including the Bible as a literature or history text, without state limitations.
4. Parents must maintain the right and responsibility to educate their children regarding sexuality and sexual conduct. Neither classroom instruction nor school-based health services shall usurp parental
rights to educate their children.
5. We oppose the portrayal of homosexual or promiscuous behavior in a positive light in public schools.
6. Multiculturalism that promotes cultural segregation should not be taught. We respect different cultures and support teaching our commonalities as U. S. citizens.
Not a "historical text," which I would support so long as they are reading a variety of world religious texts (wait, is that multiculturalism?). But they want to use it as a history text. Catholics do not believe the Bible is a literal history lesson, Catholicism is not a fundamentalist religion while some other Christian sects are. Which is one problem trying to have the government teach religion.
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I am a fan of private education and I am a fan of religious education. I want to Catholic schools and received a top notch education. My son went to a Catholic school and they did a great job. But I chose, and my parents before me chose to send the kids to a religious school. And those schools met Federal and State standards for education, in addition to teaching us religious beliefs. Hijacking the government to teach your religious beliefs to everyone is what they do in Muslim countries in which we claim to hate their religious intolerance. If you want to have your kid receive a religious education or some other form of education, then pay for it like I am.
Calling for the teaching of your beliefs by the government and doing it in the name of freedom is called hypocrisy. My religious leaders and I will teach my child what I choose to teach him regarding religion, not you. In exchange, I will stand up and insist the government doesn't try to dictate what your religious leaders teach your kids in your place of worship. If we do it any other way, then the "majority religion" rules and forces their edicts on you - which is why some Pilgrims left England 400 years ago.