Berit Kjos - June 4, 2013
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/0013/common-core/CC-chronology-3.htm
Seven years ago a world-changing event took place. It would revolutionize education, families, faith and basic values in our fading "land of the free."
I'm referring to the Moscow Declaration that was officially adopted on June 2, 2006, by the Education Ministers of the United States, the Russian Federation, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. The members of this international "Group of Eight" (G-8) have committed their nations to "cooperation in education at all levels in the 21st century."[3]
What about America's "Common Core" standards? How do they fit into the Moscow Declaration?
Marketed to American families as an improved education program, the actual truth about "Common Core" has been hidden from us. Our government leaders didn't tell us that we were already committed to a multinational education agenda! But it all makes sense when we consider the century-old movement toward global education!
Back in 2006, Eagle Forum's Education Reporter explained the implication of the "Moscow Declaration':
"Russia's Science and Education Minister Andrei Fursenko described the declaration as 'both a final document of the conference and the document that will be implemented by education ministers of all the world countries and international organizations, including the World Bank, UNESCO, and UN.'"[3]
That certainly sounds like a global education system, doesn't it? But the American people are kept in the dark! The Education Reporter continues,
"The U.S. Department of Education said the member delegates 'pledged to share best practices across borders' to build 'education systems that can allow people... to live and contribute to a global society, and to work in a global economy....'
"Included in previously adopted initiatives... are those from UNESCO as well as the 1985 agreement with the USSR [before the end of "the cold war"] called 'The General Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR] on contacts, exchanges and cooperation in scientific, technical, educational, cultural and other fields.'...
"What can be expected from the Moscow Declaration? If the historical results of U.S. participation with international reforms continue in the same vein, it is not unreasonable to expect the whole of U.S. education — from preschool, elementary, secondary, and higher education — will encounter further upheaval and decline."[3]
Today's sobering realities remind me of the boastful statement made by Nikita Khrushchev back in 1959. Perhaps he was right:
"You Americans are so gullible. No, you won’t accept communism outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won’t have to fight you. We’ll so weaken your economy until you’ll fall like overripe fruit into our hands.'”[4]
Who Defines the Standards for this Rising Global Monstrosity?
"In the global village ... networks will link students around the world to each other and to a vast body of information and human knowledge."[5]
That promise was made in 1994 during a trans-Atlantic conference between Washington and Berlin. Education Secretary Richard Riley and Labor Secretary Robert Reich shared strategies for building the Global Village Schools with their German counterparts. They agreed that educational accord would be vital to their goal of "enforcing social transformation."[5]
What did that mean? Did they seek personal liberty as did the leaders of the American Revolution? Or did they seek totalitarian government control as in the French Revolution? What goals and values would guide their plans for global education and social transformation? Capitalism? Socialism? Or Communism?
And where does militant Islam fit into this global power struggle for the minds of children? Its ambitious Sharia-minded leaders are unlikely to compromise! And why would they? Corrupt politicians and liberal media masters are already bending over backward to accommodate Muslim "rights" and their intimidating enclaves.
Finally, which of the world's governing politicians or religious rulers will determine the standards for the rising global education system?
We don't know yet! Our government doesn't tell us about its international schemes and alliances. It doesn't reveal its mind-bending strategies for the next generation of laboring serfs in its global village. Meanwhile our schools are fast trading history and factual learning for government defined social studies that contradict God's Word on every point!
However, we have some clues. Many of today's champions of change seem committed to following the irrational, mystical and occult plans behind Agenda 21, the Earth Charter and other deceptive alliances that feed the "Green Movement." They welcome paganism and ban unwanted expressions of Christian faith. The Bible sums it up:
"...the whole world is under the sway of the evil one." 1 John 5:19
The Green (earth-centered) agenda fits well with a culture of sex, promiscuity and paganism. It offers pleasure and political correctness but delivers bondage and corruption. Ponder this "Common Core 'Exemplars': "Graphic Sex and Praising Castro" designed for our children's classrooms and described by Mary Grabar:
"I must admit that I would have been too embarrassed to teach Julia Alvarez’s sexually explicit novel.... to ninth- and tenth-graders, as many Georgia high school teachers have been instructed to do....
"Common Core does not prescribe a curriculum—but rather 'standards.' These standards supposedly ensure that students’ academic achievement is consistent state to state. But that’s another reason for textbook selection committees to select works from the 'exemplars'—like Alvarez’s [corrupt] novel....
"...as national social studies standards now come rolling in, they will also learn about new American heroes, like Common Core’s biggest funder, billionaire Bill Gates.... The tribute to the billionaire leftist will make a nice complement to praise of Castro and Che in one of the few works of fiction allowed to remain in the ever-diminishing pool of literary 'exemplars' under these new 'standards.'”[6]
So let's take another look at Bill Gates. Apparently Gates and his UNESCO partners have agreed to the following core standards:
"Environmental
education will be incorporated in formal education.
Any value or attitude held by anyone globally that stands independent to
that of the United Nations’ definition of “sustainable education” must
change. Current attitudes are unacceptable.
Education will be belief-and-spirituality based as defined by the global
collective.
Environmental education will be integrated into every subject, not just
science..."[2]
Now ponder this important warning from Phyllis Schlafly:
"UNESCO's efforts in the 1960s and 1970s to influence U.S. school curriculum were unsuccessful. But now UNESCO has found a sugar daddy. On November 17, 2004 at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, UNESCO signed a 26-page 'Cooperation Agreement' with Microsoft Corporation to develop a 'master curriculum (Syllabus)' for teacher training in information technologies based on standards, guidelines, benchmarks, and assessment techniques. The Agreement states that ... 'UNESCO will explore how to facilitate content development.'"
"Following the signing of the Agreement, UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura explained it in a speech. One of its goals, he said, is... worldwide curricula reflecting UNESCO values."[7]
A Troubling Piece of Education History
Let's go back to 1948 for a moment. That year the National Education Association [NEA], funded in part by the Carnegie Corporation, produced a set of international guidelines called "Education for International Understanding in American Schools."... It included this statement by Willard Givens, who would soon be the executive secretary of the NEA:
"The idea has become established that the preservation of international peace and order may require that force be used to compel a nation to conduct its affairs within the framework of an established world system. The most modern expression of this doctrine of collective security is in the United Nations Charter.... Many persons believe that enduring peace cannot be achieved so long as the nation-state system continues as at present constituted. It is a system of international anarchy."[8]
"...many drastic changes must be made. ...all of us, including the 'owners', must be subjected to a large degree of social control.... The major function of the school is the social orientation of the individual. It must seek to give him understanding of the transition to a new social order."[9]
We began this article with this quote from Ben Shapiro: "Every old ideological conflict eventually becomes new again. ... Those of conservative bent ardently hope for a second American Revolution; those of the left wish desperately for a second French Revolution."
The Left may win the next battle in this spiritual war. The signs of a global revolution are already too close for comfort. We can no longer count on the American Constitution or the integrity of our leaders. More often than not, their choices are totally contrary to America's founding values and God's wise guidelines.
But our Lord still reigns! In the midst of this spiritual war, He will surely provide His strength, wisdom and His comforting nearness to all who choose to trust and follow Him!
"... in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
Notes:
1. Ben Shapiro, "The Second French Revolution," Townhall.com, April 8, 2009.
2. "Top Ten Scariest People in Education Reform: #5: Bill Gates: Scary Philanthropy," by Christel Swasey, March 28, 2013. http://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/top-ten-scariest-people-in-education-reform-5-bill-gates.
3. 'Moscow Declaration' Adopted by G-8: Education Ministers — Secretary Spellings Commits U.S. at http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2006/june06/moscow.html, Eagle Forum,U.S. Dept. of Education, 6-2-2006.
4. Nikita Khrushchev, "Dark Predictions of a KGB Defector," 1959 at http://frontpagemag.com/2010/10/19/dark-predictions-of-a-kgb-defector/print/
5. From a publicity flier announcing the conference held April 10-13, 1994.
6. Mary Grabar, "Common Core 'Exemplars': Graphic Sex and Praising Castro, "May 7, 2013. Cited in http://www.crossroad.to/Books/BraveNewSchools/Chronology.htm
7. Phyllis Schlafly, "Bill Gates Teams Up With UNESCO," Eagle Forum, November 30, 2005 .http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/nov05/05-11-30.html
8. Dennis Cuddy, Ph.D., "The Grab for Power: A Chronology of the NEA" (Marlborough NH: Plymouth Rock Foundation, 1993); 8.
9. Willard Givens, who became executive secretary of the National Education Association, 1935. See Chr