the blumenfeld education letter sept 1986-multiculturalism

8/7/2019 The Blumenfeld Education Letter Sept 1986-Multiculturalism

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The B lumenfeldEducation Letter

Volume I,Number 1l iMy People Are Destroyed For Lack Of Knowledge!! HOSEA 4:6

September 1986EDIITOR: Samuel L . Blumenfeld_ The purpose of this newsletter is to provide kno ledge for parents and educators who want to ;,ave the children of Amprkafrom the destructive forces that endanger them. 'Our children in the public schools are al grave risk in 4 ways; academically,spiritually, rnorallv, and phvsicallv - and only a well-informed public will be able to reduce those risks."Withoul vision, the people perish,"

M u l t i c u l t u r a l i s mA P r e s c r ip t i o n f o r M o r a l A n a r c h yP r o f e s s i o n a l e d u c a t o r s w r i t e ag r e a t d e a l t h e s e d a y s a b o u t m u l t i c u l t u -r a l e d u c a t i o n b u t f e w a m o n g t h e l a yp u b l i c a c t u a l l y k n o w w h a t i t i s . D e -s p i t e t h i s w i d e s p r e a d p u b l i c i g n o r a n c e ,m u l t i c u l t u r a l e d u c a t i o n i s n o w a n i n t e -g r a l p a r t o f t h e A m e r i c a n g o v e r n m e n ts c h o o l c u r r i c u l u m . I n f a c t , o u r h u m a n -i s t e d u c a t o r s n o w c o n s i d e r m u l t i c u l t u r -a 1 e d u c a t i o n t o b e s o i m p o r t a n t t h a tt h e N a t i o n a l C o u n c i l f o r A c c r e d i t a t i o no f T e a c h e r E d u c a t i o n ( N e A T E ) h a s g i v e nit a v e r y p r o m i n e n t p l a c e i n t e a c h e re d u c a t i o n p r o g r a m s .

W h a t I s M u l t i c u l t u r a l E d u c a tio n ?T h e N C A T E l s p u b l i c a t i o n , S t a n d a r d sf o r t h e A c c r e d i t a t i o n o f T e a c h e r E d u c a -t i o n ( J u l y 1982), s t a t e s :I I M u l t i c u l t u r a l e d u c a t i o n i s p r e p a -r a t i o n f o r t h e s o c i a l , p o l i t i c a l , a n de c o n o m i c r e a l i t i e s t h a t i n d i v i d u a l s e x -p e r i e n c e i n c u l t u r a l l y d i v e r s e a n d c o m -p l e x h u m a n e n c o u n t e r s T h i s p r e p a r a -t i o n p r o v i d e s a p r o c e s s b y w h i c h a n i n -d i v i d u a l d e v e l o p s c o m p e t e n c i e s f o r p e r -c e i v i n g , b e l i e v i n g , e v a l u a t i n g , a n d b e -h a v i n g i n d i f f e r e n t i a l c u l t u r a l s e t -t i n g s .

" P r o v ts ton s h o u l d b e m a d e f o r i n -s t r u c t i o n i n m u l t i c u l t u r a l e d u c a t i o n i nt e a c h e r e d u c a t i o n p r o g r a m s . M u l t i c u l t -u r a l e d u c a t i o n s h o u l d r e c e i v e a t t e n t i o ni n c o u r s e s , s e m i n a r s , d i r e c t e d r e a d -i n g s , l a b o r a t o r y a n d c l i n i c a l e x p e r i -e n c e s , p r a c t i c u m , a n d o t h e r t y p e s o ff i e l d e x e r c i s e s ." M u l t i c u l t u r a l e d u c a t i o n s h o u l d i n -c l u d e , b u t w o u l d n o t b e l i m i t e d t o e x -p e r i e n c e s w h i c h : (1) p r o m o t e a n a l y t i c a l

a n d e v a l u a t i v e a b i l i t i e s t o c o n f r o n ti s s u e s s u c h a s p a r t i C i p a t o r y d e m o c r a c y ,r a c i s m a n d s e x i s m , a n d t h e p a r i t y o fp o w e r ; ( 2 ) d e v e l o p s k i l l s f o r v a l u e sc l a r i f i c a t i o n i n c l u d i n g t h e s t u d y o ft h e m a n i f e s t a n d l a t e n t t r a n s m i s s i o n o fv a l u e s ; ( 3 ) e x a m i n e t h e d y n a m i c s o f d i -v e r s e c u l t u r e s a n d t h e i m p l i c a t i o n s f o rd e v e l o p i n g t e a c h i n g s t r a t e g i e s ; a n d ( 4 )e x a m i n e l i n g u i s t i c v a r i a t i o n s a n d d i -v e r s e l e a r n i n g s t y l e s a s a b a s i s f o rt h e d e v e l o p m e n t o f a p p r o p r i a t e t e a c h i n gs t r a t e g i e s . "A l t h o u g h N C A T E l s r e q u i r e m e n t s f o r

t e a c h e r t r a i n i n g , w h i c h b e c a m e e f f e c -t i v e i n J a n u a r y 1 9 7 9 , a r e q u i t e e x p l i c -i t , n o w h e r e i n t h e N C A T E I s p u b l i c a t i o ni s t h e r e a d e f i n i t i o n o r d e s c r i p t i o n o fw h a t m u l t i c u l t u r a l e d u c a t i o n r e a l l y i s .

The Blumenfeld Education Letter ismailed on the 15th of every month. Sources of products and serv ices described in the Blumenfeld Education Let ter are not necessari lyrecommended by th is publication. They are intended to provide our readers wi th information on a rapid ly expanding field of educational act ivi ty. Associate Edi tor: LannonStafford. RATE: 1 year $48.00_ Subscription Off ice: PostOff ice Box 39820, Phoenix , Arizona 85069, Phone 1-800-5280559. In Arizona cal l col lect 602-252-4477.


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r------------- E ducation L etter, P. 2, Sep 1986 -------------,We get. hints in the requirements. W eare told of IICU 1 turally diverse andcomp1e x, . h uman en co un te rs II and "differ-ential cultural settings." W e are alsotol d that multicultural education hassonethi n9 to do w i th r ac ism , sex ism ,parity of power. values clarification,the transm ission of values both mani-fest and latent, the dynam ics of di-verse cultures, linguistic variations,etc.H o w Is I t D e f in e d ?

But what does it all mean in lan-guage th at you and I can understand?What does it mean to parents whosechildren w ill be subjected to multicul-tura 1 education? What does it mean tothe local school board which w ill berequired to implement a state-mandatedmulticultural education program in thelocal school!A rather comprehensive treatment ofthe subject can be found in the Spring1984 issue of Theory Into Practice, thej ourn a 1 of the C ollege of Educ at i on atOhio State U niversity . That issue con-tains 13 articles on multicultural edu-cation covering many aspects of the

subject.Multiculturalism is based on thenotion that the traditional Judeo-C hristian model of American values isno longer valid as the model to be heldup to children in the public schools.These values are generally associatedw ith white Anglo-Saxon Protestant cul-ture, usually referred to as WASP cul-ture by its critics. The educators be-l i eve th at . WASP cu lture is in dec "Ii neand is not being replaced by anotherdom inant model. In fact, the Amer~lcanAssociation of C olleges for Teacher Ed-ucation (AAC TE) statem ent on m ulticult-ural education is entitled "No One Mod-el American". Ergo, many models willtake its place.

A multicultural SOC iety is one madeup of many equally valid ideals thatcan serve as equally valid models foryoung Americans. No one is requiredany longer to conform to the once dom i-nant JU dea-C hristian ideal, and thepublic schools are now required to con-vey this message to the students.

For decades the compelling ratio-nale for public education was that itprovided the means of Americanizing them illions of different immigrants whocame to these shores. It provided acommon body of values for all Ameri-cans. But apparently that rationale nolonger holds. According to C harles A .Tesconi , dean of the C ollege of Educa-tion at the U niversity of Vermont:"W e all know by now that homogene-ity has not and does not characterizeAmerican society. W e know how great amyth the 'm elting pot' turned out tobe .. . American society, then is bestcharacteri zed as a mosaic of an exten-sive, highly diverse array of culturalelements."As a descr i ptor, muIti c u ltu ra 1 ismpoints to a condition of numerous life-styles, values, and belief systems."

H o w Is I t T a u g h t?And how is multicultura1ism~ there-fore, to be taught, and what w i 11 beits desired results?IIBy treating diverse cultural

groups and ways of 1 i fe as equally 1e-gitimate, and by teaching about them inpositive ways, legitim izing differencesthrough various education policies andpractices, self-understanding, self-es-teem , intergroup understanding and har-mony, and equal opportunity are promot-ed."Thus, multicultural education em -braces much more than mere culturalpluralism or ethnic diversity . I t le-gitim izes different lifestyles and val-

ues system s, thereby legitim izing moraldiversity. The concept of moral diver-sity directly contradicts the Biblicalconcept of moral absolutes on whichthis nation was founded.Yet, our public schools, in orderto be accredited, are now required toteach that there are no moral abso-lutes, that every individual has theright to freely choose his or her mor-als, and that ethics are situational.The result has been moral anarchy.Thus, American public schools are

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.-------------- Education Letter, P. 3, Sep 1986no longer to be used to inculcate acommon set of moral and spiritual val-ues based on our Judea-C hristian heri-tage but are to be used to promote aplethora of competing values systems,w ith C hristian fundamental ist valuescleverly excluded from competition. Inother words, the public school is now amarket pl ace of competi ng pagan and an-ti-C hristian belief systems. The stu-dents have a choice, but the mat'ket isrigged. That, in a nutshel1 , is multi-cultural education.

How is multicultural educationtaught? It is not a course which istaught separately from the rest of thesubject m atter. It is, in re al ity, aworld view which, in the wo-rds ofTheresa E . McC orm ick, specialist in mu-lticultural educat ion at Emporia StateU niversity, "must permeate the totaleducatio nal en vironm ent."M o ra l A n a rc h y S ta rt s E a r ly

That means that multicultural edu-cation, in the words of Sandra B .DeC osta, associate professor at W estVirginia U niversity. "must b e ca re fu llypl anned, organized, and integrated intoa 11 the subject areas. But most em-phatically it must begin when childrenfirst enter school."Thus it is now official policy inthe government schools to inculcatemoral anarchy in American children be-ginning w ith grade one. It is now of-ficial policy of the governmentschools to deny that there exists acommon value system known as American-ism - unless by Americanism you meanm oral anarchy.Yet we know that Americani sm doesexist and does constitu te the basis ofAmerican consciousness: the convictionthat this nation was created w ith God'shelp and blessings to demonstrate tothe world that with the true God allgood things are possible, and thatw ithout H im we will be consigned to thesame tyranny and m i sery that now af-flicts the m illions who live under pa-ganism or atheistic communism .During the recent celebration ofthe lOath anniversary of the Statue of

L iberty that concept of Americanism wasexpressed over and over again in sonqand speech in three simple words: GodBless America. Those three words a c : -knowledge the ex tstence , efficacy, andsoverei gnty of the God of the Bib 1e.They express the essence of Ameri can-ism , the peculiar consciousness thatmakes us different from other peoples.A m e ri c a 's W a y I s F o r E v e r y o n e

While that consciousness was givento us by our founding fathers who. forthe most part, were indeed white,Anglo-Saxon Protestants. one does nothave to be white, Anglo-Saxon, or evenProtestant to accept it. There aremany blacks, H ispanics, L atins, Slavs,C atholics, Jews, etc., who accept it.

Becom i ng an Ameri can does not meanaping WASPS. I t never did, and it nev-er will. I t means accepting the es-sence of what the founding fathersstood for and died for. That essenceis founded on Biblical pr incip Ies whichinclude the concept of moral absolutes.The public schools now presume thatblacks, H ispanics, Indians, Asians andother immigrant children are incapableof understanding or unwilling to acceptthe philosophy of the founding fathers.Therefore they won't even teach it tothem.T h e R e s u lt s O f M u l t i c u lt u r a li s m

What kind of Americans w ill thepublic schools turn out? Americans ig-norant of their nation 's founding prin-ciples, incapable of defending theircountry against foreign ideologies,adrift in a sea of moral and culturalanarchy, at the mercy of fears, slo-gans, and nuclear blackmail.Multiculturalism is also an impor-tant stepping stone to globalism , thatconcept of a future world governmentwhi ch the pub 1; c schoo 1s are now pro-moting more aggressively than ever. Inan article entitled "Mu1ticultural Edu-cation and G lobal Education: A PossibleMerger", Donna J. C ole of W ittenbergU niveriity w rites:I1A multicultura1 ized global educa-tion would address the basic concern of

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r------------- E d u c a t i o n L e t t e r , P .where the individual fits into the mo-saic of humanity and where others fitin the same mosaic . . (I t) would aidstudents in understanding that our mem-bershi pin groups affects our v al u esand attitudes . (It would assist stu-dents in recognizing the need to beflexible and adjustable citizens in arapidly changing world."

The National Education Associ ation(N EA) of course endorses m ulticultural-global education. I ts resolutions of1 9 8 6 state:liThe N ational Education A ssociationbelieves that multicultural-global edu-cation is a way of helping every stu-dent perceive the cultural diversity ofthe U S citizenry so that children ofmany races may deve lop pri de in the irown cultural legacy, awaken to the ide-als embodied in the cultures of theirneighbors, and develop an appreciationof the common humanity sh ared by a 11peoples of the earth."Noti ce that the NEA recogni zes noAmerican culture that the student maytake pri de in. H e is to take pri de inhis own racial "cultural legacy" and

learn to appreciate the cultures ofothers, but nowhere ins ight is therean indigenous American culture based onpeculiarly American values to appr ec t-ate, take pride in, or identify w ith.The purpose of globalism is to pre-pare young Ameri cans to accept as i nev-itable and desirable a world, socialistgovernment in which American nationalsovereignty will be surrendered for thegreater good of "world peace and broth-erhood", In any case, mul ticultural

global education is another good reasonwhy parents must remove their chi 1drenfrom the public schools. Social 'stud-ies professors have rew ritten Amertcenhistory to pl a y down patriotism and na-tional pride, and multiculturalism evendenies the existence of such a thingas Americanism . Is this what Amer'icanparents want their children to betaught in public schools? Probablynot. But the sad truth is that theydonlt even know itls going on.

4 , S e p 1 9 8 6U . S . S tu d e n ts A c c e p t S o v ie tsA s M o r a l E q u a l s

Evidence that U S students are beingbrainwashed to accept Russian commu-nists as moral equals can be inferredfrom two interesting press reports.The first was written by MarciaSeilaff, editorial writer of the Phoe-nix Gazette, who recently returned froma tour of the Soviet U nion with a groupof U S hi gh school students. In her7 / 1 8 / 8 6 colum n she wrote:"The students in our group, alongwith some Denver area young people, re-ceived an additional demonstration ofSoviet disinformation, courtesy ofIntourist."W hat was billed as a "round tablediscussionl w ith Soviet journalists wasactually a propaganda session . ."If the Russiansl answers were pre-dictable, the questions from the Denverstudents were disappointing. We won-dered what they had been taught intheir social studies classes to promptthem to ask the Russians for advice onwhat they as students should do to

change the U S qovernment+s position onIStar W ars I"Sadly, they asked no questionsabout A fghani stan, human ri ghts. C uba,or Easter~ Europe."The second story, from the BostonG lobe of 7 / 2 7 / 8 6 , concerns the "Bikefor Peace 186" cyclists who were tour-ing the U S. The group included ey-cl ists from the Soviet U nion, C zecho-slovakia, C anada, and the U S. While in

Vermont, the cyclists stopped off atNorwich U niversity in Northfield toconverse with students who are learningRussian. The teachers for the mostpart are recent Soviet em igres who haveno love for communism . When the teach-ers met the cyc 1 is ts the meeting soondegenerated into a series of yellingmatches."The Soviet em igres asked the Sovi-et cyclists: "I s itnot hypocritical tohave a Sovi e t bi cyc1 e ride for peacewhen, for 6 years, the Soviet U nion hasbeen occupying A fghanistan and killing

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r------------- Education letter, P. 5, Sep 1986its people? Is it not preposterous tobelieve that the C zech cyclists wouldfreely ride together w ith the Sovietcom rades, when the Soviet U nion invadedC zechoslovakia in 1 9 6 8 ? '

"The Soviet cyclists, obviouslychosen to be in the tour for more thanjust their physical fitness, triedtheir best to deflect the questions.In fact, the polished assurance of twocornered cyclists was enough to con-vince many of the em igres that thesewere not typical Soviet citizens, butsenior-level K GB agents."A few of the students were angrythat the Soviet cyclists had beentreated so inhospitably 1W e saw thatour Russian-American imm igrants hatethe Soviet regime,' (one student) said.'And now we know why. But just becausethey hate the Soviets isn 't enough of areason for other Americans to hatethem . If we adopted that way of think-ing, we'd never get anywhere. IIIC an you imagine Ameri can studentsusing that rationale to accept Nazis astheir moral equals? But who can blamethe students? President Jimmy C arterkissed C omrade B rezhnev on both cheeks,and President Ronald Reagan cordiallygreeted and entertained Gorbachev,leader of the evil empire, on worldwidete 1 ev is i on . No wonder the student s arem orally co nfu sed .

B lo w in g T h e W h is tl e O n G l o b a lis mAn indication of how low managementand moral standards have sunk in thepublic schools of Boston, once known asthe A thens of America, can be gleanedfrom the follow ing story:"B lowing the Whistle on Global Edu-cat ion, It a 29-page report produced anddistributed by the Denver office of theU S Education Departm ent, is contribut-in9 to the growi n g concern among par-ents an d educ ators over IIg 1 oba 1ism "courses and materi a 1sin the schoo 1s.The anti-global ist report, authored byGregg L. C unningham for ThomasTancredo, accuses global educators of"parr ot t ng the Soviet propaganda 1ine"and indoctrinating children in favor of

a "new w orld orderll.M r. C unningham criticizes "global"education programs for advocating paci-fi sm , radi ca 1 po1i t ica 1 change, redi s-tribution of wealth, and moral relativ-

ism ; and for inculcating opposition topatriotism and free-market econom ics.Many globalist materials, he says, sug-gest that the Sov t et and Ameri can po-litical-econom ic systems are morallyequivalent. According to the report,"G lobalists seek to ridicule our valuesystem by suggesting that we relinquishour econom ic and pol itical preem inencein the interest of some shadowy 'globaljustice' ."The new report has heaped addition-al fuel on the nationw ide controversyover "global i sm" in the schools. Por-tions of the paper were read in theC olorado legislature during recent de-bate over education appropriations.Reportedly, a conservative member ofthe Denver U niversity Board of Trusteesis withholding a sizable contributionto that institu tion because of its rolein developing globalist curriculum ma-terials. The Bennett, C O , school dis-trictrecently rejected a global educa-tion curriculum because of oppositionfrom parents and school offici also(New Ameri can, 6 / 2 / 8 6 , p. 47)

D e w e y 's P r a g m a t i c O a t hJohn Dewey offered to repl ace thetraditional oath, II I swear to tell thetruth, the whole truth and nothing butthe truth," w ith the follow ing:"I swear to tell the approximatetruth, the tentative truth, the re 1 a-ti ve truth , so help me future experi-ence." (School and Society, 11 /11/39)T e a c h e r In G u n R a p D r a w in gF u l l P a y

A Boston schoolteacher charged w ithcarrying a gun during an attempted rob-bery has been collecting her salary ev-er since the incident last September,officials confirm ed.Theresa Rochelle, of Roxbury, MA,has been on paid s uspens ion since Sep-

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r------------- Education Letter,. P. 6,. Sep 1986 ----"'-------- __tember 9 - four days after she was ar-rested in connection with the shootingof a Watertown couple. The BostonSchool Committee voted unanimously tostop paying her estimated $24,000 year-ly salary after a Suffo 1 k County !Jrandjury indicted Rochelle for illegal pos-session of a handgun.

Police said Roche l le, a tenuredteacher at the Charles Taylor Elementa-ry School, and Lawrence Hudson ap-proached Everett Whitley, 70, and hiswife Joan as they sat in their car.During a failed robbery, policecharged, Whitley was shot in the thighand hand and his wife was wounded in

the chin.School officials said their policyis to keep paying teachers charged withcrimes unti 1 they are formally 'indict-ed. An arrested teacher could be reas-signed from the c 1 as sroom, but off i-cials decided against it in this case"for the safety of fellow workers.1ISchool Committee member Joe Caspercriticized officials for keeping per-sonne 1 charged with cri mes on the pay-

roll. IIWelve had people guilty of sex-ual assaults, physical assaults, whohave done drugs, people who turn aroundand carry weapons and we cont inue topay them."What we usually do when somebodydoes something very unsocial is we turnaround and reward them by giving them adesk job with pay. In this. instance wedidn+t even give her a desk job. Wernai1ed the check direct to her house .This is an unfortunate policy."

H o m e S c h o o ls A re L e g a lSeveral courts have held that anystatutory prohibition against home edu-cation should be regarded as unconsti-tutional. Courts in Illinois, Indi-ana, North Carolina, Oregon, andMinnesota, as well as the attorney gen-eral in Michigan, have construed "pub-1i c or pri vate schoo 1 1 1 statutes to meanthat home education constitutes atten-

dance at a "private school.1I

In the case of Perchemlides v.Frizzle, the court explicitly recog-nized within the right of privacy theri ght of all parents lito choose fromthe full range of educational alterna-tives for their children."The parents in that case had under-taken home education because they dis-agreed with the values inculcated bypublic schoo l s , and believed that theycould impart both a superior educationand a more acceptable philosophy athome. The Massachusetts SuperiorCourt sustained their right to home ed-ucation under the constitutional rightto privacy.

"The p l aintiffs have a right underG.L.c76,SI to home education for theirchild, and this right bears constitu-tional protection, not by specific con-stitutional delineation but through itsinclusion in the penumbra of certainprotected constitutional rights, mostnotably those guaranteed by the NinthAmendment. II (Home Education & Consti-tutional Liberties, White & Bird,pp.50-60, Crossway Books, Westchester,IL)In Oregon, in the case of Pierce v.Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus andMary (268 US 510 45 S. cr.: 571, 69L.Ed.l070), the court held that liTheliberty of the Constitution forbids thestandardization of children by compel-ling them to attend public school in-structions on ly." (The Christian Edu-cator, March 1985, p.5)

H o m e s c h o o l S u c c e s sAn 18-year-old who built his owntelescope but never attended a formalschool 4/27/86 accepted a Harvard Uni-versity scholarship, rejecting offersfrom Yale, Princeton, and Amherst.1tls just another scholarly plumfor a family with 4 sons whose home isa remote mountaintop ranch some 120miles north of San Francisco. DrewCo1fax and his brothers are home edu-cated at what their parent s , David andMicki Colfax, call Mountain School -

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Educationletter,P.7,Sep1986-----------...,Drew 's brother G rant, 21, is anhonor student at Harvard. Reed, 16, is"mathemat lcal ly precocious" accordingto his father, and Garth, 10, has adeep in terest in ceram ics and paiinting.C olfax and his w ife, unhappy w iththe quality of public schools, decidedto teach their children at home. Theirschool is registered with MendocinoC ounty as apr; vate school, and he andhis w ife divide the instruction chores.L aura C lark of Princeton, where on-ly 1 in 6 appl icants was accepted thisyear, said: I ID rew was one of our mostextraordinary appl icants. He is home-educated and has demonstrated an amaz-ing academ ic excellence . . He is truly a

thinker. W e've never seen a kid 1 i kethis.1IWhen he was 16, Drew tns tal Ied asolar-powered electrical system thatgave power to the ranch for the firsttime in more than 10 years. He is anavid stargazer who has read mor e than300 books on astronomy, writes a weeklyastronomy column for the local newspa-per, and built his own telescope and anobservatory to house it. He ground thetelescope m irror by hand.D rew 's father, asked if D rew were agenius, said, "No, no. He and hisbrothers are ordin ary bri ght k t ds thatwork hard. They like to take a problemand solve it."Some have brought up the possibil-ity of inherited superior intelligenceand ability to explain this fam ily'sremarkable achievements, rather thanattributing it to good homeschooling.The kicker is that the two youngerbrothers are adopted; one is Eskimo andthe other Negro. (Data from OrangeC oun ty R eg iste r, 4/28/86, p. A-3, NewAmerican, 6/16/86)

V i t a l R e a d in gThe PhilosoRhX of the Christian

which isn 't worth reading tw ice, isn'teven worth reading once. II Dr. R . J.Rushdoony's The Philosophy of theC hristian C urriculum is not only worthreading tw ice, you will probably wantto read it many more times than that i norder to properly assim ilate the ex-traordinary range of knowledge, in-sight, and wisdom that fill its 194pages.

The great virtue of thi s book isthat it presents the clearest, mostthorough and conci se statement of theC hristian world view regarding educa-tion to be found anywhere. D r. Rush-doony sums up his views in these words:"Chr t s tian education is of neces-

sity not only theological in nature buttheocentric. It is God-centered be-cause God as L ord requires all thingsto serve H im . The Westm inster ShorterC atechism tells us that 'M an's chiefend is to glorify God an d to enjoy H imforever. ' Every area of life andthought must be in line with this pur-pose, and education especially so. Hu-manistic education seeks to glorify manand to enable man to enjoy himself; itis doomed always to fail. C hristianecucat ion cannot be secul ar educat i onplus the Bible. The Bible is not addedto an existing curriculum ; the B iblemust establish, govern, and conditionthe curriculum , or else we do not haveC hristian education."It is O r. Rushdoony's contentionthat the government schools, whichpresently represent the humanist estab-lishment of religion in America, cannever be made to serve C hristian needs."Unt i 1 we recognize that schools are

establishments of religion, and thatall education is inescapably a reli-gious activity, we cannot come to gripsw ith our cultural crisis," he writes.In other words, the public schoolscan never become neutral, for in theauthor's view , neutrality in educationis merely another humanist myth. Rush-doony sees the government schools ofAmeri ca as the battleground where thesouls of American children are beingfought over and, for the most part,

lost. These schools "teach and propa-gate a philosophy of 1ife which doesL..- The Blumenfeld Education Letter Post Office Box 39820 Phoenix, Arizona 85069 ------'

Curr i c u l u m , by Rousas JohnRoss House Books, P .O .Vallecito, CA 95251, $8.00.Rushdoony,Box 67,

Anatole France once said: "The book


8/8

,.------------- Education Letter , P. 8, Sep 1986more than om it C hristianity: It is rad-ically at war with Biblical religion."

H e co nclu de s: "The great issue ofthe years ahead is the developing bat-tle between C hristianity and Humanism .It is a war unto death," and "educationis at present the central theater ofwar . IIWhat should a C hristian educationconsist of? Dr. Rushdoony goes intogreat detail concerning virtually everysubject: religion, mathematics, sci-ence, literature, music, history, gov-ernment, language, composition, gram-mar. Indeed, if you are a C hristianschool educator, parent, or home-

schooler, you will find answers to manyof the questions that have inevitablyarisen concerning the nature of C hris-tian education. W ritten by one ofC hristendom1s clearest thinkers, thisbook is must reading for anyone whotakes C hristian education seriously.

L e t t e rs F ro m R e a d e rsDear Sir or M adam :

My daughter is almost 6 years oldand we are home-educating her. We w illbe using a Bible-centered curriculum inher education; consequently I havetried a couple of reading programs,most of which were game-type learning .None of these produced any r esul ts. Irecently ordered Alpha-Phonics becauseI have heard Samuel Blumenfeld speak onseveral shows on Trin_ity BroadcastingNetwork and I know he is an expert onreading.D ianna and I are just beginningL esson 5. A fter going over L essons 3and 4 Dianna was so excited that shecould read that she hugged my neck andtold me she loved me. She said, 1I0hmommy, my wish is com ing true. You andDaddy are teach ing me to read. n Whatelse can I say?I love this systematic way ofteaching reading because it producesimmediate results and children, as well

as adults, like to see progress.

By the way, we only spend about 5-10 minutes a day on this. This is anexcellent intensive, systematic phonicsprogram.T hank you ,C indy M addox

D ear Sir:Enclosed please find check for$11 .45 for the book entitled NEA: Tro-jan Horse in American Education by S.L .Blumenfeld.I am taking this information fromthe July 1985 edition of the magazine

called IIFreedomu The people of Ameri-ca don1t realize how little of theirfreedom is 1 eft, so we11 has the con-trolled news -- radio-TV-newspapers-magazine - deceived them into fatalapathy. Thanks for your trying, as weare, always hoping there w ill be anawakening. Sincerely,Dorothy K . FrankB lu m e n fe ld 's S p e a k in g E n g a g em e n ts

Friday-Saturday, Sept. 19-20, M in-neapolis: "Sympcs ium on Education: AC hristian V iewll (w ith Mel & NormaGabler; D r. R .J. Rushdoony, A rchieJones of C .L .A .S.S .). C all (612) 780-11 96 for inform ation .Thursday-Friday, Sept. 25-26,Flint, M I: M ichigan Association ofC hristian Schools C onference. C all(313) 626-2311 for inform ation.(Note: M r. B lumenfeld speaks in 18cities in October - mostly in North-Centra 1 states, and 5 cities in Novem-ber. W eIll give you complete lists inthe next two issues.)

N e x t M o n t hNext month we I1 1 take on the NEA,using the NEA's own official positionpapers and statements. I t1 s a realeye-opener for concerned parents!

'-------The BlumenfeldEducationLetter- PostOfficeBox39820. Phoenix,Arizona85069 ------0

the blumenfeld education letter sept 1986-multiculturalism

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