Category Archives: Math

ASD’s Education Expert with Socialist John Goodlad and Terrorist Bill Ayers

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Recently, Alpine School District (ASD) scrubbed their website clean of anything that could point to their connection with socialist humanist John Goodlad, his Democracy Agenda and his 4 Moral Dimensions. The original Moral Dimensions page featured distinguished expert speakers who described each “moral” in detail. The current watered-down version of the page has no mention of these five Progressive speakers or the language parents find disturbing. One could only guess why ASD doesn’t want additional inquiries into their education program, especially by looking at the photo above featuring their education expert standing alongside socialist revolutionary Bill Ayers wearing the communist red star on his T-shirt.

Academic Knowledge or Progressive Knowledge: Which is it?

Dr. Robert (Bob) Bullough was one of the featured speakers on the original Moral Dimensions page. Bullough spoke on Providing Access to Knowledge to All Children and Youth. Dr. Bullough tied democracy to a moral education.  He quoted John Dewey in his speech, “Democracy has many meanings, but if it has a moral meaning it is found in resolving that the supreme test of political institutions and industrial arrangements shall be the contribution they make to the all-around growth of every member of society.” Since Dewey was a moral relativist, why would Bullough stress Dewey’s morals? Further, doesn’t it make sense to speak of academics if the subject is knowledge? Why stress politics and democracy? What kind of knowledge would these Progressives want our children to possess?

Humanists, Socialists and Revolutionary Terrorists

Mr. Bullough is seen in the photo above at the University of South Carolina’s Museum of Education along with Bill Ayers and museum curator and Progressive educator Craig Kridel. Humanist Manifesto signatory, John Dewey, is celebrated at this museum along with many other progressive and socialist education leaders. In this photo, socialist revolutionary turned educator Bill Ayers is proudly displaying the 5-pointed red star of socialism and communism on his shirt, which originated as an emblem for the former Soviet Union. On communist China’s flag, red represents revolution, while the large star represents communism.  Clearly, he is sending a strong message by wearing this shirt.

Progressive Education Project

Kridel and Bullough co-wrote a book together entitled “Stories of the Eight-Year Study, Re-examining Secondary Education in America.” John Goodlad wrote the forward which described the book as a primer to the Progressive Education Association (PEA) project. Bill Ayers is thanked in the acknowledgements and calls the book “a handbook for action. Stories of the Eight Year Study is the most important education book to appear in years.”

The book describes “shifting the focus from the child to the teacher-pupil relationship.” “Exploration and experimentation” are encouraged in high schools and universities to introduce progressive programs of study while in one study students were tested and followed throughout college. “Increased freedom was granted to experiment with the basic structure of schooling, but teachers and administrators were still held responsible for the quality of their academic programs.”

Our Children are their Guinea Pigs

Were you aware that our children are the experimental guinea pigs of the Progressive education movement and that instead of using tried and true methods of learning our district is encouraged to experiment with our children’s education as long as they push a democracy agenda? So this is why ASD stated on their original Mission Statement page that every single teacher, whether over P.E., arts, science, music, math or language, has as their first priority teaching democracy. This is why the district continues the failed Investigations Math program and Balanced Math instead of choosing successful math programs such as Saxon or Singapore which are proven to improve a child’s math skills. These experimental programs forced by the district put our good teachers in a terrible spot if they have to discontinue proven teaching methods such as times tables and phonics yet are still held accountable for children’s failing grades.

ASD continues to push Goodlad’s Democracy Agenda and its 4 Moral Dimensions

Don’t be fooled because ASD has recently hid details of these programs on their website before an important election. Quietly changing words on a website or taking down a sign on a wall does not constitute real change. The Superintendent and Spokesperson Rhonda Bromley have both stated clearly that the district has no intention of changing this political direction. Vern Henshaw and his spokesperson realize Goodlad is a socialist and humanist. They still stand firmly behind Goodlad and his Agenda 100%.

News Alert: 12/7/10: Ayers says “I never denounced Weather Underground violence”

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Didn’t ASD Tell Us They Were Getting Rid of Investigations Math?

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CRT Level 1 Scores (ie. Failure rates) Dramatic Increase under Investigations MathAfter 6 years of thousands of parents protesting Investigations math, ASD finally announced they were dropping the program. This period from 2001-2007 only ended when Orem city threatened to form their own school district and put a measure on the ballot to ask citizens if they wanted to pursue it. ASD administration was at that public meeting and announced they were dropping Investigations math and giving every school a choice between a traditional and “standards-based” (Investigations style) program.

What actually happened was the district pushed two standards-based programs (not the choice they promised) and ASD really pushed for Scott Foresman Addison-Wesley (SFAW). Why? Because SFAW has a direct integration plan with Investigations math and after all the schools were “taken off” Investigations math, the district gave all the elementary school teachers an Investigations math teacher guide the week before school and told them they could use whichever text they deemed useful to the students. As a result, many teachers chose to just use Investigations math.

When asked why some teachers are just using Investigations math, the district denies it and says they are using “balanced math.” Unfortunately, there is no curriculum called “balanced math” and when asked to define the balance they are at a loss.

In October 2007 State Superintendent Patti Harrington announced that Investigations math was being removed from the state approved list because it was an inadequate program. (Listen here)

The state office also condemned Connected math as inadequate (link).

Connected math is used in ASD from grades 6-9. The district has never attempted to balance this program even though federal studies from the What Works Clearinghouse have shown it to actually have a negative effect on children’s education (link).

ASD uses Integrated math in grades 10-12 which is also based on the constructivist approach and they haven’t done anything to bring balance to this program either.

Numerous things could be said about the detrimental effects of a fully constructivist program including the fact that NO studies have ever been shown to support this approach to teaching math (link).

In fact, after years of telling patrons that “all the studies show this is the best way to teach math,” I filed a GRAMA request with the district to get them to provide a copy of the studies they used to support the implementation of the program and they couldn’t produce a single study (link).

For an in-depth look at how the Department of Education has been deliberately dumbing down America through programs like these, please check out Charlotte Iserbyt’s free to download pdf book “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America” where she identifies John Goodlad as “America’s premier change agent” for pushing us toward socialism.

Now we can see why the federal department of education completely ignored the results of Project Follow-Through (link), which was the largest education study ever performed in our country. It conclusively showed that direct instruction was a success, and constructivism was an utter failure. After the study, the socialists at the Dept. of Education determined that rather than promote what worked and how it could be improved, they would take the worst programs and toss billions of dollars into promoting them to schools. Look at the graph on that link and you’ll find the horrid effects of programs like whole language, discovery learning, and so called “developmentally appropriate practices.” (This information has all been provided to the ASD School Board and they have ignored it)

If you don’t know much about constructivism, you can check out this link which explains more about its background and the dangerous nature of the philosophy. In the words of Michael Matthews of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia,

“Given the influence of constructivism on education reform, teacher education, curriculum development and pedagogy, it is important to be clear about just what are, and are not, the epistemological commitments of constructivism.  And what relationship these commitments have, if any, to classroom practice.  The history of education is littered with ‘ideas that seemed good at the time’, but whose enactment caused educational and cultural havoc.  Constructivism has all the earmarks of being such an idea.”

Now this school year, 2010-2011, parents are very disturbed to find that ASD can’t seem to shake their infatuation with Investigations math. Since this approach to math is promoted by John Goodlad and his organization, our district administration won’t get rid of it since 2 of our administrators have been given nationwide “AED Scholar” status by John Goodlad (Agenda for Education in a Democracy). In the entire country there are only 30 such scholars, but in Utah county, we have 4 of them. ASD Superintendent Vern Henshaw and ASD curriculum specialist Barry Graff directly influence things in this district. Two more are at the McKay School of Education at BYU with one being Steve Baugh, the former superintendent of ASD who first brought constructivist math to this district. ASD has continued to make teacher professional development 100% Investigations based and now they are pushing it back into the schools.

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Your School might be an Indoctrination Center if…

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-If you hear “you’re the only parent that has ever complained about the program”

-If your school board believes in, encourages, and defends their right to “enculturate“ your children into a social democracy

-If the district mission statement page mentions the word democracy 13 times but academics 0

-If the person the district deems to be the expert on whether America is a Democracy or a Republic also believes that Christ is a Vampire

-If over 200 parents show up peacefully at a board meeting to express their concerns about their children’s education and the board refers to them as a small special interest group who they won’t bow down to

-If your child’s teacher gives an assignment to name the kinds of governments around the world and Republic is not an option

-If your child has to write an essay entitled “Education in a Democracy”

-If your child is told that the book “The 5000 Year Leap“ with quotes from Founding Fathers is “pure science fiction”

-If your child knows that America is a Republic, but his history teacher argues with the child in front of the class that we live in a Democracy

-If your district uses every experimental education method but not the ones proven to work

-If the teachers and employees jobs are threatened if they speak out against failed district policies

-If a teacher tells the class that there are 3 ways to communicate: 1) like a child in which you throw tantrums and cry, 2) like a parent in which you yell, threaten and give orders, and 3) like an adult in which you can be any age as long as you communicate calmly, listen attentively, and weigh the options (unlike parents…)

-If the district claims we live in a democracy where everyone has a voice and then silences all opposition

-If all school books are kept at school and not allowed home

-If administrators stress the need for critical thinking yet students and parents aren’t allowed to question the school’s political agenda

-If your 5 year old kindergarten son is told he has critical thinking problems and possible long term learning problems because he doesn’t like to color

-If your school’s hallways are filled with posters and quotations from humanists, atheists, agnostics and homosexuals, and NOT from the Founding Fathers or other moral leaders

-If your child is asked to write a detailed essay on how to kill their best friend

-If your child is given an assignment that everyone in the world is going to die and they have to decide which 100 people will be allowed to live and why

-If your school celebrates Ramadan, Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo and Traditions Around the World, but can’t sing Frosty the Snowman at the Winter Choir Concert

-If your district decides to sponsor their own candidate for the Board of Education because the existing Board Member represents parental concerns and not the district agenda

-If your superintendent is a member of the executive board of a socialist organization whose keynote speaker at the next conference is Bill Ayers

-If your child is excelling and bored in class but is not allowed to go ahead in his studies

-If numerous parents go in to complain about the math program and the same district math specialist tells all of them, “you’re the only parent that has ever complained”

-If your child has to read stories about social inequality and is made to feel guilty about living in a nice neighborhood and having 3 meals a day

-If reading, writing and arithmetic have been substituted with “The New Three R’s: Reflection, Responsibility, Renewal”

-If after reading this list you realize that you don’t really know much about your “non-partisan” school board member

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Alpine School District – The Good, Bad and Ugly

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What’s right about Alpine School District?

We have some awesome teachers who are doing the best they can in spite of a district administration that has at times threatened their contracts and forced them into bad ideas like not being allowed to teach the times tables to children. We also have very involved parents who spend countless hours helping the district with clubs and organizations and in the classrooms.

What’s wrong with Alpine School District?

Almost everyone knows about the Investigations math fiasco where ASD removed the times tables and long division for 3 years. Not everyone knows the administration threatened teachers’ contracts and told multiple parents “you’re the only parent that has ever complained.” Not everyone knows that when ASD said they replaced the program, they didn’t.  Investigations math is still being used as the primary curriculum in some schools and professional development programs for teachers are based in Investigations math philosophy.

The latest issue relates to the humanist/socialist/atheist consultant with whom ASD works named John Goodlad. Here’s a few of Goodlad’s “Agenda” items:

  • “Most youth still hold the same values of their parents… if we do not alter this pattern, if we don’t resocialize, our system will decay.” (1)
  • “Parents do not own their children. They have no ‘natural right’ to control their education fully.” (2)
  • “The curriculum of the future ‘will be what one might call the humanistic curriculum.’” (3)
  • “Enlightened social engineering is required to face situations that demand global action now.” (4)
  • “…the state we should strive for is better described in Deweyan terms as a social democracy.” (5)
  • “…educators must resist the quest for certainty.  If there were certainty there would be no scientific advancement. So it is with morals and patriotism.” (6)
  • “Education is a task for both parents and state. The state, parents, and children all have interests that must be protected.” (7)

Do these match our community values and standards? Is this the type of person you want consulting with our district? Goodlad has been one of the driving “change agents” to convince the public that there are multiple “stakeholders” in a child’s education experience. This is a lie. There is only one stakeholder in an education system, and that is the parent who takes the risk of passing their child’s education off to a school system they don’t or can’t closely monitor. Teachers, administrators and others in the system are not a stakeholder in our families. The responsibility to teach our children is a parental right and duty. We are just looking for the school system to help us give them a great set of academic knowledge, not to experience “enlightened social engineering” as Goodlad and others want.

Did you know that out of Goodlad’s 30 ”Agenda for Education in a Democracy Scholars” ( these are national figures he considers to be fully trained in his agenda ), that 4 are in Utah county?  Two of them are administrators in the Alpine School District, 1 of them is a former superintendent of ASD who now works for the McKay School of Education (MSE) at BYU, and 1 of them is another MSE professor? That’s an amazing percentage of these “scholars” that are training our teachers.

Education today isn’t like it was a century ago. More money and more research haven’t gotten us better education. In fact, the evidence points in the opposite direction. The U.S. has fallen in international math scores to below countries like Hungary and Estonia. Why? It’s a result of individuals who have risen to power in the educational community that have an agenda to transform our values and they have convinced too many local administrators that “all the studies show this is the best way to teach.”

What is the philosophy behind today’s education movement? Here are a few quotes which will hopefully turn your head.  Before reading the first quote it may be helpful for you to know that on ASD’s website we learn their 3rd principle for a quality instructional design is “An emphasis is placed on both essential knowledge and skills and higher order thinking skills are expected across the curriculum.”

(http://www.alpine.k12.ut.us/phpApps/genericPage.php?pdid=1102)

“…a student attains ‘higher order thinking’ when he no longer believes in right or wrong“. “A large part of what we call good teaching is a teacher´s ability to obtain affective objectives by challenging the student’s fixed beliefs. …a large part of what we call teaching is that the teacher should be able to use education to reorganize a child’s thoughts, attitudes, and feelings.” – Benjamin Bloom, psychologist and educational theorist, in “Major Categories in the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives”, p. 185, 1956

“This is the idea where we drop subject matter and we drop Carnegie Unites (grading from A-F) and we just let students find their way, keeping them in school until they manifest the politically correct attitudes. You see, one of the effects of self-esteem (Values Clarification) programs is that you are no longer obliged to tell the truth if you don’t feel like it. You don’t have to tell the truth because if the truth you have to tell is about your own failure then your self-esteem will go down and that is unthinkable.”- Dr. William Coulson, explaining Outcome Based Education (OBE)-1964

“Every child in America entering school at the age of five is insane because he comes to school with certain allegiances to our founding fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural being, and toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It’s up to you as teachers to make all these sick children well – by creating the international child of the future”- Dr. Chester M. Pierce, Harvard Professor of Education and Psychiatry, address to the Childhood International Education Seminar, 1973

These are the people that are shaping the way our education system works. John Goodlad believes all these philosophies and has formed a national organization to help push these things into our school systems.

Did you know that Goodlad’s organization, the NNER (National Network for Educational Renewal) has actively tried to push the homosexual agenda into BYU? Did you know that for YEARS both the ASD and the MSE administrators have actively participated in Goodlad’s annual conferences? Last year they helped organize the national conference, served on panels, and made several presentations. Did you know that Bill Ayers, the Weather Underground terrorist will be the keynote speaker at the October 2010 NNER conference?

What is the solution? The school board has proven themselves ineffective at digging into the issues. They defend the district policies and positions rather than represent the interests of parents. Issues like these are swept under the rug with statements like, “oh come on, this is Utah county, the most conservative county in the most conservative state. It can’t be happening here.” Oh really?

If you think it can’t happen here, think again. Did you know these are some of the assignments our children in ASD have been given?

  • Write an essay on how to kill your best friend.
  • Everyone in the world is going to die and you have to decide which 100 people will be allowed to live and why
  • Name the kinds of governments around the world (republic is not listed as an option)
  • Write an essay entitled “Education in a Democracy” (not a republic)
  • A teacher tells the class that there are 3 ways to communicate: 1) like a child in which you throw tantrums and cry, 2) like a parent in which you yell, threaten and give orders, and 3) like an adult in which you can be any age as long as you communicate calmly, listen attentively, and weigh the options (unlike parents…)

We invite you to get informed by reading more on this website about things happening in the district. Please pass this information on to others. Please go and vote. There is only one incumbent that has proven to represent parents in the district and so the district pressed a retired ASD administrator to run against him so they can eliminate the one “resistor” on the board who doesn’t bow to their agenda.

Our Founding Fathers wanted an informed populace, but they wanted it through locally controlled and funded schools. Karl Marx wanted free government education for everyone in order to train children to be good little wards of the state. Which do you want? Did you know that the federal government funds 9% of our school system in Utah which gives them 100% control over the agenda? Do you know which board candidates support additional local control? Do you know which candidates will move the direction of the district in a path that helps our children better understand the constitution and preserve the liberties we enjoy in this country? Please get informed…and then vote.

Goodlad Footnotes
  1. John Goodlad, “Report of Task Force C: Strategies for Change,” Schooling for the Future, a report to the President’s Commission on Schools Finance, Issue #9, 1971
  2. John Goodlad, Roger Soder & Timothy McMannon, “Developing Democratic Character in the Young”, pg. 164
  3. John Goodlad, “Directions of Curriculum Change”, The NEA Journal, March 1966
  4. John Goodlad, “Schooling for a Global Age,” pg. xiii
  5. John Goodlad, “Developing Democratic Character in the Young”, 2001, pg. 153
  6. John Goodlad, Corinne Mantle-Bromley, Stephen John Goodlad, “Education for Everyone: Agenda for Education in a Democracy”, Woods Learning Center, pg. 6
  7. John Goodlad, “Developing Democratic Character in the Young”, 2001, pg. 164

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