Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education
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3. Contributing to the expansion of world trade; and 4. Building bridges across the Atlantic.
With little or no national debate the United States is committed to become the Eu ropean Union’s “partner” in solving most of the world’s problems. Only the enlargement of NATO receives wide coverage. (On September 9, 1997, 133 of the United States’ “leading foreign policy experts and statesmen” signed the New Atlantic Initiative Statement on NATO enlargement. These signers cover a broad range of America’s well-known nationalists and internationalists. John O’Sullivan, editor of William F. Buckley’s “conservative” journal National Review , resigned his position to become founder and co-chairman of the New Atlantic Initiative.) D ECEMBER 21, 1995: W ASHINGTON , D.C .—Dr. Joseph Duffey, Director of the United States Information Agency (USIA) and Mr. Jeronimo Saavedra Acevedo, minister of science and education of Spain, signed an agreement between the United States of America (U.S.) and the European Community (EC) establishing a cooperation programme in higher education and vocational education and training. This agreement is in keeping with the fourth NTA objective—”Building bridges across the Atlantic”—and establishes a “formal basis for the conduct of cooperative activities in higher education and vocational education and train ing.” The annex of this seven page Agreement reveals that the US/EC will form a consortia to support education institutions and vocational training establishments undertaking joint projects. Each consortium will be supported by seed funding and will mutually agree upon eligible subject areas. Activities eligible for support may include: frameworks for student mobility, including work placement; structured exchanges of students, teachers, trainers, and administrators; joint development of innovative curricula; and transatlantic coopera tion. Among other things too numerous to mention here, the joint consortia projects will be made available for the use of “a wider audience.” No longer called citizens , the Agreement acknowledges “the crucial contributions of education and training for the development of human resources capable of participating in the global knowledge-based economy.” [em phasis in original] By 1996 grants were already being given to US colleges and universities for such projects as: “Global Dimensions in Health Care;” “Atlas”—a project for environmental management; and “US/EU Export Development Program,” a feature of which is the use of student mobility, “not just for academic purposes, but also as part of an export development program designed to facilitate more transatlantic trade for local business and industry.” Another very interestingly named project, given out to seven different American institutions, is called “Work World 2000: An International Strategy for School-to-Work Transitions.” Using simulations of both American and European workplaces and company models, students will learn the structures of international business and follow up with transatlantic exchanges and internships. D ECEMBER 1995: B RUSSELS , B ELGIUM —Representatives from the nations of the European Union release their study group report called Accomplishing Europe through Education and Training . For Americans to understand the inherent dangers of throwing in our lot with the social istic states of Europe, especially in the field of education, this report needs to be studied in depth. It’s no secret that some conservatives in the U.S. believe that a European education is far superior to what has been offered in our public education system in the last thirty years. And this may be right, at least academically. On the other hand, there are those who believe many of the “innovations” we are plagued with, such as sex education, originated in Europe, especially in England. One European group doing studies on “multi-media” mate rials complains that most of the educational software in the EU comes from the US. So, it is difficult to know for certain which continent created the propaganda horrors inflicted on our children today in the classrooms of our respective countries. But whatever the truth, much
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