Below is a list of the speakers at the 21st Educational Policy Conference, sponsored by the Constitutional Coalition http://www.constitutionalcoalition.org/ and held in St. Louis, MO, Feb. 4-6, 2010.
What follows are some gleanings from the notes I took on each speaker. Each one was highly informative and I was honored to be among them. The EPC is unique in its focus. If you have a concern for the way America’s educational system is impacting our nation’s children, you should consider attending next year, when EPC22 will held the last weekend in January in St. Louis.
Michael Medved: “Lies About America that Must Stop”
“Our country is moving toward the right because in general conservatives are happier!”
Phyllis Schlafly: “Child Abuse in the Classroom”
“Public schools are the biggest cultural influence in our country today.”
Ted Baehr: “Faulty Reasoning, Film, Michael Moore and Economics”
“The more intelligent a child is, the more they pick up on what the media is teaching.”
Startling stat: the percentage of children abandoning their parents’ values is 90%
Ann McElhinny: producer of “Not Evil, Just Wrong”
“Liberalism is a default position for ‘nice people.’”
“Public schools are teaching a ‘green’ religion.”
Sen. Jane Cunningham: “Bullying Gone too Far”
Classroom abuse has expanded from indoctrination to sexual abuse. An AP study found sexual abuse in the classroom is 6 times more prevalent than in the priesthood.
Emily Landis: “PC on Campus”
“Once you’ve justified appeasing your professor for the sake of a grade, it’s easier to compromise in other situations.”
“Over 70% of campuses have policies that infringe on students rights,” according to FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education).
David Horowitz: “Teaching Revolution on College Campus”
“Leftists, (contrary to Ann McElhinny) mean and nasty people and environmentalism is evil!”
“Every school system is controlled by liberal progressives in major cities. They are destroying the lives of children.”
In the war for our civilization there are three battlefront: Terrorist armies, our borders, and the schools, and we’re losing the latter.
Dr. Robert Littlejohn: “Teaching not WHAT but HOW to think!”
Effective education includes: didactic instruction, coaching (coming alongside), and Socratic dialogue.
90% of what’s happening in our schools is enculturation, not education.
Hon. Debi Demein: “Federal vs. State School Boards”
The Federal Government is “nudging” states into making educational decisions by using regulations and incentives. They are not passing legislation—that’s too difficult and time-consuming.
Dr. Miriam Grossman: “You are Teaching My Children WHAT?”
There is a sex ed industry in the U.S. SIECUS and Planned Parenthood are promoting behaviors that lead to sexual disease. Their priority is sexual freedom. Sex ed is a social movement. It is based in a dream of a society without sexual taboos that is free of Judeo-Christian morality.
Karen England: “California’s Mandated Sexual Diversity”
California now has mandatory K-5 diversity curriculum under the guise that it’s anti-bullying and promoting “safe schools.” There is no opt-out provision for parents; they are considered the problem, because they are bigoted. “They can have that viewpoint (opposing homosexuality), but they have to leave it at home,” said one school official.
Dr. Patrick Fagan: “What Research Shows About Sexual Diversity and Marriage”
What we are engaged in is more than a “culture war.” It’s a war of civilizations. Western civilization is premised on monogamy. Monogamy is under attack by those advocating “polyandry.”
Those who want to eliminate every obstacle to a socialist state are trying to get adolescents sexually active—doing so destroys both the family and church, which Engels saw as the primary obstacles to a socialist state.
Dr. Karen Gushta: “Stopping the War on Children: Moral Education to Build a Moral Nation
To be virtuous, a nation must have virtuous leaders. If we are to have virtuous leaders, we must teach them to value sanctity of life. Parents must shape their children’s moral consciences. Our nation must recognize God’s covenant relationship with His creation and with His people—which was the foundation for the freedoms established by our Founders.
Sherrie Drury: “How and Why Biblical Sexuality”
Sex foreshadows the intimacy we will have with Jesus in heaven. We’ve gotten away from God’s good plan for sex in marriage. Women are trying to conform to cultural values, resulting in eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression.
Glenn Beck: “Empowering the Individual, Reconnecting with America”
“We’ve been endowed with rights. We’ve been granted these rights. We’re the protectors of these rights, and if we lose them, there will be eternal consequences.”
“Each of us has a role to play. You must find your role. You’ve been born at this time in this country.”
“Are we a nation of people, who, as George Washington said, ‘respect the law?’ We are a nation of laws, not men.”
“Don’t take away my right to give until it hurts, and not give because it hurts.”
“This land is meant for something special—I don’t know what for, but God protected this land for a very long time until the Pilgrims came.”
“In 1821 Jefferson and Adams knew they had failed to put enough of Deuteronomy into the Constitution, but they thought we would get it right.”
“America is at a crossroads.”
“God is a good God—He loves us and wants us to be free. He is not going to trap us.”
Michele Bachman: “Fundamentals of a Good Education that Will Keep Us Free and Strong.”
“Now we have gangster government… This is dispiriting Americans…The soft glow of change is wearing off.”
“Now in Washington, D.C., the constitution is considered optional. We need to restore our fundamentals.” “I believe we are on the road to reclaim our liberties.”
Dr. Brad Watson: “Darwin and the Progressive Assault on the Rule of Law.”
As social Darwinians began to dominate American political thinking at the end of the 19th century, the view that the Constitution is “constantly changing” and is a “living document” began to prevail. In the early 20th century the language of naturalism prevailed. Progressivism is the politicization of these doctrines.
Matthew Spaulding: “An Orderly Society: We Still Hold These Truth. . .”
“We have to capture the moment with the story of America. America’s story is unique in its founding.” Everyone came to America for a set of principles. Previously all foundings were based on will. “The principles of our founding are not forgotten, they are under attack. ‘There is a new wave of progressives who want to transform America.”
We have the choice to decline like Europe, or to rediscover our founding principles through a great renewal.
Dr. Jerry Newcombe: “Endowed by Our Creator: The Role of God in America”
“You cannot understand America without God.”
“If you remove God from the story of American history, the story makes no sense.”
“Religion was the biggest single motive to getting people to hazard all.”
Brigitte Gabriel: “One Law for One People: Textbooks, Shariah and the U.S. Constitution.”
“I speak on college campuses. . . they are occupied territories.”
There is a cultural invasion of America going on now. Unless we wake up, it will be too late.
“We pump the gas, they pump poison into hearts and minds of future generations.”
“Brainwashing is happening in universities.”
Her website: www.ActforAmerica.org
State Sen. Jim Lemke: “Sovereignty: The State and Unconstitutional Federal Dictates”
“The people created the states. The states created the federal government.”
“There has to be a paradigm shift back to the states.”
“This is our time. This may be our last chance.”
Dr. Jay Richards: “Economics: Understanding Money, Greed, and God”
Socialism appeals to legitimate moral intuitions we have; i.e., I am responsible for my fellow human beings in certain ways.
There is “socialist chic,” but you can defend free market as the best system.
In the 20th century capitalism won, but kids in colleges are still being taught socialism. The arguments have to be made anew.”
He outlines eight myths or misconceptions about economics in his book, Money, Greed, and God.
Joseph Farah: “Free Ideas: America’s Unique Freedom of the Press”
“Press and media is a vital institution if we are to achieve and grow and preserve our freedom in this country.”
The central role of the free press is to serve as a watch dog on government. Most in the press have ceased to be watch dogs and are not just lap-dogs, they see themselves as John the Baptists for big government.
The Tea Party movement is the most potent political movement he’s seen in America.
Sen. Jim Talent: “Security: The Constitutional and Moral Underpinnings of National Defense”
Go back to first principles—look at the mandatory clauses in the Preamble. “When government fails to exercise national defense, it is failing to carry out its primary task.”
“There is no parallel in the history of mankind where two generations gave their lives to preserve their freedom and the hope of freedom for others.”
America is in greater danger than in any other time in his lifetime. Sources of danger are: terrorists, rogue states, and regional superpowers.
See his article, “Sowing Wind” at www.freedomsolutions.org
Jim Cuffia: “Freedom: The Essential Liberty Project”
“Freedom without personal responsibility is anarchy; personal responsibility without freedom is tyranny.”
“Law and liberty cannot become objects of our love if they are not first objects of our knowledge.”
See the Essential Liberty Project http://essentialliberty.us/
Mark Hamby: “Literature to Create Moral Leaders”
“Moral leaders are readers. Moral readers are leaders.”
“If only 5% of N. American’s are readers, we’re entering a dark age.”
“We can’t boycott the culture. We have to make it better.”
See: Lamplighter Publishing
STOP the War on Children 