Probably most of us have seen those sweet and subtle adds on television about the National Education Association and their supposed dedication to educating the children of America. I hate to be the bearer of negative news — but they are all hogwash!
Most folks who believe this drivel do so uncritically, never even having considered that any of this could be subtle propaganda to encourage them to keep their kids in the government school system which mal-nourishes them educationally but keeps the teachers’ unions fat and happy.
The NEA has been around a long time — founded at a meeting in Philadelphia in 1857 — that’s even before the start of the War of Northern Aggression, so the propagandizing of students is hardly a new thing in this country. It’s been in vogue since your great granddaddy was alive. According to Sam Blumenfeld in NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, Thomas W. Valentine, president of the New York Teachers Association, told people at a meeting that: “What we want is an association that shall embrace all the teachers of our whole country… I trust the time will come when our government will have its educational department just as it now has one for agriculture, for the interior, for the navy, etc.” Blumenfeld noted “Thus it should come as no surprise that the call for a federal department of education was made at the very first organizational meeting. The Prussians had a Ministry of Education, so why shouldn’t Americans have one as well?” This was the mindset in 1857. So where were those “good old days” that people so fondly talk about with public education? Let’s be honest and start to admit they didn’t exist.
And let’s don’t kid ourselves that the NEA or any of these teachers unions really has the educational interests of families at heart. Thomas Sowell in Inside American Education has observed that: “At both the national and state and local levels, the NEA has vast sums of money available for political purposes and for propaganda campaigns to get the public to see the world as the NEA sees it—for example, to equate bigger school budgets with better education…As NEA President Mary Hatwood Futrell put it: ‘The Nation’s students today are threatened only by the failure of policymakers to give education the money it deserves.’ In pursuit of that money, the NEA has become a political power, as well as the largest labor union in the country. In Minnesota, for example, the state affiliates of the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers together often contribute more money to politicians running for statewide office than all other political organizations in the state put together.” So, when push comes to shove, for the teachers unions, it’s not really about education—it’s about money and political power, and anyone telling you different is just throwing fairy dust in your eyes!
Recently, I picked up a book called Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind written by Mallory Factor, a professor of International Politics and American Government at The Citadel. On page 120 of the book is a section called Teachers Unions Dominate Politics. Professor Factor says here, in part, “If you are surprised by the connections between teachers unions and politics, don’t be. Teachers unions, like all government employee unions, survive only by putting their loyal friends in our government. The degree to which teachers unions influence state politics is so extreme that in many states ‘the legislatures, no less than the educational bureaucracies, function as wholly owned subsidiary of the teacher’s union’ according to one education commentator. Nationally, teachers unions have political operatives in every congressional district in the United States…These operatives are the backbone of the Democrat Party machine. They manage turn-out-the-vote efforts in local school board elections and Presidential elections alike…Because few local taxpayers pay close attention to school board elections, for example, teachers unions elect their candidates almost every time.” So what chance to parents have that are really concerned about valid educational issues and public school agendas they are in disagreement with? About as much chance as a snowball in hell!
And Professor Factor has noted that: “The teachers unions even set up front groups ‘to give the impression of public support of NEA policies,’ reports Phyllis Schlafly. Often these faux-independent educational associations are funded by teachers union funds and staffed by current or former teachers union officials, but present themselves as nonpartisan, pro-education groups.” This is the same principle used by many Communist front groups, operated exactly the same way.
So what are those people teaching your kids in government schools? Well, a former governor of Wisconsin, Jim Doyle, signed into law a bill that required “labor history and collective bargaining” be taught in public schools in Wisconsin. The kids can barely read and write in some cases, but they will be taught how to bargain collectively. How enlightening! And then, in California, the teachers unions have what is called a Labor in the Schools Committee and that worthy group promotes “educating K-12 students about the role and contributions of unions and the labor movement to American society.”
Professor Factor stated, on page 130 that: “Late Socialist and leftist historian Howard Zinn was a huge proponent of just this sort of indoctrination of schoolchildren. ‘If teacher unions want to be strong and well-supported’ he wrote, ‘it’s essential that they not only be teacher-unionists but teachers of unionism. We need to create a generation of students who support teachers and the movement of teachers for their rights.” And Factor noted “What a great self-serving idea — and the teachers unions have taken it to heart.” Have any of you all noted, in recent years, pictures on the television “news” of teachers on strike for better pay (just before school starts in the Fall) and the fact that many students are out there supporting what the teachers want? I’ve noted it on newscasts from several cities. Socialist Howard Zinn’s agenda in action by teachers!
This is a big part of what your kids are being propagandized with in government schools, along with the Death Education, Sex Education, Global Warming propaganda and anti-Second Amendment propaganda. This is what passes for education in the government school system.
And the only way for Christian people to really deal with this is to remove their kids from the government school system. If you try to fight them by “reforming” the schools or some other such program you are wasting your time, effort, and your kids’ souls. The people in Kanawha County, West Virginia found that out forty years ago. Only by removing your kids from that system and either finding Christian schools you can support or by teaching them at home will you avoid your kids being caught up in this propagandized meat grinder we call public education. Here again, I am not knocking every public school teacher out there—there are and have been some good ones—but the system they are part of his been anti-Christian and socialist since the 1830s not 1930s but 1830s! Let that date begin to sink in.
~ The Author ~
The above was written and originally published by Al Benson Jr. on his Blog Revised History on May 24, 2015. Mr. Benson is a highly respected scholar and writer and has graciously allowed Metropolis Café to reprint his works. We are glad to have his involvement with this project.