The National Education Association meets every year for a big national convention in some city or other and teachers from all over the country show up for this event.

An agenda is usually presented showing all the things nationally that the NEA is either for or against. In the past several years they have presented agendas that Hugo Chavez, Marxist dictator of Venezuela, would love. Many of the issues they choose to address have little or nothing to do with education, but everything to do with their leftist worldview.

While many have heard of the NEA they don’t have any idea of how long it has been around or what it really does, only that many of their kids’ teachers belong to it, and the compliant media, when it reports on NEA conventions, is not about to give out anymore real information than it has to. In all fairness to public school teachers, there are some that are not in favor of what this “teachers union” does, but their opposition is generally ignored or ridiculed.

I knew a man in Indiana several years ago that was a public school teacher, one that really tried to educate kids. He was not in favor of a strike the teachers union wanted to engage in, and so when they struck he continued to go to school and attempt to teach. His fellow teachers, in characteristic acts of teacher-union charity, splashed black paint all over his white car and when that didn’t keep him away they slashed his four new tires for him. These are the kinds of things about teachers unions you won’t read about in the papers or hear on the nightly “news.” The media usually tries to paint the teachers unions as champions of “quality education” for the young and downtrodden. That assessment of teachers unions has about as much validity as that black paint they splashed all over my friend’s white car.

Samuel Blumenfeld, in his informative book NEA–Trojan Horse in American Education has given us a view of the NEA that is seldom presented in other places and is almost never available to the American public at large. Blumenfeld noted on page 13 of his book that: “It was…in 1829 that Josiah Holbrook launched the Lyceum movement to organize the educators of America into a powerful lobby for public education. Was Holbrook a covert Owenite? (disciple of socialist Robert Owen). Circumstantial evidence seems to indicate that he was. And if the socialists decided to further their cause through the instrument of public education, we can then understand why the system has had such a pro-socialist bias for as long as anyone can remember. Indeed, public education was to become the socialists’ primary instrument for promoting socialism.”

Also, in 1829, radical socialist and feminist Frances Wright lectured in this country. She spoke in favor of a national system of education–and who was to be the beneficiary of that system? The students? Hardly! In speaking of public education Ms. Wright said, quite forthrightly “That measure–you know it. It is national, rational, republican education, free for all at the expense of all; conducted under the guardianship of the state, at the expense of the state, for the honor, the happiness, the virtue, the salvation of the state.” That’s quite a mouthful of socialist dogma. Karl Marx would have loved it. Maybe he did. Frances Wright, after all, was a little ahead of him in promoting “Free education for all children in public schools.”

Remember now, we are talking about events that happened in 1829–not 1929, but 1829–a mere forty-two years after the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. That’s a pretty early date for subversion in this country when most folks have been taught to believe this country never had any real problems in that area until FDR got into office. We need to go back and revise our historical calendars by about a century.

Blumenfeld has informed us that: “The NEA was founded in 1857 at a meeting in Philadelphia called by the presidents of ten state teachers associations…Thomas W. Valentine, president of the New York Teachers Association, told the gathering…’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 continued: “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 socialists didn’t get what they wanted right away, but they never quit working toward it and planning for it. Jimmy Carter finally gave it to them during his one-term presidency in the late 1970s as a payback for teacher union support during his election. Ronald Reagan claimed he wanted to disband it, but, somehow, he never quite got around to it. Trouble is, the Constitution, as flawed as it is, gave the federal government absolutely NO role to play in education in this country, so the feds just usurped the power and did it anyway. Few people dared to complain. After all, it was “for the kids” right? Right? Well, not exactly.

Originally the organization was called the National Teachers Association but, according to Blumenfeld, in 1870 the name was chanted to the National Education Association and membership was opened to include “any person in any way connected with the work of education.” Shortly, the NEA became the “forum” where all the educational issues of the day were dealt with–public vs.private education, the role of government in education, religious educations vs. secular (humanist) education and others. And Blumenfeld has noted that these problems remain with us even today “just as insoluble now as they were then.”

~ Part Two ~

As you dig further into the socialist origins of both the public school system and the National Education Association you learn more and more about the socialist direction public education has always taken in this country–if you are willing to look.

If folks want to check some of this out on their own rather than just taking my word for it, do a Google search on “The National Education Association and Socialism.” You will find a batch of sites that will give you more information than I ever could. You won’t enjoy reading much of it, especially if your kids are in public schools and you begin to realize what is being done to them in the name of “education” but maybe, just maybe, you will learn enough to begin to ask the Lord what different direction you should take with educating your children. Their education is, after all, your responsibility, not that of a government “school” system.

Many of you have heard of John Dewey, one of the giants of public education in the 20th century. His name is to 20th century public education what Horace Mann’s name was to 19th century public education. But, as most folks didn’t have a clue that Horace Mann was a Unitarian (and still don’t) so most folks didn’t and still don’t have a clue that John Dewey was an atheist, a socialist, and just happened to belong to fifteen different Marxist front organizations, as well as being a co-author of the Humanist Manifesto. Dewey had an “interesting” education philosophy which should give parents no comfort. He said: “You can’t make socialists out of individualists. Children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society, which is coming, where everyone is interdependent.” Look at what he said. With a statement like that do you wonder why the minions of both the NEA and the government school system hate homeschoolers so much? Most homeschoolers learn to think independently, at least to some degree. Therefore, they will ask questions; they will even question authority where they feel it is right to do so. So they won’t fit easily into the socialist collective that public education and big government are planning for us. They will not go easily into the New World Order, but will question and resist–therefore they must be suppressed at every opportunity that the “socialist collective” may flourish.

Back in 1936 the NEA stated a position from which it has never retreated. It said: “We stand for socializing the individual…The major function of the school is the social orientation of the individual…Education must operate according to a well-formulated social policy.” Notice that this statement did not say that education was a major function of the public school. because it never has been, but rather “social orientation.” That statement, alone, should tell you what the public school system is really all about, and folks, it ain’t education!

If you think the public schools will be responsive to your desires for your kids’ education then you may be a prime candidate for belief in either the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, or both. Paul Haubner, an NEA specialist, has informed us that “The schools cannot allow parents to influence the kinds of values-education their children receive in school…that is what is wrong with those who say there is a universal system of values. Our goals are incompatible with theirs. We must change their values.” This is a main reason why the public school system and the various levels of government in Kanawha County, West Virginia reacted so violently toward the parents who protested their use of mind-bending curriculum in the public schools there. The parents wanted to preserve, for their children, their Christian ideals and worldview–it was the public school system’s job to destroy that, and when the parents protested, the system reacted, often with violence, which they then tried to blame on the protesters. Christian ideals are not in line with what the schools have for an agenda and so must be put down in whatever way possible.

If you think you will get any help in this area from the politicians, think again. Years ago now, former Nebraska state senator Peter Hoagland said that: “Fundamentalist parents have no right to indoctrinate their children in their beliefs. We are preparing their children for the year 2000 and life in a global one-world society and those children will not fit in.” Neither will the homeschoolers–thank the Lord! Government will not help you. With your kids’ education, it is your adversary. It is part of the One-World problem. The public schools are, after all, government schools. The Biographical Dictionary of the Left , was published in 1971. It has a list of leftist organizations in it. One of them is the National Education Association. Their article on the NEA states: “The 1954 House Special Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations called attention to the NEA;s sponsorship of the “Building America” series of textbooks. The “Building America” series was written by Harold O. Rugg, one of the most prominent disciples of John Dewey. Rugg’s pro-socialist bias had been plainly evidenced in his 1933 “The Great Technology” a guide for teachers. Rugg advised teachers that the United States must have a government with all-pervading powers to plan and run the lives of the people and the nation’s economy. The teachers’ role would be to prepare ‘a new public mind’ for ‘a new social order’.” Rugg was financed with Rockefeller money to help accomplish this.

I hope you have noticed that, through all of this, there is almost no emphasis on real education, but every emphasis on changing the values of the students away from what their parents have taught them. I think, in their minds, these people are “god” and they actually believe you have no right to teach your kids your values–when the Scriptures plainly command you to do so. In their thinking the Humanist Manifesto is the new “revealed truth” and your Holy Scriptures and your God are out of date.

Folks, the solution to this situation is obvious–it isn’t to join the PTA and work to “reform the schools.” That will never happen. Don’t kid yourself. You need to get your kids out of these humanist seminaries. The statements their own people make should convince you where they are trying to take your kids, and I don’t know about you, but where they wanted to take our kids we didn’t want our kids to go and so they got private Christian education both in Christian schools and at home–much to the consternation of some of the people who attended the church we went to at the time. After seeing much of what happened in West Virginia, the idea of public school “reform” is a sick joke.

The NEA fits comfortably into this educational pantheon of leftist gods. They are, after all, one group that has donated money to such groups as The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and the National Council of La Raza (the race)–all leftist groups.

I would urge people to check out the web site for Exodus Mandate and find out about their new DVD IndoctriNation, which shows you up close and personal what is really going on in public schools and the NEA, and why it is imperative that you get your kids out.

Previously published on the Federal Observer in December 2011.

Mr. Benson is a highly respected scholar and writer and has graciously allowed Metropolis Café to publish his works. We are proud to have his involvement with this project.

~ The Author ~
Al Benson Jr. is the editor and publisher of “The Copperhead Chronicle“, a quarterly newsletter that presents history from a pro-Southern and Christian perspective. He has written for several publications over the years. His articles have appeared in “The National Educator,” “The Free Magnolia,” and the “Southern Patriot.” I addition to that he was the editor of, and wrote for, “The Christian Educator” for several years. In addition to The Copperhead Chronicles, Al also maintains Revised History.

He is currently a member of the Confederate Society of America and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and has, in the past, been a member of the John Birch Society. He is the co-author, along with Walter D. Kennedy, of the book “Lincoln’s Marxists” and he has written for several Internet sites as well as authoring a series of booklets, with tests, dealing with the War of Northern Aggression, for home school students.

He and his wife now live in northern Louisiana.