It has been a long time since we simply taught the three Rs in our schools. In fact, today we have plenty of students leaving school who are illiterate, innumerate, and generally dumbed down. That is because real education has so often been replaced with radical social activism.
Indoctrination and propaganda predominate in most schools today, and our children have become guinea pigs for the radical agendas of adults. And this is not new. A half century ago the great Malcolm Muggeridge was bemoaning the wretched state of Western education. Let me offer just two quotes from him:
“Whereas other civilisations have been brought down by attacks of barbarians from without, ours had the unique distinction of training its own destroyers at its own educational institutions, and then providing them with facilities for propagating their destructive ideology far and wide, all at the public expense.”
“Education, the great mumbo-jumbo and fraud of the age, purports to equip us to live, and is prescribed as a universal remedy for everything, from juvenile delinquency to premature senility. For the most part, it serves only to enlarge stupidity, inflate conceit, enhance credulity and put those subjected to it, at the mercy of brain-washers with printing presses, radio and television at their disposal.”
If things were bad back then, they are certainly much worse today. I have often written about the sad state of schooling in the West, and noted how social engineering seems to be at the top of the list of educational priorities. Simply think of the “Safe Schools” programs and other radical sex ed courses that are doing so much damage to our children.
With all this in mind I thought it was most interesting to see two articles side by side in today’s Herald Sun website. The one flows nicely from the other, and both deserve a mention. The first has to do with a Victorian teacher who is disgusted with the radical sexualised content she is being forced to teach her students.
She wants nothing to do with it, and she has bravely gone public and told her story. Here is how the article begins:
A Melbourne high school teacher says she would refuse to teach “lewd” material in the Victorian government’s mandatory respectful relationships program to be introduced in all state schools next year. Moira Deeming, a teacher and mother-of-three, said she was shocked by the content and would rather be fired from her job than teach such “sleazy, unnecessary drivel” to her students. Ms Deeming, 33, said educating children as young as 12 about porn and getting them to have classroom discussions about masturbation and sex was not appropriate and would not help to stop gender-based violence and discrimination as the program intended. Under the program, children as young as prep are also being introduced to same-sex relationships through children’s books, including Tango Makes Three, a tale about two male penguins who adopt a baby penguin. The book has been banned in Singapore and after parent outrage was scrapped from some school libraries in the UK and the US. It also featured in the most complained about books in America over five consecutive years for “promoting a homosexual agenda”. “I feel that this program is bullying male students and stigmatising and stereotyping them — the absolute opposite to what it is supposed to do,” she told the Sunday Herald Sun. “It really does build up stereotypes. It doesn’t tear them down. If I was asked to teach it, I couldn’t let it out of my mouth. I’d have to be fired.” Debate has raged about the content, particularly how students are taught about “male privilege” and that masculinity is associated with higher rates of violence against women, since the government made public the classroom resources of its Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships program earlier this month. The $21.8 million program, a recommendation from the royal commission into family violence, also offers explicit videos to students entering secondary school giving sexual advice in an upbeat way, including that “you don’t have to have an ‘inney’ and an ‘outey’. You can have two inneys or two outeys” to have sex.
Well done Moira Deeming – you are a champion and we need more courageous and principled teachers like you. I hope that many others will be emboldened and follow your example in speaking out about the filth and propaganda that is being rammed down the throats of our vulnerable young people.
The second article is a very good follow-up to the first. It seems, not surprisingly, that parents continue to retreat from the state school system in droves, as they look at other, better options for educating their children. They too are fed up with the status quo and desire a real education for their kids. The article opens:
Parents are sending their children to private primary schools in record numbers, with 12,000 more attending than a decade ago. Private school growth of 29 per cent means enrolments have eclipsed the state and Catholic systems, which experienced an 11 and 12 per cent increase in primary students respectively from 2006 to 2015, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show. Education experts said a rise in family income, pressure to do well in tests from an early age and guaranteeing a place at Victoria’s exclusive high schools were big reasons parents enrolled their children in private schools at prep. Waiting lists for year 7 at some exclusive schools are nearly 250 students long. University of Melbourne senior lecturer in education policy Dr Glenn Savage said increasing competition for private secondary-level places meant the move to private schools was happening earlier. Education consultant Paul O’Shannassy, of Regent Consulting, said for many parents, the junior school provided a way in to sought-after independent high schools. “More and more we are getting clients saying, ‘We’ll go whenever we can, if I don’t get them in at grade 3, there’s no hope in grade 7’,” Mr O’Shannassy said.
Of course, in addition to turning to private schools, religious schools and independent schools, many parents here and overseas are also turning to home-schooling. This is becoming a very popular option for concerned parents, and it looks to be the wave of the future in many parts of the West.
As our state schools get more and more radicalised, politicised, and sexualised, all the while dumbing down our kids, we can expect to see this mass exodus continuing. Parents want their children to know how to read and write, not be force-fed every latest cultural Marxist agenda item, including all the radical gender bender nonsense.
Frustrated parents want their children to actually get a decent education for a change. Enough is enough, and parents are voting with their feet. That is good news in my books.
The H-S article claims: “The $21.8 million program, a recommendation from the royal commission into family violence…”
but I would be surprised if the royal commission actually went to that level of detail. Would it not have recommended a funded “program to protect vulnerable children” or similar general wording?
It is not part of government’s Biblical mandate to be involved in education at all. Not even in the setting of standards or the testing of outcomes.
We badly need a simple, easy to reproduce pamphlet to hand out. Facebook and email are good but to reach people we dont know in our neighborhood and in our schools, we need a pamphlet. Does anyone know of a good simple pamphlet, easily and cheaply printed put out by a reputable organisation that knows how to deal with the legal risks? I want to hand out a pamphlet to my town and to the parents at my kids school.
Thanks Bob. There likely already are such pamphlets. Try the ACL or related groups.
Bob, contact The Australian Family Association. They are very helpful.
Teachers’ unions are to blame for much, but not all, of the madness that has overtaken education. I still belong to my union even though retired and that enabled me recently, not for the first time, to send a letter to the editor complaining about the union’s vocal support of same-sex marriage. Over the years I had many letters on feminism and other topics published and in most cases my immediate male and female colleagues agreed with what I had written. Most of my teaching years were spent on the metropolitan fringe or further out and it was noticeable that the closer to the centre of the city teachers were the more radical they appeared to be.
The minority activists of course have long kept up their attack and in the end they seem to be winning. Many teachers are being brainwashed as part of a society that is constantly under attack by people who use high-sounding ideas to promote their base and often vile agenda.
As Bill says, more academic rigour and a lot less rubbish would make for a far better system. Quite apart from Christian standards, our western societies seem to be deliberately giving up the fight for decency and integrity and almost begging our political rivals, such as Russia and China, along with Islamic countries, to come and take us and our freedoms and do what they will with us. If I were not a Christian I would despair for my children grandchildren. It’s hard not to as it is.
Wonderful Work as always, Bill!
Praise God for Teachers being brave enough to speak out + put their jobs on the line.
When Christian morals + values were questioned in a Child-care setting in a Catholic school it was time for me to move on!
God has continually blessed our Family since!
Father in Heaven, May all teachers, Christian or otherwise be empowered to speak out against the ills of this damaging program to our vulnerable children.
May their livelihoods be blessed because of this decision.
In Jesus Mighty Name We Pray,
Amen
I have been blessed lately, to be able to have become friends with a young Muslim family. A couple of weeks ago, the Father rather worriedly, asked me if a Christian School would allow a little Muslim boy to be enrolled there. I suppressed my urge to jump for joy screaming “YES< YES!!", and carefully explained that whilst he would be most welcome, he would be learning about the Christian faith and not the Muslim faith – to my surprise, this was accepted without question. I keep praying that these parents will stick to this plan and that perhaps through this they might come to know Jesus as Saviour, rather than as just a figure in the Koran. God does work in wonderful ways!!
David, the blame needs to be laid squarely at the feet of the Evangelical Church, which lead the push for Secular Free and Compulsory education in the mid t late 1800’s. The Catholic Church leaders prophesied the consequences, and resisted until they began to receive funding for their schools in the mid 20th Century.
John is absolutely correct in saying that the Civil Government has no role in education, at all. When you compromise the Word of God, you can expect nothing less than the judgment of God upon your presumption.
Is it any wonder we find our selves up against an opponent that has got all sides covered. This is no sudden deterioration in standards nor is it likely to be rectified in a hurry. It has been built in by stealth over many years. Godliness and faith in His Word has been seriously taken out of all our teaching institutions for so many years we haven’t a hope of resurrecting our Schools and Universities into acceptable places of truth and moral integrity. The teachers themselves have never been taught that way. Even our Theological Colleges have lost their way and much of the Bible is taught with doubt and cynicism so that in our Churches Ministers fail to enlighten their congregations let alone lead society in moral integrity. I recommend a powerful documentary that I recently acquired produced by Curtis Bowers called AGENDA. It shows just how this Agenda to manipulate society away from God has been purposely devised and set in motion covering many issues all for the one purpose to pull down our Western Society ie thru destroying every vestige of Christian thinking. And we know our enemy Satan is the Master of Deceit. I recommend these 2 Award winning documentaries because only as we recognise our enemy can we truly see how to defeat him. AGENDADOCUMENTARY.COM It is an American production and not available in Australian Bookshops but is available through some private importers.
Thanks Lesley. Yes it is a must watch video. I discuss it here:
Bill, Did you know there is a second documentary out called AGENDA 2 Masters of Deceit. It has more information and is presented in a twin-pack edition. It is well worth looking at too. Thanks so much for keeping us abreast of things. God bless you.
Many thanks Lesley. Yes I knew the second one was out, but I have not seen it yet.
Thank you Bill for spending a lot of time and writing a lot of articles on this important issue. Thank you also to Moira Deeming for standing up. What a wonderful teacher and I am sure a loving Mum.
Regarding the LGBTQI mentality being a religion, there was an interesting point in a Creation Ministries newsletter, that the “gender fluidity” concept encourages students to dis-believe science and redefine reality. Science and the search for truth originally flowed from the Judeo-Christian understanding of a God who made a predictable and therefore observable, measurable and testable universe (and commands us to test Him, taste Him, test the spirits, evaluate various behaviours). Given that the foundational underpinning of science is God’s own character, we should not expect that people who reject our God will not also reject science & truth. As Australia becomes increasingly scientifically illiterate, we are attempting to evangelise a population who “cannot tell their right hand from their left” (Jonah 4:11)
Hi Bill, This is my first time reading your site. Thanks for this article. I know this article is a little old now, but I was interested to read it.
You may be interested to know that the regulations for home education in Victoria expired this year and new regulations are currently being drafted. This is a source of great anxiety for the homeschooling community in Victoria, we expect an increase in regulations. They are dragging their feet in releasing the draft regulations for 60 days of public feedback – not surprisingly they will likely be released late dec/early jan when MP’s are on holidays and when it is unlikely to get much media attention. The homeschooling community is rallying itself to give some very clear feedback during those 60 days, so I encourage you and others to watch this space.
Kind regards,
Elle.
Love this article thanks.
Thanks Tania.
The H-S article claims: “The $21.8 million program, a recommendation from the royal commission into family violence…”
but I would be surprised if the royal commission actually went to that level of detail. Would it not have recommended a funded “program to protect vulnerable children” or similar general wording?
And furthermore, on the home education side of the picture, this article:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/alberta-ndp-closes-down-christian-home-schooling-association-after-financia
points out the danger of home educators accepting government money and registration/supervision procedures.
It is not part of government’s Biblical mandate to be involved in education at all. Not even in the setting of standards or the testing of outcomes.
We badly need a simple, easy to reproduce pamphlet to hand out. Facebook and email are good but to reach people we dont know in our neighborhood and in our schools, we need a pamphlet. Does anyone know of a good simple pamphlet, easily and cheaply printed put out by a reputable organisation that knows how to deal with the legal risks? I want to hand out a pamphlet to my town and to the parents at my kids school.
Thanks Bob. There likely already are such pamphlets. Try the ACL or related groups.
Bob, contact The Australian Family Association. They are very helpful.
Teachers’ unions are to blame for much, but not all, of the madness that has overtaken education. I still belong to my union even though retired and that enabled me recently, not for the first time, to send a letter to the editor complaining about the union’s vocal support of same-sex marriage. Over the years I had many letters on feminism and other topics published and in most cases my immediate male and female colleagues agreed with what I had written. Most of my teaching years were spent on the metropolitan fringe or further out and it was noticeable that the closer to the centre of the city teachers were the more radical they appeared to be.
The minority activists of course have long kept up their attack and in the end they seem to be winning. Many teachers are being brainwashed as part of a society that is constantly under attack by people who use high-sounding ideas to promote their base and often vile agenda.
As Bill says, more academic rigour and a lot less rubbish would make for a far better system. Quite apart from Christian standards, our western societies seem to be deliberately giving up the fight for decency and integrity and almost begging our political rivals, such as Russia and China, along with Islamic countries, to come and take us and our freedoms and do what they will with us. If I were not a Christian I would despair for my children grandchildren. It’s hard not to as it is.
Wonderful Work as always, Bill!
Praise God for Teachers being brave enough to speak out + put their jobs on the line.
When Christian morals + values were questioned in a Child-care setting in a Catholic school it was time for me to move on!
God has continually blessed our Family since!
Father in Heaven, May all teachers, Christian or otherwise be empowered to speak out against the ills of this damaging program to our vulnerable children.
May their livelihoods be blessed because of this decision.
In Jesus Mighty Name We Pray,
Amen
I have been blessed lately, to be able to have become friends with a young Muslim family. A couple of weeks ago, the Father rather worriedly, asked me if a Christian School would allow a little Muslim boy to be enrolled there. I suppressed my urge to jump for joy screaming “YES< YES!!", and carefully explained that whilst he would be most welcome, he would be learning about the Christian faith and not the Muslim faith – to my surprise, this was accepted without question. I keep praying that these parents will stick to this plan and that perhaps through this they might come to know Jesus as Saviour, rather than as just a figure in the Koran. God does work in wonderful ways!!
David, the blame needs to be laid squarely at the feet of the Evangelical Church, which lead the push for Secular Free and Compulsory education in the mid t late 1800’s. The Catholic Church leaders prophesied the consequences, and resisted until they began to receive funding for their schools in the mid 20th Century.
John is absolutely correct in saying that the Civil Government has no role in education, at all. When you compromise the Word of God, you can expect nothing less than the judgment of God upon your presumption.
I talked much of this in my PhD dissertation, freely available from: http://www.academia.edu/7970729/Deschooling_Unschooling_Australian_Biblical_Christian_Education
A Proposal to Deschool the Unschool Australian Biblical Christian Education.
In Christ’s Service
Is it any wonder we find our selves up against an opponent that has got all sides covered. This is no sudden deterioration in standards nor is it likely to be rectified in a hurry. It has been built in by stealth over many years. Godliness and faith in His Word has been seriously taken out of all our teaching institutions for so many years we haven’t a hope of resurrecting our Schools and Universities into acceptable places of truth and moral integrity. The teachers themselves have never been taught that way. Even our Theological Colleges have lost their way and much of the Bible is taught with doubt and cynicism so that in our Churches Ministers fail to enlighten their congregations let alone lead society in moral integrity. I recommend a powerful documentary that I recently acquired produced by Curtis Bowers called AGENDA. It shows just how this Agenda to manipulate society away from God has been purposely devised and set in motion covering many issues all for the one purpose to pull down our Western Society ie thru destroying every vestige of Christian thinking. And we know our enemy Satan is the Master of Deceit. I recommend these 2 Award winning documentaries because only as we recognise our enemy can we truly see how to defeat him. AGENDADOCUMENTARY.COM It is an American production and not available in Australian Bookshops but is available through some private importers.
Thanks Lesley. Yes it is a must watch video. I discuss it here:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2011/03/19/how-to-sabotage-a-nation/
Bill, Did you know there is a second documentary out called AGENDA 2 Masters of Deceit. It has more information and is presented in a twin-pack edition. It is well worth looking at too. Thanks so much for keeping us abreast of things. God bless you.
Many thanks Lesley. Yes I knew the second one was out, but I have not seen it yet.
Thank you Bill for spending a lot of time and writing a lot of articles on this important issue. Thank you also to Moira Deeming for standing up. What a wonderful teacher and I am sure a loving Mum.
Thanks Kirsten. Yes she is a champ.
You’re probably aware of Alberta’s trail-blazing brainwashing of students with the Rainbow Religion, but in case not, here’s alarming information https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/drag-shows-comrades-lgbtq-advocacy-all-part-of-alberta-teachers-union-toolk?utm_source=LifePetitions+petition+signers&utm_campaign
Regarding the LGBTQI mentality being a religion, there was an interesting point in a Creation Ministries newsletter, that the “gender fluidity” concept encourages students to dis-believe science and redefine reality. Science and the search for truth originally flowed from the Judeo-Christian understanding of a God who made a predictable and therefore observable, measurable and testable universe (and commands us to test Him, taste Him, test the spirits, evaluate various behaviours). Given that the foundational underpinning of science is God’s own character, we should not expect that people who reject our God will not also reject science & truth. As Australia becomes increasingly scientifically illiterate, we are attempting to evangelise a population who “cannot tell their right hand from their left” (Jonah 4:11)
Hi Bill, This is my first time reading your site. Thanks for this article. I know this article is a little old now, but I was interested to read it.
You may be interested to know that the regulations for home education in Victoria expired this year and new regulations are currently being drafted. This is a source of great anxiety for the homeschooling community in Victoria, we expect an increase in regulations. They are dragging their feet in releasing the draft regulations for 60 days of public feedback – not surprisingly they will likely be released late dec/early jan when MP’s are on holidays and when it is unlikely to get much media attention. The homeschooling community is rallying itself to give some very clear feedback during those 60 days, so I encourage you and others to watch this space.
Kind regards,
Elle.
Many thanks for that Elle.