News
By George Miller, 4-11-24
Well-known Conservative author, writer and speaker Alex Newman came to Nassau County on April 4 to speak on the state of public education in America today, how it got that way and what to do about it. that’s one heckuva an objective for a one hour speech, so it was a bit like drinking out of a fire hose. I have attempted to summarize the overall message without getting into too much detail.
in a Nutshell …
Newman’s presentation made the case that most of the public schools nationwide are terrible, worse than they were 20,30, or more years ago. Contrary to some critics of public education, he does not think this is some recent phenomenon solely attributable to “Woke,” NEA, and/or Common Core. But instead it is part of a series of national and international movements going back to the 19th century right up to the present that both big political parties, governments, unions, NGO’s and parents have allowed to occur on their watch or even made happen.
He effectively summarized the main players and movements that have brought USA public K-12 education to its current state and where he believes it is going. Contrary to most contemporary critics, he doesn’t believe that running for the school board, replacing superintendents, directors of public instruction, legislators, or even presidents, will suffice. He thinks you should run don’t walk from the school system and take your kids outta there- pronto! He recommends homeschooling/private schooling and practices what he preaches with his 5 children (one more is on the way).
Keep in mind that state ratings of our Nassau County schools put them near the top, but they still have many students not meeting the already dumbed down state standards, per Newman. He pointed out that the county rural area schools mostly have the highest scores. Then there is the possible incursion of obscene books, corrupted moral standards.
The Presentation and Materials
As stated, Mr. Newman had a rather ambitious objective for his one hour presentation and wasn’t able to cover all of his materials. I looked them over later and included some things therein that weren’t covered in his presentation. It would be worthwhile for you to look those over too (see link below) …
… See his presentation images HERE
Newman said he would tell the protesters outside that (paraphrased) less than 1/3 of your children can read well enough; your children belong to Communism. He said what he’s talking about tonight led to millions of murders (increased violence and a million abortions annually)…. HHS and DOE (Dept of Educations) regard parents as equal partners with the government…. do what they say– or “intervention.” (In fact, parents have been assailed by Child Protection Services, school administrations, with questionable justification, had their kids counseled on gender transition and even given “treatment/gender affirming care” without their knowledge or consent.) He says Education Secretary Miguel Cardona views both parents and educators as “stakeholders” in their children…. and that President Biden said at an event honoring teachers: “They’re all our children. And the reason you’re the teachers of the year is because you recognize that. They’re not somebody else’s children. They’re like yours when they’re in the classroom,” he said.
He claimed that “Globalists, utopians, socialists, totalitarians and the UN are using public schools to undermine freedom and Christianity. But you can resist.” Pretty heavy stuff usually dismissed as “conspiracy theory” fare. But then he spent the next hour showing us the receipts, including pages of facts and videos with actual sound tracks of some of the protagonists providing juicy quotes supporting most of his key assertions. He brought so much material that he would have needed two or three sessions of this length to cover it adequately and didn’t in fact cover it all. So I secured the above link with the presentation slides for you and also purchased his book, “Indoctrinating our Children to Death – Government Schools War on Faith, Family, and Freedom and How to Stop it,” which you also might want to if desirous of learning more about this.
Mr. Newman then began drilling down on who was responsible for the state of American public K-12 education, naming names and organizations. He went all the way back to the importation of the Prussian education model designed to indoctrinate kids to be good little subjects. Those distinctly socialist and authoritarian ideas were implemented in the U.S. by the likes of Horace Mann and John Dewey, who have been revered by the American education establishment. He said the Rockefeller Foundation was a key big backer of Dewey.
He said it’s not strictly a partisan effort. None other than George H. W. Bush bought in to the UN Agenda 21 Rio agreement (which was never approved by the Senate, but is being implemented piecemeal. He and Clinton worked to get it going in the USA).
Newman said homosexual marriage was laughed at, but not too many years later, indoctrination and judicial action made it legal and it is being normalized by indoctrination. schools played a big part in this. California Proposition 8 declaring marriage was between a man and a woman was simply overruled by a court.
Newman lamented that only a third of 8th graders nationally met education standards. Imagine if a business performed like that. It couldn’t survive, he told us.
Along the way, Newman plugged the book Controligarchs, which also identified education as a key target for dispensing indoctrination to bring about control by an elite. Author Seamus Bruner spoke locally in December.
He also showed some of the UN/UNESCO pronouncements and said they had massive influence in the schools, with wholesale acceptance of many of their ideas by the Department of Education, State education departments, the political establishment and numerous NGO’s. These and Frankfurt school-inspired ideas are a major extrapolation of the Dewey/Mann initiatives.
Data he researched/complied reveal that UNESCO pushes “global government, socialism, humanism, via education.” First Secretary Julian Huxley: “political unification in some sort of world government.” UNESCO in 1949: Schools must be used to combat family attitudes. Article 5: “All children must be subjected to “the same standards of learning.” In 2000: “Governments “must implement integrated strategies” in education “which recognize the need for changes in attitudes, values and practices.” In Korea 2016 conference: Education must promote “integrated development ” of “whole person,” including formation of “ethics, values, and spirituality.” (Ed.: Some say that is intended to supplant the role of the family and religious education). The U.S. pays a substantial portion of UNESCO’s budget.
Newman asserted that in 2015, the UN “Human Rights” Council called on governments to “monitor” and “regulate” non-government education and also called for “standards” to be imposed on ALL education.
He added in the role of U.S. based Socialists and “Frankfurt School” (U.S. Communists, primarily centered around University of Chicago and Columbia University) influences via “Critical Race Theory,” (an adaptation of the Marxist blame the rich), “Social Emotional Learning (SEL), Diversity, Equity, inclusion (DEI), The 1619 Project (major historical revisionism, led by Howard Zinn, CPUSA). These have made major inroads with U.S. teaching, right down to the School Board, principal and classroom level.
It must be working, as he claimed that polls show that 70% of Millennials say they are likely to vote Socialist and 36% view Communism favorably. He also cited a poll that concluded that a majority of Millennials don’t regard themselves as Christians.
Newman contrasted the quality of American education in past centuries with that of today , using quotes from noted people. Today’s does not compare favorably. We have regressed. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Dupont De Nemours, Alexus De Tocqueville, Dr. Robert Peterson, all noted the high quality of education in their times. We can see from the continually declining scores vs. the education establishment’s own dumbed down standards that it is descending. Not measured by these tests are the declining moral standards and injection of anti-religion (especially Christian), anti-American, race-baiting content.
The Dewey focus is on humanistic education, including things such as theories of “a self-existing universe” and and evolution, in contrast with Creation and are presented as “settled science.” He was enamored of the Soviet system/education. He and others of his ilk also helped force supplanting the effective phonics method of learning words with the whole word method used with languages without a phonic orientation like English. Common Core standards implemented during the Obama administration under U.S. Dept. of Mis-Education (per Newman) head Arne Duncan have cemented that. They are derived from UN-inspired themes. Common Core math approaches have been rejected by key reviewers. Now, more radical “educators” have claimed that math is “racist.” Classic works are being replaced.
In summary, there is a number of largely negative influences on American public education, such as: Legacy Prussian, Dewey and Mann education models; “Humanism”; Frankfurt School influence; Pseudo-Science; LGBTQ indoctrination; Diversity/Equity/Inclusion (DEI), Social Emotional Learning (SEL), Critical Race Theory (CRT), 1619 Project, whole word learning, Common Core, UNESCO, U. S. Dept. of Education; elimination of “classics”; injection of obscene materials; Bill/Melinda Gates; alien “values” and “spirituality” teaching; attempting to supplant primacy of family and religious teachings.
One of Newman’s visuals reads:
IF AN UNFRIENDLY FOREIGN POWER HAD ATTEMPTED TO IMPOSE ON AMERICA THE MEDIOCRE EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE THAT EXISTS TODAY, WE MIGHT WELL HAVE VIEWED IT AS AN ACT OF WAR.”- An open letter to the American people: A Nation at Risk
What to Do About It
Mr. Newman seems to believe that his own kids are better off with homeschooling. Under his supervision, his family has voted with their feet to do just that. He recommends that people quickly get their kids OUT of government schools and put them in homeschooling or private schooling. “The school is on fire! Suicide is the leading cause of child deaths, mental, physical and spiritual damage. He says that pastors have a duty to warn people about the dangers of public education and to help provide solutions. Florida has been a leader in facilitating it, offering eight different programs to help parents utilize alternative education. He did warn that some private/religious schools have embraced Common Core and other ideas he disapproved of.
Looking at the problems he cited, if all correct, it would be a huge and lengthy effort to turn that ship around. Yet, various organizations, like Citizens Defending Freedom (CDF), Florida Citizens Alliance and more, still try to help, even as they push homeschools, private schools and how to utilize them.
In addition to examples and citations, he offered us some Biblical verses, in the presentation and the materials, to help support his positions. For you non-Christians/non-Jews (Old Testament/Tanakh), most of them make sense even without the religious significance, although they make even more sense to believers. You can search on: Luke 6:40, Ephesians 6:12, Psalms 2:2 and 2:4.
Saving Our Freedoms While Rescuing Our Children; Indoctrinating Our Children to Death Book
After Mr. Newman’s speech, I went up to his book table in the back of the hall, run aggressively and charmingly by two of his rather young children. I asked Mr. Newman which of the assortment of books and videos offered best encapsulated the intricate story he wove for us that evening. He handed me an autographed a copy of his aforementioned book. I’m reading it now.
Event Sponsor
Alex Newman was brought here by the Citizens Defending Freedom (CDF) Nassau County chapter, which has made quite a splash in the county in only a couple of years. It is part of a multi-state, well-organized and funded Christian Conservative civic group, with a mission espousing fiscal sanity, accountability of government, traditional values and control by The People. Those who are trying to oppose that agenda are fighting CDF hard in the county.
Their three major areas of focus are: protecting our children (schools are obviously a large part of that), election integrity and uncovering corruption.
CDF Executive Director Jack Knocke was the host, introduced CDF and its mission, then spoke briefly about their work and objectives in education before introducing the speaker, Alex Newman.
The LGBTQ lobby, education lobby, Democrat Party and local Progressive media are all piling up on CDF. They claim its mission is “political” and somehow “racist.” More on them and their event protest will appear in a future article.
This presentation was done not long after a local Progressive (Democrat Party, LGBTQ activists, local Progressive media) assault on CDF for their success in getting the first tranche of illegal per state law obscene books out of county school libraries.
Host Comments
CDF Executive Director Jack Knocke kicked off the session, after prayer and pledge of allegiance, by briefly reviewing what CDF is all about- that has been covered in previous articles in CJF. They buy into what Newman talked about at the meeting, except that they are trying hard to have an influence on the public schools and haven’t given up making progress.
He did note the presence of the Democrat organized protest against CDF outside. What touched it off was CDF’s resounding success, over vehement Democrat objections, in getting all of the books they lawfully challenged as illegally being in the school libraries either removed or moved to age-appropriate categories. These were found in violation there under Florida law as determined by the district book review committee. He noted that parents and local residents were involved and that CDF had no say beyond making the initial challenge. He added that 34 were challenged and removed but at least 90 more are suspect.
He said protesters claim that it was disrespectful for “Christian Nationalists” to use American Beach as a meeting site because it was the anniversary of MLK’s assassination. Knocke replied: “look at the ‘content of character’ of those books- MLK would NOT approve of them.”
He went on about the trend toward “Social Emotional Learning” (SEL) instead of the needed “3R’s.” He remarked that the school district is bragging about 67-87% of students meeting state standards. He said we need to have school board candidates who will support Christian principles and not be “go along- get along” board members which he seemed to imply some are. CDF will do a questionnaire designed to determine candidate suitability. CDF also wants to help engage Christian pastors to spread the word.
Newman pointed out that the Department of Education has referred to parents as “equal partners” with government in child rearing. Hillary Clinton has told the nation that “it takes a village.”
He states that the end game is fourfold, namely a (1) New World Order, which entails top-down world government via (2) socialism, utilizing pervasive, invasive (3) technology, effectively ending (4) Western-Christian Civilization as we knew it (it’s already well on the way to being ended). Christianity, the nuclear family as the bedrock of society and our Democratic Republic are the main impediments to this, and therefore are targets that must first be removed to achieve that. The education system is a key tool for conditioning people to enable that.
Knocke had the following responses to our request for comments afterwards:
“Regarding Alex Newman, the material he presents is thoroughly researched and verified with videos “in their own words” to prove what he says is absolutely true. You may think that some of the things going on in the world are so crazy, that they could not be true, until you hear specific people make the statements “in their own words”. Presidents, party leaders, cabinet members, union leaders, World Economic Forum, United Nations, etc.
It was great to see Alex’s local family from Callahan at the meeting. We are fortunate to have a local connection to such a prominent voice speaking out for children, parents and families across America.
I’m looking forward to our REAL Nassau County Pastors speaking out for truth, and not these parroted statements from her party’s talking points.”
One slide that Knocke used in his introduction showed how communist manifesto plans are happening now. He followed with just some of the outlandish statements made by “Reverend” Linda Hart Green in her opinion pieces and her speeches to the city and the school board. (Blue text boxes above attributed to Linda Hart Green) “Linda was proudly protesting outside of the CDF meeting on Thursday 4-4-24, he remarked.
Attendee Comments
Alex Newman is one of the smartest guys I’ve ever heard! he gave a great presentation on the education system, its history, where it’s headed and it’s not good! His final statement was if you have a child or grandkid in public school, get them out now, quick! Like if you see a fire and your kids are in the house, you’re gonna run into the house to try to pull them out! He made that same analogy and I think it makes sense for the public schools are indoctrinating our kids against God, against Family, against all the things that we value and we should get them out as quick as possible!
I never expected that there would be protesters out in front of the building protesting somebody speaking about how the school system is not doing well. I’m assuming the protesters think the public schools are doing a good job!
Rob Leacock
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Alex Newman – an American Hero – father, patriot, freedom fighter, believer in truth. In one short hour, Alex Newman gave one of the best history lessons on how the United States has arrived at this point in history to include the “government schools” brought into effect to indoctrinate our children. So much of this cultural war is about our children and grandchildren. Whether one recognizes it or not, our public schools are destroying the future of the United States – as we believe that everything will be ok.
SEL – the new buzzword in education – was addressed. Instead of math, writing, reading, educational curriculum focuses on indoctrinating our children to value “what the educational establishment wants to instill” over individual liberties. Is SEI in Nassau schools? Yes. Is it being disclosed to those interested? Information appears to not being given to those who request it.
I just bought Alex Newman’s book Indoctrinating our Children to Death – Government Schools War on Faith, Family, and Freedom and How to Stop it. I am looking forward to reading it.
Thank you to Jack Knocke for bringing him to speak at Amelia Island. Thank you to the 2 protesters who listened to his presentation – would love to hear their opinions and hope they will continue to come to CDF. Hope the protestors will come and really listen to what is being presented and inform themselves with new ideas.
Jessica Styers
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What stood out most for me is how he showed us how we got to where we are in public education. The beginnings with Robert Owen in the 1820’s who rejected Christianity and private property. He pre-dated “The Communist Manifesto.” His goal was Utopia which needed the elimination of Christianity to succeed. Owen inspired the King of Prussia to create the “Prussian System”, instilling a statist mindset in children. This inspired Horace Mann, a big governmentalist if there ever was one. He founded Normal Schools to indoctrinate future teachers. He created the first state controlled, property tax funded school system, progressive education. Then comes John Dewey. His goal was to transform the United States to bring about the “new social order”. Dewey rejected the very existence of God. He was determined to sever the schools from their American Christian roots. Dewey was a proud American Socialist with a real fondness for Soviet totalitarianism and the communist ideology behind it. No wonder we’re in the mess we’re in today with public education!
Alex talked about the “our children” attitude of numerous American and world leaders for many years. We, as parents, have little to no rights re: the education of our children. The current US Secretary of Education even denied that parents are the primary “caretakers” of their children.
He talked about UN 2021 and UN 2030 and how that’s meant to eliminate any concept of national excellence in education and create world-wide standards, aka the dumbing down of education globally.
Alex’ solution was to create alternative education models, Christian schools, chief among them.
The protesters were an odd lot. Their press release said it was a silent protest against CDF and their disrespect for holding this meeting on the anniversary of the assassination of MLK. I’m one of a handful of people who remember that day, remember the date, where I was and what I was doing. It’s just not that significant to most people. This was completely ginned up by the leader of the local Democratic organization. Their signs indicated the book removal was a big issue. One told us that neither should we play a part in reviewing and seeking the removal of obscene and pornographic book nor should parents with children in the school. “It’s only up to the education professionals.”, they said. Poppycock!
Richard Lamken
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Alex offered a very informative presentation from which the whole community could have benefited.
One theme summarized the evening for me. I’m not quoting here. A population without God has become indoctrinated and easily emotionally triggered by topics or situations; most can’t articulate their beliefs beyond a headline or a base emotion. This phenomenon has slowly overtaken our country through the removal of a value system based on God who is sovereign.
The systematic deconstruction of that hierarchy has contributed to the diminishment of the once strong family that was the fabric of our communities.
The trickle down effect of indoctrination continues through the government schools who have successfully removed God and our founding documents leading us to the situation we find ourselves facing. That students of all races and creeds are being exposed to topics that do not offer a proper education thus robbing them of the ability not only to read, write and do sums but to reason (together). Instead, behaviors once found repugnant are taught.
We can do better.
Breaking this cycle, in my opinion, will take darkening the screens that promote chaos and sitting together listening to men like Alex who promote reflection on how we got here and how we can move forward, together.
Linda Palin
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A friend and I heard Alex Newman’s talk at the CDF meeting last night, and greatly enjoyed it. Alex focused on the failure of our public school systems to even teach the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Test scores and individuals’ abilities have been declining for decades. The results of this are already catastrophic, and I see them daily. Nearly every time I give a young cashier a payment that is more convenient for me, they cannot give me the correct change, and they don’t know what to do. Several weeks ago I had a bill of something like $14.05 and I gave the clerk a five and a ten and she rang it up, and then I said “And here’s a quarter” – so I would get $1.20 in change instead of 95 cents. She gave me a dollar bill but didn’t know what else to do. I said “20 cents”, and she gave me a $20 bill from the register. No Brain! This is really disgusting, and there’s no way we will be able to keep up with Russia, China, or even most African nations. And what the students ARE being taught is even more disgusting. It’s not just transgender castration; they are being mentally castrated! Alex reviewed the 100+ year history of how our education system has been corrupted by a global collectivist agenda, carried out by prominent communists. It is too late to try to change the system that we have already lost control of, and his sincere recommendation is to PROTECT your children by taking them out of public schools immediately; and homeschooling them.
Alex Newman is a treasure, and he is a nonstop advocate for freedom, from many perspectives in addition to education. This afternoon I listened to a great interview with him about “Engineered War” on the Liberty and Finance YouTube channel. He regularly has articles in Epoch Times, and in The New American (https://thenewamerican.com/). You can also find a wide range of information on his website, https://libertysentinel.org/ and in his books.
Dave Braatz
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As I indicated last night, I believe Alex’s presentation contained some good information, but was presented in a manner such that most of it was not retained in a manner that made it actionable or even educational, at least to me. There was way too much information crammed into the time frame allotted leaving too little time to absorb and internalize the important points being made.
I thought the history of how the US education system evolved into what we see today was very interesting, but was presented like firing names, dates and associated facts from a machine gun. I thought it was interesting and important at the time, but I couldn’t repeat any of it now, making it all a waste of time for me. Just that segment of his presentation would take the entire time allotted to cover it in a way that would be useful to me in taking any action based on that information.
Bottom line: I believe Alex has a wealth of knowledge that would be valuable in helping to reform our education system. As a result, I am very hesitant to criticize Alex. He just tried to force too much information into too little time. I liken it to listening to the government mandated super-fast speech disclaimer at the end of many radio and TV commercials. It satisfies a requirement, but transfers minimal, if any, information.
Name withheld by request
“Silent Protest” by Democrat Party
The County Democrat Party organized a protest outside the meeting hall at American Beach. NCDP seems to be diametrically opposed to much of CDF’s mission. They are opposed to removing K-12 public school books deemed obscene by state law and reviewers, including our own school district book review committee. They are opposed to protests over LGBTQ indoctrination coming from many quarters. They are opposed to people pointing out how low the school’s student scores are on standardized tests. They are opposed to CDF’s quest to legally obtain school curriculum materials and more. They deem all of this “political,” even “racist.”
When we looked into this, we realized that the backstory was bigger than just this event and enough to devote a separate article to it. Watch for it.
Reference
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/2988962.Alex_Newman
George Miller is Publisher and Co-Founder of Citizens Journal Florida, based in Fernandina Beach. He is a “retired” operations management consultant, software and publishing executive (10 years) and manufacturing management professional. He and his wife left California after 41 years, in part, because of some of the very same things this article addresses- and much more- were happening there and not being so effectively resisted as they are here.
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.
