Indoctrinating Teachers With Your Money

Published: Fri, 12/17/10

Hello, , from NHERI.

It might be rather quiet in a lot of academic places right now, for the "holiday" vacation, but both good and devious ideas march on.

It boggles my mind to think that many Americans who believe they are "conservative," "liberty-loving," "libertarian," or "biblical thinkers" still say the nice public school teacher down the street does not have much of an effect on his children. If only this Dad or Mom could read so much of the "research" out there in academic journals.

Professor Antonio Castro recently evaluated the research base "...on Preservice Teachers' Views of Cultural Diversity Implications for Researching Millennial Preservice Teachers."[Note 1] Soon into this article one realizes this researcher is pushing for indoctrinating college students, who will soon be classroom teachers, into a very particular worldview, a way of seeing the world and acting out their beliefs. And he wants these teachers he wants to think a certain way, his way, to be teaching the roughly 52 million children in America's institutional schools.

 
Castro explains that he relied on critical multiculturalism to inform his interpretation of the studies he reviewed. "Critical multiculturalism strives to bring about the transformation of society to accomplish the goals of social justice by confronting and disrupting institutions and the structures of power that maintain disparities across race, class, and gender ..." (p. 199). (Yes, you might want to read that sentence again.)
 
It is common in an academic article like this to never see essential terms, such as "social justice," defined. The reader must already be "in the know" or go and dig into multiple sources to try to arrive at an operational definition. I could find only an allusion to the meaning of social justice in one place in the entire article (p. 204). Despite not offering a definition of social justice, it is obvious this academic has a strong commitment to it, whatever it is, and wants all classroom teachers to ingest and live out his conception. But do not let me get you bogged down with definitions, as important as they are.
 
The (not so) incredible thing about this professor and his article in a highly respected academic journal is that he unashamedly promotes the re-education of young (and older) adults - most about 19 or 20 years of age - when they arrive at college ready to learn "how to be teachers." One might be thinking the teaching of reading, writing, and arithmetic. But one must think again. It is clear that Castro is disappointed in these young "preservice" teachers' values, beliefs, and worldviews and he is eager to change them. He writes the following:
 
The findings of this synthesis also pose the problem of the lack of complexity associated with preservice teachers' views on cultural diversity. The problem of the lack of complexity stems from the uncritical adoption of cultural assumptions that limit one's critical consciousness of structural and institutional inequity and White privilege. (p. 207)
 
I am not claiming there is or is not "White privilege" in American society. That is not important for my purposes in this article. The amazing thing to notice is that professor Castro, and I am confident thousands of others -- at state universities paid with your and other Americans' tax dollars -- believe it is their duty, their calling, to change, alter, fix, mold, and form the values and beliefs of almost every young person who shows up at the university doorstep dreaming of becoming a teacher. Castro writes the following:
 

Only when preservice teachers confront beliefs in individualism and meritocracy can they envision real social change. (p. 207)

 And he and many more professors are at the university, eagerly ready to shake up the thinking and indoctrinate "preservice teachers" into the right faith, the proper religion, the good worldview that they have decided is right for "the people," the next generation being brought up in the nation's institutional schools. Do you think I am exaggerating? Read about one of the "three key areas" research studies must address.

 

Research should also focus on the specific teaching practices and curricular components that foster changes in the beliefs and attitudes of preservice teachers. These studies will need to account for the influence of incoming beliefs before tracing the changes and development of the preservice teachers' views. In addition, such studies should explore ways in which preservice teachers can gain a sense of critical awareness about issues of inequity.

In other words, researchers must figure out how university professors can unabashedly change, form, re-train, re-educate, mold, and put aright the thinking of the next generation of classroom teachers so they can properly change, form, re-train, re-educate, mold, and put aright the thinking of the 5-, 12-, and 16-year-olds who they teach in classrooms across the nation.

Vladimir Lenin said, "Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever." [Note 2] Apparently, the 12 years that the institutional (mostly state/public) schools already had these preservice teachers was not enough to indoctrinate them into the worldview that professor Castrol holds and wants to instill in future teachers.

Is it any wonder that an increasing number of parents continue to realize that someone - definitely someone - will teach, train, and indoctrinate their children for 6 to 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, and so more of them are opting for home-based education? No, not when one considers that the professors - those who profess, make open declaration of certain values, beliefs, and worldview - are eagerly waiting for 18-year-olds who will four years later start teaching those 5-, 12-, and 16-year-olds.

These professors, promoting a particular religion, worldview, or sets of values, beliefs, and constructs are not so subtle any longer. Someone needs to keep a watch on them and report their activities.

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Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.

National Home Education Research Institute
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Notes:

1. Castro, Antonio J. (2010, April). Themes in the Research on Preservice Teachers' Views of Cultural Diversity Implications for Researching Millennial Preservice Teachers. Educational Researcher, vol. 39 no. 3, 198-210.

2. Vladimir Lenin; retrieved December 14, 2010 from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/v/vladimirle383393.html