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Women in Combat
Women in combat and Jessica Lynch have become quite controversial among conservative circuits. Many are calling for President Bush to change the Clinton policies that put women into combat areas. And well he should. However, those who value the role of women as mothers and nurturers, have already lost the next generation who are enrolled in the indoctrination camps called public schools. Women in combat and other politically correct thoughts must be taught in all schools requiring students to take statewide or national assessments. Education officials like to call these authentic assessments. Beverly Eakman, author of several books, including Cloning of the American Mind, defines a "test" as an objective measure of a child's ability to solve a problem; an "assessment" is a social scientist's speculation about the environmental conditioning of the child.1 As Ms. Eakman says, today’s standardized tests are more concerned with the child’s psyche, social values, and ability to conform, than his ability to calculate, use correct punctuation, or read a periodic table. The indoctrination by the collectivists who run our schools is not lurking in some photocopied handout in 5th hour Social Studies class. Here in Republican-run Michigan, part of that indoctrination is a mandate resulting from questions in the Michigan Educational Assessment Program test, known as the MEAP. Oh yes, the MEAP asks plenty of politically correct multiple choice and essay questions, including but not limited to evolution, how privatization drives up costs, and what those chauvinist colonial men thought of women. But my favorite is the question asking students their opinion of women in combat. MEAP scoring is based on rubrics requiring that part of the score be based on outside data to support the conclusion. The MEAP study booklet for teachers and students includes charts and data purporting to show that military officers and the public increasingly support women in combat. What is a student to do? To get a top grade, he must use the data provided and support women in combat. Values tested in Michigan are called Core Democratic Values, as determined by a foundation called CIVITAS, not your local school board. This group has a similar philosophy to the Center for Civic Education, who determines the national standards for civics and government for the NAEP, national testing, along with the new federal curriculum. So pushing the idea of women in combat and other politically correct thoughts are not unique to Michigan. (See www.edwatch.org for more on CCE). Most parents are unaware of the content of these tests since obtaining, reviewing, or releasing the questions is unlawful in most states, and a possible federal felony. What right does the state or federal government have to ask our children their opinions on political and possibly religious based beliefs? Just what happens to those answers? They are turned into the state for grading, and eventually make their way to the Center for Educational Performance. CEPI administers a computer database capable of tracking the attainment of every student in Michigan to determine what instructional programs really work. Based on the answers, policies are initiated to improve the scoring on assessments. What is necessary is continual remediation until the student answers correctly. That is why many questions found on the 8th grade tests, are repeated in the 11th grade tests. Besides worries about privacy, parents should realize that they have the near impossible job of de-programming their children every night if they attend test-administering schools. Most do not, and many that try will be unsuccessful. Today’s generation raised by public schools that teach what to think and not how to think will rule this country. Schools must teach the acceptance of women in combat along with of other socially leftwing ideas to ensure their students pass our state and national assessments. The students must answer properly to pass those tests. Unless there is an unlikely immediate change in those who control our public schools, or an immediate mass exodus from public schools, we can be assured that the values historically held by Americans and Christians will not survive to the next generation. Those who control the test, control the curriculum and the thoughts and beliefs of our children.
Deborah DeBacker [send her mail] is the chair of the Oakland County Republican Assembly. She has been a political activist in education issues for the last 10 years. Most important, she and her husband are the parents of three teenage boys. Copyright © 2003 LewRockwell.com
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May 14, 2003
