Aug. 5, 1998

The best way to enslave people is to make them think it was their idea. And the best way to make them think it was their idea is to control their access to the available information.

Take the Birdville ISD, located northeast of Fort Worth. Thanks to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and reporter Matt Frazier — as well as the appalling ignorance of city officials in Haltom City, Hurst, North Richland Hills, Richland Hills and Watauga — that district's 20,000 or so students will one day be required to "volunteer" for State service, while schools will replace parents as the primary caregivers for children.

Frazier's story, published in the Star-Telegram's June 24 edition, said the Birdville district was moving toward adopting "Visions of Birdville," a nine-item agenda which was probably originally written by a reputable marketer of outcome-based education.

Like most large-market reporters, Frazier was too lazy to investigate the concerns by that district's "troublemakers," and instead opted for the lazy story, goose-stepping right along with the protect-the-children-for-the-state fascists.

One Birdville school board member, Delores Webb, is quoted in Frazier's story as telling city officials at a feel-good breakfast: "It's interesting how similar the ideas were. You have similar concerns."

If you're familiar with the Delphi Technique of consensus-building, you'll recognize that refrain: "Gee, we all agree; isn't it amazing how we came to the exact same conclusion that we originally planned to come to?"

The "Visions" lead with the idea that Birdville is going to "Evaluate issues and operate in a new way." Maybe it's just my basic skepticism, but isn't it amazing that operating "in a new way" always seems to presage "more" — more time, more personnel, more money, more taxes?

Birdville's bird-brain "vision" includes "Training parents to help their preschool children get the skills they need for successful school careers."

The English-language version of that statement would read: "We will encourage parents to teach their children to read, write and do math before they start school, and will encourage them to get private tutors on the side so our staff and our curriculum can concentrate on making them good little drones."

For those children whose parents are bad and want the school to do that work, there's the vision that "Peer mentoring and tutoring for students" will be implemented. In other words, those kids who do get outside help will be required to teach those who don't.

Why won't the teachers be doing the teaching, you ask? They're going to be busy with other important tasks. Birdville's gonna "Support a teaching philosophy that would show more nurturing and caring for students."

Again the translation to English: "We will teach our teachers to be the parents these children won't have, because their real parents are too busy working to earn money to pay private tutors."

That Birdville intends to turn schools into continuous-care facilities is supported by the "visions" that schools will be open for longer hours, and that learning will be made a "year round love for children."

Then there's the mandatory volunteerism clause: "Instill in students lifetime virtues and citizenship. This could include having students do community work as a high school graduation requirement."

Obviously, not many folks in Birdville have ever read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, The Communist Manifesto, Anthem, Brave New World or 1984. Just what we need, a new generation of Hitler Youth brainwashed by the socialist ideal that government is the solution to all evils.

One of the visions I have to say I agree with, however, is the last: "Help students see a vision of their future and give them marketable skills."

That'll be easy: teach students to shout "Sieg Heil!", punch a time clock, and let them know they are slaves to the State.