June 22, 1997

"(School-to-Work and the education 'reform' movement) has as its goal 'a new human resource development system' ... 'Human resources,' incidentally, is a Marxist term coined in the 1850's by Hegel ... The outstanding feature of (School-to-Work) is the structure and control that will be exercised by outsiders over the child's entire lifetime."

My heart is at peace, at long last. Even liberal politicians are beginning to recognize what's going on with the federalization of education.

A June 9 speech in the U.S. Senate by one of our country's more renowned liberals, Sen. Richard Byrd, rather amply illustrates why trusting the educrats to "fix" what they broke to begin with will not work.

Byrd told the Senate the story of an Arizona State University professor, Marianne Jennings, who became perplexed when her daughter couldn't solve an algebra problem — especially since the daughter was getting an "A" in the subject. Jennings then looked at her daughter's textbook.

"After reviewing it," Byrd told his fellow Senators, "Jennings dubbed it 'Rain Forest Algebra.' ... I have to go a step further and call it wacko algebra."

Byrd noted the nextbook, "Secondary Math: An Integrated Approach: Focus on Algebra," boasted a total of 29 "authors:" five "algebra authors," 20 "other series authors" and four "multicultural editors."

Quoting from the first page of the textbook, Byrd read to his fellow legislators: "In the twenty-first century, computers will do a lot of the work that people used to do. Even in today's workplace, there is little need for someone to add up daily invoices or compute sales tax. Engineers and scientists already use computer programs to do calculations and solve equations."

"What kind of a message is sent by that brilliant opening salvo?" Byrd asked. "By the time we get around to defining an algebraic expression we are on page 107."

The book includes such mathematical concepts as the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights in three languages, a map of South America showing which languages are spoken where, lectures on endangered species, a discussion of West African peoples, chile recipes, what role zoos should play in today's society, "...and the dubious art of making shape images of animals on a bedroom wall, only reaching a discussion of the Pythagorean Theorem on Page 502," Byrd said.

The liberal Senator quotes a review of the same book by conservative author John Leo: "New-new Math is also vaguely allied with an alleged new field of study called ethnomathematics," Leo writes. "Western math, in this view, isn't universal but an expression of white male culture imposed on nonwhites ... It's all rather stunning nonsense, but this is where multiculturalism is right now."

The senator and the author both note the book being quoted is 812 pages long — compared to 200 pages in the average Japanese math textbook.

American students rank 28th in the world in math; Japanese students rank third.

"All the Federal dollars we can channel for education cannot counteract the disastrous effects of textbooks like this one," Byrd told Senators. "They will produce dumb-dumb students and parents need to get involved to reverse that trend now!

There are very real parallels between what happened in California and what is now happening in Texas — although the Lone Star State does appear, at least, to be paying a little more attention to the problem.