America's Secret Establishment -- An Introduction to Skull and Bones, by Antony Sutton at American Buddha Online Library

AMERICA'S SECRET ESTABLISHMENT -- AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ORDER OF SKULL AND BONES

Memorandum Number Nine: Conclusions And Recommendations

A general conclusion is that The Order has been able to convert the educational system from one aimed at developing the individual child to one aimed at conditioning the child to be a unit in an organic, i.e., Hegelian, society.

When we look at philanthropic foundations in the next volume we shall see the way this has been implemented by private foundation funds.

There is not sufficient evidence to argue whether the decline in educational standards is an accidental byproduct of this "new education" or a deliberate subsidiary policy. In any event, the Reagan Administration policy of merit pay will compound, not solve, the problem.

Recommendations for reform have been forthcoming at intervals since the late 1950s when educational problems first surfaced. At the time of Sputnik there was a hue and cry about the backward nature of U.S. training in mathematics and science, which at the University level are not at all backward. Anyway the educational establishment recognized an opportunity and cried, "more, more money." They got it, and there was a massive expansion in the '60s. But the funds have been poured into social conditioning. Mathematics and sciences have taken back seat in the last 30 years.

Then in 1981, James S. Coleman of the University of Chicago produced a study of public schools for the U.S. Department of Education. In this study Coleman used the National Opinion Research Center to contact 58,728 sophomores and seniors in 1,016 public, parochial, and private schools across the United States. His findings were:

private and parochial schools provide an education closer to the common school ideal than do public schools,
private school students learned more than public school counterparts,
Coleman wrote it was paradoxical that "catholic schools function much closer to the American ideal of the common school ... than do public schools."
private schools provide "a safer, more disciplined and more ordered environment" than public schools,
"blacks and Hispanics perform better at private schools."

The reason? Private schools are less under the influence of the Dewey educational philosophy. They still have to use accredited teachers, but these teachers -- quite bluntly -- have been able to survive the teacher training conditioning.

Yet the educational establishment does not see the writing on the wall.

In Fall 1983 a report by John Goodlad, Dean of the School of Education at University of Southern California, will be published. John I. Goodlad wrote the Foreword to Schooling For A Global Age (McGraw Hill, 1979) which includes these comments:

"Enlightened social engineering is required to face situations that demand global action now" (page xiii). "Parents and the general public must be reached ... otherwise children and youth enrolled in globally oriented programs may find themselves in conflict with values assumed in the home."

And more. Another 345 pages of globalony follows.

Nothing about the child as an individual. Nothing about the child as a repository of talents that need to be encouraged. Nothing about basic education: the 3 R's.

Yet this Goodlad report is being pushed in The New York Times (July 19, 1983) as the most "comprehensive report" ever made on American schools. These are some Goodlad proposals:

education should start at 4 years old
schools should be smaller
head teachers with doctorates should have more pay

And this does nothing, of course, to stop what a former Commissioner of Education called "a rising tide of mediocrity."

If the United States is to survive in the coming technologically intensive age, then certain recommendations follow. These are:

the function of the school is to develop individual talent. Social engineering as an objective has to be discarded.
A thorough grounding in the 3 R's is essential for a good education. In other words, "content" is all important.
It follows that Schools of Education should be abolished (this is under serious discussion at Duke University and has been proposed at University of Michigan and even Cal Berkeley).
Teacher credentials should be based on subject matter entirely, not educational theory.
All restrictions on private schools should be abolished.
Public schools should be returned to local control.

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