The Only “Good” Side of the COVID-19 Pandemic Was Accidental Educational Transparency

David Barnhizer

The COVID-19 virus attack actually had a single good side, along with its tragic costs.  It is that if the K-12 schools had not abandoned in-person teaching and shifted to online computer and Zoom classes, parents would never have discovered that their children were being brainwashed.  When that shift occurred, parents all over the nation, as well as state legislatures, governors, politicians, school boards, state boards of education, public interest organizations and the like suddenly “AWoke” to the dangers of “Wokeness”.  This spread to the various manifestations of the theme of “Anti-Racism” being trumpeted by Critical Race Theory activists.  Whatever the name concocted to conceal what is occurring, “Anti-Racism” is itself a new and dangerous form of Neo-Racism hidden behind linguistic masks and formulations.

K-12 Education Is a “Critical” Target for the Woke Because That Is When Children Are Most Vulnerable and Susceptible

In the K-12 system, teachers are dealing with highly suggestive children whose minds are still developing.  Many are vulnerable, anxious, and in the early phases of trying to understand the world into which they have been thrust.  They see teachers as strong, caring, and nurturing authority figures.  For such young people, ideological systems such as Critical Race Theory can be  perceived as powerful and prophetic, regardless of how CRT is restated for political purposes.  The practitioners of Wokeism, CRT, and Radical Progressivism—like the earlier European “Deconstructionists” to whom they owe allegiance—use continually shifting landscapes made up of “big” words that can be made to mean anything the advocates choose.

This manipulation of powerful and moralistic constructs establishes control and creates what philosopher Eric Hoffer called “true believers”.  Hoffer, in The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements (1951), described how the “fault finding man of words” attacks a dominant orthodoxy in order to undermine its perceived legitimacy and hold on power.   This is one function of the intellectual, but due to the combination of naivete and self-interest, few intellectual “prophets” have the experience or wisdom needed to prepare for what occurs after they have helped others gain power.

Francois Furet, for example, describes the treatment of intellectuals under Soviet Marxism, a situation in which the Marxist revolutionaries had first relied on such intellectuals to create cracks in the defenses of the existing political system in Europe and Russia.  In Russia, following the 1917 Revolution, the newly installed Soviet Marxists either co-opted the intellectuals into becoming state propagandists, exiled or executed them if it was determined they posed a danger to the State.  See, Francois Furet, The Passing of an Illusion: The Idea of Communism in the Twentieth Century (1999).

The problem is that once in power, revolutionary ideologues who base their crusades on claims of hate, oppression, injustice and inequity, always themselves become the “Oppressors”.  The Soviet Marxists ruthlessly suppressed independent thought and subverted the less conscientious or more cowardly intellectuals into serving the ends of the totalitarian state.  They understood, as did Mao Zedong, that naive and uncontrolled intellectuals, “Liberals” as Mao wrote in a 1937 tract, because they asked too many questions and challenged authority and were therefore were dangerous to those now in power.

In the preliminary stages, this is what is occurring in America with the Woke, Crits, and Radical Progressives.  They are seeking nothing less than to undermine and weaken the unique system America represents, and effectively parallel what occurred in Europe to facilitate the rise of the Soviet Union.  The reality for us at this point is that we are not as naive, and unless we are stupid or an agent of the Progressive “revolutionaries” know what lies on the “other side” of their “revolutionary transformation” if they are successful.

There should be no doubt that what is playing out in America’s schools and core institutions is a “stealth” strategy involving brainwashing, indoctrination, and power-grabbing—not honest teaching.  The intention is to create a kind of quasi-religious devotion operating through the dynamics of “original sin” and “collective guilt” that appeals to our need to be part of something we think is deep, moral, and worthwhile.

An important part of this strategy involves taking control of the instruments of education and communication.  When this is achieved, it allows those in power to shape what people know, how they think, and how they interpret the world.  Applying this strategic approach to America’s K-12 educational systems is a critical step being taken by the Woke.  Capturing our youths’ minds at an early age consolidates and sustains the power of ideologues and fanatics.  It provides them with an critical mass of “true believers” that grows steadily over time.

This phenomenon holds true whether we are talking about Xi Jinping’s China of today with his mandating of “Xi Jinping Thought” to all schools in China at all levels, or Mao’s Red Guard.  It mirrors the intent of the madrassa schools of Fundamentalist Islam, the Hitler Youth of Nazi Germany, and the young Komsomol of the former Soviet Union who brought their heavily biased form of literacy to rural areas.  It applies now to many of America’s K-12 schools and universities.  Yale, James Madison, UCLA, USC, Stanford, Syracuse, Portland State, Buffalo, and numerous other universities offer dramatic and dismaying examples.

“The foundation of every state

is the education of its youth.”  Diogenes

The ancient Greek philosopher and Cynic Diogenes purportedly carried a lantern in the streets of Athens in an unsuccessful search for an “honest man”.  However dismaying his search, he provides us with the vital insight that: “The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.”  As you read the examples offered below, consider what is being done and what has already been done to the minds and hearts of our children and the consequences for our society.

An Example from an 8 Year Old Child:  “This “feels” like racism to me”

At the center of the Woke/Crit effort to control our educational processes is injecting their agenda and concepts at our children’s most vulnerable points.  Canadian writer Barbara Kay related her experience with her eight year old grand daughter.

True story—My 8-year-old granddaughter and her mother were working on a jigsaw puzzle, an image of a cat’s face surrounded by black background. We adults were complaining about the difficulty of joining up so many all-black pieces.  My granddaughter said, without a shred of irony, “This feels like racism to me.”  Well, her remark felt like “Crimestop” to me. In George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984,” children absorb the principle of Crimestop, a trope from Newspeak, the totalitarian regime’s language. Crimestop is the abrupt, instinctual, fear-driven self-silencing that precludes utterance of politically incorrect words that may invoke shaming or worse. My granddaughter’s public school teachers have apparently installed a Crimestop-like app in her tender psyche: Just hearing the disembodied word “black” voiced in a mildly negative light triggers rote guilt in her.

It’s Never Too Early for the Woke:

Babies Apparently Need Anti-Racism “Guidance”

“The Arizona Department of Education is conducting a review of its equity-related resources after material surfaced suggesting that babies and children of other ages harbored racial biases that should be addressed by adults.  [T]he material warns that at three months, infants look more at the faces that match the race of their caregivers.  A graphic maps out purported racial biases from infancy to 6+ years of age.  [Not taking steps to prevent the bias in favor of their White caregivers] forces racism by letting children draw their own conclusions based on what they see," the graphic reads. The title of the graphic appears to be "They're not too young to talk about race!”  “Arizona teaching material suggests babies need anti-racism guidance: 'Silence about race reinforces racism by letting children draw their own conclusions,' the material says”,  Sam Dorman, 7/8/21.

“KinderCare Wants Parents To Talk About ‘Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion’ At Home With Their Six-Week-Old Children”

“A for-profit child care facility is encouraging parents to talk about “anti-racism” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” at home with their children as young as six weeks old.  KinderCare … is telling parents that “it’s never too early” to teach children about “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) in the home. The organization’s DEI homepage promised to introduce students to “culturally responsive teaching,” which places students’ identity and emotions at the center of their education.”

Oregon’s Kindergartners Are Already Being Separated

Into Their Differing “Identities”!

“The state of Oregon has adopted social studies standards for kindergartners that require children to understand their own identity groups and identify examples of racial injustice. … Kindergartners will "engage in respectful dialogue with classmates to define diversity comparing and contrasting visible and invisible similarities and differences," according to the new standards.  Kindergartners will also learn to "develop an understanding of one's own identity groups including, but not limited to, race, gender, family, ethnicity, culture, religion, and ability,” … according to the new standards.

Kids in first grade will learn to "describe how individual and group characteristics are used to divide, unite, and categorize racial, ethnic, and social groups," according to the new standards. Kids in second grade will learn how to "use listening, consensus-building, and voting procedures to decide on and take informed action to interrupt injustice or promote justice in their community." Kids in third grade will learn how to "identify how systems of power, including white supremacy, institutional racism, racial hierarchy, and oppression affect the perspectives of different individuals and groups when examining an event, issue, or problem with an emphasis on multiple perspectives.”  “Oregon's racial standards for kindergartners requires kids to 'identify possible solutions to injustices’: The standards also require kindergartners to 'identify examples of unfairness’”, Jessica Chasmar, 3/14/22.

The Bank School “is teaching white 6 year-olds they’re born racist”

Another example of what happens when a dominant orthodoxy gains control is offered in a report involving the Bank School, long considered an elite early educational institution.  As you read the paragraph below, think about the effects such procedures can have.  They include intensification of class divisions, inculcation of “Original Sin” as a core perception of self among very young children in the critical formative years of their early development, and the creation of a divisive creed of “Black Supremacy” to replace the broad brush accusation of “White Supremacy”.  What is the Bank School doing?

“An elite Manhattan school is teaching white students as young as 6 that they’re born racist and should feel guilty benefiting from “white privilege,” while heaping praise and cupcakes on their black peers.  … [S]everal other private New York schools are doing it, but even liberal parents aren’t buying it.  … “Ever since Ferguson, the school has been increasing anti-white propaganda in its curriculum,” said a parent who requested anonymity because he has children currently enrolled in the school.” “Teaching Kindergartners about White Privilege”, 7/2/16.

Candace Owens Warns the Left Has Created an Educational System Putting Blacks Back on the “Plantation”

I recommend Candace Owens’ 2020 book, Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation.  Since I spent much of my life as a Democrat, a civil rights and social justice lawyer, and as a law professor who considered Democrats to be the driving force behind social justice, I found her analysis disturbing, informative, and insightful.  Charles Creitz explains.

“The left-wing leaders of public school systems across America are "replacing education with indoctrination," author and activist Candace Owens [has stated].  Owens, the author of the recent book "Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democratic Plantation" went on to warn her fellow conservatives that they have "lost the education battle with the left.” "If we continue to allow the Democrat Party to control education, we are guaranteeing them the future because the youth is the future," she stated.

“If you are a Black American and you go through the public school system like I went through, you come out and you are basically a propagandist for the left and you don't realize it,” Owens [said].  “I started on the left, although I was not politically active,” she recalled. “I believed in all of the indoctrination. I believed, just four short years ago, that Republicans were racist, that conservatives were racists, and that being a Black person and being a woman disadvantaged me in life. And I'm a pretty smart person. “It wasn't because I wanted to be anti-American,” Owens added. “It wasn't because I wanted to believe these things. It was because it was taught to me via the public school system.”  The tragic outcome, according to Owens, is a school system that is actually failing kids,” especially Black kids.  “In California, 75% of Black boys cannot pass a basic literacy exam,” she said. “That is astounding. You will never hear Black Lives Matter talk about that. You will never hear a Democratic candidate talk about that ... In Baltimore, across five schools, they couldn't find a single child that was proficient in reading and writing and math.” “Candace Owens warns conservatives have 'lost the education battle' to left, and are 'guaranteeing them the future’: Author, activist tells Mark Levin public schools shaped her into 'propagandist for the left’”, Charles Creitz, 9/13/20.

Examples of the Decline of American Education

"I want us to be feared.” The Abolitionist Teaching Network’s [Co-founder Bettina] Love [said] that the network would "create a national database of antiracist school counselors, therapists and lawyers." She said her group planned to pay its "activists in residence" to travel around the country and "go into schools or communities and do the work of dismantling.”  "If you don’t recognize that White supremacy is in everything we do, then we got a problem," Love, who also chairs the board of directors, said.”  “Biden admin promotes radical group pushing critical race theory in schools: A critical race theory handbook is intended to disrupt Whiteness and oppression”,  Ethan Barton, 7/21/21.

“Academics are fast becoming a thing of the past in public schools.  In their place [are] behavioral psychology and “social and emotional learning” (SEL) designed not to educate, but to transform children’s core values, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior.  Once upon a time, education meant learning how to read, write, do math, and think. It meant learning history and science as well.  That is barely happening now, as government data show. … Today, government schools use advanced methods including SEL to instill in children a radical new and oftentimes contradictory “politically correct” value system.” “Trading Academics for Far-Left ‘Social-Emotional Learning’”, Alex Newman, 8/21/20.

Producing a Generation of Woke Illiterates.  “A majority of American fourth-and eighth-graders can’t read or do math at grade level, according to the Education Department. Whenever someone asks me about critical race theory, that statistic comes to mind. What’s the priority, teaching math and reading, or turning elementary schools into social-justice boot camps? Our jails and prisons already have too many woke illiterates.” “Foolish schools going for woke — lagging US kids need 3 Rs, not race theory”,  Jason L. Riley, 7/13/21.

“Social promotion — moving the kids on to the next grade, no matter how unprepared they are — hides the truth.”  By high school, the scams get more elaborate, yielding [an] endless series of “worthless diploma” scandals — only to have more pop up. Because at that point, the only way to graduate the kids is for the school to cheat.  Then again, those state “educrats” are busy watering down and even eliminating the testing and other standards that make that cheating “necessary.”  “Are you sure your kid can read? All too many US public schools won’t tell you the truth”, Michael Benjamin, 10/2/21.

“The latest results from the Nation's Report Card show that only 22% of 12th-grade students are proficient in science.” “Allocating more time and effort away from core subjects like math and science could theoretically harm those outcomes,” Corey DeAngelis said. “But the bigger issue is that teachers unions shouldn't have the power to decide how or what to teach everyone else’s children when they can't even get the basics right.”

Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress—reveals that of the 27 U.S. urban school districts that reported their results for 2019, not one reported a majority of Black eighth-graders as being proficient in either math or reading.

Parents need to demand accountability from schools.  Chicago Pastor Corey Brooks describes the situation at a school near him.  “Only 6% of the kids at the school are proficient in reading, and only 4% of the kids are proficient in math.” … “Rooftop Revelations: Parents must say 'no more excuses' when it comes to educating their kids: Parents need to demand accountability from schools, Pastor Corey Brooks says”,  Eli Steele,  1/27/22.

“Math and reading test scores for the country's 13-year-olds have dropped sharply in comparison to numbers from 2012, with some of the lowest-scoring test takers falling the furthest behind. U.S. News and World Report reported that this was the first major score drop in the subjects since the NAEP began tracking long-term academic achievement trends in the 1970s.” “Student test scores fall for first time in national test's history”, Monique Beals, 10/14/21.

“In 2019, only 37% of third-graders in Illinois demonstrated grade-level proficiency in English-language arts, and when it came to math only 41% could demonstrate grade-level proficiency. [In relation to such failures in basic learning at which the teachers were supposedly skilled and proficient, Eli Steele asked himself] Why would the state of Illinois consider new standards when it failed to uphold the most basic and universal of education standards?  The disconnect between the progressive ideology driving these new standards and the realities on the ground could not be starker.”

Nearly half of the 20,500 public high school students in Baltimore earned less than a D average.  “Project Baltimore obtained a chart assembled by Baltimore City Schools. … In the first three quarters of this past school year, 41% of all Baltimore City high school students, earned below a 1.0 grade point average. In other words, nearly half of the 20,500 public high school students in Baltimore earned less than a D average.”

“In Baltimore, (a city that ranks 5th nationally in major city school funding) across five schools, they couldn't find a single child that was proficient in reading and writing and math.  The tragic outcome of the failed educational institution, according to Candace Owens, is a school system that is actually failing kids, especially Black kids.”

“A Baltimore high school student failed all but three classes over four years and [still] almost graduated near the top half of his class with a 0.13 GPA.  [The student’s mother] expressed frustration with the school, asking why her son would have to complete three more years of high school after "the school failed him."  [Her] son failed 22 classes and was late or absent 272 days over his first three years of high school. Despite this, her son still ranked 62nd in his class out of 120 total students.  [She said] “The school failed at their job. They failed. They failed, that's the problem here. They failed. They failed. He didn't deserve that," she said.  Hundreds of students are flunking classes at the Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts in west Baltimore that her son attended.”

Baltimore School Administrator.  “I’ve seen many transcripts, many report cards, like this particular student.”  “An administrator for Baltimore City Public Schools who spoke on the condition on anonymity told {investigators] that the high school did fail France's son.  "I get angry. There's nothing but frustration. We see on the news the crime that occurs, the murders, the shootings, we know that there are high levels of poverty in Baltimore," the administrator said. "His transcript is not unusual to me. I've seen many transcripts, many report cards, like this particular student.”

“This is terrible,”  [City Council candidate] Jovani Patterson said in regard to Baltimore public schools. “This is just further perpetuating a cycle of poverty, of despair.”  “They take [the schools administrators]. They take. They take. Yet, despite the amount of money they get. We don’t see much change. [It isn’t about a lack of resources.] Our schools outspend 97% of other major school districts,” Patterson said.  “It's heartbreaking.”  “If almost half of our kids are failing, what options do they have after high school?”

Baltimore is just one of many.  More than half of New York City’s school kids struggle with basic math and English. According to the NYS Department of Education 2019 report on state test results, 45.6% of students in grades 3-8 were proficient in math and only 47.4% of students in grades 3 to 8 scored at proficient levels in English.

NYC’s Maspeth High School created fake classes, awarded bogus credits, and fixed grades to push students to graduate — “even if the diploma was not worth the paper on which it was printed,” an investigative report charges.”

If they don’t come to school they aren’t going to learn.  “Roughly 200 New York City schools saw a quarter of their kids absent from class on Tuesday, according to a Post analysis of Department of Education data … A total of 51 schools had absentee rates of 40 percent or higher on Tuesday while 24 had less than half of their kids in class.”

“Sixty-five percent of black and brown children don’t meet proficiency in the NYC Department of Education.” New York City [Mayor] Eric Adams spelled it out recently. That means: “Our school system is dysfunctional and we have to stop acting like it’s not. We sometimes have to call a thing the thing and be honest about the basic essentials.”

$38 Billion Down the Drain?  “If school achievement depended only on funding, New York’s kids would be performing twice as well as other American children. Alas, they’re not … with no path toward better results.  [According to its website, the The New York City public schools have a budget of $38 BILLION in 2021/2022, and spent $30,772 per student this past year year.]  The NYC system leads the nation in spending per student.  … In the 2018-19 school year, New York shelled out $25,139 per kid, “more than any other state and nearly twice the national average of $13,187.” And New York City spent $28,004 per student, “easily the most” among major US urban districts.  Meanwhile, New York scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress (the “gold standard” for comparing student performance across states) are middling and slowly falling further down the pack, even as per-pupil NY outlays soar.  “New York keeps spending more on schools and getting less results”, NY Post Editorial Board, 1/30/22.