"I fear for your kids"
The world is full of sanctimony about other people's kids. Amazingly it starts with the birthing processing, feeding, screen time, corporate logos on clothes, and it keeps going. I'm only six years into it.

It's not about a sound education! It's about being part of the collective... who obeys.

You're still expecting the gov to accomplish something other than stealing our money to redistribute down a black hole. When they finally do accomplish their goal you'll know because your kid will have just turned you into the authorities for being a bad citizen.

"I graduated from high school and never felt that need to conform, or that my thoughts/wants were unimportant. "
If I sense a need to conform, that's the single thing that would cause me to withdraw my kids from a school. It's right up there with ideology of any sort.

I picked the preschool they're in now by asking them what they're opinions were on various things kids do. I was listening for ideology of any sort, not just political ideology, but ANY ideology, e.g. "kids must get outside at least once a day" or "kids must eat in a quiet space". We got burned by a school with strict ideology. I'm very happy they're in a non-ideological school now.

I fear for your kids because you won't recognize it when it's right in front of you. You make up reasons and excuses for what they say to fit into something you can swallow easily. If your kid is bored in class he/she is in the wrong over crowded class being held back intellectually so the other pigeon holed kids can catch up and all be the same. But you will see something else.

I graduated in 1961, by the way. I have more to say on that later. Gotta go now, Gulchers! Keep up this important thread!

I know some of the basics, not much more than what you wrote. It still doesn't sound like a plot to me. I know many people with favorable views of communism and socialism; I avoid the topics b/c i know they won't change their minds on the spot. I certainly wouldn't want to ban them from working in education. I expect any school my kids go to, public or private, will have a fair number of people with leftwing political ideas just b/c of the politics of the area. I will object, though, if they carry on about politics, even subtly, in the classroom. We're trying to give kids facts, methods of getting facts, and frameworks for working with them-- I don't want anyone teaching them an ideology.

Excellent point!

He won't listen. I've already walked this path with him.

We're back to word definitions CG. Critical thinking to them means something different. And "good citizens"??? You're killing me with this crap!

And agents in the classroom to make sure lesson plans aren't strayed from.

Carol, click reply under the comment you're replying to. :) I too am afraid of the growing education monster. Bill Ayers, b.o., Saul Kaminski, Hillary, all the same evil that must be fought. Add Dewey to that list too. And also many many sheep.

"The Feds just wanted to have common minimum standards. Sounded innocent enough."
And they haven't accomplished what they set out to do. A high school diploma isn't associated with a clear set of skills and knowledge. I wouldn't mind Fed involvement in education if they had accomplished something. Instead of finding more ways to get people in to college, I think we should fix up the high schools and have some clear set of standards (maybe not federal standards) of what exactly a high school diploma means. People belittle the GED, but to me it means more than knowing someone has a high school diploma b/c I can look up exactly what test they passed to get it.

"The Weatherman, Bill Ayers. At any rate, the morality of having a central government attach strings to any financial help for education institutions is an abomination!"
I understand the second point, but I don't see what it has to do with the Weathermen.

"Education over the past few decades has increasingly been geared to emphasizing conformity--a death knell for creativity and initiative."
I agree, and I think it's been for a century or more. The industrial revolution brought jobs that valued following instructions. Increasingly computers and robots can do almost any task that is just following instructions. The new jobs are about putting automation to work in creative ways that solve problems. We're still teaching to the old system.

Even jobs weren't changing, we still wouldn't want to teach conformity. People absolutely need critical thinking to be good citizens.

I have a feeling our kids will go through several school arrangements, possibly with some home schooling, before they go to college. I'm not even sure if college will exists as it does today in 13 years. I hope it's more of a partnership with apprenticeships where people learn practical skills on the job at the same time as they learn theory in the classroom.

And don't forget that there is someone, or some agency, who is going to be in charge of determining just what standards are to taught. As I've said to Obama/Ovomit: Who died and made you the determinator of the greater good!

You think an education standard is a plot to destroy America. I would love to sit in on the meetings where the conspirators discuss it. "We want to destroy our own country, but how to do it? Worksheets for 8 y/o's!"

Maybe I'll be singing a different tune after my kids get in it. We've been known (unfortunately) to pull our kids out of school abruptly in the recent past. :) I'm almost sure the standards histrionics is just politics. The more likely scenario is we'll think the worksheets or tests are lame (i.e. boring, not a plot to destroy America) and we won't send our kids to those parts.

We went to all the schools nearby, and the public school down the road seemed surprisingly good. We thought that about the school they started last year, though, and we ended up in a lawsuit.

And everyone is forced to pay for it regardless of their own concerns about how dangerous it is.
(This is the only way anything bad like this can survive)