EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE TYRANNY

By Michael J. Chapman

February 3, 2007

NewsWithViews.com

The United Nations Plan for Our Children

On September 10, 2003 in Prague at the International Conference on Education for a Sustainable Future, the United Nations declared 2005 through 2015, ï¿½The Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).ï¿½ To nobodyï¿½s surprise, the UN also named UNESCO (The United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) as the lead agency for this global effort. The official launch ceremony took place on March 1st, 2005 in New York City. [1]

Few Americans paid attention. They should have. On June 12, 2002, President Bush had announced that America would rejoin UNESCO and ï¿½ï¿½participate fully in its missionï¿½.ï¿½ [2] According to UNESCO, ï¿½The Decade of ESD is a far-reaching and complex undertakingï¿½ that potentially touches on every aspect of life. The basic visionï¿½is a world where everyoneï¿½learns the values, behavior, and lifestyles required for a sustainable future and for positive societal transformation.ï¿½ [3]

Unfortunately for America, the ï¿½values, behavior, and lifestylesï¿½ that UNESCO requires for ï¿½societal transformationï¿½ run contrary to a Christian Worldview and American principles of liberty.

What is Sustainable Development?

The term ï¿½Sustainable Developmentï¿½ (SD) was introduced in 1987 at the World Commission on Environment and Development. Their report entitled, ï¿½Our Common Futureï¿½ defined Sustainable Development as: ï¿½Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.ï¿½ [4] Behind this noble sounding goal, however, was a radical agenda that had more to do with controlling the economy and society than sustaining development. [See Michael's DVD: Education For Sustainable Tyranny]

Our Common Future, for example, revealed that SD involves ï¿½ï¿½a progressive transformation of the economy and society (p.43), ï¿½international interdependence (p.47), ï¿½redistribution [of wealth] (p.50) ï¿½less material and more equitable growth (p.50-52), ï¿½ensuring a sustainable level of population (p. 55), ï¿½merging environment and economics in decision making (p.62); ï¿½and a new ethic that will include the relationship between man and nature above all (p.71). Clearly there is more to SD than simply good stewardship of natural resources.

At the September 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, un-elected ï¿½representatives of the peoples of the worldï¿½ adopted a document called, ï¿½Agenda 21,ï¿½ and called it the global roadmap for SD implementation. [5] The Chapter Titles of Agenda 21 reveal the extent of government control necessary to implement SD, including goals to: Change Consumption Patterns; Promote Sustainable Human Settlements; Plan & Manage All Land Resources, Ecosystems, Deserts, Forests, Mountains, Oceans, Fresh Water; Agriculture; Rural Development; Biotechnology; Ensuring Equity; an increased role for Non-Government Organizations (NGOs); and even define the role of Business and Financial Resources. All this was to be accomplished on a global, national, and local scale. [6]

Since freedom-loving people would never willingly submit to such totalitarian control, education became the ï¿½keyï¿½ to sustainable development. Chapter 36 of Agenda 21, called Education, Public Awareness, and Training, made clear an intention to integrate Agenda 21 into ALL curriculum as a de facto international education standard.

Americaï¿½s Sustainable Development Education Standards

Is ESD part of the plan for American education? According to Dr. Robert Paige, President George W. Bushï¿½s first Secretary of Education, the answer is ï¿½YES!ï¿½ On October 3, 2003, celebrating our new partnership with UNESCO, then-Secretary Paige addressing the UN Round Table on Education explained: ï¿½The United States is pleased to return to UNESCOï¿½ There and here, we agree that we must make education a universal reality. Our governments have entrusted us with the responsibility of preparing our children to become citizens of the world. ï¿½ UNESCOï¿½knows the importance of education on a global level by coordinating the Education for All initiative (EFA). EFA is consistent with our recent legislation, the No Child Left Behind Act. [7] (emphasis added) In other words, the United States and UNESCOï¿½s goals for education are one in the same and mandated through No Child Left Behind.

In fact, ESD has been a goal in America for many years. To save space, Iï¿½ll connect the dots only as far back as 1990 - the year President Bush Sr. endorsed UNESCOï¿½s EFA Initiative and promised implementation by the year 2000. (America 2000 was written by the National Governorsï¿½ Association, chaired by then Governor, Bill Clinton.) In June 1993, as President, Bill Clinton signed an executive order creating the Presidentï¿½s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD). In 1994, the PCSD published ï¿½Education for Sustainability: an agenda for action,ï¿½ calling on educators ï¿½to serve society by fostering the transformations needed to set us on the path to sustainable development.ï¿½ [8] That same year, the EFA/ESD goals became President Clintonï¿½s ï¿½Goals 2000,ï¿½ establishing the framework for our National Standards, Curriculum, and Assessments. All 50 states adopted Goals 2000 in order to receive the funding that came with it. [9]

Today, President Bushï¿½s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) holds states ï¿½accountableï¿½ to implement their previously signed agreements. States and districts that refuse to ï¿½alignï¿½ their standards, curriculum, and assessments with these so-called ï¿½world-class standardsï¿½ will lose federal funding. NCLB requires full implementation by the end of 2014 ï¿½ which just so happens to be the final year of The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. What a coincidence!

The US Department of Education carefully insulated themselves from critics of this radical agenda by funding tax-exempt, non-government organizations (NGOs) to do their dirty work. Sometimes an NGO is several layers removed from its true funding source. For example, the Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit , published through the University of Tennessee in July 2002, was ï¿½made possible by a grant from The Waste Management Research and Education Institution,ï¿½ (an NGO funded by the US Department of Education). [10]