Conform: Exposing the Truth About Common Core and Public Education (2) (The Control Series)

Fantastic book. Glenn Beck does it again with his simple to understand, straight-to-the-point narrative. This time addressing the public school system and how the overall design is to keep people rich and not to actually educate students. Glenn provides a rich history and several real world examples that will make you want to take your kids out of the public system and put them somewhere in which they will actually learn. My only critic of this boom is that Glenn occasionally continues a section one or two paragraphs longer than it probably could have been. The material is still phenomenal, but seemed a bit unneeded. Would definitely recommend.

If you love your country, your family, your children, your freedom and yourself, read this book. Glenn Beck has exposed a school curriculum so insidious that it will set the next generation of kids back so far that they will never catch up with the rest of the world. This system, once adopted nation-wide, will put our declining country into its final death throes. Who would have thought all those years ago that Khrushchev would be right when he said, “We will bury you.” This is our last chance to save our country from a total collapse. The author states that “The dumbing down of America is good for one group and one group only; those who currently have all the power and control. By maintaining a failing system they are forcing a collapse that will have only one ‘savior’; the federal government. And they are ready to take full control of our hearts, our minds, our bodies, our very souls. To say that we need an educational revolution is an understatement. “For all practical purposes,” the author says, “public education has been the exclusive realm of the teachers’ unions for the past five or six decades.” Now the education system is under the control of union bosses who have more interest in enhancing their own careers and bank accounts than in our children. This should not have happened, but it did, through our indifference, laziness and neglect, and we are now paying for it big time. Now it’s time to fix this mess ourselves or lose our country. Common Core won’t fix it. It will just make matters infinitely worse and cause the total collapse of our educational system. Apparently it was engineered to do just exactly that. Unions reward bad teachers, even though it’s always been crucial to have a good teacher in every classroom. They have created a reward system at our expense that is all out of proportion to what teachers do in order to obtain and retain members. Schools incessantly ask for more and more money. They say they can’t educate the kids without it. Yet the biggest majority of the money goes to their employees, at the behest of the unions, not to educate the kids. Unions have helped to create low standards for teachers so that they don’t have to have degrees in the subjects they teach, indeed they don’t really have to know anything about those subjects at all. Teachers’ colleges have low standards. Since they have monopolies on teacher education, they do as they please and apparently spend a lot more time on the propaganda designed to make our kids hate us and us to hate each other and the rest of the world. Fundamentals go by the wayside and are replaced with “progressive” ideas about education that will blow your mind for their sheer idiocy. Did you know that Bill Gates (alias Darth Sidious) owns Common Core. I wondered for years why he was so interested in children. This author cleared it up for me. He has created “Q Sensors” to put on each and every student’s body so the teacher can monitor their every reaction as they sit in the classroom. Just imagine how much money Gates will make when he sells these gadgets to every school in the country. And who really knows what those “Q Sensors” are really designed to do. They could have something in them to give electric shocks to the kids to punish them. How do we know. My question is why do we need them? Would you really want them to put one on your child? Did Bill Gates have a hand in designing Common Core so that it delays the teaching of Algebra until the ninth grade instead of the seventh so that a science or technical student wouldn’t be getting pre-calculus until he reaches college? According to some distinguished educators, this precludes getting into elite colleges and also prevents students interested in science and technology from being able to graduate from college in these fields because they have not gotten the proper foundation in pre-calculus in high school. Sounds like Gates is trying to eliminate the competition. I guess with no one competent in science or technology it will be easier in the future to force the population to go back to using windmills and other primitive ways of getting energy and transportation. Although I’ll bet you a nickel that Bill Gates and our federal officials won’t be going low tech. Some educators are saying that American students enrolled in Common Core will be set back two years academically. Compare that with large numbers of home-schooled children who are a year or more ahead of their classes. But they are planning to put Common Core books in private schools and educational materials for Home Schoolers so that if a student doesn’t learn in the weird way that they are trying to sell us, they won’t get graduation certificates or even be able to pass tests because of the even weirder way the tests are designed. There is an interesting excerpt in the book where a parent appears before a school board and illustrates for them just how absurd the Common Core curriculum is. Those who are advocating it admitted that it is designed to hold everybody back. Is that what you want for your children and for yourself? I could go on and on about what’s in this book, but you need to read it for yourself. And while you are at it, Google “Why Did Texas Reject Common Core Standards” and scroll down and read the comments by one lady who lives in a Common Core state about how she found out that Common Core was put in without telling the parents. She discovered it when she tried to help her six-year-old with his homework and wasn’t able to, and his teacher told her to keep hands off. To me that means she has lost her children. They are now owned by the government body and soul. Until I looked on a map I had no idea that there are only a few states that rejected Common Core. That makes me feel so sad. The children in all those many states are lost, sold out by the people who were supposed to protect them. We all need to wake up and do something about this or someday our kids will be playing “The Hunger Games,” or be hunted because they are “Divergent.” The future is upon us. We have to decide what it will be. Don’t sell our kids out to the zombie makers or if you have found out that you have and didn’t know it, take them back. Search the Internet for information. Glenn Beck is not the only one talking about what has happened without informing the people and without their consent.

This book has a lot of data in it and it's an excellent resource. It looks at our education system and acknowledges both the positive side and the negative. What works and what doesn't. It offers suggestions on ways to put our system back on top. It looks at teachers and the unions. Some might think it's anti-teacher, but it stresses the contributions of creative and dedicated teachers and the need to reward them and remove teachers who shouldn't be in a classroom. It also goes into the creation of Common Core. As I read it I realized its the same as Outcomes Based Education which was introduced about 20 years ago. The adoption of those standards has helped bring us to where we are now. I would recommend this book if you are looking to understand what's happening in our schools today and how you can help change things.

Glenn Beck is mostly known as a radio and TV personality, but he has also written several books, including this 2014 work on public education. Conform: Exposing the Truth About Common Core and Public Education is a call to reform America’s public education system. Beck thinks this reform can best happen by the federal government leaving education to the states, states passing Right to Work laws to limit the power of teacher unions, states introducing a voucher system, and states reforming teacher certification. This book is an important and informative read for all Americans, whose tax dollars go to support this educational system. Part One of Conform is on the “Truth About Education,” where Beck exposes myths about American public education, including the following: Public schools need more money. Teachers’ unions are looking out for students. Good teachers need to attend a college of education. Common Core is state-led and rigorous. Schools should teach students sex education because parents don’t. Home schooling is inferior and is bad for the collective of society. Beck shows that America is spending more money on public education than ever, with an almost 300% increase (after adjusting for inflation) in spending on students since 1970 (p. 6). Driving this increase in cost are the teachers’ unions, who have secured automatic annual raises for teachers rather than raises being based on performance. Add tenure to this, and you have teachers with guaranteed employment and little motivation for improvement. Teachers’ unions are concerned with getting theirs, not with producing the best teachers and the best education for kids. As Beck says, “Mediocrity has become the accepted norm in far too many American government schools” (p. 42). Compounding the problem is the requirement by states for teachers to receive a degree from a college of education. Many colleges of education train teachers in progressive ideology and focus on methodology rather than mastering the subject one will be teaching. Worst of all, colleges of education are known to provide some of the easiest course loads and thus attract weaker students. Most teachers come from the bottom two-thirds of their class, with half of teachers coming from the bottom third (p. 50). One would think there would be alternative ways of achieving certification, but this would loosen union control of teachers training. So we have a situation that would be considered disastrous in the private sector—“The ed schools have a guaranteed market and are shielded from competition” (p. 52). Local public schools are also falling under the increasing control of the federal government. This is seen in the Common Core State Standard Initiative, which is said to be “state-led” and provide “rigorous” standards for students, neither of which is true. The federal government even has its hands in school lunches, using tax-dollars to provide free and discounted lunches for far too many students and then trying to control what kids are eating by forcing them to eat only healthy foods. Beck argues that we need educational options and that parents should be in charge of the decision as to where they school their children. Educational options make schools compete for students, and as Beck says, “Competition between schools is the best formula for success because it incentivizes superior performance” (p. 164). Charter schools are one way to accomplish this competition. Though publicly funded, charter schools are given greater freedom than traditional public schools to innovate and create unique learning environments. Another educational option Beck defends is home schooling, which takes heavy criticism from the educational establishment. Listen to this statist quote from the National Education Association, the largest teachers’ union: “The NEA believes that homeschooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education” (p. 141). This quote shows just how much the establishment fears the competition of home schooling—and why we need it. Part Two of Conform is a much shorter section on “The Way Forward,” where Beck lays out some suggestions for improving the public educational system. Beck’s proposals include implementing a voucher system where parents can take their tax-dollars to private schools, limiting teacher unions with Right to Work laws (as done in Wisconsin), innovating education with technology, and abolishing teacher certification (and simply hiring teachers who majored in the field they teach). Beck is right in his criticisms of the government education system. But while reading this book, one is left wondering if Beck does not go far enough. With his eye-opening description of America’s public schools and his praise of home schooling and private schools, the question becomes—why not do away with government-run education entirely? Why not privatize the whole educational system? Beck’s desire for reform of the public schools is noble, but he fails to identify the foundational problem—and that is that American government schools have been completely secularized. Public schools teach an atheistic worldview, which leaves the curriculum watered-down (as seen in the neglect of western civ) and leaves students with no basis for moral thinking or living. Beck sees this in the sexual immorality taught in public school sex education, when he says, “Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the problem [teen sexual activity] started growing after we kicked God out of the schools” (p. 132). Unfortunately, Beck in not consistent in identifying this secularization as the source of the other problems with public education. It’s hard to rebuild a house with no foundation. I received no compensation for this review, which can be seen on my education website: http://teachdiligently.com/blog/2015/7/27/book-review-conform

I have found all of Glenn's books to be informative and easy to understand. The foot notes make it clear that what are in these books is the "Agenda" of the Evil and Corrupt people that want Control of our lives and want us to Conform. Bill Gates and "BHO" are the kind of people that are the master mind's of these types of schemes. We need to know more of their plans....we can hear it in their own words from their mouth. Most, if not all can be found on "You Tube" or the "Blaze" so anyone can see them talking about it. You may not like Glenn Beck's books but no one can discredit them. I have "Amizon Prime" so get my books at my home quickly. Given a choice I will take the Truth....may we all learn to accept it and always choose Liberty and Freedom for everyone over Lies and Tyranny. I can see the next of the Books being called "Culture" The important part of any cultural system is of social control, or the design of various means by which members of society are encouraged/forced to conform to cultural norms. BHO and the likes of Bill Gates know this all to well.

If we were to view an apple resplendent upon a satin cushion under a clear crystal dome we can only make an assumed guess as to the eat ability of this most splendid apple. This is the only view the public have been allowed this apple (education institutes). This book, “Conform” by Glenn Beck and Kyle Olson has allowed the public to lift the crystal dome and bit into this ‘apple’ only to find it riddled with gluttonous maggots which have stripped away any vestige of an educational institute. Showing how the communist/socialist activists have not only undermined an educational system that the world tried to emulate but also has successfully brainwashed the students into a weapon to pit American against American with its multicultural agenda that only divides. Remember that if you what to conquer a country, first get the population fighting amongst themselves.

This should be required reading for every parent, grandparent and anyone who cares about the generation currently being processed in the indoctrination camps we used to call school. Don't assume you know what is happening to your children during the school day. Get into the school and ask some hard questions. Talk to your kids, read their text books. Show up at school board meetings. Until my grand daughter asked for help with her math, I had no idea what common core was about. We could loose a generation to this Top-Down experiment. Read the book, do your own research and get active in your local school while there is still time to stop this latest adult work-fare program in education clothing.

Great book, informative and eye opening, this is what is in store for our children if we allow the Federal government to set their guidelines as a "one size fits all" solution on public education. This approach is in effect dumbing down our children to accommodate the achievers vs the non- achievers. Asian and European parents do not buy into this nonsense, and as a result they are overtaking the United States in high tech, the sciences and engineering. Not for my nine year old daughter! Glenn Beck is actively involved in overturning this disturbing trend in public education, and should be commended for his efforts. If you are a concerned parent, please read this book and act on it.

Glenn Beck does it again. Having left Fox and developed privately, the most advanced set of 21st century studios and a unique online TV broadcasting strategy, Beck hits it out of the park with this book. Page after page exposes the shocking facts behind Common Core. He reveals how America's educational system has fallen into the hands of bureaucrats, many of whom are products of the radical 60s. The idea of "one approach fits all" via standardized testing has led to corporate corruption aligned with the Department of Education, all at the expense of our most sacred resource - our children. And that is only the beginning, the author outlines the "data mining" and systematic intrusion of private family information through questionnaires associated with each student in K-12 and beyond. Parents need to read this book and instead of accepting what Beck exposes, they need to read the reference sources provided in the book for each fact revealed. Parents need to learn and understand that Common Core is "rotten to the core". They need to act before their children get brainwashed by the Common Core constituency.

Every parent with school aged children have to read this book!