“‘In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!’”
— John 16:33
Q: WHY ARE SCHOOLS USING SPECIAL ED MONEY FOR DEI TRAINING?
A: BECAUSE THEY CAN.
During the closing days of the Obama Administration, the U.S. Department of Education issued new regulations governing Part B of the “Individuals with Disabilities Education Act” (IDEA). The new “Equity in IDEA” regulations would “require[] states to identify districts with “significant disproportionality” in special education—that is, when districts identify, place in more restrictive settings, or discipline children from any racial or ethnic group at markedly higher rates than their peers.” https://insource.org/files/pages/0087-FACT%20SHEET%20Equity%20in%20IDEA%20%20US%20Department%20of%20Education.pdf
The Trump Administration resisted the new rules; however, after an unsuccessful court battle, the Trump Department of Education, starting in May 2019, required states to comply with the Equity in IDEA regulations.
Here is where the floodgates open: If, after a statistical analysis, a school district is found to have “significant disproportionality” (as described above), that district is required to set aside a portion of its IDEA money “to address factors contributing to the significant disproportionality.” And one of the ways it is allowed to do so is via “professional development”. https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/f/300.646
Equity in IDEA was birthed on the premise that significant disproportionality is the product of systemic racial bias, even without proof of racism on the part of educators. https://www.manhattan-institute.org/data-minority-students-special-ed-help-devos-rule-change Ergo, Equity in IDEA allows districts to use the money they must set aside to undo the supposedly racist system via professional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training.
ESSAY: Homunculus Redux
ONCE UPON A TIME, at the dawn of the scientific discipline now known as embryology, there was confusion. How did human beings form and grow? Did they develop gradually before birth (“epigenesis”), or did they exist fully formed in egg or sperm, even before conception (“preformationism”)? And how could we know?
In 1677, The Royal Society of London credited a Dutch maker of optics and lenses, Anton Leeuwenhoek, with the discovery under a microscope of motile sperm. Perhaps jealous for the limelight, another Dutch microscopist, Nicolaas Hartsoeker, claimed he had first seen the wriggling specimens a few years earlier, but in his uncertainty about what they were, he humbly did not publicize his observations. Preformationism of the “ovist” (egg) variety was already in the scientific air, and a cavalcade of nonsense claims by scientists about small humans supposedly seen in sperm cells ensued. And by 1694, the reticent microscopist Hartsoeker was nevertheless not too humble to publish his infamous iillustration of a “homunculus” (“little human”), curled up fully-formed inside the head of a sperm cell . . . even though Hartsoeker never claimed actually to have seen such a thing.
From our modern perspective, these claims all seem foolish and irresponsible. Yet, before we laugh too hard at these erstwhile “thought leaders,” and the herd mentality that led so many of them into the ditch of error, we should remember: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
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When anyone asks me what the three most important issues facing the Congress [sic], I always give the same answer:
-The children
-The children
-The children
Start of a Tweet by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, June 27, 2019
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We make a lot of cultural noise about prioritizing “the children,” but our actions often don’t match our rhetoric, and our motives are at best mixed. Despite all our scientific and cultural advances, we still treat children as “homunculi.” We dress them as little adults, advertise directly to them, train them like professional athletes, treat them like co-educators in the classroom; and, in increasingly blatant ways, we pretend they are simply little adults in the realm of sex and sexuality.
Either we still don’t understand how human beings develop and grow – especially psychologically – or we are willing to turn a blind eye to what we do know in order to follow trends, to satisfy adult appetites, and to stay in step with our increasingly transgressive elites.
Safe money says: the needs and wants of adults will prevail, even if the results harm “the children.”
United Nations 2030 Agenda (Part One): Coming Soon to Your Town?
When you think of the United Nations, what comes to mind? How about, maintaining international peace and security? Good answer! That’s the very first purpose listed in the UN Charter. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/chapter-1
Okay, what about promoting “sustainable housing” in Bird City, Kansas, population 450? Or providing the framework for a prestigious American university to judge its course offerings? Or helping to pressure a major American city to hire a “Chief Equity Officer”?
If this all sounds like the UN needs to “stay in its lane,” then you haven’t met the 2030 Agenda.
• • •
They have big plans in Turtle Bay.
According to the UN, we are on a “collective journey” to “[t]ransform[] our [w]orld.” This project goes by the name of “the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda (Article 1, ¶ 3 of the UN Charter opens the door to this.)
The 2030 Agenda was adopted in September 2015, on the occasion of the UN’s 70th anniversary and with the enthusiastic support of the Obama Administration. (“As a former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, I had the privilege to help usher in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. . . . The United States strongly supports the 2030 Agenda, and we are committed to its implementation.” — Former Obama UN Ambassador/current Biden USAID Administrator Samantha Power. https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-by-administrator-samantha-power-at-the-high-level-political-forum-on-sustainable-development/ )
Let’s peek under the hood.
The Agenda consists of “17 Sustainable Development Goals [the “SDGs”] with 169 associated targets which are integrated and indivisible.” (¶18) It went into effect on January 1, 2016, and all UN member countries pledged to implement the Agenda. (¶21)
Here are the SDGs:
- Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
- Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
- Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
- Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
- Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
- Goal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
- Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
- Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
- Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
- Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
- Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
- Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
- Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts* [*Acknowledging that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the primary international, intergovernmental forum for negotiating the global response to climate change.]
- Goal 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
- Goal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
- Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
- Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development
Holy cow! That’s a lot of “sustainability”! (14 uses of the word and its variants in 17 bullet points.) What does “sustainability” mean? (We will come back to that.)
These SDGs aren’t just intended for others − as a signatory to the Agenda, the United States is supposed to implement them, too. So, who is taking us on this “collective journey” to “[t]ransform[] our [w]orld”?
As always, follow the money − and learn the backstory. In Part Two, we will meet the NGOs devoted to implementing the SDGs in the United States.