American news outlets (well at least those not in Barack Obama's lap)
are filled with criticism on the Department of Education plans to
bring Obama's agenda into our nation's classrooms. The ploy to reach
and teach our children through a presidential speech and through
instruction guides (little red books?) appears to be stalled for now
as parents -- if nor educational unions -- resist the idea of brain-
swaying our children into writing paeans to Obama and his agenda.
However, few have wondered how such an idea ever emerged in the first
place. We do have some clues and they are unsettling.

I have previously reported that this idea of inculcating revolutionary
goals in our children's minds stems from the philosophy of Bill Ayers,
Obama's friend, collaborator, and campaign supporter. But Obama's
ideological mentors appear to reach farther back to an influential
radical Italian communist, Antonio Gramsci.

[...]

A cadre of like-minded educators and national service administrators
across the country share the same core commitment to transforming
themselves from imparters of knowledge to transformers of society. The
"change" agenda trains students to think only about what they should
do for Obama -- and rarely to contemplate how his powers and ambitions
should be limited and restrained.

[Bill] Ayers preached his education-as-"social justice" agenda to his
"comrades" at the World Education Forum in Caracas, Venezuela, three
years ago:

"This is my fourth visit to Venezuela, each time at the invitation of
my comrade and friend Luis Bonilla, a brilliant educator and inspiring
fighter for justice. Luis has taught me a great deal about the
Bolivarian Revolution and about the profound educational reforms
underway here in Venezuela under the leadership of President [Hugo]
Chavez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of
revolution, and I've come to appreciate Luis as a major asset in both
the Venezuelan and the international struggle -- I look forward to
seeing how he and all of you continue to overcome the failings of
capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and
deeply humane."

[...]

Who was Gramsci? He was a leader of the Communist party of Italy who
called upon "intellectuals" to produce hegemony over society through
control of education; he viewed schools as an apparatus that radicals
can use to radicalize the young and turn them into communists. He had
a long-term approach, realizing that it may take years of a "long
march through institutions" to train a proper Communist.

Americans versed in Obama Studies may recognize the name of Gramsci.
He has inspired not just the tyrant of Caracas but also inspires the
man in the Oval Office.

[...]

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/...ing_bunch.html