This is a very alarming story about a conservative Christian group funded by Betsy DeVos called the “Student Statesmanship Institute.” Open the story to see the video.
A conservative Christian group with ties to Donald Trump education pick Betsy DeVos once released a promotional video that proudly featured a speaker describing how Adolf Hitler and others indoctrinated children.
The undated video by the Student Statesmanship Institute ― which trains Christian kids to bring their “biblical worldview” to politics and media careers ― opens with a speech by Michigan leader Richard Posthumus, who describes how Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin used children to spread their message.
“Sometimes, it seems like it’s very hard to change the world, the world is so big,” Posthumus says in the video, over a dramatic soundtrack. “But what SSI has done is equip young people with the tools to go out and be ready for the competing ideas that’s in this world.”
The video immediately cuts to another comment.
“Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Lenin: They knew one thing, that to change a culture, to change a country, they had to reach the children,” he says.
It’s not clear how Posthumus prefaced those remarks. But the words are included in a montage of SSI’s “favorite and most inspirational moments over the last 20 years,” according to the clip’s YouTube description.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And he decided to just skip over the Jesuits? Was not the Jesuit motto “Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man ” (alleged to be attributed to Francis Xavier, the co-founder of the Jesuit Order)?
On Sat, Jan 28, 2017 at 8:00 AM, Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: “This is a very alarming story about a conservative > Christian group funded by Betsy DeVos called the “Student Statesmanship > Institute.” Open the story to see the video. A conservative Christian group > with ties to Donald Trump education pick Bet” >
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Not disagreeing with what the Jesuits were, but we have to recognize what they now are. I’m a non-Catholic who went through 9th grade in public schools and ended with three years in a Christian Brothers high school. My high school was the worst school I attended in my life (after I graduated it produced Steve Scalise, Paul Ryan’s whip) which beat the joy of learning out of me. Luckily, I attended a Jesuit university and they taught me how to read and write again. I hope my sons, who are not Catholic and will have attended public schools their whole lives, will choose to study at a Jesuit college.
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Ditto Norwegian Filmmaker. A few Jesuits kept me in the church long past the usual shelf life. The ones I knew were intellectual, flexible thinkers, who helped my parents & grandparents– both mixed Prot-Cath marriages– bridge the gap, presiding over family milestone events w/creative & inclusive services. & did the same for our marriage/ kids– me an enthusiastic convert & husband a cradle Catholic who would have lapsed w/o their persuasive ways.
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Steve,
I love the Jesuits! They do not use dictators as their models of excellence.
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Isn’t that what college and schools are doing too? We all want to prepare our kids for the challenges of the world regardless of our belief system. If we just throw them out there how are they suppose to survive with conflicting views? Everyone should know what they believe and be able to stand behind it.
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The Jesuits are the ONLY sect of Christianity where questioning and learnedness and not taking ANYTHING at face value or in blind obeidience is at the core of its philosophy and mindset. It has this in common with Judaism.
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Correct.
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One of the reason’s for Vatican II in 1962 was to exorcise the Catholic Church’s complex & corrupt relationship with all governments and ties to an economic system that crushes the poor & disenfranchised. In doing so, the reforms changed the Catholic Church’s focus on aligning with US/European finance & war domination to one from it’s roots in social justice. The Jesuits took the philosophy of Vatican II’s Liberation Theology directly to the people much to the chagrin of the US & Europe. The Jesuits theology are antithetical to a Devos style theocracy.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/05/us-still-fighting-threat-of-liberation-theology/“In 1962, Pope John XXIII, through the Second Vatican Council, attempted to reclaim the early roots of the Church; the Church of the first 300 years when it was the “persecuted Church,” the Church of the martyrs.”
Without going into historic detail, the Jesuits arose from Vatican II as champions of liberation theology (e.g., liberating the poor, pro-civil rights, pro peace, vehemently anti-war & capitalism). Jesuit leaders like the Berrigan brothers in the US, the murdered Cardinal Oscar Romero, & the CIA backed murders of Jesuits throughout south America highlight the Jesuit order’s brave commitment to justice & equality. Nothing in the DeVos education ideology suggests a commitment to equality & equal justice for all.
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Yes. Dan Berrigan was head of Cornell’s inter-faith dept when
I was a student there in the tumultuous ’60’s. It was important to my spritual devpt to have Catholics of standing participate in the anti-war movement. Another Catholic key to the times was Msgr Ivan Illich, who ran an intellectual center in MX. While I was a Spanish student there, he openly criticized Paul VI’s birth-control encyclical (a step back from John XXIII’s work), & backed his monastic/ convent students who rebelled against the consequent Holy See order that they leave the center. I have also been proud of Popes JPII & Francis, who took courageous political stands.
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Big Education Ape linked to this piece, but included a great “Children of the Dammed” picture to make the point a little more strongly.
It’s a Must-See:
http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2017/01/devos-funded-group-how-to-indoctrinate.html
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Reblogged this on Boyle For Michigan and commented:
There is a Democrat block of Betsy DeVos’ confirmation to US Secretary of Education. Four Republican members of the committee received contributions from DeVos interests – these four have NOT recused themselves from the proceedings. Demand an ethical review of the Senate confirmation hearings.
We can’t allow the fox to enter the hen house to devour our youth.
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It’s happening on the left as well. That’s why we need options. Not a fan of Betsy, however, we let this happen by being a sleep at the wheel. We went too far left, and left a big chuck of the population, low-socio economic white people out of the equation. We must eliminate bias by eliminating color and gender categories. Just saying.
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I must respectfully disagree that we went too far left. We abandoned the Left and went too far Center. We left low socioeconomic white people hanging out to dry for Scott Walker and so many others to disparage and degrade. We have not visited the Left in my lifetime.
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Too far left?! In what universe are Obama and Clinton too far left? They are centrists for the most part and had/have strong connections to corporate America. They are more liberal when it comes to social issues. Obama was full bore for charter schools and school reform. It’s not that Democrats went too far left (they didn’t), it’s that the GOP is no longer a political party but a far right wing hyper radicalized movement determined to destroy anything and everything that helps ordinary working class Americans. The GOP especially reviles the poor and the destitute. The real problem in this country is the GOP which went too far right, which is an understatement; just look at who controls our government now and what their agenda is.
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“In what universe”: In the universe of the far right, because they have a vested interest in portraying and ingraining a false view that centrist and center-left political views are of the left. That moves the perception of those who don’t pay attention of the far right closer toward a false centrism. We have no far left in this nation. Sanders and Warren represent center-left in a same world. The far right wants to create an illusion. Not lecturing, Joe, just expanding on your correct argument.
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in a sane world, not same
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I think you must mean we went too far right. Democrat Party’s buy-in to ‘third way’/ neoliberal position starting w/Clinton, continued w/Obama, basically married Dems to once-mainstream Republican positions– their pro-globalism pro-unfettered banking/ investment policies left low-SES whites– & other colors of middle & working classes– to fend for themselves in a whirlwind of downsizing.
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This video has been posted since October 2013 and to see John Ashcroft front and center, right along with Uncle Joe Stalin and Hitler, well this is the “inspiration” for the SSI 20th year celebration.
20 years of this take-over Democracy brain-washing in action?!
The infected “children” are now adults and guess who they voted for in November 2016.
And guess who will be our next US Secretary of Education.
I don’t think so.
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Young children are impressionable. Their early experiences can help shape their lives. That is why I believe it is important for children to attend diverse schools with a variety of students from different backgrounds. It teaches children an appreciation and acceptance of people that may be different from them, and this often promotes healthier attitudes in the future.
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Richard Posthumus really has a way with words, geez, what a knuckle-head. He forgot Mussolini, Franco, Kaiser Wilhelm and Genghis Khan. He was a lieutenant governor of Michigan. One of the other speakers in the video was a justice of the MI supreme court.
I have a dream that one day these far right wing jackanapes will be an ignored fringe.
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Here is the official video from SSI. It’s still up on youtube. I bet it’ll be taken down soon.
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How many continue to be complacent, or at least okay, with the Leader In Me program? LIM is Mormon indoctrination that has been welcomed into many public school systems. Attempts at religious supremacy at any level, or within any denomination/faith is not okay. Let’s not pick and choose.
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What in the hell are you talking about? This is NOT a Mormon program. I am a Mormon, with teenage children. I would have heard of this.
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So I just looked up this program. It’s done by Franklin Covey. It has NOTHING to do with the Mormon church. Mormons are bashed enough. Let’s not add to it.
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I’m with Threatened and jennifer. No room for this in our nation. But I will plead guilty of hypocrisy when it comes to scientology.
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Don’t forget China’s Mao, who programmed children with his Little Red Book of quotations, to take over China and launch his Cultural Revolution (1965 – 1976). These children were not members of the Communist Party. They were called Mao’s Little Red Guard, and they were encouraged to denounce their parents, business owners, teachers, and each other. In fact, the People’s Liberation Army stayed inside their bases and did not support or stop the Little Red Guard.
At one point, a mob of thousands of these children was on their way to burn the Forbidden City in Beijing, but they were stopped by the PLA regiment that guarded Mao who lived in the Forbidden City as China’s un-named modern emperor.
The Little Red Guard shut down China’s schools for almost a decade that also resulted in over 2-million deaths, many were suicides, many were dedicated teachers who were denounced by these vigilante gangs of children and teens.
When one girl murdered (beat her to death) one of her teachers, Mao praised her in front of the nation’s media machine and urged pregnant women to name their children after this girl. Sounds familiar.
There were millions of these children – tens of millions. My former wife was a child in China at the time. To survive, she had to become one of them or end up denounced. One sign of your loyalty was to memorize Mao’s Little Red Book of quotations. She’d memorized all of them. When her loyalty was challenged, which was often, all she had to do was recite the quotes from memory.
She wrote about it in her NY Times Notable Book of the Year, “Red Azalea” that also won the Carl Sandburg Award.
We get together every week, and she talks about what Littlefingers Donald Trump is doing, and says she is reminded of Mao and the Cultural Revolution. She both fears and hates what is happening in the U.S. She doesn’t want to live through another horrid Cultural Revolution led by another demigod. And since her books are blacklisted in China, she can’t go back there to live permanently to escape Trumpism.
Does Trumpism = Maoism or is it worse?
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“They were called Mao’s Little Red Guard, and they were encouraged to denounce their parents, business owners, teachers, and each other. ”
Reminds me of the heartwarming story of Abraham and Isaac or Lot and his daughters and other fairy tales of nutty loyalty.
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We are in big trouble – she very well may be confirmed.
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Virginia, she probably will be but we have to fight back
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Her probable confirmation should be the first battle in an extended strategic campaign. If anyone loses motivation, then same and to hell with you. This is the beginning, not the end.
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In case this was over-looked:
Donald Trump, the Religious Right’s Trojan Horse
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I just left the website – don’t know why all that appeared –
Sorry!
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