Education for Indoctrination:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
UNESCO and World Government
 
By Carl Teichrib (www.forcingchange.org)
 
Special Note: This report on UNESCO and education is detailed – but it has to be, such is the serious nature of the topic. In order to properly understand the relationship and influence of this United Nations body on our society, it is imperative to review the material with a certain level of depth. Please read this report with care, thinking through the implications of UNESCO's worldview.

 
 
"The supreme motivating concept of the future is synergy: men and women of all nations coming together under leaders of great vision, who see that the pursuit of a common ideal, one world, one Earth, one people, is the reason for all existence."
- Desmond E. Berghofer, founder of Creative Learning International.[1]
 
   If you want to radically alter society's future, the most effective way is to shape young minds today.
 
   This is not a utopian ideal; it's a tried and tested concept. Youth and children are the most impressionable demographic group on the planet, and what impacts them now directly correlates to action later in life. Furthermore, what influences youth today doesn't just shape minds for tomorrow; it challenges adults to change current behaviours. This is especially true as children, passionate to a given cause, apply parental pressures in order to shift lifestyle choices and/or mindsets.  
 
   Advertisers and marketing experts have understood this fundamental concept for decades, and have successfully exploited the youth/child element through every conceivable venue. And it works, as an analysis of the multi-billion dollar fast food industry easily demonstrates. Without question, the minds of children and youth are like fresh pages, open and ready to receive and imprint a myriad of messages. This is why education is so important – it is the direct implanting of information in such a way that a desired outcome is achieved.
 
   Typically public/general education is viewed as having two interlocking components: academic advancement and character growth. As parents we want to see our children advance in knowledge, wisdom, and intelligence; and to develop the mental tools needed to continue learning throughout life. We also want our children to embrace positive character attributes, both for the betterment of the individual and the community at-large. In other words, we expect education to shape children/youth into intelligent and responsible citizens.
 
   Ironically, the character side of this equation is somewhat of a switch from the past, when prior generations understood that those chiefly responsible to instil the proper attitudes and ethics were parents. This reality played itself out when a child misbehaved in school. For the disobedient youth the issue wasn't so much what the teacher might do, but how Dad or Mom would deal with the problem when you got home. After all, how you behaved in school was a reflection of your upbringing.
 
   Alluding to the power of education, one UNESCO document states, "the potential of education is enormous. Not only can it inform people, it can change them."[2]
 
   Although this appears simple at the outset, it's a telling remark, especially as education has assumed the role of character development. And what is the attitudinal direction being pursued? A look at UNESCO, the educational arm of the United Nations, gives us a window into "education" as a change agent for world citizenship.
 

 
   Federico Mayor, Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 1987 to 1999, was quick to recognize the linkage between education and future change,
 
   "Education, in the broadest sense of the term, plays a preponderant role in this development aimed at fundamental changes in our ways of living and behaving. Education is the 'force for the future' because it is one of the most powerful instruments of change."[3]
 
   Poised on the edge of the 21st century, Mayor's comments were not aimed at the traditional basics of education (reading, writing, arithmetic), but were couched in the context of global change. In the Preface of a UNESCO document titled Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future, the Director-General provided a grand vision,
 
   ".,.if we want this earth to provide for the needs of its inhabitants, human society must undergo a transformation. The world of tomorrow must be fundamentally different from the world we know as we step into the 21st century and the new millennium."[4]
 
   How different must the world become, and in what direction is this transformation taking society?
 
   In 1947, Julian Huxley, the Director-General of UNESCO wrote a short but important book about his organization, which was founded in 1945 but didn't come into effect until the following year.
   Titled UNESCO: Its Purpose and its Philosophy, Huxley openly proclaimed an evolutionary, secular humanist rationale for this important UN organ; "…the general philosophy of UNESCO should, it seems, be a scientific world humanism, global in extent and evolutionary in background."[5]
 
   In fleshing out this evolutionary philosophy, Huxley demonstrated the desire for direct management in the formation of human culture. As you read through these assertions, carefully consider the deeper implications Huxley impressed.
 
·         "Our first task must be to clarify the notion of desirable and undesirable direction of evolution, for on this will depend our attitude to human progress…"[6]
 
·         "Thus the struggle for existence that underlies natural selection is increasingly replaced by conscious selection, a struggle between ideas and values in consciousness."[7]
 
·         "From the evolutionary point of view, the destiny of man may be summed up very simply: it is to realise the maximum progress in the minimum time. That is why the philosophy of UNESCO must have an evolutionary background, and why the concept of progress cannot but occupy a central position in that philosophy… The analysis of evolutionary progress gives us certain criteria for judging the rightness or wrongness of our aims and activities."[8]
 
·         "…UNESCO must constantly be testing its policies against the touchstone of evolutionary progress. A central conflict of our times is that between nationalism and internationalism, between the concept of many national sovereignties and one world sovereignty…"[9]
 
·         "The moral for UNESCO is clear. The task laid upon it of promoting peace and security can never be wholly realised through the means assigned to it – education, science and culture. It must envisage some form of world political unity, whether through a single world government or otherwise, as the only certain means for avoiding war… Specifically, in its educational programme it can stress the ultimate need for world political unity and familiarize all peoples with the implications of the transfer of full sovereignty from separate nations to a world organization. But, more generally, it can do a great deal to lay the foundations on which world political unity can later be built."[10]
 
   As the educational agency of the United Nations, Huxley overtly tied UNESCO's philosophy of evolution/world government into the process of public learning. Consider this statement,
 
"…since the world to-day is in process of becoming one, and since a major aim of UNESCO must be to help in the speedy and satisfactory realisation of this process, that UNESCO must pay special attention to international education  - to education as a function of a world society…"[11]
 
   Huxley suggested other interlocking pursuits in the quest for world change, such as eugenics (the art of guiding human evolution through controlled breeding),[12] population control measures such as "birth-control facilities" and reversing the "wrong" ethics of modern medicine (an increase in population/longevity is negative to evolutionary progress),[13] renewed policies towards agricultural productivity along with social welfare in an evolutionary context,[14] and the use of propaganda and the "techniques of persuasion" as "Lenin envisaged" to "overcome the resistance of millions to desirable change."[15] Lenin understood how to overcome resistance – the "techniques of persuasion" – and it wasn't very pleasant. Huxley's point was clear; everything must change, and you too will transform or be tossed aside.
 
   Pulling all of this together, and using human conflict as a motive for world change, Huxley wrote,
 
"…the task before UNESCO is necessary, is opportune, and, in spite of all multiplicity of detail, is single.
 
That task is to help the emergence of a single world culture, with its own philosophy and background of ideas, and with its own broad purpose. That is opportune, since this is the first time in history that the scaffolding and the mechanisms for world unification have become available, and also the first time that man has had the means (in the shape of scientific discovery and its applications) of laying a world-wide foundation for the minimum physical welfare of the entire human species. And it is necessary, for at the moment two opposing philosophies of life confront each other from the West and from the East…
 
You may categorise the two philosophies as two super-nationalisms; or as individualism versus collectivism; or as the American verses the Russian way of life; or as capitalism verses communism; or as Christianity verses Marxism; or in half a dozen other ways… Can this conflict be avoided, these opposites be reconciled, this antithesis be resolved in a higher synthesis? I believe not only that this can happen, but that, through the inexorable dialectic of evolution, it must happen…"[16] [Italics in original]
 
   Think about it: As a pretext to world unity, what would happen if Christianity were to amalgamate with Marxism? A new brand of social gospel would emerge, centred not on Biblical foundations but on humanistic consensus, with societal transformation as the centerpiece.
 
   What would happen if individualism and collectivism were to blend? A new civilization of global democracy would be born, one that places "community" above persons, and elevates the commons (i.e., environment) ahead of the "narrow self-interests" of individuals.
 
   And what about the synthesis of capitalism and communism? Such a hybrid would be called "economic globalization." Does any of this sound familiar?           

 
   In 1999, UNESCO invited Edgar Morin, then Director Emeritus of Research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, to help formulate a better understanding of the basic philosophies underpinning world-change education. Essentially, it was hoped that Morin's work would "stimulate discussion on how education can and should act as a force for the future."[17]
 
   Morin focused on "seven complex lessons" or "seven facets of essential knowledge" that he felt was needed "in education for the future in all societies."[18]  The "seven complex lessons" are,
 
1.      Detecting error and illusion:
 
"Everything we know is subject to error and illusion."[19] Employing the observations of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the architects of The Communist Manifesto, Morin contested that Man is continually in a state of intellectual delusion and error.
 
   In attempting to explain the restructuring of ideas, doctrines and beliefs in the establishment of a new civilization, Morin attacks all foundations of truth. This includes "official beliefs, sovereign doctrines…unquestioned received ideas, uncontested stupid beliefs, [and] triumphant absurdities…"[20]
 
   Anything that "rejects evidence" to uphold it's own belief structure is deemed error and/or illusion. However, this idea, Morin admits, is generated by ideas,
 
"…Myth and ideology destroy and devour facts. And yet it is by ideas that we can perceive the shortcomings and dangers of the idea. Whence the inescapable paradox: we have to lead a crucial battle against ideas but we cannot do it without the help of ideas."[21]
 
   Morin deals with this paradox by providing a recommendation: "We should always remember to keep our ideas in their place as mediators and not identify them with reality."[22] 
 
   If this seems nebulous, that's because it is. It's an attempt to walk a philosophical tightrope that immediately throws the traveler down a dark pit. In a sense, it's the equivalent to emphatically declaring; "there is no truth, and that's the truth."
   But why would the author of this UNESCO report follow this path of no-truth/no-reality? Because education, according to Morin, is an act of creating globally accepted "meta-viewpoints on the noosphere."[23]
 
   What is the "noosphere"? It's the hypothesis that all of humanity's consciousness is prompting transcendent evolution: a mystical premise that fits hand-in-globe with the Gaia concept of a living, interacting, evolving bio-Earth. In other words, new world-views need to emerge that embody the "facts" of cosmic, conscious evolution. In contrast, illusions and errors – ideas, beliefs, or doctrines that oppose this special awareness – must be "relativized and domesticated."[24] [Italics in original]
 
   As Morin concludes in his first complex lesson,
 
"If we can hope for basic progress in the 21 century it would be that men and women could stop being the unconscious toys of their ideas and not only their ideas but their own self-deception. The major responsibility of education is to arm every single person for the vital combat for lucidity."[25]
 
   Intellectual houses built on foundations of truth and reality are not appropriate for this New Global Age. Rather, education that leads society into a netherworld of shifting values is the key to world unity.
 
   Why? Because pliable people are easily shaped.
 
2.      Principles of Pertinent Knowledge:
 
   In this section the UNESCO author hits on an important point: if we want to understand the world today, we cannot compartmentalize knowledge. Rather, we have to see how various fields of study overlap and work together, giving us a more complete picture.
 
   As the report states, "Society includes historical, economic, sociologic, religious dimensions…Pertinent knowledge must recognize this multidimensionality and insert its data within it."[26]
 
   Morin isn't wrong. In fact, this is a significant part of the Forcing Change (www.forcingchange.org) modus operandi – a type of macro-approach to information and knowledge. In other words, how does the interlocking world of politics, economics, and religion challenge and change society?
 
   However, the worldview embraced by Morin and UNESCO seeks integrated knowledge as a tool to leverage an evolving global culture. "In this planetary era we have to situate everything in the planetary complex and context."[27] As another UNESCO document reinforces, "…the true challenge, which the international community must face, is to visualize planet-sized policies, strategies, and lines of action…"[28] And,
 
   "Planetary citizenship must facilitate interaction among citizens of the world, to build wisdom and imagery on a planetary scale. Strengthening the idea of a world civilization will provide the stage for communicating, interacting, associating and rejecting what will not fit in global codes. People must become citizens of Earth, not a single culture."[29]
 
3.      Teaching the Human Condition:
 
   The "human condition," according to UNESCO and Morin, is an evolved cosmic condition.
  
   "The particles that make up our organism appeared in the very first seconds of life in our cosmos, fifteen billion (perhaps?) years ago; our carbon atoms were constituted in one or several suns that preceded our own; our molecules combined in the earliest convulsive times of the Earth; these macromolecules joined together within whirlwinds and one of them, growing ever richer in molecular diversity, metamorphosed into something new and very different from the previous, strictly chemical organization, to create living self-organization."[30] [Italics in original]
 
   This is fascinating. Morin completely contradicts one his country's most famous scientists, Louis Pasteur, discoverer of the established Law of Biogenesis [which states that life cannot arise from non-living matter]. If Pasteur were alive today, it's highly doubtful that UNESCO would embrace this eminent chemist. After all, Pasteur's worldview – "the more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator"[31] – flies in the face of UNESCO.
 
   Morin on the other hand, completely ignores the proven work of his fellow Frenchman.
 
   "A bit of physical substance organized itself thermodynamically on this earth. Soaked in brine, stewed in chemicals, jolted with electrical charges, it came to Life…We, the living, are a straw of the cosmic diaspora, a few crumbs of solar existence, a tiny budding of earthly existence.
 
   We are part of cosmic destiny but we are a fringe group: our Earth is the third satellite of a sun cast our of its central throne to become a heavenly pygmy wandering among billions of stars…
 
   Five billion years ago our planet was formed, apparently an aggregate of cosmic detritus from the explosion of an earlier sun and four billion years ago living organization emerged from a macromolecular whirlwind in the midst of howling tellurian storms and convulsions.
 
   The Earth produced and organized itself within its dependence on the sun and, when it developed its biosphere, constituted itself as a biophysical complex.
 
   We are both cosmic and terrestrial beings."[32]
 
   And therein lies the crux of the matter of the human condition according to UNESCO: we are cosmic entities. Cosmic accidents to be more precise, but cosmic nonetheless. As Morin tells us,
 
"…every human being, like a point in a hologram, bears the cosmos within himself. We should also see that every human being, even a person confined in the most ordinary life, is a cosmos in himself."[33]
 
   In concluding this third complex lesson in education for the future, this cosmic/evolutionary order leads us down the path of fate and citizenship.
 
   "Education should show and illustrate the multiple facets of human Fate: fate in the human species, individual fate, social fate, historical fate, all these fates mixed together and inseparable. One of the essential vocations of the education of the future will be the investigation and study of human complexity. It will lead to knowledge [prise de connaissance] that will give awareness [prise de conscience] of the common condition of all human beings; the very rich and necessary diversity of individuals, peoples, cultures; and our rootedness as citizens of the Earth…"[34] [Italics and brackets in original]
 
4.      Earth Identity:
 
   Understanding Morin's stance on Earth identity isn't difficult. This is the culmination of education for UNESCO: world civilization. Three quotes from Morin will suffice to illustrate the point.
 
   "Our planet requires polycentric thought that can aim at a universalism that is not abstract but conscious of the unity/diversity of the human condition; a polycentric thought nourished by the cultures of the world. Educating for this thought is the finality of education of the future, which in the planetary era should work for an earth identity and conscience."[35]
 
   "…we can glimpse the potential of a new creation – earth citizenship – in the third millennium, born of seeds and embryos contributed by the 20th century. And education, which both transmits the old and opens the mind to the new, is at the heart of is new mission."[36]
  
   "Today, the fundamental global objective of all education aspiring not only to progress but to the survival of humanity is to Civilize and Unify the Earth and Transform the human species into genuine humanity. Awareness of our humanity in this planetary era should lead us to a new unity and reciprocal commiseration from each to each, from all to all. The education of the future should teach an ethics of planetary understanding."[37] [Capitals and italics in original]
           
5.      Confronting Uncertainties:
 
    In German Hegelian philosophy, the dialectic runs like this: Thesis, opposed by Antithesis, is reconciled in Synthesis. Repeat this process until the Final Goal is achieved.   
 
   Although Hegelian philosophy in its many forms can be difficult to grasp, this dialectic is understandable. In order to achieve the Final Goal, an initial Thesis is put forward – call it the First Agenda. This First Agenda is radical and will never be accepted as it stands: it needs a modifier. Hence, an opposing idea or force, Antithesis, is brought into the picture – call it Planned Opposition. In the inevitable disorder that occurs, reconciliation, appeasement and compromise is demanded, and the agreed upon new position, the Synthesis, moves the process one step closer to the Final Goal. Repeat until the last Synthesis becomes the Final Goal.
 
   Another way of expressing this is to use the Latin term, Ordo Ab Chao: Order out of Chaos. To achieve the Result, introduce Chaos. Out of the cry for Order, introduce a Solution that brings the desired Result.
 
   This philosophy can be found in Morin's UNESCO report under the fifth complex lesson. Writing on order and disorder, and then liking confrontation to social change, the author states,
 
   "The uncertain adventure of humanity is simply the continuation of the uncertain adventure of the cosmos, created from an accident that defies our imagination, and pursing its course of creations and destructions…
 
…The Earth itself, which probably originated in a pile of cosmic refuse spit out from a solar explosion, is self-organized in a dialogue between order « disorder « organization…
 
…A new consciousness is emerging. Confronted by uncertainties on all sides, man is swept up in a new adventure. We have to learn how to confront uncertainty because we live in a changing epoch where our values are ambivalent and everything is interconnected."[38] [Italics in original]
  
   Paradoxically, while the Earth and Mankind is the product of a colossal accident (according to Morin), educational activities – an undeniably planned action – seeks to purposefully introduce a new utopian society through the chaos/order/results principle.
 
   Clearly, traditional values and realities cannot be tolerated in the pursuit of this future world, for they form a grounded opposition based on observed history (such as central government rule in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union), and the logic of the real human condition (a recognition of greed, lust, and power). Note, this grounded opposition is not a pre-planned action (Thesis/Antithesis) meant to introduce uncertainties (chaos) that would thereafter lead to the desired transformation of civilization (the Final Synthesis). Rather, this reality is based in historical observation and in the knowledge of our true nature. "Reality" that stands on such historical and traditional values, therefore, must be downplayed as "illusion." Pliable thinking and not grounded observation is required for building the utopian future.
 
   "Reality is not easily legible. Ideas and theories are not a reflection of reality they are translations, and sometimes mistranslations. Our reality is nothing more than our idea of reality.
 
   …the worst illusions are found within intolerant, dogmatic, doctrinaire certainties…"[39]
 
6. Understanding Each Other:
 
   Global tolerance is a benchmark for UNESCO, and so Morin touches on this social code of conduct, driving home the point of reforming thought processes towards planetary harmony.
  
   "We should connect ethics of inter-personal understanding with the greater need for globalized understanding in planetary era ethics. The only globalization that would really serve mankind is globalized understanding, globalized spiritual and intellectual human solidarity."[40]   
           
   "Our planet needs mutual understanding in all directions. Given the importance of education for understanding, on all educational levels and for all ages, the development of understanding demands a planetary reform of mentalities: this is the task for education of the future."[41]
 
7. Ethics for the Human Genre:
 
   In this final lesson, Morin's charge to UNESCO is that "we take responsibility for the anthropological mission of the millennium…"[42]
 
   So how does he suggest this prime mission occur? Direct social development by educating for an ethics of planetary unification, including "planetary unity in diversity."[43]
 
   All of this is embodied in the Living Earth/Gaia/noosphere belief of human/cosmic and spiritual evolution, with a political Final Goal.
 
   "Humanity is no longer simply a biological notion but it should be fully recognized in its inseparable inclusion in the biosphere. Humanity is no longer a notion without roots, it is rooted in a 'Homeland,' the Earth, and the Earth is an endangered Homeland."[44] [Italics in original]
  
   "…we can define our finalities: the pursuit of…humanization via accession to earth citizenship…for an organized planetary community. Is this not the true mission of the United Nations Organization?" [Italics in original]
 

 
   As yeast infects dough, so too UNESCO's philosophy of world humanism has worked its way through our educational systems. Philosophically, Huxley's organization hasn't changed, nor has its grand vision of transformation been altered in the least.
 
   Reflecting on education as a tool for transformation, a joint UNESCO/Government of Greece report from 1997, titled Education for a Sustainable Future, paints a picture Huxley would approve of.
 
   "…the potential for education is enormous. Not only can it inform people, it can change them. It is not only a means for personal enlightenment, but also for cultural renewal. Education not only provides the scientific and technical skills required, it also provides the motivation, justification, and social support for pursing and applying them. Education increases the capacities of people to transform their visions of society into operational realities. It is for this reason that education is the primary agent of transformation towards sustainable development…"[45]
 
   This 1997 report also connected the dots between the many international agreements and summits that took place during the 1990s, with a particular bent towards the goal of "sustainable development" – a catch-phrase that encompasses socialistic/technocratic management practices regarding land use, population and development, and the utilization of natural resources. In essence, "sustainable development" is an administrative/political process that focuses on impacting two cultural structures: economics and social activity – with government policy intentionally leveraged to enforce change in these two sectors. 
   
   Discussing the role of political arrangements and education, this UNESCO document bridged the global with the local.
 
"At the heart of this new international consensus is a new vision of education, public awareness and training as the essential underpinning for sustainable development…Within the action plans, education is no longer seen as an end it itself, but as a means to:
 
·         bring about the changes in values, behavior and lifestyle that are needed to achieve sustainable development, and ultimately democracy, human security and peace;
·         disseminate knowledge, know-how and skills that are needed to bring about sustainable production and consumption patterns…
·         ensure an informed populace that is prepared to support changes towards sustainability emerging from other sectors.
 
   These action plans are to be implemented not only for international institutions such as the United Nations system, but also and most importantly by national and local entities."[46]
 
   This is where the rubber meets the road: bringing the global agenda down to all levels of society. Hence, UNESCO's educational programs are not merely academic exercises; they are intentionally designed to influence global, regional, national, and local educational systems – they are intentionally designed to impact your culture. Here are some examples,
 
Global Influence: Through Ministerial level roundtables and conferences where national representatives seek common ground and agree to implement UNESCO action plans. These Ministerial roundtables on education are a regular occurrence, tackling issues such as "science and education," health and gender, environmental learning, economics and education, regionalism and world citizenship.
 
Regional Influence: Each year UNESCO operates regional meetings and consultations in every zone on the planet, supporting a broad range of educational, cultural, and scientific programs.
 
   In the past these regional events included a UNESCO/US White House conference, and the UNESCO embarked on a series of six regional meetings on literacy and teacher education. Eradicating literacy is a noble endeavour, however even literacy is treated as a steppingstone to internationalist goals. In the year 2000, Gene B. Sperling, US Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, brought these two concepts together while attending a UNESCO Forum on Education for All, "It is hard to imagine a more effective investment in the success of open markets and global integration than an expansion of literacy."[47]
 
National Influence: In the United States almost 800 schools use International Baccalaureate Organization programs. The IBO was jointly established in 1968 by UNESCO, the Ford Foundation, and the Twentieth Century Fund. Today IBO and UNESCO partner in developing school materials that promotes planetary ethics and world unity.[48]
 
   Another national example is the 2005 Luneburg, Germany meeting titled "Higher Education for Sustainable Development: New Challenges from a Global Perspective," which looked for ways to re-orient education toward sustainable development goals throughout Germany's universities.[49]
 
Local Level: Typically, UNESCO strategies filter to the local level through national programs. But of all the different levels UNESCO works with, it's the local that's the most important. After all, the local is where higher decisions are ultimately aimed.
 
   Some interesting Canadian examples exist that are worth mentioning, as they reflect the wide scope of UNESCO's involvement in Canadian culture. The following items were taken from the 2005 Annual Report of the Secretary-General, Canadian Commission for UNESCO.
 

• "Growing Up in Cities," Gatineau, QC Feb. 21/Vancouver, BC, Sept. 13-14 [connecting youth, non-profit groups, and civic governments as part of UNESCO's Growing Up in Cities Network].
• "Taking Stock and Moving Forward," a meeting of the Saskatoon Teacher's Association, Saskatoon, SK, Feb. 14 [focused on worldviews as an education theme, with the community as a unifying force].
• "Forum for Responsible Citizenship," Quebec, May 19-20 [engaging a sustainable development theme for schools].
• "Workshop on the Earth Charter Festival," Montreal, QC, Oct. 30 [a workshop to focus on global interdependence as envisioned by the Earth Charter, a soft-law document that establishes an ethics for world integration].

 
   One final example that transcends global to local is the UNESCO Associated Schools Project Network. This program seeks to promote ideals of global unity and world peace through a network of over 7000 schools around the world. According to the Canadian Commission for UNESCO,
 
   "Associated Schools promote UNESCO's ideals by conducting pilot projects, and by developing innovative educational approaches and materials to address local, regional and global issues."[50]
 
   Even though there may be some general good that comes through such a program, such as tsunami relief for South East Asia as a result of school's participating in the UNESCO Network, the grander vision of evolutionary world governance is still at the core of UNESCO's activities.
 
   So how do you deal with UNESCO at the local level?
 

UNESCO and You

 
   Each person is in a unique place and position, and will respond in ways beyond what the author of this report has thought of.
 
   Some general rules apply, however, in making a measured response to UNESCO influence at your level.
 

1. Know your facts. Study the history, philosophy, personalities, and current activities in order to have an integrated knowledge of the situation.

2. Document your positions. If possible, have the actual materials on hand. And ensure that the documentation is true to the context of the criticism. 

3. Be tactful in your response. There may be a time and place where emotional responses come into play, but tactfulness and discrimination should always be the hallmark. Be professional!

4. Offer sound, logical reasons for your criticisms. Couch your positions/reasons in factual evidence and rational lines of progression.

5. If possible, offer constructive options. Even if those implementing the UNESCO program remain steadfast in their position, your offer demonstrates a measured and thought-out alternative.

 
   Here are some suggestions and possible points of contact.
 
Parents: If your child is in a public/private school, keep close tabs on the curriculum and material used in shaping your child. Ask questions such as; is the school using UNESCO materials? (If so, ask to review them). What worldviews are presented in the curriculum? More often than not, a hands-on review of the curriculum/teaching material is necessary, and this is your duty as a parent. Provide constructive and reasoned responses where needed. 
 
   Due diligence is essential. Moreover, look for ways to be a credible voice. Build relationships. Ask pertinent questions. Be discerning. Offer realistic and exemplary options.
 
   Home schooling families, obviously, don't face the same issues as public/private schools. Regardless, it's important to engage your community and peers as opportunity presents itself.
 
School Staff/Teachers: Be alert to materials and teaching techniques that promote world citizenship and the building of a global ethics based on cosmic humanism. If such curriculum is required in the classroom, use it as a launching pad to promote critical thinking. Examine the claims carefully, and encourage the use of historically grounded materials in defining and defending positions. Encourage students/staff to think rationally and logically.
 
School Board Members: Be extra diligent to the influences of UNESCO worldviews as they filter down from official education departments. Communicate with staff and parents regarding your use/disuse of certain materials, and provide critical feedback to higher officials. Remember, you are not just the conduit for top-down decision makers, but a buffer between the community and the educational bureaucracy.
 
Politicians/Policy Makers/Bureaucrats: The pressure is enormous to conform and follow the politically accepted line. Develop a logical outlook, deeply examining what is being asked of you. Voice your concerns and let the community know where you stand. Be firm in defending liberty, truth, and rationality. Refrain from the herd mentality when a higher office orders UNESCO/global governance agendas to be implemented, and offer sound reasons/alternatives in countering/handling the internationalist approach.
 
   Regardless of who you are or your position in life, become involved in the lives of youth. Instil values of truth, reality, and an appreciation for facts. Offer counterpoints to the continual bombardment of ambiguous global values and ideals. Lead by integrity, honesty, and sound thinking. Recognize the real human condition, and offer tangible hope, not utopian humanistic dreams that have historically produced nothing but nightmares.
 
   It has been said that the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow, and that's true. But the leaders of today are the ones who chart the course. Be a leader. ---
 
Carl Teichrib is the editor of Forcing Change (www.forcingchange.org), a monthly research digest on global social, economic, political, and religious changes.
 
Endnotes:

[1] Desmond E. Berghofer, The Visioneers: A Courage Story about Belief in the Future (Creative Learning International, 1992), p.289.

[2] UNESCO/Government of Greece, Education for a Sustainable Future: A Transdisciplinary Vision for Concerted Action, conference report, December 1997, p.36.

[3] Federico Mayor, Preface, Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future, a document formulated for UNESCO by Edgar Morin, 1999.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Julian Huxley, UNESCO: Its Purpose and its Philosophy (Public Affairs Press, 1947), p.8.

[6] Ibid. p.8.

[7] Ibid. p.9.

[8] Ibid. p.12.

[9] Ibid. p.13.

[10] Ibid. p.13.

[11] Ibid. pp.29-30.

[12] Ibid. p.10.

[13] Ibid. p.10.

[14] Ibid. p.10.

[15] Ibid. p.60.

[16] Ibid. p.61.

[17] UNESCO/Edgar Morin, Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future, 1999, see back cover.

[18] Ibid. p.1.

[19] Ibid. p.5.

[20] Ibid. p.9.

[21] Ibid. p.11.

[22] Ibid. p.11.

[23] Ibid. p.12.

[24] Ibid. pp.10-12.

[25] Ibid. p.12.

[26] Ibid. p.14.

[27] Ibid. p.13.

[28] UNESCO, Planetary Sustainability in the Age of the Information and Knowledge Society for a Sustainable World and Future: Working Toward 2015 (UNESCO, 2003), p.69.

[29] Ibid. p.141.

[30] Morin, Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future, p.22.

[31] See, J.H. Tiner, Louis Pasteur: Founder of Modern Medicine (Mott Media, 1990)

[32] Morin, Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future, p.22.

[33] Ibid. pp.26-27.

[34] Ibid. pp.28-29.

[35] Ibid. p.32.

[36] Ibid. p.36.

[37] Ibid. p.39.

[38] Morin, Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future, pp.43-44.

[39] Ibid. p.44.

[40] Ibid. p.54.

[41] Ibid. p.55.

[42] Ibid. p.57.

[43] Ibid. p.57.

[44] Ibid. p.61.

[45] UNESCO/Government of Greece, Education for a Sustainable Future: A Transdisciplinary Vision for Concerted Action, conference report, December 1997, p.36.

[46] Ibid. p.37.

[47] Remarks of the Honorable Gene B. Sperling, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, United States of America, International Consultative Forum on Education for All, April 28, 2000, www.unesco.org/education/efa/wef_2000/speeches/sperling.shtml.

[48] For more on the IBO and its UNESCO connection, see the article "Social Engineering for Global Change" at www.forcingchange.org/store/1874178/page/1130090.

[49] For a short-listing of this event, and many others, see the 2005 Annual Report of the Secretary-General of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. For the German example, see pages 10-11.

[50] 2005 Annual Report of the Secretary-General of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, p.31.