# 1 BE S T S E L L ING A UT HOR OF COM M ON S E NS E

GLENN BECK
CONFORM

with KYL E OL SON

AUTHORS NOTE

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
ABR AHAM LINCOLN

Men are cast-iron; but children are wax.

HOR ACE MANN

merica was founded on the revolutionary belief that human beings receive their rights from God, not the government. With just a handful of well-chosen words, our Declaration of Independence effectively stood the entire history of human existence on its head. Our Founders reaffirmed these self-evident truths in the Bill of Rights, including freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly. Freedom is so deeply ingrained in our national psyche that we wouldnt think of letting the government tell us where to live,

AUTHORS NOTE

what kind of car to drive, or what to eat for dinner. But somewhere along the way, too many Americans bought into the idea that the government has the authority to tell us where we must send our children to school, based on nothing more than our zip code. Americans who were always taught to be mistrustful of government and power somehow agreed to entrust bureaucrats with the education of their children. Many Americans go along with this zip code approach to education because, frankly, it works reasonably well for them. Their children attend a government-run school where most students seem to learn reading, writing, and math at an acceptable level. Sure, they might wish their local schools were better in some way, but all in all, the system works okay for them. Unfortunately, there are a lot of American families having a completely different experience. They are not being well served by their zip codeassigned school. Not only are their children not learning much, but their very safety is in jeopardy because their school is so chaotic and dangerous. It is fundamentally unfair and un-American to force certain children to attend a failing, dysfunctional school simply because their family cant afford to move into the right school district. This is not freedomand it goes against everything our Founders believed about how education should work. Still, the teachers unions and their progressive friends in the media and the state legislaturespeople we collectively refer to as controllistsdefend zip code education and argue the only thing ailing government schools is a lack of funding. Almost every day there are news stories about disputes between a teachers union and their local school board. These fights invariably revolve around the same issues: teacher pay and benefits, work rules and accountability. Its gotten so absurd that some unions and school boards actually spend time negotiating

AUTHORS NOTE

xi

over how the money from the teachers lounge vending machine is going to be spent and how much humidity is allowable in each classroom, or work site, as unions like to call them. The National Assessment of Educational Progress reports, We spend more per pupil than any other country, but among industrialized nations, American students rank near the bottom in science and math. Only 13 percent of high school seniors know what high school seniors should know about American history. And remember, these results are based off governmentdetermined standards of what they think our kids should know about science, math, and history. Our personal standards are likely much higher. Its time to stop the insanity. Its time to focus on the students and their needs, instead of the adult employees and their unions. Its time to make sure every classroom is staffed with an outstanding teacher, and every family has access to an outstanding classroom. Its time to kick down the walls that are keeping children from reaching their full potential. We can do bettermuch betterthan the system the controllists have given us. But its not going to be easy. Those ivory towers are heavily reinforced and the people who reside in them have a lot of money and power. They control many of our school boards, state legislatures, teacher colleges, and government bureaucracies, and theyre not going to relinquish control without a vicious political fight. The reality is that the controllists know their approach to education isnt working. But instead of admitting that and allowing choice to reign, theyre pushing the Common Core national learning standards, which create stifling conformity among our schools. Even some conservatives are telling us that the way to fix our education system is by having all of our schools teach students the same concepts at the same time using the same methods.

xii

AUTHORS NOTE

Does anyone honestly believe the same people who got us into this mess really have a one-size-fits-all magical solution for fixingit? Of course not. This is just about more power. More money. More conformity. In my previous book in this series I ended my introductory note with this:
Information is power. Those without it have nothing. Those with it will always have CONTROL.

Most American slaves were uneducated and illiteratenot because they were incapable of learning, but because their owners forbid it. In some places, like South Carolina, it was actually against the law to teach a slave how to read or write. Why? Because an educated slave was a threat to the status quo. The same premise applies to todays system of education. 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 thats exactly how they want it. We now stand at the precipice. On one side is the complete nationalization of education and complete loss of local and parental control. On the other side is a complete educational revolutionone that is rooted in individuality and that follows the principle of maximum freedom, maximum responsibility. For the first time in decades we have a real opportunity to convince the country that this kind of revolution is long overdue. People are sick and tired of lower expectations, lower test scores, constant bickering between the schools and unions, and continued increases to their property tax bills to pay for it all.

AUTHORS NOTE

xiii

Its time to combine the incredible technology of the present with the incredible philosophical ideas on education from our past. Its time to restore parents as the rightful leaders of their families and teachers of their children. And its time to once again put America on top of the world and usher in a new era of education unlike anything this country has ever seen before. Im ready to roll up my sleeves and fight for our kids. I hope youre ready to join me.

Glenn Beck Dallas, Texas February 2014