00:00you
00:30what is a suitable education this was a question I was set to talk about for 10
00:38minutes it took me a little bit longer before the question is who decides what
00:46is a suitable education this is where governments are up there wanting to say
00:51to parents whether your education is suitable according to their standards we
00:56must before we can answer that question must first consider what criteria should
01:01or can be employed in deciding what is suitable inputs or outputs knowledge or
01:10well-being skills or values we don't often put things like that but this is
01:18the area oh by the way I've put a picture of a Shakespeare play up there
01:23that's a teaser I'm not going to tell you about it that I'm going to come back
01:26to it but there is a lesson in that play that I think should be applied to this
01:32question of suitable education right we will I want to take you first into this
01:42area of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 26 I'm not reading
01:50it all but at the bottom of number two no sorry number three right at the
01:57bottom it says parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education
02:03that shall be given to their children is that good news yeah ah but look at
02:11number two education shall be directed to the full development blah blah
02:18it shall promote understanding tolerance and friendship amongst all nations racial
02:25religious groups and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the
02:34maintenance of peace now if you only read number three you will be encouraged tell me
02:42if somebody wants to give you a list and they give it to you in the order of
02:45importance where's the more important things at the top or the bottom they're
02:51at the top so here number two is more important than number three so as a
02:59parent you can teach to the type of education it's the kind of education
03:04it's not the content of the education but you have to make sure it does the
03:11previous thing and a government has under the the Declaration of Human
03:19Rights has the right to come along and say to you you are not teaching the
03:26values and advancing the United Nations very subtle convention on the rights of
03:35the child right now see see the development of respect for children
03:42parents is their own culture identity language and values for the national
03:48values of the country or this is state parties shall agree that education
03:54shall be directed to and this about respect for parents values national
04:00values etc and like that but notice B the development of respect for human
04:07rights and fundamental freedoms and for the principles enshrined in the Charter
04:13of the United Nations which is most important which comes first right it's
04:23there in black and white but do people spot it do people engage with it United
04:32Nations Charter right we the people of the United Nations and to save
04:43succeeding generations from the scourge of war which twice in our lifetime this
04:49was written in 1940s has brought untold sorrow to mankind to reaffirm faith of
04:58the underlining mind in fundamental human rights in the dignity and worth of
05:03the human person and so on to establish under which justice and respect can you
05:11tell me are words like saving faith and justice factual words or are they
05:20religious words this is a religious statement it isn't a statement of fact
05:32and notice at the bottom to promote social progress and better standards of
05:39life in larger freedoms question what is social progress who decides some
05:49people's progress is another person's degeneration who decides the writers of
05:58the Charter decide this is the constitution of the UN educational
06:05scientific and cultural organization better known as UNESCO and I was told
06:13some people before I did this we mentioned this that since wars begin in
06:18the minds of men it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be
06:25constructed and then it goes on about the ignorance of others ways this is a
06:31fundamental thing of UNESCO it continues ah we're not going there you may not
06:41recognize the gentleman up there in the top right his name is Julian Uxley he
06:46had a brother who wrote a book anybody know what the book was called brave new
06:52world it is rumored that Aldous Oakley saw his brother's objective and argued
07:00against it in his book I haven't found proof that's what he was saying but was
07:07he describing his brother's brave new world and its follies but notice that
07:13Julian Uxley in 1946 was the first secretary-general director-general of
07:23UNESCO and he wrote this pamphlet still available on UNESCO's website UNESCO
07:33its purpose and its philosophy and he did it at the start of UNESCO what did
07:43he say in it page 13 I do have this document in a word format if people want
07:49to read it more readable than the PDF specifically in its educational program
07:56it can stress the ultimate need for world political unity and familiarize
08:03all people with the implications of the transfer of foot's full sovereignty from
08:09separate nations to a world organization page 61 in the conclusion I
08:19recommend you read the conclusion if nothing else the opening two paragraphs
08:24state not much remains to be said in conclusion but what remains is important
08:30it is that the task before UNESCO is necessary is opportune and in spite of
08:39all its multiplicity of details is single that task is to help the emergence
08:46of a single world culture with its own philosophy and background ideas with its
08:52own broad purpose Hoaxley and the people here are saying we don't want to just
09:01teach future generation facts we want to teach them a philosophy and that is
09:11not the same as teaching facts I'm back to the merchants of Venice why have I
09:18thrown this in here if you know the plot right it's all about a man who has to
09:24borrow money and then he gets bad luck and he's doing but he's one who lent
09:29him the money had said I want to deposit of a pound of flesh and that
09:36means he's going to either be severely disabled or he's going to die right but
09:43Portia is a lady who disguises herself as a lawyer and addresses Shylock's
09:51demand for a pound of flesh and a key point is this this bond the agreement
09:59gives thee here not a jot of blood the words expressly say a pound of flesh
10:06take then your bond take your pound of flesh but in cutting it if thou dost shed one drop
10:16and there's a bit of emphasis here Christian blood thy lands and goods are by the Lords of
10:24Venice confiscate unto the state of Venice and so she says you can't have the flesh
10:33unless you can have it without the blood right why have I said that here well flesh is the soft
10:43tissue of body especially the muscle and flat we know that blood is different it's the vital
10:50liquid that circulates in education it's not as simple to identify what are the equivalent to
10:59Antonio's flesh and blood right I've sought to illustrate in the short talk that human right
11:07treaties are not based on ensuring that young people learn skills they need to live well as
11:14adults but that they are taught the philosophy the worldview and the values of those within
11:21the international movements who wish to inculcate them if any state seeks to claim it has proactive
11:32responsibility proactive responsibility to supervise the education children are receiving
11:39then they must justify which aspect of the education it is seeking to oversee my personal
11:49conviction is they cannot justify any such oversight unless they have been requested by
11:55parents to provide an education to their children on their behalf I think I have shown that the
12:06UNCRC for example talks about the development of respect for the child's parents culture and so on
12:14here in Britain we know the state is doing the very opposite and I'm sure we're not the only
12:22country where that's happening and this is because education now is internationally focused on the
12:29imposing of values of the few on the children of the many right so I think this graphic aptly
12:45sums it up I got it off a South African homeschoolers website right the credits are there
12:53I won't get into the political situation there but what's it doing the teacher is cutting the
13:04children's thought processes into the shape of her own which is the shape the state wants
13:12parents and those who support them I believe must resist every state attempt by any state
13:21to impose its values on other people's children the protection of different cultures and the
13:28values they embed in them I suggest will prove as impossible to isolate from skills and knowledge
13:36it will prove as impossible as trying to take a pound of flesh from a living person without
13:44shedding at least one drop of blood you can teach my child how to whittle wood you can teach my
13:52child how to do this but the moment you start teaching them values you're stepping into my
13:59area this is what I'm saying and this is what I think we have got to do what can justify the
14:10state's demand this challenge needs to be posed without offering a solution so often people if
14:19you challenge them they will say well what's your answer say no that's my question I'm asking you
14:27for the answer let's just go back anybody heard of George Brock Chisell well if you look there
14:37you see he was the first executive director secretary of the interim commission of the
14:43World Health Organization how many have heard of the World Health Organization through Covid and
14:50things right he was the director general of who what did he what did he think children must be
15:02free to think in all directions irrespective of the peculiar ideas of parents who often seal their
15:10child's mind with preconceived prejudices and false concepts of past generations unless we are
15:19very careful very careful indeed very content conscientious there is still great danger that
15:26our children may turn out to be the same kind of people we are in contrast to that in the Scottish
15:39named person scheme judging in judgment in 2016 in the Supreme Court Lady Hale stated the first
15:50thing a totalitarian regime tries to do is get at the children to distance them from the subversive
15:58varied influence of their families and indoctrinate them in the rulers view of the world within
16:06limits families must be left to bring up their children in their own way which is it which of
16:18those two do you agree with I don't need to ask you all right I'm fairly sure you're on the side
16:23of Lady Hale's so my final point here is it possible to constructively cooperate with regimes
16:33which are totalitarian at heart good question I meant I'll mention this man Leo Tolstoy in a
16:44author's preface to what is art all compromise with institutions of which your conscience
16:53disapproves compromises which are usually made for the sake of general good of the general good
17:00instead of producing the good you expected inevitably lead you to not only acknowledging
17:08the institution you disapprove of but also to participate in the evil the institution provides
17:16now I know we still got a in name democratic system in this country right but we are seeing
17:26more and more that what's happening is that's being taken away and there is no difference between
17:36politicians I think we're very close to not just a national totalitarian government I think for 70
17:52years we've been working towards it and that's the question can we work with it to improve it
17:58or do we have to stand up to it and challenge it peacefully
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