The Bad Apples of Education: Bill Gates, Pearson, Child Left Behind, and Common Core…

April 22, 2021

Everyone,
Question for you. What is one big thing that homeschoolers have against public schools??? That it is failing our students. Who is behind this failure? Hint: It is not the teacher’s fault. There are some bad actors that have done this to the education system, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and others. So, let us go a little bit deeper.

Let us review what has happened to the education system in the past 20 years. 1) In 2001, the federal government passed No Child Left Behind, creating standardized testing for K-12 schools. Though this may have had good intentions, it had adverse results. Schools automatically began focusing on memorizing what these assessments would test, instead of teaching the actual subjects. They focused on the tests because their funding was attached to it. The main education company, providing the tests, was also providing the curriculum to answer the tests. Because they focused on Standardized testing, they began over-emphasizing the three subjects that were to be tested consistently: Math, English, and Science. While studies of these three subjects increased, schools began to deemphasize social studies. 2) In 2010, Common Core was developed by the federal government in a joint effort with organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, to help standardize learning across the country. This has upset over half of the country, yet only 11 states have designed their own standards. Even though the federal government and non-profits used their powers to direct the education system, what are the results:

  • Students in the public schools have progressed 0% in their academic record, according to NAEP’s National Report Card.
  • Students have reached their lowest scores since 1994 in history, according to the NAEP’s National Report Card on History.
  • Students’ literacy level continues to decrease to an all time low around the U.S.
  • The world is exploding in ignorance, in the subject of social studies, and everyone is in some way affected. Young people are not being taught to develop and use their critical thinking skills.

I wish the bad news stopped there. According to Fortune Magazine, and even the Washington Post, the one company who has had their hands in both horrible regulations was the United Kingdom’s own Pearson Education. They were around to help develop No Child Left Behind with George W. Bush and were well paid as their sales increasing by over 175% in the United States (according to Fortune magazine’s article “Everybody Hates Pearson”). They also worked hand in hand with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop Common Core and then tried to hide it. Bill Gates let it slip in a Washington Post interview. He claimed that they are worked together on other projects but would not divulge which projects. In return for their cooperation, Pearson Education earns $7 Billion in US curriculum sales every year – remember they are based in the United Kingdom – while their next closest competitor, a U.S. based company is earning only $2 billion in revenue in the U.S. Thanks to Common Core, Pearson now only needs to design one test per subject and modifying it slightly to fulfil the needs of 39 Common Core states. The Texas state government just paid Pearson over $126 million this year alone on standardized testing, not counting the individual curriculum sales they make to individual districts and schools, preparing the paying district’s students to pass their tests.

Recently, Pearson (UK) has changed their educational policies in designing curriculum to comply with Chinese standards and pandering to their demands to sell to the Chinese market. They also have released editorial guidelines in a recent press release that will advance the company’s commitment to fighting systematic racism in education and report more on race, gender, sexual orientation, social classes, and religion. So now their curriculum will be more in tune with current trends and certain agendas. They also mentioned how their previously written curriculum was systematically racist and that they need to make changes to address the current trends in society.

If you have been with Historical Conquest over the past 7 years, you would know that we have always promoted minorities, and those not regularly represented in history, in our games and curriculum. We never pandered to any political or government entity and we treat everyone as equals without needing political pressure to fulfill someone else agenda, whether foreign or domestic. We plan to keep this high standard of teaching history without a lens or biases. While companies like Pearson confessed to their own maleficence. The question is, who is controlling what is being taught in U.S. history class in public schools?

Now, why are we telling you all this. We are planning to compete against the behemoth Pearson Education and those who were instrumental in the development of Standardized Testing and Common Core. Zack Edwards, founder of Historical Conquest, was warned by his business mentors that if he goes down the road of using investors, that he will lose the majority control of his company; potentially being forced to become another Pearson, making lots of money, but losing their mission to teach pure unbiased history without a lens pressured by investor, political, and government agendas.

For this reason, we have come to all of you, our loyal fans and supporters, to ask for some help as we finalize our software and continue with the creation of our units. Now, we are not asking for anything big, but a $5 or $10 subscription to our website as we raise financing to fund our historians, finish our gaming portal, and prepare our curriculum. This year we will be releasing our entire American History curriculum from Mesoamerican and Native American history, through the American Revolution, Civil War, and Civil Rights, to the Cold War and recent U.S. history. Though our last programmer – who was developing the digital version of Historical Conquest – burned out, we have found someone to take over and finalize HC Digital, as well as our second game Timeline Conquest and our gaming portal, which allows for Stealth Testing (ST).  ST basically means testing while playing a video game. This is the newest and truest way to test students without the anxiety and stress of taking a test.

So, by August, with your help, we will have both Historical Conquest and Timeline Conquest up and running, our American History curriculum available and our newest promotion and a new way to get the word out, a national history podcast, which will be premiered within the next two weeks and new episodes produced weekly, starting with Mesoamerica and teaching throughout U.S. history. We are producing it as we speak. You will be the first to hear it here on this newsletter; so, please stay tuned.

With your help we believe we can get the United States to be the leader in History curriculum development and bring control back to the American public and not government or foreign entities.