The Marxification of Education Workshop: All Sessions

Something has gone very badly wrong in education. Our schools are filled with divisive identity politics rooted in Marxist Critical Theory, but it seems almost impossible to nail down and fight against. Children are being sexualized and sexuality-ized at younger and younger ages, and it’s disrupting their lives and well-being. Children aren’t learning to read, write, do mathematics, or achieve academically in any subject, but they’re learning to become aggrieved activists, filled with stress, anxiety, depression, and fear about their future. America and American values are under assault, and families are feeling the strain thanks to the schools they trust to educate their kids. At the same time, all of these new programs, which seem to have arrived on the scene in just the last few years, hide behind confusing jargon, buzzwords, and acronyms, like “CRT” (Critical Race Theory and Culturally Relevant Teaching), “CSE” (Comprehensive Sexuality Education), and “SEL” (Social-Emotional Learning). It’s hard to comprehend and hard to unpack. Worst of all, it all seems to be coming out of huge institutional trends that resist any accountability. Meanwhile, children suffer and parents grow increasingly concerned and frustrated.

What has happened is that education has been Marxified, which is to say it has been turned into a Marxist program running on Marxist logic to achieve Marxist ends by brainwashing and programming our children to become Marxist activists. This transformation of education was deliberate, strategic, and rooted in both Theory and activism all along. It is for these reasons that we invite you to join James Lindsay for this in-depth, educational workshop: The Marxification of Education. This special event took place on July 29-30, 2022, in Arlington, Virginia, right in the neighborhood of Loudoun and Fairfax Counties, a symbolic Ground Zero for this catastrophe in education.

As a result of the research that produced this lecture series, Lindsay has written a detailed and accessible book on the issue titled The Marxification of Education, which is available now.

Session 1: The Critical Turn in Education

Education has been stolen from us and from our children. Yes, stolen. It was deliberately transformed from within into something that is barely education at all anymore. Instead, it’s a systematic program of thought reform (brainwashing) into neo-Marxist belief and activism. How has this been accomplished? The formal name for the transformation is “the critical turn in education,” which “turned” education from traditional models of pedagogy to “Critical Pedagogy,” the application and teaching of Critical Theory to and through the education system. Its purpose: to overcome what Marxists refer to as “the problem of reproduction,” by which stable societies reproduce themselves from one generation to the next, especially through institutions involving children like religion, family, media, and especially education. Here, New Discourses Founder James Lindsay summarizes this “turn” in this first of four presentations on the Marxification of Education delivered in late July 2022 in Arlington, Virginia, on location in the now-famous Loudoun County, ground zero for the fight for America’s schools.

Audio Version: SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music

Standalone Article: The Critical Turn in Education

Session 2: Paulo Freire’s “Critical” Method of Education

How on Earth did education get so messed up and stolen from our society and our kids? While the critical turn in education enabled this “transformation” of our education system, the crucial piece that allowed it to happen is the work of a Brazilian Marxist by the name of Paulo Freire. Paulo Freire completely transformed education, not least by Marxifying it. That is, in addition to creating the conditions to swap out actual education for political education, Freire structured his understanding of education and knowledge itself as a Marxist Theory of knowing and being educated. Treating these as a special kind of bourgeois private property, Freire paved the way to abolish education entirely and to reimagine it as a system of brainwashing learners into critical Marxist consciousness. Here, New Discourses Founder James Lindsay summarizes this transformation of education itself in this second of four presentations on the Marxification of Education delivered in late July 2022 in Arlington, Virginia, on location in the now-famous Loudoun County, ground zero for the fight for America’s schools.

Audio Version: SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music

Standalone Article: Paulo Freire’s “Critical” Method of Education

Session 3: “Groomer Schools”

The word of the year in education and regarding our children has been “groomer,” which is widely banned across social media now as a result (along with James Lindsay from Twitter for calling this problem out). In the Marxification of education, which is its remaking into a system of Marxist conscientization, schools can be said to have been transformed into groomer schools. Specifically, while the terms “thought reform” and “brainwashing” have been used in the past to describe this process, the term “grooming” is even more applicable given the nature of the process of conscientization, including its specific subject matter. It’s a tremendous problem that demands understanding and a solution. Here, New Discourses Founder James Lindsay summarizes what he means by the term “Groomer Schools” in this third of four presentations on the Marxification of Education delivered in late July 2022 in Arlington, Virginia, on location in the now-famous Loudoun County, ground zero for the fight for America’s schools.

Audio Version: SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music

Standalone Article: “Groomer Schools”

Session 4: Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

The hottest buzzword in education today is Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), but it’s not just a buzzword. It’s a huge program with almost universal installation (thanks to the Every Student Succeeds Act, ESSA, of 2015) and billions upon billions of dollars behind it. What is it? Where did it come from? Should we trust it? To the last of these questions, there are excellent reasons to believe that we shouldn’t. In fact, we shouldn’t want it anywhere near our children and should fight vigorously to protect them from it. We should also see there’s a huge scam operating within the installation of it and that some very questionable actors are strongly behind it, but for what reasons? Here, New Discourses Founder James Lindsay gives a deep, concerning, and thorough (but mere) introduction to the topic of Social-Emotional Learning in this last of four presentations on the Marxification of Education delivered in late July 2022 in Arlington, Virginia, on location in the now-famous Loudoun County, ground zero for the fight for America’s schools.

Audio Version: SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music

Standalone Article: Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)