GIRFEC and Curriculum for Excellence: the corporate parenting agenda

GIRFEC is being implemented by child protection, education, health, police, social services and the voluntary sector - in fact, anybody who comes into contact with the child but who is not the parent of the child. At the same time, education, as the transmission of knowledge, is being diluted and replaced with a softer, social and emotional wellbeing approach. This allows the agents of the state to surround the child with their wellbeing `concerns.` It is a political agenda and the child is to be nudged towards transformational change (changed attitudes and behaviours) that are fit for the twenty first century.

Two items on the political agenda are global citizenship and sustainable development.

We can reflect back to the Club of Rome (think tank for the UN) and their 1991 book The First Global Revolution:

"In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like, would fit the bill. In their totality and their interactions these phenomena do constitute a common threat which must be confronted by everyone together. But in designating these dangers as the enemy, we fall into the trap, which we have already warned readers about, namely mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention in natural processes, and it is only through changed attitudes and behaviour that they can be overcome. The real enemy then is humanity itself."　
http://www.archive.org/stream/TheFirstGlobalRevolution#page/n85/mode/2up

 
In `The Contribution of Early Childhood Education to a Sustainable Society,` (Paris, UNESCO 2008) it is suggested that, "instead of talking about the 3Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic), one should refer to the 7Rs for education for sustainable development (reduce, reuse, recycle, respect, repair, reflect and refuse)...We are told that, "Young children can be encouraged to question over-consumption through discussions about familiar food products, clothes, toys and advertisements..." (Here the participants at the conference are referring to children in kindergarten)

In this planned solution to what the UN globalists perceive to be as the problem of `human over-consumption` it is not difficult to envision that austerity will be the new norm and that climate change will be the justification for the `austerity/sustainability.` How can it be made acceptable to the masses? It is true that young children are susceptible to adult influences but they have families who are unlikely to want to give up their traditional lifestyles. In this context the parent/child bond becomes the problem. 

"The conceptual quest of Early Childhood Education – which is associated with the need to break old paradigms of the exclusivity of the family and the model of formal school as mentioned above – seems to be the key issue..." 

By emphasizing the role of Early Child Education to support families and broaden the developmental needs of young children, combining care, upbringing and learning, this approach seems to be close to the meaning of sustainable development defended in this article. 

Considering that the child is subject of rights, including the one to be taken care of, raised and educated in a context which is not only in the family, and that the family’s responsibilities can be shared with society, causes at least unease...

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001593/159355e.pdf

 

Here is Scotland`s Vision: `Learning for Change` Scotland`s Action Plan for the second half of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development` (2010).

"To integrate the principles, values and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning" is the overarching goal of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and is what Scotland aspires to achieve. 

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Dc/312576/0098842.pdf

A huge amount has been achieved in the first five years of the UN Decade. We have welcomed the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence, in which the principles of sustainable development are firmly embedded...

 
This is a whole of Scotland approach, [GIRFEC] where every individual should have the opportunity to learn about the benefits that a sustainable way of living and working can bring – for every one of us. Creating a sustainable future for us and for Scotland will require widespread understanding and huge cultural change – and the key to achieving this is education for sustainable development.  

Meeting the climate change targets is not for Government alone to achieve. This will require a fundamental shift in the way the people of Scotland live, work and travel, affecting all of our lives in one way or another. 

They go on: "Learning in its broadest sense, incorporating all aspects of community and business learning... delivered through public, private, voluntary and community sectors, learning at all levels can help us move towards a sustainable way of living.."
 
We are already experiencing the huge cultural shifts via Curriculum for Excellence, GIRFEC and the named person. Although CfE is presented as necessary to prepare children to take part in the global economy in the twenty first century, there is nothing `necessary` about it. It is a political programme to push children towards sustainable development and a micro-managed society. The price children are paying for that is to have a touchy/feely education that confuses feelings and attitudes with what there is to know. It is being done to children quite deliberately.

Children`s rights are used to displace parental rights, leaving children vulnerable to state control. Instead of the child being educated to become an informed adult capable of scrutinising the state, the state now constantly monitors the child in order to provide the child with its services. In this nightmare for the twenty first century, the state, as corporate parent, always knows best.

Curriculum for Excellence and GIRFEC - Combining care, upbringing and learning - are very dangerous ideas and it is not difficult to trace their roots.

See http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/GIRFEC%20FINAL%2024-10-12_tcm4-735258.pdf