New York - 2001  

United Nations

Cathedral of St. John the Divine

 Canaan Baptist Church of Christ
Columbia University Teachers College Clinton's office building in Harlem
Ford Foundation American Museum of Natural History

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United Nations

Quotes and Excerpts from

Mobilizing Minds: UNESCO's Environmental and Sustainable Development Activities

"Without mobilizing minds in the natural and social sciences, and through education and culture, there can be no sustainable development.... Education on environment and sustainable development issues is essential to create a knowledgeable public, behavioral change and public support."  Click here for more

Interactive Thematic Session on Education for  All 

"The aim of education is to teach individuals to think -- independently and critically. The teaching of values, which must integrate cultural diversity, should not simple be an exercise in repetition and memorizing of formulae. Rather, it must foster independent reflection on concepts and values, such as equality, justice and respect....

"The issue of content in education is not sufficiently addressed.... How is it possible, for example, to balance the respect for cultural identity, while at the same time instilling universal values of human rights and gender equality?"

The four pillars of education:

Cathedral of St. John the Divine "is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world. Over 600 feet in length, the Statue of Liberty would fit comfortably under its central dome. It is he seat of the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and is "mother church " of  the Diocese. Charted a a "house of worship for all peoples," its cornerstone was laid o er a century ago as immigrants from dozens of t nations thronged to the newly-built Ellis Island, and barons of wealth such as J.P. Morgan, John Jacob Astor and Irvin Bloomingdale dominated New York and the Nation."  Read about its participation in the global agenda in The U.N. Plan For Global Control and Twisting Truth by Classroom Consensus 8-23-2000

"The great church, with its 13 acres of gardens and grounds, is a green oasis. While peacocks call from the Biblical Garden's cherry trees, lunchers lounge in the sculpture garden around Greg Wyatt's 'Peace Fountain', and pilgrims observe the soaring architecture of the Cathedral.... St. John the Divine is a living cathedral, bring harmony out of the incredible diversity of New York."

In the Peace Fountain to the left, notice  the image of the sun in the center. As in pagan traditions, this idol faces east.  It is surrounded by plaques dedicated to peace and to politically correct social guides such as Gandhi and John Lennon. Two of these plaques are shown below. See also the various occult, mediaval and gothic symbols that characterize this Episcopal Cathedral and its gardens. 

1.  Plaque:  "Mahatma Gandhi was truly an artist of PEACE. As a shepherd leads his sheep in a peaceful and free life, so too did Gandhi lead his people using artistry that will echo forever." 

2. Plaque: "...the world will live as one."  John Lennon

3. Cathedral bookstore: Click on image to see the surrounding Celtic crosses and quartered circles.

4. One of many gargoyles (symbols of  the demonic realm used in medieval Europe to guard against real demons and other evil influences) displayed in bookstore. 

5. The Green Man - another common decoration in medieval Europe. It has been linked to the licentious earth-centered deities such as Pan and Bacchus (or Dionysus) celebrated in sensual pagan rituals along with wine and the plants that produce it. 

1. 2.

  Click here  to see

 surrounding items

(Celtic crosses, 

quartered circles...)

 in book store displays.

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7. 8.  9.

6. Three books from the bookstore: The Meaning of Life: Buddhist Perspective on Cause and Effect, Kabbalah (a partly hidden book on Jewish mysticism -- a form of pantheism which involves black magic and the symbols similar to those used in freemasonry and medieaval alchemy) and A Treasury of Traditional Wisdom -- an occult view of the history of spirituality. Notice the quartered circle on the cover of the latter.

7. A floor plaque -- the Celtic cross or quartered circle again -- inside the massive main sanctuary.

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9. A circular garden walk shaped as the quartered circle. Only half is shown on the picture.

Columbia University, Teacher's College [a short walk from the above cathedral] Among the free literature available to visitors, we found publications containing the following articles. Since each newsletter and magazine is available online, we suggest you follow the links and keep up with future news. This school, more than any other, guides today's shift to a socialist education system that will manipulate, mold, manage and monitor every person around the world.  

TC Receives $1 Million to Train New Teachers to Use Technology

        To support what the College calls the "school experience," it is intentionally moving from school placements where there are few technology-ready classrooms to ensuring that all student placements are in technology-ready classrooms, with teachers who use technology.... 

        "New technologies are powerful tools with which students can construct their view of the world, make sense of the world, and act upon it. They should help students become collaborative problem solvers who can communicate with one another and students around the globe. Our work with technology is based on this approach."

Graduates Celebrate at Master's and Doctoral Convocation Ceremonies

           People craned their necks and clutched cameras when the "Prelude and Fugue in C Major" began on the great organ of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine....

           President Arthur Levine ...  spoke briefly about the three Teachers College Medalists for Distinguished Service who have made exemplary contributions to education. The medals were given to Pulitzer Prize-winning musician Wynton Marsalis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt, and Stanford University's David Jacks Professor of Education and Public Policy Milbrey McLaughlin.... Her research, funded by the Spencer Foundation, looks at what community-based resources are available for young people as well as what these opportunities represent for learning and positive development. She also is the Director of the John Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities, a partnership between Stanford University and Bay Area Communities.

New Ways of Appreciating Art: 

          If you haven’t seen a large group of school superintendents all in one room swaying, rowing an imaginary boat, singing “Lean On Me” and fighting the one-eyed monster Cyclops with an umbrella (in place of a sword), well you haven’t lived a full life. Or at least you haven’t attended “Superintendents Day” at the Lincoln Center Institute for the arts in education. Over 50 school superintendents from 24 states (and one from Thailand) recently did this and more, and did it all in the name of ‘aesthetic education.’

        “Aesthetic education is a revolutionary concept whereby the subject takes a work of art, studies the text, and then experiences that work of art from all angles, from the inside and the outside, in a wide variety of enriched contexts,” said Scott Noppi-Brandon, Director of the Lincoln Center Institute. “It’s comprised of moments of direct interaction with the work of art and a series of other hands-on experiences. It aids in a deeper understanding of the work of art by developing heightened abilities of perception, receptivity, critical thinking, and response.”

TC Represented at a Salzburg Seminar:

The seminar keynote speaker was President Emeritus of the World Academy of Art and Science, Harlan Cleveland... [who] served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs under President Kennedy and as US Ambassador to NATO under President Johnson.... "Our biggest problem," he said, "is not so much the management of world health-important and difficult as that already is. The transcendent problem is managing ourselves -- analyzing and guiding the human actions and inactions that are by far the largest component of human health."

        ...Dr. Derek Yach, Executive Director of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, addressed participants on the third day, saying, "Health is one of the true universal values. Amidst all priorities, we have to fight for health to be regarded for its intrinsic value. It hasn't been the major way decisions have occurred in national and international organizations."

        ...Yach outlined the World Health Organization's goals to make global health a priority. They include placing health at the center of the broader development agenda, strengthening sustainable health systems, and managing the information going out to be sure the facts are accurate.

The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice

The editors, Morton Deutsch and Peter Coleman, make it quite clear that the text [The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice] is concerned with finding cooperative, win-win solutions to conflict, no matter how difficult....

       Deutsch commented on the scope of conflict and justice. "The most profound conflicts generally involve feelings of being treated unjustly. That's what we have a lot of now throughout the world. Ethnic groups who feel that they are not being fairly treated by the majority. And that is one side of it. The other side is that conflict itself, if it takes a destructive form, can produce injustice. So you have to look at injustice and conflict as being deeply meshed together. And if you're going to deal with some of the difficult problems of the world, you have to deal with the issues of justice. Conflict can't be taken just in the abstract and removed from the questions of oppression, poverty, discrimination. Conflict can stimulate social change. It may produce, or increase an injustice," he said.

Convocation 2000

Each year, Teachers College presents the Teachers College Medal for Distinguished Service to Education to people who have profoundly influenced education and child development. This year, the medalists included Governor James B. Hunt of North Carolina; Ellen Futter, President of the American Museum of Natural History; Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research and Professor of Humanities and chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Harvard University; and Edward Zigler, Director of the Bush Center for Child Development at Yale University.

L "The Ambiguities of Freedom" on the Web

        "I am preoccupied with space-public spaces, private spaces, and those inner spaces that imagination can open up as it discloses untapped possibilites," said Maxine Greene, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Education and Director of the Center. "Like many of you, I believe, along with Professor Benjamin Barber, that 'the fundamental task of education is the apprenticeship of liberty -- learning to be free.'"

On April 1, 2000, the Center for Social Imagination, the Arts, and Education at the Center for Educational Outreach and Innovation (CEO&I), held its annual conference..... Greene said, "Freedom signifies the capacity to choose and the power to act, neither one of which is a natural endowment: they have to be nurtured, they have to be taught. And they require open spaces with vistas on alternative realities, on what might be, on what should be."

         ...Greene urged her audience to "ensure that imagination will always, always be free to light the slow fuse of the possible."

Ford Foundation

Quotes from its literature showing its link to United Nations, to various University programs and to the Teachers College at Columbia University will be added.

 

Canaan Baptist Church of Christ - the spirited Harlem church that showered former President Clinton with blessings and encouragement.  Wyatt Tee Walker, the internationally acclaimed Senior Pastor, served as Chief of Staff to Martin Luther King, Jr. He told his congregation, "Vote for your friends in politics - and punish your enemies. Don't know what the law says, but I would like Clinton to run again. [Applause]  Clinton was the president we've had in my time. [Applause] Welcome him to Harlem." He decried the imprisonment of Al Sharpton and blamed Bush and Ashcroft for this travesty.

"The combination of good music and powerful preaching produce a worship experience that is intellectually challenging as well as emotionally satisfying. We are committed to the Harlem community..... Prayer of Sacrifice: O Lord, we thank Thee for this Sabbath Day... Take this fruit of my body and use it for kingdom building, that the hungry may be fed, the naked clothed, and the stranger made welcome in the gate..."  [From Church Bulletin]  

Clinton's office building in Harlem

We arrived in Bill Clinton's new neighborhood just as the crowds were dispersing after the community welcoming ceremony. "What do you think about Clinton moving into your neighborhood?" we asked a United Methodist pastor. 

Marvelous! Just marvelous!" he answered. 

"What will he do for Harlem?" 

"Same as he did for America when he was president."

On the sidewalk outside the tall office building stood a temporary book stand. As time permits, we will add quotes from two of the books we bought. 

American Museum of Natural History [http://www.amnh.org/home/index.html]

  1. From an introduction in the "Human Evolution" section of the museum: "Use of the world 'human' came long before the idea that our species has an evolutionary record. ... There is thus no definite use of this illusive term. At its broadest, it has been used to denote us and all our relative fossils from Australicus. At its narrowest, it includes only our selves and these fossil [species?] who were anatomically and behaviorally like us." 

  2. Bookstore: The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control and The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation

  3. "Q: What do fish think of humans? What is their initial reaction to a human presence?
    Good question. The fish that we haven't exploited are just as interested in us as we are in them. If you go to places where people have not been the animals are not scared of you. I think animals have to learn that people are a threat to them."      http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/kids/kids_bio/scientist.html#top