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This paper is presented in an historical context and is indicative of the various rants, raves, treatises, etc., that were prevalent in the old BBS (Bulletin Board Service) days. Content has not been changed, though formatting changes may have taken place to make it more presentable. (Spelling, sentence/paragraph structure, etc.) Wherever possible, credit is given to the originating source.
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THE DUMBING FACTOR:
"GOALS 2000"
This Scheme to Nationalize
Education Could be Very Dangerous to Our Future
by Marilyn Brannan
Another giant step in implementation
of the New World Order occurred with the passage of "GOALS 2000", the
education bill ratified in Congress recently. This bill will spell out
what 40 million children must be taught and tested on in public schools, thereby
serving as a powerful engine for molding public opinion to accept America's
entry into the New World Order.
The following quote appearing in The
Washington Post gives some idea of the impact this legislation will have on our
educational system, and as a consequence, on the very basis of our society.
"Education Secretary Richard Riley calls the legislation the 'North Star'
because it would guide so many other classroom changes, from new textbooks and
exams to the retraining of teachers. Mike Cohen, senior advisor to Riley, says,
'It's a big deal, because it changes the federal government's role.'"
"DEWEY'S WHOLE PROGRAM WAS SOCIAL CHANGE, NOT ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE. HE WAS
COMMITTED TO BRINGING ABOUT SOCIALISM IN AMERICA, AND THE SCHOOLS WERE MERELY
THE VEHICLE"
The effort that culminated in the Goals 2000 bill began with an extraordinary
1989 education summit in Charlottesville, Virginia, wherein then President Bush
and the nation's governors, led by Arkansas' Bill Clinton, agreed to create a
national baseline of knowledge setting forth what students should know in math,
science, history, geography, and other subjects.
LOCAL CONTROL DISAPPEARING
Since Colonial times, the American educational system has been characterized by
the fact that most major decisions are local. That is going to change now, with
the intrusion of the Federal Government into the educational equation
nationwide. Reaction to the Goals 2000 plan ranges from unbridled optimism to
caution. Those who are optimistic have trained their rose-colored spectacles on
the hope for greater funding and "academic standards" for every child.
Others, at the opposite end of the spectrum, fear the program will amount to a
"national curriculum", something that has never been perceived as
practical - or desirable - in such a diverse nation.
WHY DON'T WE TEACH THE KIDS TO READ?
A question that has puzzled Americans for years now is, "Why don't we teach
the kids to read?" Interestingly, Samuel Blumenfeld, in his Education
Letter, says that John Dewey, "the Father of Modern Education",
identified high literacy as the CULPRIT in traditional education, the sustaining
force behind individualism."
Individualism was anathema to Dewey,
just as it is to his followers, our so-called "leaders" in education
today. Why? INDIVIDUALISM OPPOSES SOCIALISM. It is through socialism that the
educational establishment plans to "blend" (coerce?) our citizenry
into a New World Order. Dewey was convinced that socialism was the wave of the
future and that individualism was passé. However, individualism would not fade
as long as it was sustained by the education American children were getting in
their schools. Dewey realized that radical reform would not be accepted by the
American people. Therefore, he recommended:
"Change must come gradually. To force it unduly would compromise its final success by favoring a violent reaction."
SOCIAL CHANGE TO MOVE US TOWARD
SOCIALISM
Dewey's whole program was social change, not academic excellence. He was
committed to bringing about Socialism in America, and the schools were merely
the vehicle that he, and other radical social planners, envisioned for
accomplishing that goal.
Question: How do the socialist
planners program a nation for Socialism? Answer: They "dumb down" the
electorate, beginning with the children who will be the electorate in the
not-too-distant-future. They de-emphasize the virtues of literacy and downplay
the importance of critical thinking. Any sense of responsibility for ordered,
reasoned thought on the part of the individual will naturally begin to
disappear. At some point, the electorate will no longer be equipped to engage in
an educated, intelligent process for selecting its leaders, no longer able to
evaluate the wisdom of its leaders, no longer able to weigh alternatives for
political or social action in the light of past history.
LITERACY BREAKDOWN IS NO ACCIDENT
Dewey's program advocated that literacy skills be drastically de-emphasized in
favor of social skills. The phonetic method for teaching reading was dumped in
favor of the "sight" method whereby students never learn to sound out
the words phonetically. Interestingly, the sight method of teaching reading was
devised in the 1830's by Thomas Gallaudet, a famous teacher of the deaf and
dumb. Obviously, deaf students would have no concept of phonetics, or sound
symbols, and the sight method was introduced specifically for the benefit of
these handicapped students! Amazingly, the nation's leading educational
reformers managed to successfully foist the system on our school systems.
"THIS LITERACY BREAKDOWN...HAS BEEN DELIBERATELY FOSTERED BY OUR
PROGRESSIVE-
HUMANIST-BEHAVIORIST EDUCATORS"
In response to the resulting wave of poor and non-readers, Rudolph Flesch's
book, Why Johnny Can't Read, appeared on the scene. The educators were furious
with Flesch. In his book, he had made them appear stupid and incompetent. Later,
in 1970, Karl Shapiro, the eminent poet-professor who had taught creative
writing for over 20 years told his audience:
"What is really distressing is that this generation cannot and does not read. I am speaking of university students in what are supposed to be our best universities. Their illiteracy is staggering...We are experiencing a literacy breakdown which is unlike anything I know of in the history of letters!"
This literacy breakdown is no
accident. It is not the result of ignorance or incompetence. It has been
deliberately fostered by our progressive-humanist-Behaviorist educators whose
social agenda is far more important to them than anything connected with
academic excellence.
TIGHTENING THE CONTROLS ON HOMESCHOOLERS
Because the home schoolers of this
nation comprise one of the last bastions of educational freedom in America,
attempts were made within the framework of the HR6 Bill to tighten the clamps on
parents that choose to educate their children in the privacy of their own homes.
There was such an outcry from people all across the nation that the section of
the bill that would have put stringent limitations on home schoolers was struck
from the bill at the last minute. Most pro-home schoolers saw this as a major
victory, but the proponents of "Goals 2000" continued to quietly move
forward in implementing their "values based" curriculum in many public
school districts.
Further, those who think they are
exempt from the goals set forth in this bill because their children are not
attending the public schools are badly mistaken; the sweeping restructure of the
educational system through Goals 2000 has engaged even the Department of Labor,
and may ultimately require a "Certificate of Initial Mastery" to enter
college or the work force. Community service on the part of children could be
just one of the prerequisites to obtaining such a certification, and could play
a major role in the development of a national workforce.
OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION, A POWERFUL ENGINE FOR CHANGE
The tool being used to force school districts to accept federal educational
standards through the curriculum is, of course, dollars. If school districts
don't comply by implementing programs such as Outcome Based Education (OBE)
which concentrates on teaching "values" rather than content, there is
the threat of federal funds being withheld - an issue most school
superintendents are not willing to confront.
Aside from the fact that funding is
the "Half Nelson" tactic being used to foist OBE on schools all across
the nation, there is the distressing issue of whose "values" are being
indoctrinated into our youth. These are not necessarily the traditional,
conservative, "family values" that many of us believe to be the
underlying strength of any great nation. Rather, these "values" are
determined solely at the discretion of the curriculum planners. If these
planners should decide, for example, that a particular set of mores (i.e.,
Christian, Judaic, etc.) is, for any reason "unacceptable", then the
desired "outcome" of a particular unit of learning might be
"tolerance" and "acceptance" of ALL moral or religious views
and practices. To insure their success in inculcating said "values",
educrats simply convey the message that, for the student, success and
achievement within the educational system will be dependent upon assimilation of
the "values" espoused therein. The potential for calculated social
change resident in such a system is horrifyingly obvious.
THE LESS WE KNOW, THE LESS WE WILL RESIST
The reaction from many parents when
told about the plans to restructure the educational system is often, "Why
the uproar - I don't see this happening in my school". In all too many
cases, this is probably true - we don't see it happening; the New World Order
planners know that the American people will not accept radical reform, and
if progress in implementing their agenda is gradual, there is not likely to be a
lot of resistance.
However, some are alert to the
threat, and these are the parents that are returning to home schooling in an
attempt to "save the children." Don McAlvany, a diligent analyst of
the New World Order, recently commented that he believes the children being home
schooled today may be not only the torchbearers of our Christian values, but may
be the single largest group of people standing in the way of the New World Order
government. If this is the case, the enemy will work overtime to destroy
Americans' freedom to home school their children.
UNRAVELING THE NEW WORLD ORDER
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