Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

83 [Ed. Note: The programmed textbooks used in Project Read are based on Skinnerian animal psychology. Programmed instruction calls for individualized instruction/self-instruction (pro grammed books and or teaching machines) and differs from the lecture/discussion method of teaching where the teacher, not the program, is the dispenser of knowledge.] A GENDA FOR THE N ATION , EDITED BY K ERMIT G ORDON (B ROOKINGS I NSTITUTION : W ASH ington, D.C., 1968) and funded by the Ford Foundation, was published. Ralph Tyler’s article “Invest ing in Better Schools” (pp. 207–236) was included in the compilation of articles which were written as a contribution to public discussion and debate as a new president and a new Con gress assumed their responsibilites. Other contributors included: Stephen K. Bailey, Kenneth B. Clark, Clark Kerr, Henry A. Kissinger, Edwin O. Reischauer, and Charles L. Schultze. The following excerpted recommendations from Tyler’s article which refer to the Certificate of Initial Mastery, no more Carnegie Units, the Eight-Year Study and outcome-based education, read like pages out of Goals 2000: Educate America Act and reports prepared by Marc Tucker’s National Center on Education and the Economy, the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS), etc.—all of which are involved in the socialistic restructuring of the nation’s schools and economy: What is required is a major effort to furnish high school students with significant adult activi ties—job programs, community service corps experience, work in health centers, apprentice experience in research and development, and in staff studies conducted by public agencies. It will be necessary to redesign the high school in order to open it to the community and to utilize many kinds of persons in education. The school will need to serve a wider range of ages and allow students to vary the amount of time devoted to studies. To supply a substitute for grades and credits as qualification for employment opportunities, a certification system will need to be developed to validate the student’s competence in various major areas. This will also tend to reduce the emphasis upon purely formal requirements such as class attendance and the completion of prescribed courses. 1968–1969. N ARRATIVE R EPORT OF P ROJECT F UNDED UNDER T ITLE III, E LEMENTARY AND Sec ondary Education Act (FY 1969)—Title of Project: OPERATION PEP, a Statewide Project to Prepare Educational Planners for California (U.S. Office of Education Grant Award No. OEG 3–7–704444410–4439, 7–1–68 to 6–30–69. $299,457 grant to San Mateo County Superinten dent of Schools, Redwood City, California, Project Director: Donald R. Miller) was compiled and registered with the U.S. Office of Education in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. An excerpt from this report follows: Major Objectives: The objectives of Operation PEP have been specified with respect for the educational needs of society and the role requirements of professional educators. They include: (1) to plan, develop, validate, and implement an instructional program for educa tional planners and managers featuring a system approach to educational management; (2) to establish an orderly diffusion process for system approach concepts, principles, and pro cedures involving key agencies, organizations, and individuals; (3) to provide assurance that the program developed by Operation PEP will be continuously renewed and presented, and (4) to promote the utilization and adoption of a system approach to educational management The Sick Sixties : c. 1968