Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

87 nate planning and execution of educational programs.... Assuming that the basic period of schooling required for the youth of Hawaii may remain at twelve years, extending the school day and the school year may be the solution to this pressing problem. Some of the benefits which can be anticipated from an extended school year and a school day are: An improve ment in economic and professional status of our teachers,... an increased use of facilities and equipment. School facilities will be in use throughout the year.... (p. 62) That our system of values should change as the conditions in which these values find their expression change is evident in history.... Our past also has shown that society courts trouble when it clings stubbornly to outmoded values after experience has clearly shown that they need to be revised. For example, developments in our society have now cast considerable doubts on the worth of such deep-seated beliefs, still held strongly in some quarters, as extreme and rugged individualism or isolationism in international affairs. While values tend to persist, they are tentative. They provide the directions basic to any conscious and direct attempt to influence pupil behavior.... Some will argue, of course, that direct and purposeful effort at changing value orientations of pupils is no concern of the schools. But from what we know of the pupil and his development, the school is inescapably involved in influencing his moral values and ethical structure. (p. 63) The roles and responsibilities of teachers will change noticeably in the years ahead. By 1985 it should be more accurate to term a teacher a “learning clinician” for the schools will be “clinics” whose purpose is to provide individualized educational and psychological “services” to the student. 11 (p. 69) However, in the spring of 1967, the Department undertook to install a new “System,” more commonly referred to as “PPBS.” This sophisticated system of budgeting was crystalized in the federal defense agency during the early 1960’s, and has, since 1965, been formally adopted by all departments within the federal government.... From a long-range standpoint, PPBS is surely the direction we must move toward if we are to do more than survive in a rapidly approaching computerized world.... However, operationally, there are several reasons why the entire PPBS anatomy cannot be totally… operable at this time. Although some of the problems are due to the system itself, most are due to the present undeveloped state of the educational industry. Some of these factors are: While we accept the PPBS concept, we must constantly be mindful that the system is a tool of management, not an end in itself, not a panacea or solution for all our management problems. Further, it should never be considered a replacement for experienced human judgment, but only an aid in arriving at sound judgments... in the field of education, which deals primarily in human behavior, there is almost no reliable research data on causal relationships. We do not know exactly why or how students learn.... Cost/effectiveness analysis which lies at the heart of PPBS is virtually impossible without this kind of data.... As can readily be seen, the multiplicity and complexity of objectives and the difficulty of quantifying human behavior makes it exceedingly difficult to state our objectives in the manner specified by PPBS.... Another significant problem—this time to do with PPBS—is that it does not formally allow for value consideration. And yet, values—academic, economic, political, social, esthetic—appear to play a crucial role in the decision-making process. But how do we quantify values? How do we negotiate conflicting values? What will be the proper mix of values and how do we factor it into the array of alter natives and the decision-making process? These are vital questions that must be answered if we are to rationalize the decision-making process. (pp. 96–97) The Sick Sixties : c. 1969

Mount a comprehensive and continuing effort to develop standards and a system of mea