Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

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Educational Computing and Technology (AECT) report entitled The Field of Educational Technology: A Statement of Definition (October, 1972), has convinced this writer that significant resistance to goal setting, systems management, computer-assisted instruction, etc., which existed at the beginning of the 1970s was, unfortunately, overcome. For instance, the above-referenced document contained the following most important warning regarding the use of technology in the classroom; a warning that, evidently, was not heeded in the years to come. The warning read in part: It should be clear that the concerned professional does not have to be a “liberal,” or a “conservative.” The concerned professional must, however, show moral sensitivity to the effect of what he or she does [in the field of technology]. It does not matter what position an individual comes to as long as it is not “I’ll do it because it can be done.” The above recommendation relating to the ethical use of technology in the classroom was evidently ignored by the change agents who decided instead that “We’ll do it because it can be done.” In 1971 Phi Delta Kappan published a paper entitled Performance-Based Teacher Education [PBTE] : What Is the State of the Art? This paper spelled out the raison d’etre for the transition from teacher education based on knowledge of subject matter to teacher education based on the ability to “perform” in the classroom. Skinnerian methods adopted by Madeline Hunter and others would become the foundation for future teacher training and accreditation, and ultimately the method for workforce training. This paper makes it all too clear that the purpose of PBTE was to “lower standards” so that the teaching profession could be more “inclusive”—or so “they” said. However, this writer believes inclusion was more than likely the cover (excuse acceptable to those who believed in equal opportunity) to install the performance-based system necessary for the eventual implementation of the school-to-work polytech system planned in 1934 and activated in the 1990s. From this time forward, the deliberate dumbing down would proceed with a vengeance. During “The Serious Seventies” the ship of education set a new course. Navigating these new waters would require a new chart, one entirely different from that used in the past. A P ROHIBITION AGAINST F EDERAL C ONTROL OF E DUCATION , S ECTION 432 ,G ENERAL E DU cation Provisions Act (GEPA) , was enacted in 1970 and reads as follows: Sec. 432. No provision of any applicable program shall be construed to authorize any depart ment, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, or over the selection of library resources, textbooks, or other printed or published instructional materials by any educational institution or school system, or to require the assignment or transportation of students or teachers in order to overcome racial imbalance. (20 U.S.C. 1232a) Enacted April 18, 1970, P.L. 91–230, Title IV, sec. 401(a)(10), 81 Stat.169. 1970