Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

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The Serious Seventies : c. 1971

latter part of the 20th century.... …All the work we do in developing internationally minded individuals should be directed to improved behavior. That means that all the efforts in this dimension of education must be predicated on the research in the formation, reinforcement, and change of attitudes and on the development of skills. Knowledge is tremendously important, but we should be clear by now that it must be carefully selected knowledge, discovered by the learners rather than told to them, and organized by them with the help of teachers or professors around concepts, generalizations, or big ideas. Teaching, therefore, becomes the process of helping younger people to probe, discover, analyze, compare, and contrast rather than telling. There is a rich mine of data now on attitude formation, change, and reinforcement which teachers need to study carefully and apply to this dimension of education as well as to others. For example, we know that most basic attitudes are learned very early but that attitudes can be changed at any age. We know that times of personal and societal crisis are the best times to bring about change. But we also know that people must not be threatened by changes. They must be relatively secure and much of their resistance to change recognized and tolerated as a manifestation of an inner struggle to reject the old and accept the new. Therefore, the acceptance of the old views with equanimity is important, so that the threat to a person is minimal. We know, too, that appeals to pride and self-interest may be helpful in bringing about change. So are the statements and actions of prestige persons. Membership in new groups is often helpful in insulating a person from slipping back into old patterns. We also know that changing a total group is easier and more likely to produce results than trying to change individuals. And it is clear that concentration upon specific areas of change rather than general approaches is usually most effective.... Changed behavior is our goal and it consists in large measure of improved attitudes, improved skills, and carefully selected knowledge—these three—and the greatest of these is attitudes.... The program emphasizes feelings as well as facts. In some parts of the world in the field of education today, the emphasis is upon cognitive learning or intellectual develop ment. This is especially true in the United States.… But in the international dimensions of education, as in other dimensions, the affective domain or emotional development is just as important.... We need to get at the “gut level” in much of our teaching. We need to use music, art, powerful literature, films and other approaches which get at the feeling level of learning. For example, the writer has found tremendously effective a 10-minute film on the United Nations, entitled “Overture.” There is no narrative in this film; the pictures are shown against a background of music, with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra playing the Egmont Overture . It is a powerful learning device and moves its viewers in a way few other approaches touch them. (pp. 23–39)

1971

E DUCATION : F ROM THE A CQUISITION OF K NOWLEDGE TO P ROGRAMMED , C ONDITIONED R E sponses was submitted by Assemblyman Robert H. Burke (70th California Assembly District) to the California Legislature in 1971. An excerpt follows:

INTRODUCTION Several months ago, my office began accumulating material which had particular significance