Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

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(2) Communities and Their Schools , Don Davies, Editor (1981), in which the history of community education at the national and international levels (China, Tanzania, etc.) was covered and the participatory democratic operation of our schools and communities was rec ommended (government by unelected councils). (3) Arts and the Schools , Jerome J. Hausman, Editor (1980), in which the role of the arts in schools and in society was examined and then the focus shifted to the needs of the indi vidual. Arts addressed curricular issues involved in designing and implementing school arts programs and, again, actual programs are discussed and analyzed. The policy implications of implementing the programs described in the book are then discussed along with change strategies for moving from rhetoric to reality. The four books were published by McGraw Hill. The study itself was funded by the National Institute of Education, U.S. Office of Education and the following foundations: Danforth; Ford; International Paper; The JDR 3rd Fund; Martha Holden Jennings Foundation; Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; Needmor Fund; Pedamorphosis, Inc.; Rockefeller Foundation; and Spencer Foundation. The Advisory Committee for A Study of Schooling included the following persons: Ralph W. Tyler, chairman; Gregory Anrig; Stephen K. Bailey; Lawrence A. Cremin; Robert K. Merton; and Arthur Jefferson. The study was conducted under the auspices of the Institute for Development of Educational Activities, Inc. (IDEA) and The Laboratory in School and Com munity Education, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Los Angeles. [Ed. Note: In a telephone conversation with a representative of McGraw Hill Publishers in 1982, this writer was informed that all four books were provided to the fifty state education commissioners/superintendents. These four books provide an accurate picture of the role played by the tax-exempt foundations and federal government in the restructuring/social engineering of American society and schools to accommodate the perceived “needs” of the 21st century.] S ENATOR J ACOB J AVITS (NY) REQUESTED THAT M R . A RTHUR L IPPER ’ S ADDRESS TO THE World Council on Gifted and Talented Children be printed in the Congressional Record , September 5, 1979 (pp. 11904–11905). Senator Javits said in his introduction to the text of the speech: Mr. President, the gifted and talented children of our Nation have long been of continuing interest to me for they represent the future leadership of the United States. Last month, in Jerusalem, the World Council on Gifted and Talented Children held its Third Biennial Con ference to discuss international cooperative efforts on behalf of the gifted, and to consider research and exchange programs to promote this most precious human resource…. At the Jerusalem conference, Arthur Lipper, III, an investment banker… and great friend of the gifted and talented… forcefully presented the idea that the development of the gifted represents the best hope for future peace and stability in the international political realm…. I urge my colleagues to consider carefully his remarks, and I ask that the text of Mr. Lipper’s address to the World Council on Gifted and Talented Children be printed in the Record . The following excerpts from Lipper’s speech reflect a total disregard for the gifted and talented children as individuals who might be capable of deciding for themselves what they