Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

226 N ORTH C AROLINA ’ S C OMPENTENCY -B ASED CURRICULUM , “B ASIC E DUCATION P ROGRAM ,” was introduced in 1985. A few of its more unusual “basic” competencies, involved students en tertaining allegiance to a world constitution and a world government rather than to the U.S. Constitution. Excerpts follow: FIFTH GRADE: Develop a flag, seal, symbol, pledge and/or national anthem for a new country.... Design a postage stamp to be used worldwide. The stamp should denote what the world would need to make it a better place....

SIXTH GRADE: Draw national symbols for an imaginary nation.... SEVENTH GRADE: Understand the need for interdependence.... NINTH GRADE: Write a constitution for a perfect society.

A N ATIONAL E DUCATION A SSOCIATION (NEA) PRESS RELEASE FOR J UNE 28–J ULY 3, 1985 described in considerable detail the purpose of its Mastery In Learning project. 15 It was explained that Mastery Learning is a concept first proposed a generation ago by Harvard psychologist Jerome Bruner.... A growing body of research and educational reform proposals came from such respected educational analysts as Mortimer Adler [developer of the Paideia Proposal and long-time advocate of a one-world government, ed.], John Goodlad, Theodore Sizer, and Ernest Boyer who have all sought to translate Bruner’s work into classroom reality.

Also revealed in an NEA booklet on mastery learning is the fact that

Mastery Learning is one of many instructional models. Others include Active Teaching, Direct Instruction, Student Team Learning, Socratic questioning, coaching, creative problem solving, Bruner’s Concept Attainment Strategy, and Madeline Hunter’s Target Teaching Approach. These models incorporate research on effective teaching, and all may be explored by the schools associated with the project.

[Ed. Note: Jerome Bruner and B.F. Skinner were the developers of the highly controversial, federally funded curriculum M:ACOS ( Man: A Course of Study ).]

E DUCATION W EEK OF A UGUST 28, 1985 CARRIED THE ARTICLE “P ROPONENTS OF M ASTERY Learning Defend Method after Its Rejection by Chicago” which quoted Benjamin Bloom, often cited as “the father of Mastery Learning,” as saying that some 50 million children around the globe are taught with a mastery learning approach. In addition, University of California Professor James H. Block is quoted as saying he “doesn’t know of any major urban school system in the United States that has not adopted some kind of mastery learning program.” [Ed. Note: James Block’s statement underscores the need for a Congressional investigation requiring the U.S. Department of Education to provide longitudinal/norm-referenced test scores for all “major urban school systems” that have used mastery learning/direct instruction over the past thirty years. (See Appendix XXVI.)]