Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

282 of global education is to open minds. This is accomplished through interdisciplinary stud ies, experiences which foster understanding, reflection and critical thinking, and creative response.… These principles include the usefulness of diversity, the value of cooperation and balance, the needs and rights of participants, and the need for sustainability within the system. Other important components of global education include understanding causes of con flict and experiencing the methods of conflict resolution. At the same time, exploring social issues such as human rights, justice, population pressures, and development is essential to an accurate understanding of the causes of war and conditions for peace. Since the world’s religions and spiritual traditions have such enormous impact, global education encourages understanding and appreciation of them and of the universal values they proclaim, including the search for meaning, love, compassion, wisdom, truth, and harmony. Thus, education in a global age addresses what is most fully and universally human.... CONCLUSION* …We in education are beginning to recognize that the structure, purposes, and methods of our profession were designed for an historical period which is now coming to a close. The time has come to transform education so as to address the human and environmental challenges which confront us. 9 *This conclusion is The Chicago Statement on Education adopted by eighty international holistic educators at Chicago, Illinois, June, 1990.... GATE PARTNERSHIPS FOR TRANSFORMING EDUCATION [The visual graphic on the front of this section included planets rotating around a central orb entitled “GATE.” The “planets” were labeled with the following titles:] • Young people • Teachers • Education Associations • United Nations Organizations • Local Communities • Government & Local/National Education Leaders • Families • Teacher Educators & Academies • Business • Media • Model Holistic Schools • Citizen Groups for Social Change…. Business GATE understands that a working partnership needs to be built with business. Busi ness leaders recognize that the structure and form of today’s education are not meeting the ever-expanding needs of a global society.… Example : W.E. Deming is the creator of Total Quality Management [TQM]—a holistic per spective that is transforming the hierarchical nature of the business world. He claims that “a long-term commitment to new understanding and new philosophy is required of any man agement that seeks transformation.” 10 There is a common thread between Deming’s TQM model and holistic education. At the 1991 conference in Colorado, a group discussing GATE’s