Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

310 T HE R EADING [P ENNSYLVANIA ] E AGLE /T IMES OF M ARCH 2, 1993 CARRIED AN ARTICLE entitled “Deming Lashes out in Live Teleconference on Quality” by Don Spatz. Excerpts follow: It wasn’t supposed to happen. Featuring the famous Dr. W. Edwards Deming, last week’s live video conference among 900 colleges and universities—including Kutztown University—was supposed to be an agreeable session touting the benefits of “Creating Learning Organizations: Growth through Quality.” Instead it turned into a running battle between Deming and the other panelists. They dropped Deming’s name for everything they espoused; Deming said they were “digging as deep a pit for education as they have for business.”... “They need to understand where they (workers) fit in the total process,” said Peter Senge, author and director of the Organizational Learning Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. “The rule is to facilitate a learning environment where people can grow and change.” But there the agreement seemed to end. Senge and his panelists spoke at length of how the organization works because of the way “we think and interact; of how companies should no longer have boss and workers but rather should have leadership throughout the organization; of everyone constantly asking questions of everyone else; of not expecting an outsider to come in and fix things but of expecting workers themselves to solve problems.” And they spoke of everyone being given the ability to speak—through a series of dia logues—and to share their own answers to problems at any level of the organization. “There’s a deep desire within us to re-establish our ability to converse with each other,” Senge said. Deming agreed the basis for any negotiation is for everybody to win. “But having ev erybody talk does not produce knowledge,” he said. “That only comes from hard work, and usually comes from outside the organization,” he said. “You are digging deeper this pit we are in,” he said. “Having everybody involved is not going to do it.” Senge noted employees’ morale will rise if they are involved. “That’s not a measure of improvement,” Deming retorted. “That (discussion) will not produce anything new. It will just dig the pit deeper.”... Later, when panelists said they wanted to expand the concept of education, they noted the system of giving tests and letter grades is outmoded. Deming interrupted, noting their philosophy is “just as destructive in education as it has been in industry.” T HE M ARCH 3, 1993 ISSUE OF E DUCATION W EEK RAN THE ARTICLE “C ENTER L ISTS S KILLS Both Disabled, Non-Disabled Should Have.” An excerpt follows: A federally funded research center has unveiled a list of academic and life skills it says all students—disabled as well as non-disabled—should have upon leaving school. The wide ranging list compiled by the National Center for Educational Outcomes at the University of Minnesota includes 25 outcomes for what young people should gain from school and 77 indicators of whether those outcomes are being achieved. “We ought to be trying to achieve the best possible outcomes for all kids,” said James E. Ysseldyke, the director of the Center. “We shouldn’t have a separate system of outcomes and educators for disabled kids.”... The life skills identified by the Center include the ability to get along with others, to be responsible for one’s self, and to successfully manage daily life. Upon leaving school, the indicators say students should be able to make “healthy lifestyle choices,” to cope with stresses, and to volunteer in their communities, among other outcomes.