Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

334 Teachers in the former Soviet Union, who played host to visiting U.S. educators, express interest in exchanging tests and course material to compare students’ aptitudes and cur riculum.... Wyommissing School District students may soon be taking tests drawn up by teachers in the former Soviet Union. Dr. Charles R. Walker, superintendent, has established ties with educators in St. Pe tersburg, the former Leningrad, as a result of an April excursion there. Walker, one of 32 educators who, along with their spouses, took a 10-day educational trip to visit schools in St. Petersburg and Moscow, returned with contacts, fax numbers from Russian schools, and plans to establish ties to ensure students are competitive on a global scale. Teachers there expressed interest in exchanging tests and course material to compare students’ aptitude and curriculum in the two countries, Walker said. In one public school that Walker visited the board had recently decided to mandate that students wear uniforms to try to contain the forces of commercialism, at least during the school day, he said. [Ed. Note: Although dress codes are proper—and many private schools require an identifiable uniform to distinguish their schools’ students from others—many government schools in urban areas in the U.S. are beginning to require uniforms. With the advent of: reduced time for recess; encouraging military personnel to function as teachers or instructors; the use of police to monitor school corridors and to teach the unsuccessful DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program; and the concept of our children being labeled “human capital resources” for the government-promoted school-to-work scheme, the idea of uniforms for public school students is more than a little disturbing.] T HE S ECOND A NNUAL M ODEL S CHOOLS C ONFERENCE , SPONSORED BY THE I NTERNATIONAL Center for Leadership in Education, Inc. (ICLE—whose director is Dr. Willard R. Daggett, previously employed as a co-trainer with William Spady at Outcome-Based Education training sessions sponsored by Spady’s High Success Network) was held June 26–29, 1994 in Atlanta, Georgia. Representatives of the educational systems of China, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Japan, and Russia were included as presenters at the conference. Of special interest was the presentation given by Su Lin, founder and chairwoman of China International Intellectual Resources Development Center for Children (CICC). 38 This school has branches in the United States, Germany, and other countries to facilitate the immersion of its Chinese students into the culture as well as the language of other countries. Excerpts from her presentation follow: It is CICC’s task to be engaged in educational reforms, to establish organizations of intercultural communications, and to integrate educational institutions with enterprises. Therefore, CICC’s systems engineering of education is an enormous constitution [composition] of education and technology, theory and practice, experimentation, organization, and management. CICC has been incorporated into an international group. We stress the following aspects: 1. The kind of citizens required by the 21st century will constitute our essential con sideration of educational receivers, aims, and contents. 2. We must do experiments in the search for a new education model. 3. The greatest characteristics of the 21st century will be the internationalization of education. With that in mind, we aim to develop our education in an international environment, as education is supposed to be an open system. 4. China is carrying on its social reforms, encouraging individuals and the non-govern-