Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

339 based on brain-compatible learning , such as those promoted in the 1992 Integrated Thematic Instruction: The Model (ITI) developed by Susan Kovalik and Associates of Arizona. A memorandum was sent to all Indiana superintendents, inviting them to attend a lunch/conversation with Susan Kovalik in Indianapolis on November 10, 1994 during the 7th National Conference of the American Association of School Librarians. [It stated in part that] ITI is of great interest to parents in Indiana and elsewhere, since “Susan is well known as a writer, facilitator, and president of one of the largest inservice training organizations in the United States,” according to the invitation. Kovalik’s material shows a strong connection to the New Age philosophies of Eastern mysticism and Western occultism. Indiana has for several years been putting in place the new age curriculum that contains all of the psychological/educational processes necessary to achieve in the student the desired state, national and international outcomes . Master teacher Barbara Pedersen, an associate of Susan Kovalik’s from Central El ementary School in Lebanon, Indiana, has brought the ITI model to Indiana classrooms through the Indiana Department of Education-supported C.L.A.S.S. (Connecting Learning Assures Successful Students) project. Pedersen not only trains and coaches teachers in many schools in Indiana, but now has expanded to include Kentucky teachers. The ITI model’s approach to teaching uses a single theme (yearly, monthly, weekly) to tie together various areas of instruction such as science, math, history, and reading. The matic teaching is not new. What is new, says Kovalik in her 1992 ITI manual, is that, “The entire ITI Model—curriculum development and instructional strategies—has been selected and organized with great care to fit how the brain learns” (p. 3). This type of thematic model, based on human brain research, is called brain-compatible learning . However, a close look behind the model at the books that Kovalik cites as brain research reveals that ITI is not based on valid scientific studies, but rather on educational theories tied to psychic phenomena research. The mind, claims Kovalik, is designed to learn from the experience and complexities of the natural world, and thus she rejects the logical, sequential (traditional) teaching approach to learning. According to Kovalik, the goal of school districts and school boards should be to provide students with a brain-compatible learning environment by eliminating policies that support brain-antagonistic elements (i.e., a textbook for every student, traditional evaluation/ grading, and sequential curricula presented in a logical manner). Opponents of the ITI model list the following major criticisms: 1) New Age ideas and practices including yoga relaxation, visualization, and guided imagery leading to altered states of consciousness; 2) Tribes, a cooperative learning model predominantly centered on social (peer group) development rather than individual academic achievement; 3) academic deficiencies traced to emphasis on exploration of the complex, random, chaotic “real world” instead of concentrated on sequential, logical teaching of subject matter through textbooks; 4) controversial nature of certain themes (political, religious, paranormal, etc.) and over emphasis on themes; and 5) teaching methods and curriculum linked to questionable brain research (i.e., Brain-Compatible Classroom ). The ITI model encompasses six main brain research theories: (1) Triune Brain—Paul McLean’s evolutionary theory of mankind’s three separate brains of varying ages. This is a key component and rationale for providing a stress-free brain-compatible learning environment. (2) Accelerated Learning—the speed up memory learning by teaching directly to the subconscious mind derived from George Lozanov’s Suggestology, which is based upon research from yogis and psychics. The ITI model has all of the parts of this type of Accelerated Learning—yoga relaxation, visualization, guided imagery and special effects of music. Lozanov’s method is also called SALT (Suggestive Accel erative Learning and Teaching [which supports Stanford’s Henry Levin’s Accelerated The Noxious Nineties : c. 1994