Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

342 its way to dominating the world, America’s left-wing elitist intellectuals say it shouldn’t be America’s lingua franca . “In any country that endures, there must be a unum as well as a pluribus ,” said Billington. That’s not all. Billington says a national idea also requires a “clearer understanding than our educa tional system has often done in recent years of our durable constitutional system and public institutions and of our distinctively Judeo-Christian roots.... The bridges to other cultures will not be solid unless they begin with casements that are sunk deep into one’s own native ground.” Leaders of our governments, schools and universities have much to answer for, perhaps even the death of the American nation. Billington’s speech is another reason to demand better from them, or show them the door. The leaders of several national education associations and conservative religious and citizens’ groups have been meeting behind the scenes in an effort to find common ground on school reform and end their increasingly hostile debate.... An encouraging sign—and surprising turnabout—in the debate between school-reform leaders and their conservative opponents has been the recent partnership of William G. Spady, a leading advocate of outcomes-based education, and Robert L. Simonds, the president of the Costa Mesa, California-based Citizens for Excellence in Education, which says it has about 250,000 members nationwide. In many ways, the two men represent polar opposites in the debate over the direction of schools. Yet in recent months, they have made plans to sponsor jointly a non-profit National Center for Reconciliation and Educational Reform at the University of Northern Colorado in Gruel.... In many areas, CEE-affiliated activists support a back-to-basics agenda, opposing whole language instruction, open-ended assessments and teaching strategies that stray from the drill-and-practice routine. But after building a constituency that has seen its job as fighting against the tide, Mr. Simonds said, it is time to work with educators on better choices.... “We are not opposed to Bill Spady’s theory of outcomes-based education. There are a lot of good ideas in it,” Mr. Simonds said. E DUCATION W EEK OF N OVEMBER 23, 1994 RAN THE ARTICLE “E DUCATION , R ELIGIOUS Groups, Seek Common Ground.” Excerpts follow: I N A LETTER DATED D ECEMBER 12, 1994 FROM W ILLIAM S PADY OF THE H IGH S UCCESS Network to Dr. Nancy Grasmick, Maryland state superintendent of schools, a copy of which was very likely sent to the 49 other state school chiefs, Spady made the following statements: With both the federal government and state bodies pushing harder than ever to improve the focus and effectiveness of what happens at the local level, major educational reform seems inevitable—except for one new factor: the open resistance by citizens’ groups to a host of “progressive” reform ideas and initiatives.... When we met in March, Dr. Simonds was a staunch opponent of virtually everything I advocated in terms of outcomes-based educational change and restructuring. Today, to the amazement of many educators and policy makers, he is in agreement with the basic com ponents and principles articulated in the enclosed document developed by Dr. Kit Marshall and myself. More importantly, he and I have joined forces to form a National Center on