Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

370 available as the result of the legislation being passed. As an aside, although a very important one, the proposed legislation would have sent the money to the office of the governor, by passing the General Assembly. On September 27, 1996, the NCEE plan was temporarily halted from being incorporated into federal law when the CAREERS bill was defeated in Conference Committee. Undoubtedly, the bills will be re-introduced in 1997. Nevertheless, much of the plan can be, and is being, implemented under existing laws, regulations, and/or waivers. Unless something is done to stop it, the NCEE agenda will continue to be implemented, albeit on a less expansive scale, to the detriment of our children and grandchildren. I N THE S EPTEMBER 1996 ISSUE OF V ITALITY AN ARTICLE ENTITLED “E DUCATION : W HY THE ‘Dumbing Down’ in the Schools?” by Rep. Henry Hyde, chairman of the Republican Platform Committee, was published. Congressman Hyde, in an excellent critique of Goals 2000 , School-to-Work and CAREERS legislation, asserted: This concept has been around since at least the 1960s and perhaps as far back as the 1930s. It has been tried in many schools over the last 20–30 years, to the detriment of our children. In the 70s, it was called “Mastery Learning” under the supervision of Professor Benjamin Bloom, and now it is known as “Outcomes-Based Education” (OBE). State school superintendents have learned to call OBE by other names because of its bad reputation which precedes it, but the concepts are all the same. [Ed. Note: Representative Henry Hyde seems to be one of the few congressmen who under stands the “method.” This writer wonders if he is aware of the fact that the Chicago schools are using the method under the label “direct instruction”—and that Chicago schools have signed an education agreement with Russia?] I N THE S CHOOL W ATCH COLUMN OF THE A TLANTA C ONSTITUTION THE TOPIC OF THE DAY FOR Oc tober 14, 1996 was “Teaching Politics.” Excerpts follow: Teachers are finding innovative ways to interest students in becoming well-informed voters. Many teachers form a seating chart based on alphabetic order, but Linda Morrison uses another method. In her current issues class at North Cobb High School, liberals sit on the left side of the room and conservatives sit—where else?—on the right. Morrison’s technique is one of many methods teachers are using to educate students on electoral and political processes. “When you combine what we do in here with their American government class, it makes everything a lot more interesting for the students,” said Morrison, a former Cobb County Teacher of the Year. At the beginning of the year, Morrison gives her class a political orientation test, which charts how conservative or liberal a student is on several issues. The more liberal your views, the farther to the left of the room you sit. Those with moderate views sit closer to the middle, and conservatives sit on the right. “Our main textbook is Newsweek ,” Morrison said. “Whatever the current issues are, we discuss them. All I usually do is referee.”