Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

371 O CTOBER 21, 1996 T HE N EW Y ORK T IMES PUBLISHED AN ARTICLE ENTITLED “C ARNEGIE Foundation Selects a New Leader,” Lee Shulman, Ph.D. For further information about the “new leader” the reader should re-read the 1968 entry on “Learning and Instruction... Chicago Mastery Learn ing” in which the behavioral psychologist Lee Shulman was deeply involved. The Noxious Nineties : c. 1997

1997

O N J ANUARY 25, 1997 THE FIRST PLENARY SESSION OF THE N ATIONAL C OMMISSION ON Civic Re newal was held. Funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Commission operates out of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, a research center at the University of Maryland at College Park. One common theme running through the numerous reports produced in 1998 as a result of the Commission’s study of the “deplorable” lack of citizen involvement, crying out for partnerships, etc., was that elected officials are no longer able to meaningfully contribute to the decision-making process when seeking answers to societal problems. Those chosen to promote political and social “action” in our “needy” communities came from all political persuasions—a clever technique which made the Commission seem all-embracing and allows for public ownership of the projects selected for implementation and encouragement. When one had Ernesto Cortes, Jr. of the Industrial Areas Foundation representing the political left and former Secretary of Education William Bennett represent ing the political right—which is increasingly controlled by “neoconservatives”—it was not unreasonable to expect that discussions would result in reaching “common ground” politics of the “radical center;” which is an abandonment of principle by both the right and the left. A list of high profile Americans involved in the National Commission on Civic Renewal will be included at the end of this entry. Why is the National Commission on Civic Renewal being created at this time? The Com mission says that: In spite of recent improvement in the economy, both experts and ordinary citizens have become increasingly troubled about what they see as a decline in the strength of our social fabric and in the quality of our civil and civic life. Basic institutions at the family and neigh borhood level have come under intense pressure; voting and other forms of community and political participation have declined; Americans’ trust in large institutions and in one another has plunged. The Commission will seek to address these ills: by gathering and as sessing information and advice from a wide range of voices; by inventorying, studying, and highlighting promising civic organizations and initiatives around the country; and by offering specific recommendations for improving our civic and civil life. Statistics published in a 1982 National Center for Citizen Involvement report quoting from a 1981 issue of The National Volunteer stated that 44% of Americans work as volunteers outside of an organization—“doing their own thing,” so to speak—not the volunteerism the elite involved in commissions similar to the National Commission on Civic Renewal are in terested in promoting. The writer will wager that the above-referenced “ordinary” citizens were not consulted on this elitist project. “Ordinary” citizens are too involved in trying to make a living, “meeting the payroll,” and being part of that “44%” to find time to be herded around by change agent planners, participating in projects which more often than not do not significantly affect the