Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

399 In March 1998, I traveled to Cape Town, South Africa, as a participant in the Comparative Human Relations Initiative Consultation, funded by the Ford Foundation through a grant awarded to the Southern Education Foundation in Atlanta, Georgia.... South Africa’s education system is crippled by the legacy of apartheid as it struggles to deal with issues of inequity and quality.... Consequently, the brew of raised expectations among the ever-growing numbers of the poor and the government’s inability to respond portends trying times ahead. The new government is trying to respond to this situation through an enterprise called the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), an innovative education and training paradigm that uses outcome-based education to prepare students to be lifelong learners. Subsequently, a massive curriculum reform effort entitled Curriculum 2005 was initiated in January of the 1998 academic year in all primary schools. But the solid vision behind Curriculum 2005 has been marred by inadequate implementation of strategies and resources. Various public and private groups have either supported or criticized the government’s decision to implement Curriculum 2005, which is based largely on the tenets of outcome based education. Sangaliso Mikhatshwa, Deputy Minister of Education, asserts that “this system offers much in South Africa’s move away from the rote learning and content-driven curricula of the past.” He further contends that it represents a “head, hands, and heart ap proach,” as learners are required to indicate what they have learned in terms of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. It is still too early to predict whether these difficulties represent mortal wounds to the government’s education reform plans or merely predictable roadblocks along the way to successful innovation. The one thing that is certain about South Africa is the predictability of the unpredictable. Still, there are insurmountable courage, hope, and optimism among South Africa’s peoples. [Ed. Note: The language in this article—particularly the wording “offers much in South Africa’s move away from the rote learning and content-driven curricula of the past”—parallels and echoes that of the opening pages of H.R. 6, the reauthorization of funding for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act , which called for funding programs and curricula which would not address so-called “lower order skills.” This language is interpreted to mean memorization of facts and basic academic skills as we have always known them. In addition, the reader should understand that outcome-based education is based on Effective Schools Research, the basis for international education reform, and that it has generated intense opposition abroad as well as in the United States of America. 60 The writer also assumes that language contained in International Loan Agreement guidelines issued by the World Bank to facilitate “development” in South Africa may have contributed to the adoption of this internationally accepted (man dated) Skinnerian method. (See November 17, 1984 Maine Association of Christian Schools’ letter regarding Kevin Ryan, Portugal, and the World Bank, and Appendix VI which relates to Korea and the World Bank.)] The Noxious Nineties : c. 1998 T HE J UNE 7, 1998 ISSUE OF O REGON ’ S S TATESMAN J OURNAL PUBLISHED AN ARTICLE EN titled “Sa lem-Keizer Test Scores Fall.” Excerpts follow: Salem-Keizer student scores dipped for the second consecutive year in a prominent achieve ment test, dragging district scores further below the national average.... “We can’t and shouldn’t try to make any excuses for it,” said Dan Johnson, the district administrator spearheading education reform efforts. “It’s fairly consistent across each of the categories in terms of the decline.”