Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

412

for its students. Mrs. Burns, after eight months’ teaching at the academy, desired only to “get out of it” and be “rid of the problem.” But then the school district told her to read, critique and sign off on a document entitled “Building the Foundation for Life-Long, Self-Directed Learning” which according to Burns was “full of lies, suppositions and half truths.” Realizing that she could not sign the document, she says that neither could she “walk away without someone, somewhere, knowing what I believe to be the truth about what is happening, or rather, not happening at the St. Louis Career Academy.” Mrs. Burns drafted a rebuttal to “Building a Foundation” which she sent to the school’s principal, the CED Superintendent, the court-appointed vocational education monitor, and the school district’s seven board members. The rebuttal charges the school with “lying about students gaining in academic achievement.” It contends that “the school relies too heavily on computers, that computer labs are typically chaotic and poorly controlled due to lack of manpower,” and that “destruction and theft of equipment are commonplace.” “Students cheat on computerized tests to advance to their next ‘tier’ (grade),” she wrote, adding that “the school lacks practical in-classroom teaching, order and discipline.” She charged that “children at the academy have been part of a giant School-to-Work experiment for the past two years, subjected to unproven and unorthodox practices and procedures, like rats in a maze.” Though the Career Academy has attempted to refute Mrs. Burns’s charges, “Building the Foundation”’s 37 paragraphs provide some clues as to their validity. Paragraph 9 refers to the school’s staff and students as remaining “intensely involved in an on-going process of self-creation.” Paragraph 26 whines that: “In spite of an explicit court mandate to ‘break the mold,’ the academy continues to come under attack from proponents of the old system.” Yet paragraph 30 admits that “students have learned they can fool the computer by ‘smart guessing’ or by memorizing answers for retests. Some students wonder how much of their learning they will retain. Others have ‘maxed out’ on the English and math programs, and do not feel challenged by their supplemental work.” B ILL C ARLSON , AN EDUCATION RESEARCHER FROM T EXAS , COVERED THE S CHOOL - TO -C AREER Acad emy Conference held July 23–24, 1998 at the Airport Hyatt Hotel in Burlingame, California. Carlson’s article should be in the hands of parents and small businessmen who have been subjected to the skilled manipulation of the change agent promoters of STW. Excerpts from Mr. Carlson’s article, “Impressions and Concerns: A Preliminary Report” follow: The School-to-Career (STC) “academy” featured two keynote speakers, J.D. Hoye and Wil lard Daggett. Hoye bills herself as J.D. Hoye, President, Keep the Change, Inc. Her web site (http://inet.ed.gov./offices/OVAE/hoye.html) identifies her as the Director of the National School-to-Work (STW) Office in Washington, D.C. (Note: STC and STW as used in this report convey the same meaning.) Hoye’s former involvement was with the Oregon Department of Education and Office of Community College Services, Oregon, arguably and tragically the most OBE-impacted state in the nation.... Both speakers are extremely smooth and clever STW marketers. Both have a passion for ALL children to learn and seem convinced that STW will “level the playing field.” (It must, however, be mandatory that ALL children experience STW. Why?) Hoye gives the message that our current education system does great for 25–30% of the students. She wants a level playing field for ALL students. She points to a book called The New Basics as a guide. She plays down memorization, abstract and theoretical teach ing because they don’t stick as well as cooperative project completions. Now is the time