Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

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The Noxious Nineties : c. 1998

acter education specialist at the Utah State Office of Education. “It’s really something that should be woven into everything we do.” According to Kevin Ryan, director of the Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character at Boston University, the potential for character education exists in all curriculum to engage children in moral thought. For instance, physical education teachers might emphasize the importance of play ing fair in athletics, or science teachers may stimulate discussion about the ethical issues involved in genetic cloning. “They’re going to either learn good character or bad character,” Mr. Ryan said. “It’s all an inevitable part of life that schools will have an impact.” But Murray Philip, a school board member in Nashville, Tennessee questions the idea that character can be taught. “Who are we to decide what is good character, and what is bad character?” he said. Mr. Philip doubts that character can be taught because he feels it is learned through adversity and experience. Many argue that the job of teaching character lies in the hands of families rather than schools. “There’s an awful lot of kids who are not being taught anything at home,” Mr. Ryan said. “There’s no such thing as a morally neutral school.” [Ed. Note: In response to the statements by Thomas Lickona, it is hard for this writer to ac cept Mr. Lickona as a leader in the area of moral education considering his promotion of the late Lawrence Kohlberg’s humanistic “Stages of Moral Development” and morally relativistic character education program “Ethical Issues in Decision Making.” As for Clinton’s 1997 State of the Union speech, with the recently concluded impeach ment trial and the events which precipitated it, there are no words to adequately express the irony of Clinton’s calling for the schools to teach “character.” Also, can one really imagine a government-developed character education program or one that would be allowed to be used in government-supported schools which would be effective, when government-supported “scientific research” is based in an evolutionary perspective of our children being trainable animals? Children observing teachers and others in authority exhibiting good character is the best “character education.” Also, allowing school boards to hire teachers whose lives incor porate high moral character would do much to contribute to the solution of this problem. After having read and said all of the above, the writer would like to issue degrees in rocket science for all the parents who understand the problem!] A PPROXIMATELY 3,500 PEOPLE ATTENDED A RALLY ON S UNDAY , O CTOBER 11, 1998 AT THE Min nesota State Capitol in Minneapolis in opposition to Minnesota’s graduation standards. [Some accounts put the number present at as high as 5,000.] Minnesota’s major media— The Minne apolis Star Tribune , The St. Paul Pioneer Press , The Minnesota Daily and four local television stations—gave coverage to the rally. The Minneapolis Star Tribune article “Multiple Choice Review of Education—Profiles of Learning Takes Central Stage at Gubernatorial Debate on Education—Large Protest at Capitol Targets the State’s Newest Graduation Standards” stated in part: Minnesota’s Graduation Rule came under vigorous attack on Sunday as many hundreds of residents rallied at the state capitol demanding an end to the academic standards known as the “Profiles of Learning.” Opponents lambasted the rule as an attempt to control schools and a move towards a socialist government. Many fear the rule will force schools to steer