Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

Glossary G–7 defined and dictated core beliefs, values, and attitudes. “Such choices should include all schools that serve the public and are accountable to public authority,” asserted America 2000: An Education Strategy (U.S. Department of Education: Washington, D.C., 1991), p. 31, which was developed under Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander. Presently, parents have the choice to enroll their children in public schools, private or religiously affiliated schools, or home school them. To adopt “choice” solutions will bring government regulation to all choices because public money cannot be expended or credited without accountability; it is illegal to do so. The recent move to support privately funded vouchers by giving tax deductions for them is a backdoor approach which will boomerang because even a tax deduction has to be accountable. A study of the gradual ism involved in regulation of the child care industry is a case in point. As parents were allowed tax deductions for child care, regulations were suddenly drawn up and imposed, in many cases forcing the home-based child care providers out of business or into an underground operating mode. Family members who were providers of child care were excluded from the exemption, etc. Another result has been the regulation of private and government child care providers to the point that even the food they offer the children must meet a standard. Beware of “choice” proposals, no matter who is offering them. (See 1991 Virginia Birt Baker’s “Educational Choice—The Education Voucher, Tax Credits, and the Nonpublic Schools,” and Resource List) Citizenship Education. The following definition comes from “School-to-Work and Ralph Tyler” by Dean Gotcher in Institution for Authority Research Newsletter (April 1998):

Education which produces a socialist (dialectic-minded) citizen who is not concerned with unalienable rights (given by a higher authority) but with human rights (determined by the group in consensus, guided by social engineers). With the former, one is innocent until proven guilty, since facts determine one’s guilt; with the latter, one is guilty until proven innocent, since feelings (personal, social felt needs) determine one’s guilt or innocence.

(See Character Education , Citizenship Education , and Values Clarification )

Climate. See Environment . Cognitive Dissonance. Disorganization of thoughts, mental confusion, and emotional tension caused by behavior modification which conflicts with one’s values. Such manipulation causes many to rethink and modify their values in order to conform to expected behavior. (See 1991 “Paradigm Change: More Magic than Logic” by John C. Hillary, and Appendix XIII and XIX) Cognitive Domain. (See Taxonomy of Educational Objectives and Appendix XIX) Common Ground. A place of compromise; a pleasant -sounding strategy developed by change agents for silencing opposing voices and winning community support. The adjective “bipartisan” is used more and more in a positive way as elected officials accept the per ceived “need” to come to consensus in order to avoid conflict. (See Consensus Building , Delphi Technique , Group Process , Synthesis , and Appendix XXII) Community Education. A process, not a program, by which the total community is involved in decision making by consensus, using the group process and the Delphi Technique.