Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

G–20

(See At-Risk Students ) Sustainable Development. “World Class Schools and the Social Studies” from Social Studies Horizons by Dr. Cordell Svengalis (Iowa Dept. of Education: Des Moines, Iowa, Vol. 3, No. 1, Fall 1990) says in part:

...a World Class education program would have as one of its major objec tives the development of skills and understandings grounded in an ethical/moral context. This ethical/moral context would be based on the idea of assuming a sense of responsibility toward our interrelated planetary future.... Perhaps the most compelling vision of our time is that of a “sustainable society” [emphasis in original]. Our global society, in terms of the environmental degradation, explo sive population growth in the Third World, energy shortages, pollution, conflict, crime, drugs, poverty, and just sheer complexity, is not sustainable into the 21st century.... Students need to understand these things as part of their World Class education.

(See 1991 GATE entry, Global Education , Resource List, and Appendix XXVII) Synthesis . One of the higher-order thinking skills in Bloom’s Taxonomy . Uses the principles of Hegelian dialectics to join the beliefs or ideas (theses) of individual students into a new joint belief—the compromise solution or synthesis. (See Taxonomy of Educational Objectives and Appendix XIX) Systemic Change or School Reform. Total holistic transformation: top down, system-wide, international as well as national. “Systemic” means one mind directing one body with many parts. It includes preschools, public elementary and high schools, private schools, colleges, universities, health clinics, and every other kind of community partner. The planned deadline is school year 2000–2001. (See Global Education and Restructuring ) Systems, Systems Design, Systems Approach. The following definition comes from Appendix VIII:

When scientific and experimental methods are applied in an orderly and comprehensive way to the planning of instructional tasks, or to entire programs, this process is sometimes known as “systems design,” or the “systems approach to instructional development.” Implicit in the systems approach is the use of clearly stated objectives, experimentally derived data to evaluate the results of the system, and feedback loops which allow the system to improve itself based on evaluation. A systematic approach usually involves needs assessment (to determine what the problem really is); a solution selection (to meet the needs); development of instructional objectives (if an instructional solution is indeed needed); an analysis of tasks and content to meet the objectives; selection of instructional strategies; sequencing of instructional events; selection of media; developing or locating the necessary resources; try out/evaluation of the effectiveness of the resources; revision of resources until they are effective; and recycling continuously through the whole process. The systems approach is basic to educational technology. Indi vidual learning requires systematic planning because it may operate with little or no direct intervention by the teacher.