Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

G–24 for predetermined results (results, performance, outcome-based education). Legislation is in the works to hold teachers accountable for student results which means students are no longer held responsible for their work or lack of work. In order to implement such an accountability system, systematic, scientific, research-based education (based on behav iorist principles) is being implemented. Such education which teaches to the test, using Skinnerian operant conditioning, has predictable and measurable, if narrow, results and serves the limited learning needs of the school-to-work agenda. The results of such narrow education are measurable data which must be collected at the individual student and teacher level, able to be stored in the computer for recycling and remediation purposes. The use of such a narrow, rigid method of training assures predictable results which carry out the requirements of the new definition of accountability. That is why OBE, ML DI, and Effective School Research all claim that “almost all children can learn.” Skinner said, “You will teach your student as he wants to be taught, but never forget that it is within your power to make him want what you want him to want.” There is virtually no way a student can avoid “learning” exactly what the planners want him to learn unless he actually rebels against the method/system which considers him nothing more than a machine/animal to be conditioned/trained. (See Appendix XXIV) affective (Feelings, emotions) alignment (All teacher training and curriculum resources are aligned with tests, assessments, etc.; i.e., teach to the test) animal, animal psychology (Used to develop operant conditioning programs) assessment, assessment strategies, authentic assessment (See Glossary) attitude, attitudinal (Point of view; dealing with attitudes, values, beliefs) automaticity (Level of training at which behavior becomes automatic [“knee jerk” reflex]) Behavior Analysis (One of twenty different intervention strategies that was used in Project Follow Through) The following four behaviorist definitions are taken from Dictionary of Education, 3rd Edition by Carter V. Good, Ed. (McGraw-Hill; New York, 1973), published under the auspices of Phi Delta Kappa: behavior modification: (Techniques for dealing with maladaptive behavior either through clas sical conditioning [for example, avoiding anxiety in a specified situation by conditioning a response incompatible with anxiety] or through operant conditioning [as by arranging and managing reinforcement contingencies so that desired behaviors are increased in frequency and maintained and undesired behaviors are decreased in frequency and/or removed]. When used with the nonfunctioning or disruptive school child, behavior changes are measurable by continuous assessment and graphic means; behavior management, though using many of the same techniques, is a less precise method.) behavior shaping: (The process by which a target response or series of responses is developed through the use of strategically placed reinforcers; a term used primarily by those who identify themselves with B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning.)