Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

A–21

Appendix IV

learning would be most likely to bring about improvement.

Proof that Pennsylvania’s goals were the model for the nation is found in the California State Plan, Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act , P.L. 89–10, as Amended by P.L. 90–247, 1970, which states on page 2, (6/9/69 revised): These Ten Goals were generated in the Study of Quality Education initiated by the Pennsylvania State Board of Education in response to a mandate from the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The Ten Goals provided a classification system simple enough (in terms of the number of categories) to work with and yet comprehensive enough in scope to include almost any educational objective, whether cognitive, affective [attitudes, values, ed.] or psychomotor. These Ten Goals are listed below: 1. Quality education should help every child acquire the greatest possible understanding of himself and appreciation of his worthiness as a member of society (Self-Understanding). 2. Quality education should help every child acquire understanding and appreciation of persons belonging to social, cultural, and ethnic groups different from his own (Tolerance of Others). 3. Quality education should help every child acquire to the fullest extent possible for him mastery of the basic skills in the use of words and numbers (Basic Skills). 4. Quality education should help every child acquire a positive attitude toward school and toward the learning process (Attitude Toward School). 5. Quality education should help every child acquire the habits and attitudes associated with responsible citizenship (Citizenship). 6. Quality education should help every child acquire good health habits and an understanding of the conditions necessary for the maintenance of physical and emotional well being (Health). 7. Quality education should give every child opportunities in one or more fields of endeavor (Creativity). 8. Quality education should help every child understand the opportunities open to him for preparing himself for a productive life and should enable him to take full advantage of these opportunities (Vocational Preparation). 9. Quality education should help every child to understand and appreciate as much as he can of human achievement in the natural sciences, the social sciences, the humanities, and the arts (Intellectual Achievement). 10. Quality education should help every child prepare for a world of rapid changes and unforeseeable demands in which continuing education throughout his adult life should be a normal expectation (Life-Long Learning). [Ed. Note: Anita Hoge’s successful complaint against the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Educational Quality Assessment (EQA), filed under the federal Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment , exposed the extent of federal involvement in curricula, testing and evaluation primarily designed to change children’s attitudes, values, and beliefs. These are the areas to which parents most vociferously object. In the mid-1970s the Pennsylvania chapter of the liberal American Civil Liberties Union sided with parents regarding their objections; i.e., invasion of privacy, etc. All state and local school district goals, standards, competencies, outcomes, results, etc., developed from this time on across the nation were based primarily on these Pennsylvania