Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

A–115 …The more we carefully studied the components… the clearer it became that a continuum might be derived by appropriately ordering them. Thus the continuum progressed from [to] a level at which the individual is merely aware of a phenomenon, being able to perceive it. At a next level he is willing to attend to phenomena. At a next level he responds to the phenomena with a positive feeling. Eventually he may feel strongly enough to go out of his way to respond. At some point in the process he conceptualizes his behavior and feelings and organizes these conceptualizations into a structure. This structure grows in complexity as it becomes his life outlook. This ordering of the components seemed to describe a process by which a given phenomenon or value passed from a level of bare awareness to a position of some power to guide or control the behavior of the person. If it is passed through all the stages in which it played an increasingly important role in a person’s life it would come to dominate and control certain aspects of that life as it was absorbed more and more into the internal controlling structure. This process of continuum seemed best described by a term which was heard at various times in our discussions and which has been used similarly in the literature: “internalization.” This word seemed an apt description of the process by which the phenomenon of value successively and pervasively become a part of the individual. INTERNALIZATION: ITS NATURE English and English (1958) define it as “incorporating something within the mind or body; adopting as one’s own the ideas, practices, standards, or values of another person or of society” (p. 272). …Thus in the Taxonomy, internalization is viewed as a process through which there is at first an incomplete and tentative adoption of only the overt manifestations of the desired behavior and later a more complete adoption. …The term is a close relative of the term “socialization,” which, though it is often used as a synonym...[properly means]...“conformity in outward behavior without necessarily accepting the values.” They define socialization as “the process whereby a person... acquires sensitivity to social stimuli...and learns to get along with, and to behave like others in his group or culture.”… (p. 508) English and English’s concept of socialization helps to define a portion of the content of the affective domain—that which is internalized.... [T]his definition must be interpreted broadly since “sensitivity to social stimuli” must include the arts as well as others’ behavior. This definition suggests that the culture is perceived as the controlling force in the individual’s actions.... [O]ur schools, in their roles as developers of individualism and as change agents in the culture, are not solely concerned with conformity…. The term “internalization” by referring to the process through which values, attitudes, etc., in general are acquired, is thus broader than socialization, which refers only to the acceptance of the contemporary value pattern of the society. …The term “internalization” refers to this inner growth which takes place as there is “acceptance by the individual of the attitudes, codes, principles, or sanctions that become a part of himself in forming value judgments or in determining his conduct.”… Kelman (1958) used the term “internalization” in describing a theory of attitude change. He distinguished three different processes (compliance, identification, and internalization) by which an individual accepts influence or conforms. These three processes are defined as follows: [1] Compliance can be said to occur when an individual accepts influence because he hopes to achieve a favorable reaction from another person or group. He adopts Appendix XIX