Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

A–149 came in and said, “We thought this was awful too when we attended the workshop last week, but it gets better as the week goes along.” This was the first time we realized that the administrators had taken the workshop, also. At one point in the training we were required to raise our arms to a 45-degree angle with our fingers pointed. The children were to do this whenever they completed an assignment and the teacher was to check for perfect penmanship, etc. If the work was not perfect, then the child had to start over. The rest of the class traced their word with their finger and said the word in unison while the others made the correction. I kept asking, “What is this method?” I was somewhat more verbal than the rest. At one point my principal said they used this method in Germany. This is when I said to Sherri, “I recognize the salute: Sieg Heil! I’m not going to do this again.” At this point I sat with my arms folded and Sherri continued to chuckle. I was not laughing. This workshop was no longer funny. I was thinking that something was very amiss. Sherri and I were sitting at the same table across from each other. Mrs. Currington came and moved our table out from the others and told us to work with the group across the room. Since this was impossible, I thought it was very strange. That’s when I noticed that our behavior was being monitored by the teacher-trainer, Mrs. Currington. I told Mary and Sherri to be careful of their actions because we were being monitored. They said, “Oh come on, Ann.” The next day our table had been moved to the end of the room, in direct view of the teacher-trainer. On the last day of our workshop, Mrs. Currington said she had just returned from doing a workshop in Boston, and they drove her out of town with police escort. Someone asked her why, and she said it was because of a paper she had presented in the workshop. She said she would not present the paper again unless Dr. Reid (the program director) ordered her to. Deanna asked if she could see the paper and Mrs. Currington said yes if Deanna would return it right after lunch and promise not to show it to anyone. The next day Deanna told me that the paper was the “Children’s Hour.” 1 I said, “I’m not surprised that they ran her out of Boston with police escort because that is where they threw the tea overboard!” I am happy to report that I did not pass their fidelity or proficiency tests. Endnote: 1. “The Children’s Hour” is a story by James Clavell which deals with the ability of a “new” teacher, brought to an elementary classroom as a result of a “hostile government’s takeover,” who is able to completely subvert the values, beliefs and loyalties of the children in a half hour’s time. At the end of the story the children had cut up the American flag and thrown the flagpole out of the window, and had been convinced that prayer was a waste of time because “what you receive always comes from soembody else,” not God. (See pp. 70–71 of this book.) Appendix XXIV