Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

Appendix XXV

(1) “The Truth about How We All Have Been Had”

and

(2) “The Difference between Traditional Education and Direct Instruction”

(1) “The Truth about How We All Have Been Had” by Charlotte T. Iserbyt was an alert sent out in late 1998, after the passage of Omnibus Budget Bill for 1999 which contained the Reading Excellence Ac t. (2) “The Difference between Traditional Education and Direct Instruction” by Tracey J. Hayes has been published in the January 1999 issue of The Education Reporter after having been distributed with Iserbyt’s alert.

(1) “The Truth about How We All Have Been Had”

Please bear with me. This alert is going to try to explain what happened on the slow road to teaching our children how to read. You may use this alert/article in any way you wish as long as you attribute it to the authors, Iserbyt and Hayes, and do not alter it or add to it in any way. The story is sad and should make American blood boil. Before you start reading, please take the time to read the last two pages of this alert containing an article entitled “The Difference between Traditional Education and Direct Instruction” by Tracey J. Hayes. First, I want to thank the loop for alerting me about two years ago to the activities of Doug Carnine, director of the federally funded National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators (NCITE) at the University of Oregon. By the way, folks, that is a federally funded office which has dealt for a very long period of time with programs for special education children. Carnine’s name jumped out at me when mentioned in one of the loop’s communications supporting direct, systematic, intensive phonics (direct instruction), which,

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