Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

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United Nations Peace Force and for maintaining internal order. • The manufacture of armaments would be prohibited except for those of agreed types and quantities to be used by the U.N. Peace Force and those required to maintain internal order. All other armaments would be destroyed or converted to peaceful purposes. During the Congressional debate over the Arms Control and Disarmament Act , those favor ing the establishment of the agency called it the “Peace Agency.” Congressman John Ashbrook, an opponent of the measure and its implications, called it the “Surrender Agency” and further expressed his concern that the agency “may well be the back door for the one-worlders to accomplish their goal of an International World Court.” Additionally, Senator Joseph S. Clark of Pennsylvania declared on the floor of the U.S. Senate March 1, 1962 that this new interna tional focus was “the fixed, determined and approved policy of the government of the United States,” much to his sorrow. [Ed. Note: The goal perceived by Ashbrook, Clark and others of the Arms Control and Disarma ment Act was to further extend the influence and control of the United Nations through United States contributions to the power of the UN regional alliances such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). The development of education curriculum by United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and its outreach to the youth and communities throughout the world, coupled with the international political and economic weight of the UN through NATO and the UN’s treaty-making capacity, lends credence to the concerns voiced in Congress and elsewhere that a one-world government has been in the making since the end of World War II.] “H ARRISON B ERGERON ,” ONE OF THE SEVERAL SHORT STORIES BY K URT V ONNEGUT , J R . , included in his book Welcome to the Monkey House (Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence: New York, 1961), provided uncanny insight into the nature of America’s dumbed-down society in the year 2081. How the elitist “planners, managers” deal with Americans whose intellects and independence create problems for the smooth functioning of a society controlled for the benefit of all is the focus of the story. 6 An excerpt follows: The year was 2081, and everybody was equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General. [Ed. Note: The reader will, later in this book, recall this fictional forecast when encountering outcome-based education, Individual Education Plans (IEP’s) for ALL—not just the handi capped—and the Reading Excellence Act passed by Congress October 16, 1998, which will provide federal tax support for Skinnerian phonics instruction programs developed and used with special education children for over 25 years. In 1999 House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman William Goodling (PA) will also propose the removal of funding from present titles of the Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA) in order to completely fund the Indi viduals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA). Vonnegut’s office of “Handicapper General”