Part 1
By Debra Rae
July 13, 2013 | Published with permission of the author
In 1977, Secretary
of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph
Califano rightly linked national control of curriculum to national control of ideas.[i]
Indeed, our Founding Fathers purposely
omitted education from the U.S.
Constitution and thereby left it up to the states under local and
parental control. But no more.
At the 1989 Kansas
Governors Conference on Education, Dr.
Shirley McCune explained, “We no longer see the teaching of facts and
information as the primary outcome of education.” Instead, she added, we look
to a “total transformation of our
society.”[ii]
In the words of President Obama: “fundamental change.”
In 1992, Marc
Tucker and Hillary Clinton explained how. Simply shift focus from reading, writing, and arithmetic to attitudes, values, and beliefs.
The Tucker-Clinton model (tantamount to “national control of ideas”) produces
compliant global citizens, yes; but it likewise fashions workers (not
scholars), followers (not leaders), group members (not rugged individuals), and
subjective feelers (not objective thinkers).[iii]
National Control of Ideas via Group Think
For the chronically
uninformed to accept without question Nanny State directives, today’s
students—otherwise known as human resources or capital—must be trained for
specific placement in pre-determined, entry-level vocations that support the
global economy. To ensure the intended outcome, broad, rigorous liberal arts
education no longer will do.
Hence, today’s
non-optional, values-based, politically charged instruction bypasses the tedium of academic disciplines.
Now, global citizens-in-the-making are freed to “follow their bliss” as
they goose-step in sync with likeminded comrades, all trained to serve the
greater, common good.
Today’s bully
pulpit of consensus offers limited choices under peer pressure. In the
dialectic process, ends always justify means; and, through it, educrats
discredit notions of fixed rights or wrongs. While questions and information
leading to a predetermined outcome are allowed, debates and arguments as to
truths or falsehoods are not.
Evolution of
Outcome-based Education
Chief among the
pioneers of education reform, American-educated psychologist Professor Benjamin Bloom exchanged
conventional instruction with so-called “mastery” learning” based on a taxonomy of educational
objectives.[iv]
Bloom targeted observable,
measurable, and repeatable behaviors[v]
established by stimulus-response tactics.
Attributed to
Skinnerian behaviorism principles of operant conditioning[vi],
mastery learning follows the school-to-work,
cradle-to-grave pattern popularized by Tucker and Clinton. Now, Tucker,
Obama, and Arne Duncan are mounting a complete federal takeover of public
schools.[vii]
There’s reason why
“common” in common core speaks to what’s “ordinary,” “lacking distinction,” and
“belonging equally to all the people.” Rather than raise achievement across the
board, students are guided to perform at about the same level with equal
rewards for all.
Equal Outcomes
Education
researcher and analyst, Julie Quist warns that the “equal outcomes” approach
runs counter to America’s “equal opportunity” philosophy.[viii]
This was precisely Sir Julian Huxley’s mindset as the founding director-general
of UNESCO that, to this day, is recognized broadly as the school board for the
world.
In Readings on Sustainable Values,
Ross McCluney calls for a new, more
liberal core set of values that the entire species can agree upon.[ix]
Through various grants, initiatives, laws, and foreign collaboration, common
core is driven by UNESCO and Agenda 21 to devise one-size-fits-all benchmarks
for what children must learn at each grade level.
With the
International Baccalaureate (IB) program came international standards in
training global citizens under a universal “curriculum framework for peace
education.”[x]
Global paradigm
shift requires “common ground” in a “democratic” classroom, one rooted in the
Chinese model of “participatory democracy.” Added to the Chinese participatory
and EU transformation models, the Soviet polytech education model contributes
to scholarship-lite “education” for the masses.
Enter, Common Core,
standards for which will control curricula of private, religious, Catholic, and homeschools. With no elected school
boards, charter schools follow suit. Because significant numbers of their students come from private
schools, religious influence is sidestepped, resulting in broad societal implications. Many secular
educrats consider morality, modesty, human rights, and the family to represent
mere constructs in need of being deconstructed.
“Free” Money for
the Taking
To affect needed
“change we can count on,” there’s “free” money for the taking! Obama’s
brainchild, Race to the Top, incentivizes
states to reform K-12 curriculum by competing for grants. Desperate for funds,
educators race to the feeding trough of $4.35 billion in stimulus moneys.[xi]
Significantly, Race to the Top is a top-down, centrally controlled, national education
program. In a word, it’s unlawful. Established policy—i.e., General Educational Provisions Act—prohibits
federal overreach by exercising
any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum or selection of
instructional materials. So does the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution. Apparently,
the Obama administration loosely interprets the supreme law of our land.[xii]
Where’s the State?
No Child Left Behind was a step in this direction, but unlike Common Core
standards, it allowed the states to set their own standards. In actuality, “Common
Core State Standards” is a misnomer. In no way are these standards
state-written and controlled. Supported by President Obama and the federal
Department of Education, they were hatched by a national cartel of politicians
and businessmen.[xiii]
In most states, the
governor is fingered as the single, most important person in higher education.[xiv]
It should come as no surprise that, along with the Council of Chief School
State Officers, the National Governors’ Association partnered with teachers’
unions (NEA and FTA) and contractor Achieve, Inc., to devise said standards.[xv]
“Suggestion box”
input hardly qualifies Common Core as state-driven when, in fact, state
legislators were afforded no vote to accept core standards. The majority of
Americans know nothing about a program that directly affects their kids’ intellectual development, privacy, and
future opportunities. With “cart blanche” stimulus money in hand,
President Obama bypassed parents and Congress for permission and funding and
made a beeline to the governors.
Implemented
Hastily, Sight Unseen
Financed by
foundations, private groups launched Common
Core in 2009. Although detailed
standards are complicated and confusing, they were given “the Barak
bump” without sufficient public dialogue, debate, and feedback from experienced
educators. No empirical research, pilot- or experimental- program preceded its
acceptance, nor is evidence provided that properly evaluates worth of what is
to be taught. Nonetheless, plans are already underway to dumb down the ACT and
SAT to go along with common core standards slated to be implemented in 2014, when assessments begin.[xvi]
What’s not to like about promise of “college
and career ready” standards? For one, “promising” is not the same as
“delivering.” Some authorities believe that the only college for which Common
Core students qualify is the non-selective, two-year community college.[xvii]
In April, the Republican National Committee issued a
resolution rejecting common core as a “nationwide
straitjacket on academic freedom and achievement.”[xviii]
For good reason, Texas, Alaska, Nebraska, and Virginia refused it in its entirety; and Minnesota
declined its math component.
Recently, Indiana
Governor Mike Pence signed
a law to “pause” its implementation in order to hold public hearings. Of
forty-six states signed on, twenty-six are having second thoughts. Bills to repeal Common Core
have been filed in Oklahoma, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Alabama, South Dakota,
and Georgia.
In short, the
Common Core State Standards Initiative isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.
[i]
http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2012/03/national-control-ideas/.
[iv]
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html.
[vi] Skinner 1984.
[viii] Julie Quist. “International Education
Standards.” Blogspot: WomanTalk Education, 01/27/2006. 1-2.
[ix]
http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Source-Readings-Sustainable-Values/dp/0974446114/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372106293&sr=1-1&keywords=Sustainable+Values%2C+Ross+McCluney
[x] Reported in The Washington Times, 18 January 2004.
[xi] Education Reporter, The Newspaper of Education Rights, “Push Against
Common Core Gains Momentum,” Number 328. May 2013. 1,4.
[xii] The Tenth Amendment (Amendment X) to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791.The Tenth Amendment
states the Constitution's principle of federalism by providing that powers not granted
to the federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited to the States, are reserved to the States or the
people.
[xvi] Spring of 2015 according to Justin
Pittman, staff writer for DailyRecordNews.com.
[xvii] In March 2010, one of CC’s creators,
Dr. Jason Zimba admitted this at a meeting of the Massachusetts Board of
Elementary and Secondary Education.
[xviii] http://truthinamericaneducation.com/common-core-state-standards/rnc-draft-resolution-on-the-common-core/.
© 2013 Debra Rae - All Rights Reserved
Having authored the ABCs of Globalism and ABCs of Cultural -Isms, Debra speaks to Christian and secular groups alike. Her radio spots air globally. Presently, Debra co-hosts WOMANTalk radio with Sharon Hughes & Friends and hosts TRUTHTalk radio, plus she contributes monthly commentaries to a number of Internet news magazines. Debra calls the Pacific Northwest home.
Web Site: www.debrarae.us/
E-Mail: debra@debrarae.us
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