 |
|
|
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 ThinkFor the chronically uninformed to
accept without question Nanny State directives, todays
studentsotherwise known as human resources or capitalmust 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, todays 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.
Todays 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]
Theres reason why common in common
core speaks to whats 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
Americas equal opportunity philosophy.[viii]
This was precisely Sir Julian Huxleys 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, theres free money for the taking! Obamas 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, its unlawful. Established policyi.e., General Educational
Provisions Actprohibits 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]
Wheres
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]
[i]
http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2012/03/national-control-ideas/.
[iv]
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html.[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[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.
Part 1:
The Global Roots of “Common
Core” EducationPart 2:
The Rising Force behind
“Common Core” IndoctrinationPart 3:
Common Core: Who Will Rule
the Global Schools?
Bush, Gorbachev, Shultz and
Soviet Education
Molding Human
Resources for a Global Workforce