NOT IN MY COUNTRY YOU DON'T, BUBBA! BY DAVE MUNDY:
Not in MY country you don't, Bubba!
Jan. 29, 1997
"When information which properly belongs to the public is systematically withheld by those in power, the people soon become ignorant of their own affairs, distrustful of those who manage them, and — eventually — incapable of determining their own destinies."
— Richard M. Nixon, 37th U.S. president, 1972
Marc Tucker, President
Dear Mr. Tucker:
I just read with interest your Nov. 11, 1992, letter to then-First Lady-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as your "A Human Resources Development Plan for the United States." I'd like to commend you on your excellent writing ability and clearness of vision; it's a rare trait today to see someone involved in education who can actually transmit thoughts comprehensible to the normal reader.
I'd also like to commend you on your subtlety; quite frankly, it approaches genius. Even those of us who have studied education issues at length really have to look at the whole picture before all the little details settle into focus. Were it not for a few of us who see your agenda for what it is, you might very well succeed, because you and I both know that most Americans are simply too lazy to look beyond public-relations hash and television sound bites.
But a few of us, as I said, have seen this for what it is. I think I can speak for most of them when I echo Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Robert Holland: "Not in MY country you won't, bubba!"
To give you credit, sir, I have to express my view that your purpose is noble. The concept of a world in which everyone has a job, gets along with everyone else and feels good about himself is a wonderful vision. Indeed, I even share many of the social concerns your agenda seeks to address.
Unfortunately, things don't work that way: man is a greedy animal, as has been amply demonstrated by the people we elect to public office.
Other visionaries have attempted to institute the same kind of system you are proposing. Their names dot the pages of history: Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler, Lenin, Mao Tse-Tung, Ho Chi Minh. Their systems failed.
Of course, to read the textbooks in your system of education, it is never mentioned that their system failed; it simply "wasn't implemented in the correct fashion." Sir, there IS no correct fashion!
Nor would your system bring about a truly egalitarian society. Research has proven the "Whole Language" element of your Outcomes-Based Education system enables only 20 percent or less of people to ever obtain the basic skills necessary to pursue higher learning — the rest being fixed with a "learning-disabled" label.
You will effectively create a higher "caste" of people who will manipulate and control the other 80 percent — the "unwashed masses."
It is quite possible I and the other concerned individuals who are crying out at this transformation of society will not be heeded; as noted earlier, people are lazy. In some ways, this system would certainly fit our society, since an uninformed, apathetic populace is necessary for it to be fully implemented.
Nonetheless, we will continue to do everything in our power to inform as many people as possible about what you are trying to accomplish. And like Winston Churchill, "...we will never, never surrender."