UNDERSTANDING OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION PART V BY MARY MCGARR:
Understanding Outcome Based Education Part V
by Mary McGarr
Having read the list of examples of what transpires every day
of your child’s school day, one must inquire as to the motivation for such
terrible things being done to our Nation’s school children. Why would the
government want to have a mostly uneducated populace?
The answer seems to lie in the belief of those who are leading this
initiative that an uneducated electorate will become a dependent and
unquestioning electorate and will need the government to sustain itself. The
corporate world sees unquestioning, compliant workers who can stick Part A to
Part B and be happy with minimal wages, as a panacea. There can be no other
reasons for this deliberate dumbing down of our young people.
Whenever one hears the phrases “know and be able to do,”
“learning to learn,” "teaching is learning,” “lifelong learning,” “every child
can learn,” and other such nonsensical phrases, or if one realizes that there is no
ability grouping for all students, one can be certain that an
OBE/STW agenda has been implemented and that the school in question no longer
provides an academic education for its students.
Parents have been blind to the slow changes that have been
wrought. As Berit Kjos explains in
her book Brave New Schools,
using the old tale, the frog is put on the stove in cold water, and by the time
the water boils, he’s dead and it’s too late for him to jump out.
Once these ideas are pointed out and parents realize that
these efforts are going on in their children’s schools, they need to think
seriously about educational alternatives for their children.
I am quite aware that stating these matters in this way
provides a disturbing scenario for parents. I only ask that one do further
reading, especially of the laws regarding education and the workforce that have
been passed in our state and by the federal government in the last twenty-five
years.
The implementation of this agenda has been deliberate,
calculated and insidious. Opposition to it has always been silenced by whatever
means necessary. Few politicians will touch the subject --even when they “get”
it. To do so is political suicide.
Media reporters ignore the matter to remain employed.
If you are wondering if the Katy ISD School Board knows of
this matter, I can tell you that some of them do, as I explained it to several of them
many years ago, and they chose to ignore me.
They made the decision to go along with the agenda.
Did Superintendent Merrell know about it? You bet he did.
When he came to Katy, the board at that time, which included Joe Adams, Larry
Moore, James Peters, Jim Brasier, Stanley Thompson, Ken Burton and me, were
specific in our instructions to the head hunter, Bob Thompson, that we did not
want someone who would implement OBE in the Katy schools.
We had just sent on his way a superintendent who had tried to do so. We
had just listened to hundreds of citizens who spoke to us at open forums and
insisted that we keep OBE out of our schools. Of interest is the fact that when
I recently asked through open records for the “application” of
Leonard Merrell for his job, I received a copy of a transcript from St. Thomas
University which had not been presented to the Board at the time of his original
application (or at least it was not shown to me).
The transcript showed that Dr. Merrell had just received three hours of
credit for training in “Quality Management of OBE.”
In my opinion, Leonard Merrell knew better than to reveal that training
to our Board while we were considering him for the superintendent’s position.
In my opinion, those who perpetuate this agenda have no
conscience, and denying children their right to an academic education is a cruel
thing to do.
A recommended bibliography includes:
The Blumenfeld Education Letter:
http://www.howtotutor.com/bel.htm
William Bennett The Educated Child
Allan Bloom The Closing of the American Mind
Bev Eakman Educating for the New World Order
E. D. Hirsch, Jr.
Cultural Literacy:
The Schools We Need & Why We Don’t Have Them
Robert Holland Not With My Child You Don’t
Charlotte Iserbyt
The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America
Berit Kjos
Brave
New Schools
David Kupelian
The Marketing of Evil
Charles J. Sykes Dumbing Down Our Kids
William G. Spady Outcome-Based Education
Cynthia Weatherly: “When Is Assessment Really Assessment?”
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/04/assessing_human_capital.htm
Originally written on 11/15/2006