In 1977, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph Califano rightly linked national control of curriculum to national control of ideas. 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.” 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). 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 charge instruction by passes 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.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 16:30:35 +0000
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