Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr11/wexp4_93.zip/ACADEMA.TXT

Text File | 1993-06-03 | 8KB | 157 lines

New Age in Schools:
                     Academia Speaks Out
                       by Craig Branch

Parents aren't the only ones who are rising up to protest
certain directions in education. The business community is
gaining closer ties with the educational community because
they have a vested interest in the quality of young people
being turned out into the workforce.

Dr. Thomas Sowell, according to the Wall Street Journal, is
one of America's premier economists. Dr. Sowell, a black and
senior economist at the Hoover Institute, has written a new
book titled "Inside American Education."

In reviewing the book, the writer in the Wall Street
Journal article writes, "Avid consumers of educational fads,
teachers afford a ready market for curricular programs and
techniques aimed at the psychological adjustment of
students. Tucked under the benign banners of self-esteem,
decision-making, drug prevention, sex education, or
enrichment for the gifted and talented, these programs are
all designed to reshape student's attitudes.

"These programs, among other things, elevate feelings over
thought, undermine accepted moral and cultural standards,
and attack the authority of parents. The techniques that are
imported into the classroom are so manipulative that Mr.
Sowell refers to them as classroom brainwashing" (Michael
Schwartz, "Classroom Brainwashing and Other Ills," Wall
Street Journal, Feb.12, 1993).

Dr. Sowell has written a recent article published in Forbes
magazine where he makes an observation on the substance of
the issues being raised and on the tactics of those on the
left. He writes, "It is much the same story in the media
today, as editorials warn that the religious right is taking
over school boards. Alarms are being raised that
conservative or religious indoctrination will be imposed in
the public schools.

"Where have the media been all these years, while the most
blatant, deliberate and pervasive indoctrination by the
political left has been taking place in public schools all
across the country? ...

"These are not the isolated idiosyncrasies of particular
teachers. They are products of numerous books and other
educational material in programs packaged by organizations
that sell such curricula to administrators and teach the
techniques to teachers. Some packages even include
instructions on how to deal with parents or others who
object... Many parents who have been appalled to discover
what has been going on in the schools have fought lonely and
frustrating battles against the education establishment.
Eventually some have begun to organize, which at least
deprives the school bureaucrats
their favorite line: "You're the only one who has
complained."

"That line will be used, even when controversies and
lawsuits are raging all across the country over a particular
brainwashing program. Parents are also likely to be told
that all the educational experts support the program. What
they are unlikely to be told is that these 'experts' are
often the ideological gurus who pushed these programs in the
first place, or consultants who profit from them.

"When the futility of individual protest leads to organized
activity, that is when the cry of censorship goes up from
the education establishment and the media rush to the
rescue, invoking the specter of the religious right. What
has caught their attention is someone trying to fight back"
(Dr. Thomas Sowell, Forbes, Feb.1, 1993, p.65).

And how does the educational establishment validate Dr.
Sowell's observations? The N.E.A. has funded the production
of a recent 196 page manual titled  "What's Left after the
Right." It's stated goals are to provide information about
the "Far Right Movement" and to deal "with the tactics of
educational censors". The manual caricatures Christians and
those believing in traditional values as "ultra-conservative,
far right, religious right, righteous right, new right, and
radical right." At least the writer admits that Christians
are right.

The manual lumps conservatism into a monolithic mold and
presents them as extremists without any justification to
their charges. The manual claims that the large percentage
of critics of public education are self-serving, power
seeking, out for revenge, or are seeking financial gain.

Representative leaders of the "extremist" groups are William
Bennett, Ronald Reagan, Orin Hatch, James Dobson, Beverly La
Haye, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Phyllis Schlafly.
This list, along with the types of tactics listed in the
booklet in order to repel efforts by concerned parents,
demonstrates how far removed the N.E.A. is from American
mainstream.

Dr. William Kilpatrick, a Professor of Education at Boston
College, with degrees from Harvard and Purdue University in
Education and Psychology, has just written an excellent book,
"Why Johnny Can't Tell Right From Wrong."

He notes a December 9, 1991 U.S. News and World Report
article which documented that the nation's faith in public
schools is fading fast (p.254). The indicator was that home
schooling had jumped from 10, 000 in 1970 to 300,000 in 1990
(p.255). He, too, notes that the affective, non-directive
decision making models and self-esteem emphasis in drug and
sex education programs are wrong-headed and are counter-
productive. He warns that many of these programs use
approaches that are psychotherapeutic and are quite
hazardous when done by teachers who are not trained
therapists (pp.30-77).

Kilpatrick has also observed that "the New Age Movement has
made considerable headway into the schools" (p.218). He
notes that this new "paradigm for learning includes
techniques of guided imagery or fantasy, meditation, and
self transcendence" (p.215). He warns that the path to
recapturing the power of imagination should never "circle
back to education's most naive and soft-headed era of the
60's."(p.224).

Newsweek, commenting on the affective approach in education,
ran as their cover story "The Abuse of Self-Esteem - What's
Wrong With the Feel-Good Movement," in the February 17, 1992
issue. They write, "Nowhere has the concept taken root as
firmly as in education. Toddlers are encouraged to reach
their full potential in self-esteem day care centers. High
School drug and alcohol programs now emphasize self-esteem,
on the theory according to New Hampshire school
administrator, James Weiss, that 'if youngsters feel good
about themselves, those temptations won't be so strong'"
(Newsweek, February 17, 1992, pp.47-48).

The article goes on to comment, "of course, there are still
a few kinks to work out." For instance, as the article
reports that American school children now rank far ahead of
students in countries like Japan, Taiwan and China in self-
confidence (self-esteem) about their academic abilities, but
in fact, the American children were far behind those
countries in actual performance.

The article concluded that after 10,000 studies on self-
esteem had been done, there was not even agreement as to
what is self-esteem, and that the self-esteem industry was
largely a lot of nonsense. The April 1, 1990 issue of U.S.
News and World Report reminds its readers that "almost no
research evidence that these programs work" (p.66). The
article reported that the correlations between self-esteem
and social sciences was almost zero and "that the obsession
with self-esteem ultimately undermines real education"
(Ibid. ).