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By Betty Freauf
May 18, 2003
NewsWithViews.com
An April 18, 2003 UPI article by Christian Bourge titled "Education reform Critical In Middle East" caught my attention. I thought, "Aha, now they are going to Americanize the Iraqi population and begin dumbing them down just like they have our American children, who are nothing more than guinea pigs in a psych lab." The famed Russian scientist, Ivan Pavlov, long ago showed that the nervous system of animals - his famous laboratory dogs - could be regulated and controlled by the process we now call brainwashing.
While Islamic children become suicide bombers for what they believe is a justifiable cause, much of today's classical conditioning in America involves computerized video games which program children to pull the trigger on guns which also kill.
For those with a few gray hairs, grandchildren and great grandchildren, we can still remember when rote memorization was required in school. We memorized the multiplication tables. We memorized basic rules for spelling and grammar. We memorized the names of presidents. We memorized countries on the maps and the capitals, bodies of water and the list goes on. And while many of us may not have retained all that we were forced to memorize, we do remember the basics.
According to the article, lecturing by teachers and rote memorization of facts and ideas by students remains the dominant teaching style with Islamic fundamentalists. Arnold Packer, a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) at Johns Hopkins University, and other "experts" said this method inhibits critical thought and the development of problem solving skills needed for societal growth.
He added that by avoiding the Socratic style of teaching -- the interactive, question and answer method dominant in the West -- and emphasizing Islamic history over other ideas and skills important to economic development, Arab nations are placing their youth at a disadvantage.
Donn De Grand Pre', author of the book Barbarians Inside The Gates (c) 2000 said that the IPS was founded by James P. Warburg and the Rothschild entities after WWII who used their wealth to spread Bolshevism throughout the country and Kenneth R. Timmerman, author of Shakedown, Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson, (c) 2002 said the IPS is a hard-left think tank in Washington D.C. that consistently took a pro-Soviet line during the Cold War.
Arnold Packer served as executive director of the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) established in 1990 by U.S. Department of Labor and then-Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole to determine the skills that young people need to succeed in the world of work.
You can read more about SCANS in Charlotte Iserbyt's book: the deliberate dumbing down of America which you may order at her website: www.deliberatedumbingdown.com
Iserbyt says in her book on page 268 that "At this point, it is important to recall the fact that one of the members appointed to the SCANS, which originated this type of career passport, was Thomas Sticht, Ph.D, infamous for the following quote which parents should ponder, especially if they feel that "techademics" are the answer to their children's upward mobility. Sticht's statement paraphrased in the August 1, 1987 issue of The Washingtop Post bears repeating here:
"Ending discrimination and changing values are probably more important than reading in moving low income families into the middle class... What may be crucial (companies say) is the dependability of the labor force and how well it can be managed and trained -- not its general education level, although a small cadre of highly educated, creative people is essential to innovation and growth." (This eliminates the middle class)
I'm sure Marva Collins, a black teacher in a Chicago ghetto, would disagree. Collins, one of America's most effective educators, turned out scholars not because she had better kids but because she had a better approach - rote memorization and praise for the children.
Packer said his preferred vision for education in the Middle East is a curriculum driven by practical concerns and an emphasis on the skills needed to drive workforce development and economic progress. These concepts range from problem-solving skills to ideas, such as teamwork, that are central to productive work. There should also be a significant place for vocational education, he said.
Team work today in America's education circles means that all kids work together and they get the same grade which stifles individual performance. We see this in unions. Every one gets the same pay even though some may be more qualified, more diligent and work harder. This is also Pavlovian Mastery Learning/Outcome Based Education that school districts have been implementing at great cost with few, if any, academic results.
Cheryl Benard, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corp. Center for Middle East Public Policy, said reformers could learn a lesson about how to best address the failures of education systems in the Middle East by examining how Islamic fundamentalist interests took advantage of the shortcomings of those systems to further their cause.
And who controls education in America? The left-leaning National Education Association has "political power" as its overall agenda for it is well known those who control education will over a period of several generations control a nation.
In the book And The Truth Shall Set You Free, it says organizations like Britain's Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and their brothers and sisters in the U.S. such as the Stanford Research Institute and RAND Corporation research into how people will react, individually and collectively, to events, changes and "buzz words" and in the book Conspirators' Hierarchy, the author says the Republican Party is one of RAND's clients.
Of course, when Benard was referring to "failures of education systems in the Middle East" I couldn't help but think of the old cliche' "Physician heal thyself!" for if General Motors continued to turn out the inferior products that our U.S. public school monopoly grinds out year after year, they'd be bankrupt. No one would buy their products but without sufficient funds to send children to private education (which isn't always the answer either), many parents are stuck with the public school in their neighborhoods!
Benard goes on to say, "If you look at what (Islamic) fundamentalism has done over the last 10 years, it has jumped into gaps of the existing educational systems. That has turned them (schools) into recruitment groups, the operating base and method for passing their ideology on. We need to try to fill in gaps not just in terms of knowledge and facts, but in terms of mindsets, attitudes and values." And what has our educational system done? It has been recruiting and training little globalists for the New World Order.
The article also says, "In an effort to achieve rapid reform, Creative Associates International, Inc. has been awarded a $62 million contract from the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID) to oversee an ambitious plan to have all Iraqi children back in school before October 1 with reforms already underway. A spokesman for the company said they are waiting for the go-ahead from the State Department to send an initial team into the country to begin to assess the needs of Iraq's school system in conjunction with Iraqi education interests. The firm is required to address not only issues of school supplies and school repair, but also curriculum reforms.
Benard warned that the tendency to try wholesale reform of the Iraqi education must be avoided. She said it is necessary to make a careful examination not only of what Saddam's regime has left in children's minds, but also of the positive aspects of the education system that should be retained...The temptation might be to get rid of that system too unilaterally and not keep what is good in there." "Some experts in the West projected what they thought a traditional Islamic schoolbook should look like and the results were not very good," she said.
Packer said an official at USAID told him the initial focus of curriculum reforms in Iraq would be in math and science, in order to avoid controversies over social studies and other problematic areas where cultural conflicts would arise. The spokesman for Creative Associates confirmed this.
"It is not so much about overly instilling democratic values," Benard said. "It is more about developing the mindset and societal processes that ready people for those kinds of values. All of these things make up the modern mindset, that is completely absent in many Islamic societies."
We sent $62 million to USAID for Iraqi children and all the while American "educrats" are claiming they need more money? Dr. William Van Dyke said that teaching math and science in our school system is a major short coming. Without that "headstart" in those areas in the early grades, the students become handicapped in life and future professional jobs and college degrees and then we're going to teach math and science to Iraqi children?
And can you imagine the chaos that would result if these American "educrats" moved too quickly in changing the "mindset and values" of the Islamic people? So they will do in Iraq like they've done in America. They'll move slowly. They'll till the ground, gradually plant the seeds and wait for the crop of Islamic people to become Americanized as though our "culture" has something to boast about! The current American mindset which is far too prevalent does not include creator God. We kill millions of babies through abortion, we sell their body parts, we are beginning to euthanize the "useless eaters", we embrace the homosexual lifestyle and far too many of our young people are rebelling against authority and then we point a finger at the barbaric Saddam Hussein? - The Subtle side of Gradualism
It is going to be interesting to watch how Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries are gradually transformed. Will they come along peacefully or will there be great rebellion? I can probably answer that by asking how many parents would turn their children over to another family with completely opposite lifestyles and beliefs?
I shall end with a "politically correct" story about how math used to be taught and how it will be taught in 2010.
Teaching Math in 1950: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?
Teaching Math in 1960: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?
Teaching Math in 1970: A logger exchanges a set "L" of lumber for a set "M" of money. The cardinality of set "M" is 100. Each element is worth one dollar. Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set 'M". The set "C", the cost of production contains 20 fewer points than set "M". Represent the set "C" as subset of set "M" and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set "P" of profits?
Teaching Math in 1980: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.
Teaching Math in 1990: By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels "feel" as the logger cut down the trees? There are no wrong answers.
Teaching Math in 2002: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $120. How does Arthur Andersen determine that his profit margin is $60?
Teaching Math in 2010: El hachero vende un camion carga por $100. La cuesta de production es....
Unfortunately, the originator of these math problems is unknown so credit cannot be given.
� 2003 Betty Freauf - All Rights Reserved
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Betty is a former Oregon Republican Party activist having served as state party secretary, county chairman, 5th congressional vice chairman and then elected chairman, a precinct worker for many years and twice ran unsuccessfully for the Oregon State Legislature. The Republican tradition is to stay neutral in Primary races but in Betty's case. They supported her opponent. E-Mail: bettyfreauf@webtv.com
"Ending discrimination and changing values are probably more important than reading in moving low income families into the middle class..."
"...it is well known those who control education will over a period of several generations control a nation."