-Caveat Lector-
Source - http://www.best.com/~jdulaney/obe2-26.html
BEWARE Of outcome-based Education by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The latest buzzword in public school circles is "Outcome Based Education."
Of all the horrendous teaching gimmicks, from the new math to open
classrooms, inflicted on our children in recent years, OBE may be the
absolute worst. I saw a bumper sticker recently that summed it up concisely:
"Educators don't experiment on lab animals, they use children."
OBE is a last desperate attempt by the public education establishment and
its apologists to protect its monopoly. It promises utopian reform to
reverse the unmistakable decline in the quality of instruction in recent
years under the stewardship of the very same kind of people who now profess
to have the answer.
Actually, OBE isn't even a new idea. It's merely a warmed-over version of
Dr. Benjamin Bloom's experiment with something called "mastery learning,"
which was tried and failed in the Chicago schools 15 years ago. It's a
behaviorist notion with a political agenda rife with social engineering and
biased against individualism.
Today's OBE gurus include social engineer like Theodore Sizer and Robert
Muller, intent on preparing our children for a New Age of Globalism. The
curriculum is laden with touchy-feely behavioral modification exercises,
trendy liberal values and a pervasive bias toward a collectivist approach to
social interaction. Educrats call the "affective" learning, geared toward
emotions, feelings and behavior, as opposed to traditional "cognitive"
learning, focusing on basics such as history, literature, math and science.
The OBE virus has quietly infiltrated public schools all over country, in
varying degrees and under a variety of names.
(Private schools don't seem very interested in it. You don't suppose there's
a message there?)
In Pennsylvania, where OBE is state law, students must achieve 51 "learning
outcomes" to earn high school diplomas.
For example: ----"All students explore and articulate in writing and speech,
the similarities and differences among varied cultural values and the
contributions of diverse cultural programs." ----"All students relate in
writing, speech or other media, the history and nature of various forms of
prejudice to current problems facing communities and nations." ----"all
students relate basic human development theories to care- giving and
child-care strategies." ----All students develop interpersonal
communication, decision- making, coping and evaluation skills and apply them
to personal, family and community living."
You get the idea. It is just this kind of OBE program that Clinton is now
endorsing in the frightening "Goals 2000", and it has Ted Sizer's
fingerprints all over it.
My basic objections to OBE are
1) I'm not willing to divert limited time available in school to these kinds
of vague, social engineering projects at the expense of essential academic
courses, and
2) I don't particularly want my kids indoctrinated with answers educated
liberals deem "politically correct."
What it points up is the basic fallacy in the premise upon which centralized
public education rests; Consensus. These is no consensus i public education
today. And it is unreasonable to think that there can or ought to be.
Different parents want different things for their kids. Rather than forcing
back-to-basics parents into the OBE mold or vice versa, why not let them
choose from a myriad of options? Liberals are pro-choice right? So let us
choose.
Fundamental academics, OBE, letter grades on report cards, self esteem
touchy-feeliness, sex education, condom distribution, multiculteralism,
involuntary community service, individualism, collectivism, competition,
cooperation, sports, music, etc. It's futile to craft a district curriculum
with the right mix of all these things and more. Why not, instead, let a
thousand flowers bloom? Continue to fund public education through taxes, but
let parents select the curriculum they want, delivered in the public or
private school of their choice. This is called a voucher system. It's an
idea whose time is rapidly coming. Choice.
Definition of Liberal "Facts" Opinions repeated over and over until
Democrats refer to them as facts.
Return to Politics Main Page
MIND LOGIC Video and Computer Mail Order
Copyright © 1996 John Dulaney
---
"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God" - Thomas Jefferson
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
