Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 4, 1993 TAG: 9311240272
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN C. LeDOUX
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In this book, Sowell states: "Anyone who argues that particular educational policies and programs have made things worse, and who points to evidence that things were in fact better before such policies and programs were initiated, is almost certain to be depicted as someone who believes in a 'golden age' of the past. This trivializing distortion has become common among educators, including the president of Williams College, the president of Harvard University and the dean of its faculty. This tactic is one of a number of ways of seeming to argue, without actually using any arguments."
Ms. Schons is faithfully following the educators' script to bash poor, old Professor John LeDoux. (July 3 letter, "Public schools need basic, not 'outcome-based' education.") LeDoux needs "remediation," she claims. That word - remediation - is a key concept in outcome-based education. She is too young to know, but I lived through the so-called "golden age," and I can guarantee it was vastly superior to what is going on in schools today.
She spends part of her letter discussing IQ scores. When I first read that part, I wondered what that had to do with anything. She fails to show what significance this had, other than perhaps indicating that students are now smarter than their parents. Since she brought up the subject, let's see its significance.
The following information is from a Psychological Bulletin article by Dr. James R. Flynn, entitled "Massive IQ gains in 14 nations: What IQ tests really measure."
He recently collated all available information on IQ trends over time. His study, the largest to date, took data from 14 developed nations. Overall, they showed "massive IQ gains."
Viewing these results in light of reality, however, Flynn became skeptical. Are people today that much smarter than the average man on the street in previous eras? He found that 300,000 people in the Netherlands qualified as potential geniuses, yet there had not been any significant impact on society. Even the number of patents granted has actually decreased.
Flynn commented: "Thanks to gains on IQ tests, it seemed that those entering American high schools were getting more and more intelligent, and yet they were leaving high school with worse and worse academic skills. Unless nonintellectual traits, such as motivation, study habits, and self-discipline were deteriorating at an incredible rate, how could more intelligent students be getting so much less education?" Flynn concluded that IQ tests really do not measure intelligence at all, but a specialized type of problem-solving that may not transfer very well outside of the test situation.
"Nor is the picture of education today as grim as LeDoux and others paint it," states Ms. Schons. A Department of Education report, "A Nation of Risk," paints this rosy picture. "For the first time in the history of our country, the educational skills of one generation will not surpass, will not equal, will not even approach those of their parents." Ms. Schons further claims that the SAT scores have not really dropped because more students are taking these tests. This is a standard educational excuse that does not stand up under close examination. Consider the following.
In Sowell's book, he states that Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, used this tactic in a debate in 1986. Shanker stated, "Schools had discouraged students from dropping out, thereby retaining more difficult youngsters."
In reality, however, SAT scores declined at the top. More than 116,000 students scored above 600 on the verbal SAT in 1972 and fewer than 71,000 scored that high 10 years later. (``The Condition of Education," 1986). In ``The Schools We Deserve," Diane Ravitch said: "The shrinkage of the top scorers has proceeded steadily since the 1960s and obviously is unrelated to the overall composition of the test group."
SAT scores dropped steadily from 1963 to 1975 and increased slightly during the early '80s. Why did this happen? Private schools increased from about 1,000 in 1965 to more than 32,000 in 1985. SAT scores of the private-school students remained at the 1960 level. These scores caused the overall SAT scores to stop dropping and level out. If you remove the private-school SATs, the public-school SATs continued to decline. We now know that the SAT tests are being changed (dumbed down) to prevent further erosion of scores.
In every state where outcome-based education has been tried, SAT scores have dropped even further. This has occurred in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Illinois and California. After three years of chaos, Canada scrapped their OBE program. How will OBE proponents correct this problem? Simple. They will eliminate SAT tests.
Ms. Schons equates "back to basics" as mere memorization. That is ridiculous. There was some memorization to be sure, but not more than perhaps 10 percent. One of my daughters recently had to teach her daughter the times-tables because she did not understand nor could she do some simple problems assigned. This took all of two hours, and the result was enlightenment of the fourth- grader with a big smile of accomplishment. That was real self-esteem, not the manufactured version given by the outcome-based education curricula.
Ms. Schons has yet to see a correct definition of OBE articulated by the many opponents. I have yet to see a truthful explanation by those who are pushing it. I understand we are about to be subjected to a massive advertising campaign, supported by our tax dollars, to make us buy into it. Pure propaganda, just like Nazi Germany. Phyllis Schlafly, in her May 1993 report states, "OBE is a process for government telling our children how to live, what to say, what to think, what to know, and what not to know. What children say, think and know must conform to the politically correct ideology, attitudes and behavior. What they do not know will be everything else. And because they won't know the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, they won't be able to find out. OBE is converting the three R's to the three D's, Deliberately Dumbed Down." My definition is Outrageous Behavioral Education.
As a Navy officer, I was trained in the brainwashing techniques used by the U.S.S.R., China, North Korea and Vietnam. All these techniques are elements within the context of OBE. The proponents of OBE claim that there will be objective evaluation. One of the goals specified in OBE is: "Exhibit truthfulness, fairness, integrity, and respect for self and others." I defy anyone to propose an "objective" evaluation of any of these qualities. These are certainly worthwhile qualities for everyone. My concern is that these qualities should not be the responsibility of schools to either develop or test.
There are three components of learning: cognitive (fact-based knowledge), psycho-motor skills (like driving a car or in sports), and affective (attitudes and feelings). Affective learning comes from living in a society, from family, from religion and from cognitive learning. The major objection to OBE is that it is primarily concerned with this type of affective learning. If students do not respond with the politically correct attitudes, they will be "remediated." Remember that word? That process is the foundation of brainwashing.
Parents of all political philosophies should be alarmed at what is being proposed for Virginia. OBE, as defined by published Virginia state documents, is a cancer that could destroy this nation from within.
John C. LeDoux of Blacksburg is associate professor emeritus of engineering at Virginia Tech.
by CNB