This clip features an interview with Charlotte Iserbyt, who served as senior policy adviser in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (U.S. Dept of Ed) in the first Reagan administration. What she saw there caused her to become a whistleblower and ultimately to write the book The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America [full disclosure: haven't read it].
During interview, she relates how she had access to all the documents for the "restructuring" of not only American education, but global education. She was trained to "identify the resistors" (to the sex ed/drug ed/alcohol ed/suicide ed/death ed programs) and try and get them to join.
During some in-service training while on her local school board in Maine, she was given a thick manual called "Innovations to Education: A Change Agent's Guide" which gave specific and deliberate instructions on how to "con the Christians" and others who were upset with what the schools were trying to do, and how to "bring them over to your side."
All of this "change agent" training was (and still is) funded by the U.S. Office of Education, with funding starting in about the late 1960s. She described how "facilitators" would come to school districts to train teachers. And teachers throughout the years had to undergo constant training and re-training, along with sensitivity training to "break their values" so there is no right and no wrong.
Ms. Iserbyt mentions Dr. Benjamin Bloom, whom she describes as "the most important behavioral psychologist ever to live" after Pavlov and Skinner, as the one who implemented this system in the United States. She paraphrases his "blatant" beliefs: "The purpose of education is to change the thoughts, actions, and feelings of students" and how he defines good teaching as "challenging the students' fixed beliefs" in order to effect change. She describes how he could "take a student from here to there -- from a belief in God or his country or whatever to being an atheist and not believing in his country in one hour. They bring about the attitude and values change through the emotions of the child.
So what are your thoughts on this? Is Mr. Iserbyt a conspiracy nut or is she accurate in what she says she witnessed while in the Department of Education? Does anyone have any more information on this?
(Still no regrets that we chose to homeschool...)
Just reinforces my resolve to keep my granddaughter in a private Christian school. Great post, thanks.
ReplyDeleteDear Patrice,
ReplyDeleteI have said for many years that very phrase, "Dumbing Down America". It is easier to control and "change" what they think if they do not have a clue. I have watched interviews on "Waters World" and I am embarresed by what the children of today do not know.
Thanks
Mike
seems to me that we just need to get rid of the department of education period...the only thing they have been able to show success at is "dumbing down america" from the bottom up and taking and spending money.
ReplyDeleteWhat a sad world we are living in
ReplyDeleteI have read that book... Very, very good.
ReplyDeleteI started reading the free on-line book from the link you gave. When my daughter was in school I thought something was wrong but I couldn't put my finger on it. Now, I know. Oh, so, so sad. So very sad. I cry for this country. God, help us.
ReplyDeleteI first 'woke up politically' back in the mid-70's. It was about the time Phyllis Schlafly wrote a book by the title 'Change Agents in the Schools'. An alarming eye opener for me! Since then she has written many good books. We had three young children in 'public' schools! Thankfully, all three have chosen to Home School my 13 grandchildren! Liberal women were being recruited specifically to become 'change agent' teachers to do exactly what Ms.Iserbyt is reporting. Mrs. Schlafly is a Constitutional Lawyer, founder and president of Eagle Forum. See Phyllis Schlafly.com
ReplyDeleteSorry, Patrice, the title of the book I mentioned is Child Abuse in the Classroom, instead of Change Agents in the School. The term 'change agent' was used in this book but is not the title.
ReplyDeleteChild Abuse in the Classroom by Phyllis Schlafly and United States (1984, Paperback): Excerpts from Official Transcript of Proceedings before the U.S. Department of Education in the Matter of Proposed Regulations to Implement the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, Section 439 of the GEPA, Also Known as the Hatch Amendment
United States, Phyllis Schlafly
I remember Charlotte Iserbyt putting out this alarm back in the 1990s, and was interviewed by many of the larger radio shows of the day. Great info she had back then, and more relevant now.
ReplyDeleteIs Ms. Iserbyt a conspiracy nut? No, definitely not. I've read quotes by John Dewey, the so-called "Father of American Education." He was a Fabian socialist, Marxist and Darwinist who believed the state is supreme and the individual is merely a pawn to be trained. He thought all children were "insane" and he wanted the public school system to retrain them all, allowing them no traditional values of any kind, believing only what the state wants them to believe. One look at public education today tells us quite clearly that Dewey's agenda is coming to fruition! --Fred in AZ
ReplyDeleteI have been a schoolteacher for eleven years. I can say for a FACT that there is a tremendous amount of propaganda bilge being pumped through the schools. The bad news is that we pay for all of this: we pay for the materials, the lost classroom instruction time, the salaries of the pathetic little mental dwarves who can't find any better way to make a living than to pitch this ridiculous spineless sniveling crapola. The good news? THE KIDS AINT BUYING IT. They openly mock the "days of silence" to promote homosexuality, the tree hugging "greenie" horsehit being peddled by people who couldn't keep a houseplant alive, the multicultural nonsense that tries to equate our beautiful American traditions with the woman beating bomb throwing cesspool called the "Third World".
ReplyDeleteAnd to the extent that I can, I help fan the flames of this student rebellion. I always tell them to free their minds, and follow their hearts, and I always will.
DONT TREAD ON ME
Son Of Sam
During my research into values-based education I have come across some thought-provoking information and well-founded, stimulating ideas. What a shame to be confronted with this appalling rant. Such mindless ignorance is an insult to the values which you claim to uphold. No site should allow anonymous contributions.
Delete1) The Communist Manifesto states that everything we would consider normal and healthy must be broken down. Family, sexual norms, church...
ReplyDelete2)I just finished reading When a Nation Forgets God http://www.amazon.com/When-Nation-Forgets-God-Lessons/dp/0802446566/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335208687&sr=8-1
3)The movie Indoctrination should be seen by anyone concerned with school. http://indoctrinationmovie.com/
John Dewey was EVIL and he is the "Father of Modern Education".
Quoting D.L Moody (I think) "If you educate a man without Jesus, all you get is a clever devil."
I believe that schools are dangerous in just about every manner possible.
We have homeschooled from the get go.