The present most serious effort to reform American education is Gov. Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education founded in 2008. Its latest conference in Washington featured both Amanda Ripley, author of The Smartest Kids in the World, and Andreas Schleicher, originator of the PISA test, as speakers. Their presentations were videotaped so that anyone with a computer can watch them, as I did. Neither one offered any realistic suggestions on how to improve American education. The reason? They simply don’t understand that the dumbing down of America is part of a deliberate conspiracy to transform America into a socialist society, and those involved will resist any reform that will change the goals of the plan. The foundation’s website explains that its:
unique contribution is working with decision makers on developing and implementing reform policies. We are a hands-on, how-to organization that provides model legislation, rule-making expertise, implementation strategies, and public outreach. Our staff has years of experience working with state and local governments, legislative bodies, in the classroom, and with the media.
Obviously, the foundation has embarked on an ambitious program to work with government and educational bureaucrats to reform the very system these policy-makers sustain. And that’s why the Foundation’s efforts will not change anything. Indeed, in 2009, the United States scored 500 on the PISA test. In 2012, the score was down to 492.
Jeb Bush served two terms as governor of Florida, from 1999 to 2007. During those eight years he spurred improvements in the environment and reformed the education system. He has been extremely vocal in his criticism of our education system and supports the Common Core State Standards which he believes will improve education. But since the CCSS were created by establishment-trained “experts” and entrepreneurs, matters can only get worse.
In 2013, I wrote a letter to Gov. Bush advising him that the simplest and most direct way to improve American education would be to get rid of the sight method of teaching reading, which is the prevalent method being used in our schools. If instead every child in America were taught to read with intensive, systematic phonics, this would create literate students who could read anything and would thereby demand substance to their education. Indeed, I offered my program, Alpha-Phonics, as the easiest, least expensive and most effective way to implement this true reform. In my letter, I included a wonderful story which I hoped would impress Gov. Bush.
Back in 1998, a couple in Idaho purchased a copy of Alpha-Phonics to use in a remedial program for reading-disabled teenagers. After using the program, they wrote me about their success:
We started the class in February with five youths referred to us by the local juvenile probation officer. We held the class every Monday evening at our church. We expected a certain amount of students to drop out of the class but the numbers increased every week until we were teaching your program to fifteen students! We actually had to turn away five more students, who arrived towards the end of the program. The effect that your program has had on this class has been truly profound. Every student of school age has shown an improvement in their school grades.
Would not the adoption of Alpha-Phonics by all of the schools in America have the same profoundly positive effect on the education of American children? But I received no answer from Gov. Bush, nor did he invite me to speak at any of his annual conferences. I did receive an acknowledgment of the letter’s receipt by a staff member.
Amanda Ripley has shown us how educational excellence was achieved in Finland, South Korea, and Poland. But none of these reforms and methods can be replicated in America. Their philosophies of education are rational and positive. Ours are irrational and destructive. In addition, parents in America have greater responsibility for the education of their children than parents in countries where state control of and responsibility for education is accepted by virtually everyone.
Our federal Constitution guaranteed educational freedom by making no mention of education. However, all our state constitutions call for the creation of tax-funded public schools and compulsory school attendance for all children. At the same time, all states permit private and parochial schools to exist. Some require state-wide testing. In general, homeschooling is now permitted throughout the country, and a perusal of the websites of many state homeschool organizations attest to the vibrancy of the homeschool movement and its determination to remain free of government control.
A good example of an online homeschool program that uses all the new computer technology is Freedom Project Education launched in 2011 by The John Birch Society with 22 high school students. In September 2014 its enrollment was up to 594 K-12 students. It also enrolls about 100 families in its Campus Family Classes program. In other words, the independence and ingenuity of Americans make it possible to achieve academic excellence outside the government system at low cost. The FPE owns and operates its own mortgage-free building in Appleton, Wisconsin, with no expenses beyond maintenance and teacher/administrator costs for the school, financed mainly by student tuition.
But what do we do about the public schools, which still mis-educate about 85 percent of American children? In the spring of 2015, a new book by this writer and Alex Newman of The New American magazine, Crimes of the Educators, will be published by WND Books. It will expose, for the first time, the vast extent of the conspiracy to dumb-down America planned by John Dewey and his progressive colleagues. That the smartest, most intelligent American educators could be recruited to take part in this nefarious scheme to destroy American literacy is somewhat mindboggling. They all agreed that deception would have to be used to implement their plan without resistance from parents or veteran teachers. It took years of coordinated planning to implement the new progressive curriculum with its new textbooks. Getting rid of it in the foreseeable is impossible for there is no counter-movement sufficient for the task and no conservative teacher training programs to replace it. Which is why we now have charter schools, vouchers, private schools, and homeschools to provide alternative educational facilities.
We cannot predict how the public will receive the devastating revelations in this book. The liberal media will attempt to boycott the book as they do with all conservative books. But since this book tells parents why Johnny still can’t read, we have hopes that parents and homeschoolers will spread the word. It took me 40 years to put all of the pieces of this conspiracy together so that it can be seen for what it is: a criminal enterprise.
Should the men who conceived this plan in the hallowed halls of Teachers College, Columbia University, be considered criminals? When you add up the harm that they have not only done to millions of children but also to the nation as a whole, the results of their behavior can only be considered treasonous. But the resilience of this nation has enabled it to achieve great heights in invention and innovation despite the handicaps its education system has imposed on millions of poorer Americans.
At present the federal government of the world’s greatest capitalist nation is controlled by socialists, communists, and progressives. But as Bret Stephens wrote in the Wall Street Journal (12-23-14), “We are better than our leaders.” Yes, Americans are smarter than their politicians and wiser than their educators. It is only through this basic intelligence that this nation will be able to surmount its present difficulties.
Related articles:
Who Are the World’s Smartest Kids? Not Americans
Who Are the World’s Smartest Kids? Part 2
Who Are the World’s Smartest Kids? Part 3
