Dumbing-down And Dehumanizing

Apparently, Western democracies embrace two central values — liberty and equality.

While conservative people would say that both liberty and equality of opportunity are compatible, the left does not see compatibility.  The left sees equality as a higher value of the two. 

The book — Progressively Worse — is a history of the damage done when the left in the UK captured school systems for their “left” mission.  The same “capture” applies equally in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and USA.

Progressives have captured the education system in the US and Common Core Curriculum is the current attempt to homogenize citizens through central planning, which of course, results in dumbing-down toward mediocrity. The planning has gone so far that States that agreed to implement the project must ensure that their universities do NOT provide remedial classes in reading or math.  The assumption being that those who have achieved Grade 12 via common core training are guaranteed “college ready”.  SAT tests are presently being revised (downward, undoubtedly) to accommodate CC Gr 12 grads.

All is not going well concerning this top-down coercive plan.  Many objections are being raised that dumbing-down will only get worse.

A brand new analysis of Canada’s predicted slippery slope slide to America’s level has just appeared in Macleans magazine.  Here is a link to the preview of the article to appear soon:

“A look at the dumbing-down of the US and how Canada may not be far behind
Maclean’s writer says we are subject to many of the same trends as Americans
http://www.news1130.com/2014/05/12/a-look-at-the-dumbing-down-of-the-us-and-how-canada-may-not-be-far-behind/ “

To further compound and alarm us is the added fear that humans are intentionally being “dehumanized”.  I go to Isaiah Berlin, philosopher, who in his writings said that to “deindividualize” is to dehumanize — to deprive of basic human rights is to dehumanize human beings.

Most of us on this blog — Society for Quality Education — would agree with Thomas Sowell that it is “despicable” to deprive the poor of a good education.  Furthermore, many of us would adamantly agree that depriving the young of the right to read is inhuman. Thus, with SQE, we would deplore this cutting down of tall poppies.

In Canada, this cutting down of tall poppies is most prominent in Alberta — a formerly high achiever in student education scores.

Part 1 of 2

This is not taught very well in the K to 12 schools - “And Gatehouse says when people do search out news sources, they search for stories that reinforce pre-existing biases. “They’re not looking for the other side of a story or to inform themselves factually.” 

Some would say, it plays into the hands of the political powers, forcing people to pick sides without having the skills to deconstruct the political narratives of the day. The K to 12 schools, progressive in nature creates the conditions for people not to be looking at all facets of a story to inform themselves and ultimately pick a political side. After all the students have been well trained in indoctrination but lacked the knowledge sets to deconstruct the indoctrination or as adults, deconstruct the spin of politicians. .All made worse, when adults have low literacy skills and weaker fundamental knowledge sets.

“To further compound and alarm us is the added fear that humans are intentionally being “dehumanized”.  I go to Isaiah Berlin, philosopher, who in his writings said that to “deindividualize” is to dehumanize — to deprive of basic human rights is to dehumanize human beings.”

The politics of dumbing down in a globalized world was instigated by the governments, the social institutions and government agencies. Ergo, the tall poppies of schools surpassing their socio-economic
barriers by high academic achievement are cut down. ” To get along – you have to go along, and accept what comes along – whether you like it or not.
As disturbing as it may sound, it has become an acceptable way for government and special interest groups to force their will upon the people. First, they dumb you down by saying that you are unintelligent, or “on the wrong side of history.” Then they bombard you on social media sites, news programs, talk shows, and wherever else their minions of converts will listen.
The dumbing down of our young children is also taking a frightening turn in the public school system. By initiating programs like the “Common Core” education initiative, educators are teaching our children to think unconventionally, by using complex and bizarre, problem-solving methods to solve the simplest of problems.
This new method of teaching is designed to defy common sense and traditional learning skills and render them outdated, thus paving the way for a “new world order” way of thinking.
It works like this: If someone is taught to complicate the obvious, then they can never be expected to argue with the suggested solution. They will only accept the proposed solution as fact, no matter how unnatural and ill-conceived it appears.” http://josephrathjen.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/the-dumbing-down-of-america-a-disturbing-rising-trend/

In politics - “Now there is a new approach to policymaking that threatens to take things to a whole new level. As Susan Delacourt so ably shows in her forthcoming book, Shopping for Votes, over the last few decades political parties have been quietly transforming our democracy from a system based on public debate into one based on communications and marketing. The difference is simple but profound.” http://www.ipolitics.ca/2013/08/13/marketing-and-the-dumbing-down-of-politics/

Or in post-secondary institutes - from analysis and interpretation to description. “These pressures compel film scholars to “dumb down” their course syllabi by assigning fewer, often prepackaged readings, screening more popular, usually Hollywood entertainment films, and simplifying classroom discourse in a manner favoring description over analysis and interpretation, and fact-based lecture over explanatory dialogue and debate. In what is only an apparent irony, these pressures to “dumb down” issue come largely from within academic ranks, but also from populist perspectives on the nonacademic Right and center-Left. Both equally—although on differing political grounds—target contemporary theory for replacement by updated pluralisms and modernisms that reinscribe a relative transparency to interpretive and critical practice.”
http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ771789

Part 2 of 2

To further add to Tunya’s post - “To further compound and alarm us is the added fear that humans are intentionally being “dehumanized”.  I go to Isaiah Berlin, philosopher, who in his writings said that to “deindividualize” is to dehumanize — to deprive of basic human rights is to dehumanize human beings.” Huxley, ”  The dehumanizing effects of over-organization are reinforced by the dehumanizing effects of over-popula­tion. Industry, as it expands, draws an ever greater proportion of humanity’s increasing numbers into large cities. But life in large cities is not conducive to mental health (the highest incidence of schizophrenia, we are told, occurs among the swarming inhabitants of industrial slums); nor does it foster the kind of responsible freedom within small self-governing groups, which is the first condition of a genuine democ­racy. City life is anonymous and, as it were, abstract. People are related to one another, not as total person­alities, but as the embodiments of economic functions or, when they are not at work, as irresponsible seekers of entertainment. Subjected to this kind of life, 
indi­viduals tend to feel lonely and insignificant. Their ex­istence ceases to have any point or meaning.”
http://www.huxley.net/bnw-revisited/

In the 21st century, the K to 12 establishment seeks out to dehumanized the individual students by ways of standardization and inclusive education policies that by its very natures seeks out to destroy the tall poppies that differ from the norm. Whether one is talking about a school or an individual student struggling in learning or an entire school district, the 21st education establishment based on progressive pedagogy rooted in the political philosophies from right to left, the students are forced to complied to become more like the norm. The dehumanizing effect comes into play where the outcomes are controlled by the K to 12 establishment as to who will or will not get access to what kind of education and with what outcomes.

The dumbing down of education is to maintain control and authority by the K to 12 establishment, and in turn to maintain and increase the political and social capital and power of the education establishment. The dehumanization are the outcomes in the data streams and the student causalities. It can be seen across the span of the K to 12 education systems in Canada. Up, down, laterally and vertically and across all components of the K to 12 education model and right down to the communication component, where the parents/public are the last ones to know about decisions that are supposedly been consulted by parents or the public. Debate is absent, just like debate is absent in the political sphere.

In the same way in United States, the Attorney General is seeking to regulate discipline of schools and by doing so, increasing standardization of charter schools, making them more like public schools. Dumbing down and dehumanization are the outcomes of intentional education policies that seeks to standardized and pretend everyone is equal. In reality we are not…....... 

Nobody says SES = destiny. Progressives say low SES students have a much harder row to hoe. As a result the education project needs to be based primarily on compensatory education ( small classes, ECE, nutrition health more summer and after school help more resources but there is only so far the education system can go.

Real education equality comes when real social equality is reality. Cant be done? Finland and many others do it!!!