the blumenfeld education letter august_1995

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The BlumenfeldEducation LetterV ol. 10 , N o . 8 (L ette r # 107 )

"My People Are Destroyed For Lack Of Knowledge" HOSEA 4:6Augu s t 1995EDITOR: Samuel l.Blumenfeld

the purpose of !his newsletter is to provide knowledge for parents and educators who want to save !he children of Americafrom !he destructive forces !hat endanger !hem. Our children in the public schools are at grave risk in 4 ways: academically,

spirituolly, morally, and physicolfy - and only a well-informed public will be oble to reduce these risks."Without Vision, !he people perish."

Califomia Education Dep t. Confes ses :W h o le L a n g u a g e H as Been a D isaster!

Back in 1988, when Bill Honig, thenSchool Superintendent of California, andFrancie Alexander, the state's curriculumdirector, decided. to choose only whole-lan-guage reading programs for the state's pub-lic schools, we knew that a literacy disasterwas in store for the Golden State. We wrotein our Sept. 1988 issue: "Functional illiteracywill be booming in California in the yearsahead if that state adopts the look-say basalreading programs it has already approved. .. . Because of textbook selection decisionsbased. on ignorance, millions of Californiachildren will be ronderrmed to lives as func-tional illiterates. Such state sanctioned edu-cational malpractice will be doing moredamage to more lives than one can possiblycalculate."

Itwas already known in 1987 that Cali-fornia had a serious reading problem. Ac-cording to the Quincy (Mass.) Patriot L e d g e rof 11/18/87:Almost one in six adults in California is "func-tionally illiterate," and most of those who can't readare native English-speakers who went to school in theUS., according to a new study by the State Depart-

ment of Education.The report says 3.1 million Californians can't

read well enough to understand advertising innews-papers, simple r ec ipes or job applications. . . .The 1argest group of illiterates is white. Morethan 43 percent of the group are white, and 56 percent

were U.S.-born.

Naturally, the educators saw nothing inthe schools to blame for this terrible situ-ation. To them, the reasons for all of thatfunctional illiteracy were obviously social.So when it came time to adopt new readingprograms in 1988, th e educators of Califor-nia ignored everything that had been writ-ten about the reading problem since 1955 ,when Rudolf Flesch's famous W hy JohnnyCan' t R e a d was published, and acted as ifnobody knew what caused perfectly normalchi ldren in school to become reading fail-ures. But now they're beginning to see thelight, albeit somewhat dimly. In an articleentitled "Rethinking Reading," in the Au-gust 1995 issue of T e a ch e r Maga z in e , we read:

Dismal test scores and recent research that warnsagainst a single approach to instruction have spurredCalifornia educational officials to rethink their state'spioneering techniques for teaching young children toread.

The Blumenfeld Education L e t t e r is published monthly. Original material is copyrighted by The Blumenfeld Education Letter.Permission to quote is granted provided proper credit is given. Readers are encouraged to order and distribute additional copies ofthose newsletters they believe should be sent to legislators, columnists, talk shows, pastors, etc. Subscription Rate: 1 year $36 .00 .Address: Post Office Box 45161, Boise, Idaho ~711. Phone (208) 3224440.


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Education Letter, Pg. 2~August 1995

(Pioneering techniques?! Whole-lan-guage teclmiques were desaibed in EdmundBurke Huey's book, The Pedagogy and Psy-cho l og y o f Read i ng , published in 1908!)

In fact, a flurry of activity is under way in th estate to do what some would say is heretical: meld th ewhole language program currently in place with amore structured phonetic approach that had beenlargely abandoned.The education department currently is draftingguidelines to help schools make the shift to th e newwedded approach. 'The document, aimed at teachersinthe early elementary grades, should be ready by thefall, pending the approval of a new reading task forcecreated by state superintendent Delaine Eastin.

"Our goal is not to goback to one or push for theother:' says Dennis Parker, manager of language artsand foreign languages for the state education depart-ment. "Our goal is to put together a mmprehensiveprogram that will work for every child."

AJthough some California teachers have beenfrustrated with the state's literature-based readingprogram for some time, it was students' poor stand-ing on recent state and national reading tests thatbrought th e issue to a head this spring. In a reportreleased in May, th e California School Boards A s s o -dation concluded that "many schools and schooldistricts in California are in the midst of a readingoisis." Although it noted a host of underlying rea-sons for the predicament, the report ranked "the lackof a structured, sequential reading program" at th etop of the list.California adopted th e whole language frame-work for teaching language arts in 1987 . The methodrelies on th e use of appealing stories and "real" litera-ture to teach students to read. It essentially replacedthe drill-and-skill routine that many teachers hadban taught to use. The framework did not prohibitskills developrrent but gave it short shrift.

Diana Garchow, a veteran teacher and a rrem-her of th e state's new reading task force, says admin-istrators in some California schools actually seized allphonics books and spellers to ensure that teacherswere not ignoring th e new instructional framework.In their place, she adds, "we got some beautiful piecesof literature that the children can't read."

Although she wants to keep the rich literaturecomponent of the program,. Garchow says "it's reallyimportant that the state rome out and say, 'You haveto teach phonics, you have to t each basics, you needa middle-of-the road approach.'"

Bill Honig. who was the state superintendentwhen th e literature-based program was adopted, now

concedes that the framework was fuzzy. 'We madeour mistakes because we weren't clear enough aboutthis being a balanced approach," he says.

In th e past few years, Honig adds, studies haveshown that while some youngsters can learn to readwithout skills instruction, others need the more sys-tematic approach. What's more, he says, researchalso indicates that even children who learn to readwith relative ease can benefit from structured skillsinstruction.

Still, there are those who worry that th e pendu-lum may swing too fa r away from the whole languageemphasis, for reasons that have little to do with bestpractice. Mary Ellen Vogt, a board member of theInternational Reading Association and a past presi-dent of the IRA's California affiliate, is one of them."The teaching of phonics is compatible with litera-tu re-based instruction," Vogt says. "Keeping that inbalance is the trick."Comment:So the whole-language chickens haverome home to roost! Were delighted thatthe children of California may actually get achance to learn to read. But we remainskeptical as the educators speak of "meld-ing" whole language with phonics. It alldepends on how you meld them. If bymelding you mean teaching a little morephonics in the context of whole-language,holistic strategies, then there will be no realimprovement at all. But if you mean helpingthe children develop a phonetic reflex beforegiving them "real" literature to read, then weshould expect to see real improvement.

Note that it is now being revealed that"some California schools actually se i zed allphonics books and spellers" to force teachersto use the whole-language programs. If thatsort of action were advocated by parents, itwould be called "censorship." But adminis-trators can ban phonics and get away with it,despite the fact that it violates the suppos-edly sacred principle of academic freedom.As for the International Reading Associa-tion's fear that the pendulum may swing toofar in the direction of phonics, we can onlyrecall how the IRA's anti-phonics militantshave always managed to sabotage any realattempt to get intensive, systematic phonics

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Education Letter, Pg. 3, August 1995

back in the schools. We'll have to look closelyat the new reading textbooks before we cansay that a new dawn of pro-phonics readinginstruction has arrived in California.

N EA to S hift Emphasisto S chool R eform Issues

After having spent the last thirty yearsemphasizing political and social issues at theexpense of academic concerns, the NationalEducation Association announced at itsannual convention in Minneapolis in Julythat it will now devote its attention to theproblems of school reform.'We are shifting th e focus of the N.E.A.so we place more emphasis on educationreform and we place more emphasis on thepublic schools of America improving," DonCameron, the union's executive director said.'We are focusing virtually all our humanand financial resources into those goals."According to Educa tion W eek of 7/12/95, Cameron and Keith Geiger, the presidentof the 2.2 million member union, said theN.E.A. can make such a shift because theunion' 5 heavy emphasis on collective bar-gaining over the past 25 years has producedlivable wages for teachers.Leaders of the union, traditionally al-lied to the Democratic Party, are also anxiousabout the impact of last November's elec-tions-which put Republicans in control ofCongress and installed 14 new G.O.P. gover-nors-and about school vouchers and themove to hire private companies to managepublic schools.Mr. Cameron, who manages the nationalunion's 565 employees, has reorganized itsWashington headquarters to reduce thebureaucracy and to steer resources to profes-sional issues. He and Geiger have beencrisscrossing the country, urging electedunion leaders and staff members to join in

school-reform efforts.ill a videotape Geiger made for regionaldirectors, he throws a straitjacket into a

wastebasket to symbolize the abandoning ofrigid th inking. He calls for members to takethe lead in-and not just go along with-educational change.H e lp f r o m Jesse J a c k s o n

The union's heightened emphasis onteaching and learning also prompted Geigerto interrupt this year's Representative As-sembly for a three-hour "Focus on Educa-tional Change" moderated by Jesse Jackson.The presentation was part pe p rally, partdiscussion of education issues, and in part aforum for Jackson to air his own views.Interspersed with video clips, jazzymusic, and somber statistics about the condi-tion of American children were opportuni-ties for the N.E.A. delegates to participate.They used red-and-green hand fans and 2,000electronic devices called "zingers" to regis-ter their views on such questions as school-based management, technology, and the roleof local and state unions in school improve-ment.

The session also featured the results of aquestionnaire that delegates filled out atregistration. They answe r ed the same ques-tions asked last fall by the Public AgendaFoundation, which found educators and thepublic at odds over school reform.Members of the public, the delegatesheard, believe drugs and violence top the listof problems in public schools, followed bylow academic standards.N.E.A. delegates, in contrast, said lackof money was the primary problem withschools, followed by drugs and violence,overcrowded classrooms, and low academicstandards.

"Parents want their chi ldren to be safein schools and learn the basics," Iackson

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said. IIAnd they will desert the public schoolsif they are concerned that they aren't. Wecan't take their support for granted."Next year, for the first time in the un-ion's history, the N.E.A.'s national convert-tion will be devoted to instruction issues andeducation reform, Geiger said.Top P riority : S chool Re fonn

The Center for Teaching and Learning,created last fall to be the union's brain truston educational issues, merges all the union'sschool-reform and policy programs, includ-ing: (1) The National Center for Innovation,created in 1 9 90 , which houses the union'sMastery in Learning and Learning labora-tory restructuring projects; (2) the teachereducation initiative, through which theN.E.A. is collaborating with 17 colleges ofeducation to improve teacher training; (3)The National Foundation for the Improve-ment of Education, which is in the midst of atwo-year study of professional development;and (4) The Center for Education Technol-ogy, which explores ways technology canhelp restructure the educational environ-ment.

Perhaps the union's most important newproject to help classroom teachers is the KEYSproject. The Keys to Excellence in YourSchools program is a yardstick that can helpteachers measure the organizational qualityof their schools against national norms, Thestudy is the first original research on schoolsconducted by the N.E.A. in 35 years. Re-searchers surveyed teachers to identify thehallmarks of high-quality schools. Then,researchers tested the 35 conditions the teach-ers identified against a smaller sample ofschools in six districts.They found that student achievementwas higher in schools that incorporated asignificant number of the 35 indicators. Whatwere t hese indicators? Here's a sample: 1.

Parents and school employees are commit-ted to long-range, continuous improvement.3. Goals for achievable education outcomesare clear and explicit. 4. Teachers, educationsupport personnel, parents, administrators,students, school board, district administra-tors, and civic groups are all involved inimproving education. 5 . Teachers, educa-tion support personnel, students, and par-ents believe all students can learn. 8. Teach-ers assess student improvement daily. 9 .Administrators assess student improvementdaily. 24. School staff actively seek to iden-tify barriers to learning. 25. Teachers work toremove barriers. 26 . Education supportpersonnel work to remove barriers. 'Zl. Stu-dents and parents work to remove barriers.28 . School and district administration workto remove barriers to learning. 29. A coop-erative problem-solving process is used toremove barriers. 32. There is two-way, non-threatening communication between schoolemployees and school administrators. 33.There is two-way, non-threatening commu-nication between school employees anddistrict administrators. 34. There is two-way, non-threatening communicationamong teachers. 35. All communication t akesplace within a climate for innovation.[We get the distinct feeling that these"indicators" were dreamed up by the aBEimplementation team. They sound as phonyas the N.E.A.'s alleged interest in academ-ics.]

A national panel of educators is advis-ing the union on how to flesh out its plans forthe KEYS program. Members of the panelinclude Willis Hawley, dean of the college ofeducation at the University of Maryland andSusan Moore johnson, a Harvard Universityprofessor. Part of the plan includes trainingUniServe representatives to be helpful.Comment:Obviously, the N.E.A. has decided thatthe public's confidence in public education

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has eroded so badly that they'd better begindoing something about improving the publicschools. But since they are relying on thebrains of professors of education to advisethem, it's a foregone conclusion that theirefforts will be in vain. Also, the shock ofNovember 1994 has so badly shaken theunion's confidence in its ability to control thepolitical scene, that the leaders felt it neces-sary to call upon Jesse Jackson to stage a peprally to enliven the troops. Advice from bothJesse Jackson and the professors of educa-tion should be enough to sink the union. TheN.E.A is clearly brain dead if it must rely onsuch resources for inspiration. But as long asthe states continue to finance governmenteducation, the union will be able to hang on.That is why it is incumbent upon everyconservative to press to get the governmentout of the education business. When thepublic begins to realize that it is the govern-ment monopoly, bolstered by compulsoryattendance, that has ruined education, theywill no longer want to support it.

D .EA to O perate C harterS chool in D etroit

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Admini-stration is getting into the charter-schoolbusiness, with plans to open a "prototype"residential school for at-risk children this fallin Detroit. Federal drug agents came upwith the idea of running a school as an ex-periment in their efforts to reduce the de-mand for illicit drugs in troubled urban ar-eas. Central Michigan University officialslast week put the finishing touches on acontract for the D.E.A. school, which willaccept 200 students: 40 boys and girls in eachof grades 5 through 9. The Michigan charter-

school law, adopted in 1993, allows statecolleges and school districts to grant char-ters. "This charter school will establish aprototype residential preparatory school tomeet the unique needs of ex t remely at-riskyouth:' the school's mission statement de-clares. The school, tentatively known as theWoodward Academy, is expected to takeover space in a fonner state mental-healthclinic and school.'When successful:' the mission state-ment says, the facility might be replicated bythe agency's 19 field divisions charged with"drug-demand reduction" across the coun-try. The school will be an all-day, all-yearboarding facility attuned to bolstering char-acter and self-esteem, while strengtheningstudents' family connections.

Eastern "Michigan University will offercourses from its masters of liberal studies intechnology program for faculty and staffmembers of the school. (due. M. 7/12/95)Comment:It's quite possible that the drug agencywill do a better job of running a school thanthe professional educators. But the schoolsounds. more like a reformatory than a placewhere genuine education will take place.The "drug-demand reduction" idea remindsus of the "paperwork reduction act" alludedto on IRS forms. Itbrings to mind the storyof the govenunent file clerk who asked per-mission to throw out some old, no-longerneeded files, only to be told by the supervi-sor to make copies before throwing themout. Government education, run by profes-sional educators, is bad enough. But govern-ment education run by government agents?That ought to be worth watching.Then, how about a charter school run bythe ATF for kids who bring guns to school orsmoke cigarettes? There's no end to thepossibilities once the bureaucrats becomecreative.

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C h e a p e r , P u r e r H e r o inP o u rs In to t h e N o r t h e a s t

Heroin, a scourge of the 19705 that wasovershadowed by a national cocaine bingein the 1980s, is once again pouring intoAmerican cities and towns.Officials with the US Drug EnforcementAdministration say some of the purest her-oin in the nation can be found in GreaterBoston. They attribute the steady rise in

availability of the drug to entrepreneurialdealers with links to Colombian cocainesuppliers. "We s e em to get the highest levelsof purity in the Northeast," said George Festa,in charge o f the DENs New England divi-sion. "It's puzzling to us and it is somethingwe are monitoring very closely."

In the Northeast, individual bags ofheroin that sold for $30 to $50 ten or fifteenyears ago go for as little as $5 today. Occa-sionally, dealers adopt the technique of ciga-rette manufacturers by distributing heat-sealed plastic bags stamped with the latestbrand names, free of charge.There is compelling evidence that her-oin use is rising sharply, and that youngpeople are experimenting with the drug. Thenumber of people entering state-fundedtreatment programs in Massachusetts be-cause of heroin abuse has increased from10,545 in 1988 to 17-445 in 1993 , a 65 percentincrease, according to the state Departmentof Mental Health. (Boston Globe , 7/10/95)

V it a l R e a d in gT h e R o a d t o S o c ia l i s m a n d

t h e N e w W o r ld O r d e rby Dennis L Cuddy, PhD.

Florida P ro F am ily Forum, Inc, P.O . B ox 1059 ,Highland City, FL 3 3 84 6- 10 5 9, ( 94 1) 6 44 -{ )2 18 , 80 pages,

$4.00 plus $1.75 post. & handlingDr. Dennis Cuddy, who once worked asa Senior Associate in the U.S. Department ofEducation, has put together the best, concise

compendium o f documentation proving th eexistence of the socialist New World Orderconspiracy. It is not really a conspiracy in thesense that the elitists have hidden from thepublic what their goals are. What makes it aconspiracy is the fact that this elite hasmanaged to ga in control of th e mass mediain order to mold public opinion without thepublic being fully aware of how it is beingmanipulated.The Nazis, Fascists and Communistsopenly made use of the mass media to un-ashamedly spread their propaganda. Butour elitists operate in a much more subtleway. They know that most Americans ex-pect their media to be objective in reportingevents, and so they try to give that impres-sion. But after 50 years of a steady diet ofpolitically correct, liberal bias, conservativeAmericans are no longer fooled by the media.That's why ta lk radio has r i s en to such im-portanee. It's become the only reliable sourceof news and oommentary for conservativesin America.

Dr. Cuddy quotes Rep. Oscar Callawyof Texas in the Co ng re ss io na l R ec or d of Feb. 9,1917, who explains how the "powers thatbe" went about gaining control of the media:In March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, th e

steel, shipbuilding and powder interests, and theirsubsidiary organizations got together 12 men high upin the newspaper world and employed them to selectthe most influential newspapers in the Un it ed . S ta te sand sufficient number of them to control generallyth e policy of the daily press in the United States.Thes e 12 men worked the problem out by selecting179 newspapers, and then began, by an eliminationprocess, to retain only those necessary for the purposeof controlling the general policy of the daily pressthroughout th e country, They found it was onlynecessary to purchase th e control of 25 of the greatestpapers. The 25 papers were agreed upon; emissaries

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been able to slow down the advance of theNew World Order juggernaut. This hasgiven the American people time to organizetheir own resistance to the loss of nationalsovereignty and individual freedom. As theyear 200J approaches, the New World Orderelitists will do all in their power to achievetheir ultimate goal of world government.They are so dose to world govenunent thatthey can taste it. Which accounts for the rageand frustration they feel toward those of uswho may block their final victory. Thus, wecan expect the next ten years to be ones ofpolitical turbulence and instability as theshowdown between Biblical religion andsecu la r humanism reaches its climax.

Dennis Cuddy's book is like a programdescribing all of the New World Order ac-tors on the stage of contemporary history.Dr. Shirley Correll writes about the book:

Widespread knowledge of the mechanisms used,as well as the people involved, can save future gen-erations much heartache, if th e current generationacts as bravely and decisively as the i r forefathers. Thetime is short and the stakes are high. Widespread dis-tribution of this booklet can help to tum the tide.

Father F ined for TutoringS o n O f f C a m p u s

Charles Hayden of New Stanton, Pa,thought he was being a good parent when hedecided to take two hours of every day totutor his son in an effort to help him pass hisclasses. Instead, he wound up in court.

Hayden found out 11 weeks before theend of school that his 7th-grade son, Chris,was failing five subjects. He called his son'sguidance counselor and met with his teach-ers. They decided that Hayden should workwith Chris two hours a day. The problemwas finding the extra two hours.

The solution, Hayden decided, was to

take his son out of his last-period class-study hall-and drive him home, whichsaved a half-hour over his usual bus ride.

Officials at Harrold Middle School toldHayden that the arrangement violated thestate's compulsory-attendance laws. But bythat time, Hayden said, "we knew it wasworking."

Hayden continued to take Chris out ofschool, and the school counted his absencesuntil they came to three full days. Then theyfiled charges. They claimed that they offeredHayden a private room on school groundsfor the sessions. But Hayden said that hewanted his son to have some f ree time andthat the school site would be distracting.

On June 28, a state judge ruled in favorof the district but suspended a possible $22fine. (E du c. W k ., 7/12/95)Comment:

Compulsory attendance laws have ere-ated a tug of war between parents and schoolsover whose authority should prevail con-cerning the education of one's children.Before the public schools decided that theynow own the children, they were supposedto serve merely in l oco par en ti s , that is, at th eparents' pleasure. Inother words, the schoolswere granted authority over the children byth e parents, just as baby sitters get theirauthority from parents. However, whenparents wish to educate their children them-selves, the schools should, accordingly, bowto parental wishes. But the courts believethat the schools were not created to serve theparents but to serve the state, and that thestate's authority supercedes that of parents.The judge's ruling in this case simply reaf-finned the principle of state ownership ofchildren. Jf Mr, Hayden has any sense, hewill remove his son from state jurisdictionand educate him at home. Oearly, the stateis not educating his son, so why leave him inthe state's school?

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the blumenfeld education letter august_1995

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