The Socialist Vision and Global Connections of the NEA
Trading Facts for Feel-good Experience
1967. The NEA Journal published "The New Social Studies," which said, "...the most obvious change occurring in the social studies is a breaking away from the traditional dominance of history, geography and civics. Materials from the behavioral sciences. ...sociology, social psychology...are being incorporated into both elementary and secondary school programs."
1988. Dr. Donald A. Cowan asked a leading question during a forum at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture: "What will take the place of logic, fact and analysis in the coming age? The central way of thought for this new era will be imagination. Imagination will be the active, creative agent of culture, transforming brute materials to a higher, more knowable state...."
1956. In Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, The Classification of Educational Goals, Professor Bloom wrote, "...a large part of what we call "good teaching" is the teacher's ability to attain affective objectives through challenging the students' fixed beliefs and getting them to discuss issues."[8]
Note: While a sound body of factual knowledge should be the foundation of all thinking processes, this model reduced factual knowledge and comprehension to the rank of lower order thinking skills, suggesting that traditional knowledge had become relatively insignificant--and could even be a hindrance. In contrast, the more subjective processes--application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation--were elevated to higher order thinking skills.
How can students apply, analyze, synthesize and evaluate without facts? How can they reach a rational conclusion without comprehension? They can't.In the absence of foundational facts, those higher order thinking skills can only lead to subjective, uncertain answers. Without a broad knowledge base, children are rudderless and headed for disaster. Deprived of the factual comprehension needed for moral, spiritual and intellectual discernment, they cannot recognize deception. At the mercy of manipulative social revolutionaries, they are ready to embrace the New Age/Neo-pagan view of "reality" - which has no basis in real reality.
Dr. Bloom's process controls the outcome or end-product of thinking which was often an opinion or a value judgment. By censoring a students knowledge base, the teacher can direct the student's thinking. It works. Through biased information, carefully designed hypothetical stories, and pointed Socratic questioning, students are persuaded that their home-taught beliefs and values are incompatible with the needs for the 21st century.
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Thursday, February 19th 2009 at 8:43AM
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