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"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." - Nelson Mandela

Japan Has It Right On Muslims  

By Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D. |  September 28, 2015  World Net Daily

With the influx of thousands of Muslims, President Obama is rapidly accomplishing a dramatic cultural transformation of America.  Our national heritage is being destroyed and our national security is in danger.  

Boehner Resigns: Passage of No Child Left Behind Reauthorization Uncertain

Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D.    September 27, 2015

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced on September 25 that he will retire from Congress at the end of October.

This throws a monkey wrench into the work for passage of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), currently known as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB).  NCLB was due for reauthorization in 2007.  Even though that never happened, Congress has continued to fund the expired legislation. 

Can Private Schools Survive As A School Choice Option?

By Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D.  |   September 22, 2015  National Center for Policy Analysis

Private school enrollment is on the downswing.  The percentage of all students in private schools decreased from 12 percent in 1995-1996 to 10 percent in 2011-2012.  Catholic schools have less than half as many students as they did 50 years ago.

The U.N., ESEA, and School Mental Health Clinics

By Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D.  |  September 5, 2015  Education Views 

As the U.S. Congress returns to Washington from summer recess, it will resolve the differences in their two radical bills to arrive at a final package for reauthorizing the unconstitutional Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA).  This is Washington’s primary mechanism to steal control of education from parents and local communities.  This law opened a tsunami of federal funding to schools, initiating the federalization of schools.  ESEA was amended in 2002 with the widely reviled No Child Left Behind Act, imposing a radical program of high stakes testing and federalizing the curriculum in schools. 

Cooperative Learning: Communism in America’s Classrooms

By Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D. | August 24, 2015 Education Views

Americans are in an uproar over Common Core. Ridding our schools of Common Core won’t solve the problem though. We have to go for the root cause of what’s wrong with public education. Since the problem began very long ago and requires much more editorial space, I’ll explore that another time. For now, let’s just unpack the jargon from the real intent of what goes on in your child’s classroom under the moniker of “cooperative learning.” 

In a nutshell, cooperative learning is communist ideology that is found in every public school throughout America. Collaborative learning is another code name for this collectivist, group think teaching strategy. Cooperative learning is an instructional method for Outcome-Based Education, which was founded by Dr. Benjamin Bloom. In 1981 he wrote in All Our Children Learning (p.180)that, "the purpose of education and the schools is to change the thoughts, feelings and actions of students." 

Bloom confirms what Charlotte Iserbyt, former U.S. Department of Education whistleblower about the globalization of our schools, warned us decades ago in her excellent book, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America. Academics have been thrown out of our public – and some private -- institutions of learning. 

Progressive teaching (the underlying philosophy of Common Core) and its group learning have replaced traditional teaching in public education. Students are evaluated as a group rather than on individual achievement. This is the socialist spirit – the collectivist spirit that all must work together for the good of society. 

Under collectivism, equal outcome, and not equal opportunity, is promoted, regardless of differences in ability. Collectivism is the opposite of our capitalistic America and our individualistic spirit of competition. If socialism is to survive, then individualism and its creative spirit must be quashed. 

The mission to do that was begun long ago by left wing zealots who understood that education is the vehicle for easily changing the American culture of traditional families and religious freedom. 

Parents are told that cooperative learning is a method to prepare students to work together in a global society with people of different values. In reality, group think is to standardize values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. The emphasis is on group conformity. 

It is claimed that student-centered cooperative learning promotes deeper thinking because students learn the content more deeply by teaching their peers. 

Now think about that irrational statement. Since Progressive teaching trashes factual learning, how can students teach their peers when they have little to no factual information about the topic in their brains to impart? 

Students are duped into thinking that their value and knowledge is superior to that of the teacher who is merely a facilitator in a Progressive classroom. Translation: this teaches students to question traditional moral values. 

That conjures up memories of a public rant by Al Gore that students need to educate their parents who are not as smart as they. He clearly intended to undermine parental authority and the family and promote conflict between kids and their parents. 

Proponents of cooperative learning claim that students learn critical thinking – i.e. to think for themselves. This is a lie being perpetrated to hide the real purpose of criticizing traditional values and authority through group discussion and forced decision-making. 

Advocates claim that cooperative learning teaches students consensus building or mutual agreement on a topic. The real purpose? To reach a preplanned outcome through isolation, silencing a dissonant voice, intimidation, or censuring. It’s safe to surmise that Communist/Marxist Saul Alinsky’s book, 12 Rules for Radicals, is in play here. 

Volumes of research extolling the virtues of cooperative/collaborative learning have been published. Although the disadvantages are ignored by researchers, students have voiced complaints about cooperative learning.

  • People work at different speeds. “Heterogeneous” grouping pairs slower learners with faster ones. Faster learners do busy work or “peer tutoring” while waiting for slower learners to finish. Often faster learners give answers to slower learners with no explanation about how the conclusion was reached, just to move on.

  • One student sometimes tries to control the group

  • Some quiet students prefer individual work

  • Incompatibility of some members

  • Group grade is unfair. A group grade might be determined in various ways but for faster students, the problem is still the same. If grades are averaged, the lazy student can ride the coattails of the hard working students while the top students get a lower grade. There can also be grade inflation to keep everyone happy but does nothing to truly evaluate what the student has learned. Resentment and unwillingness to continue working hard also can result as top students watch slower or lazy students get the same grade as they.

  • Idle chatter. Time wasted with students chatting with friends about irrelevant topics when in groups

According to Dr. Spencer Kagan, “Collaborative techniques create a constructivist approach.” Constructivism is the altering of student values, beliefs, and attitudes. He notes that the grouping form most often used is heterogeneous grouping because it promotes diversity, peer teaching, and acceptance of homosexuality. He has created Kagan Structures as a teaching tool for the constructivism of cooperative learning. 

Check out your schools. Are Kagan Structures being used there? If so, either demand that they be yanked or better yet, take your child out of public school and home school or private school him (yes, I know “him” is politically incorrect but “it was good for my [founding] fathers, so it’s good enough for me”). 

Cooperative learning with its focus on changing values, beliefs, and attitudes poses serious threats for the future of America. 

Until recent years public schools offered a well-rounded general education for the masses that has served our nation well with our mobile society and rapid changes in the economy. 

Even though American students have not done well on international tests – I’ll save that tirade for another time -- our well-rounded education has produced creative students who are problem solvers, possessed with the cocky, self-confident American attitude. 

Yet it is America that has been a global leader in creating a massive number of innovative products which have improved the quality of life for millions around the world…while making us a very wealthy nation! 

Let’s look at how nations steeped in collectivism have fared -- both economically and in personal freedom. 

During the nearly 75 years of communist rule in the Soviet Union, nothing was contributed to further world progress. In Cuba, just a little more than 50 years of communist rule have reduced to poverty a nation that once had the third highest standard of living in the Western hemisphere. Under communist rule in China, workers are complacent followers who are castigated if they think independently. Instead of being innovators, China simply copies what others have created and places their label on a cheap reproduction. 

Asian education focuses on memorizing facts for standardized tests. Their students score at the top on international tests, yet they are not creative thinkers. Asian countries such as Japan have well-trained workforces but they are not innovative. 

Asian countries understand the problem and are expanding their curriculum to include some components of a liberal education.

As nutty as it seems, America is moving in the opposite direction. The radical transformation of public education by left wing educrats is swiftly propelling America toward the same type of learning that has prevented innovation in those collectivist societies. 

If we continue to allow our schools to psychologically manipulate and warp our children’s minds with this utopian fantasy that has never been successful, America will no longer have creative, independent thinkers to continually invent the dazzling array of products as in the past. This will have an immeasurable negative effect upon our economy and our quality of life. 

How will living in a collectivist society affect our freedom? 

A mind numbing accounting of this is found in The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, which is authored by a group of French scholars trying to document the human cost of communism in the 20th century. Number crunching in the introduction provides this breakdown of deaths. 

U.S.S.R.: 20 million deaths; China: 65 million deaths; Vietnam: 1 million deaths; North Korea: 2 million deaths; Cambodia: 2 million deaths: Eastern Europe: 1 million deaths; Latin America: 150,000 deaths; Africa: 1.7 million deaths; Afghanistan: 1.5 million deaths; The international Communist movement and Communist parties not in power: about 10,000 deaths… The total approaches 100 million people killed. 

The Black Book set out to address the “inability and -- for a great many -- the outright refusal to recognize the unmitigated evil that communism was and is.” It seems the authors created a firestorm. “Many were irked that the authors asserted ‘that Communism's freely expressed penchant for homicide was and is an integral trait. Communism's philosophy and practical politics, which promised to erase class distinctions, necessarily entailed erasing classes and the living humans that populated them.’” 

In the U.S. many choose to ignore that communism is already engulfing almost every aspect of our lives. For those souls who exist in a world of fantasy, the promises of communism are quite appealing. 

In the face of so much damning evidence, why are we allowing our schools to use a teaching philosophy that is indoctrinating our children to accept a life of slavery under communism? Destroying forever that which has made us great? Destroying forever our American experiment? 

Why are American taxpayers falling hook line and sinker for the slick marketing ploys of education bureaucrats to rob them of billions in more taxes and debt, including bond issues, to pay for new and renovated schools “designed for 21st century learning” and cooperative learning space requirements. 

Are Americans really that dumbed down? 

Why Do So Many Children Have ADHD?

By Carole Hornsby Haynes  |  September 15, 2015  National Center for Policy Analysis

Ignoring research that shows early academic learning inflicts long term harm on young children, American schools have transitioned from play-based to academic learning.

As a result, the percentage of students being diagnosed with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has risen sharply from 7.8 percent in 2003, 9.5 percent in 2007, and 11 percent in 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control. 

Young Children Need More Play Time, Not Class Time

By Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D. | September 1, 2015  National Center for Policy Analysis

In American schools young children are being pushed into more structured, teacher-directed class time. Play-based kindergartens, and now even preschools, have been replaced largely by drilling and testing.  This method is negatively affecting their creativity and curiosity.  Torrance scores for creative ability have been falling for Americans – especially for younger children.

Although the length of classes in American schools has been extended, along with more testing, to try to improve academic performance -- “if you want to succeed, you have to work harder” --  this has been counterproductive.  Literacy is declining and students are experiencing increasing burnout.

Other countries already understand the futility of this method and, so for decades, have provided shorter structured periods interspersed with unstructured recesses.  In Finland, for example, students take a 15-minute break for outdoor play after every 45 minutes of classroom time.  In East Asia, most primary schools give their students a 10-minute break after 40 minutes or so of instruction.

In the United States the average first-grader spends seven hours a day at school, with few or no breaks and certainly not an unstructured recess.  Sitting too long causes them to become mentally and physically sluggish.  Children have to move around frequently and having unstructured play brings renewed energy and focus on lessons. 

Studies show that play is critical in the development of children’s physical and mental health. It helps to boost their

In his article, “Children, Play, and Development,” F.P. Hughes writes that there is a strong relationship between language development and make-believe play. According to Canadian researcher Sergio Pellis, for their brain development, children need to engage in free-play without rules or coaches.  He believes that unstructured play may be more important for brain development than even class instruction.

Research studies link more time for free play to improvements in academic skills, healthy emotional attitude, classroom behavior, and better adjustment to school life.

Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas is conducting a nine-year study, the Link Project (Let’s Inspire Innovation ‘N Kids),  to test the effects of more play and less class.  Outdoor unstructured play is being measured against indoor brain breaks to determine psychological benefits. The students were given two 15-minute unstructured recesses in the morning and again in the afternoon.  They also had three 15-minute character development sessions during the week.  The project was launched in 2013-2014 in K-1 classes in two private schools in Texas.  The first year’s report shows positive results.

  • Children demonstrated social growth and development
  • Transition time from class to recess and back was reduced
  • Children were more disciplined and focused in the classroom
  • Academic performance on reading and math increased significantly
  • Misbehavior during recess decreased significantly
  • Off-task behaviors in classroom decreased significantly

TCU will continue the study, adding another grade each year, and will launch the study in four public schools in the fall of 2015-2016.

Journey to Jihadism

By Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D.  | August 14, 2015  

Widespread violence, drug use, break-down of the traditional family, and amorality engulf America. This is not by accident! 

For two centuries there has been a battle between the Bible-based values of our American Revolution and the secular humanists’ values of the French Revolution.  Because of the shift in the teaching philosophy in American classrooms from traditional to progressive, an increasing number of young people are becoming secular humanists. 

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