From the Radio Free Michigan archives ftp://141.209.3.26/pub/patriot If you have any other files you'd like to contribute, e-mail them to bj496@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu. ------------------------------------------------ "Outcome-Based Education": Spiritual Child Abuse as Reform, by Susan Welsh Conspiracy for the Day -- July 2, 1993 ======================================== ("Quid coniuratio est?") "Outcome-Based Education": Spiritual Child Abuse as Reform ============================================================= by Susan Welsh [Excerpts] ----------------------------------------------------------------- "All over the country, public school systems are adopting the latest generation of New Age education reform, known as 'outcome- based education' (OBE). Stunned parents are told that from now on, their children will no longer be subjected to such 'old- fashioned' 'tortures' as academic course requirements and grades." "Parents are told this is a program that was developed in their state, through 'grass-roots meetings.'" "Yet exactly the same thing is being done in 26 states (so far). High-priced consultants... are flown in to brief the locals and get the ball rolling." "In Pennsylvania and Iowa, people have gotten smart, and citizens' groups mobilized to defeat OBE -- at least in its current form. But veterans of those battles know the war is not over." -+- What is OBE? -+- "Outcome-based education is a top-down national policy... funded by corporate piggy banks like RJR Nabisco... In all the OBE propaganda circulated by the states, no evidence is presented that OBE has improved learning anywhere, any way. There's plenty of evidence that it has not." "[OBE] is based on certain specific *outcomes* in terms of achievement, attitudes, and behavior... OBE is a framework that is being used to push through the gamut of New Age 'reforms' which are being implemented throughout the public schools anyway, even without OBE. These include:" *** Environmentalism. One of [OBE's] goals is 'environmental stewardship.'... Man is supposed to have 'stewardship' for Gaia, the Mother Earth goddess. *** Multiculturalism. This racist doctrine, masquerading as anti-racism, denies to oppressed people the right to master the most advanced principles of science and culture that human civilization has ever achieved, on the grounds that such principles are 'imperialistic.' *** Homosexuality. In Massachusetts, the State Board of Education May 18 voted up school guidelines aimed at fostering the acceptance of homosexuality... In Pennsylvania, a parent who complained that the proposed OBE 'goals' would lead to homosexuality and promiscuity, was told by a spokesman for the State Board of Education, 'Look honey, it doesn't matter -- it's a done deal.' *** Eastern mysticism, trancendental meditation, hypnosis. [One program] uses hypnosis and meditation to get children to 'feel good about themselves' -- whether they've done something to feel good about or not. The potential for manipulating children in a hypnotized, suggestible state, is enormous. -+- Some State Profiles -+- Iowa: "The Department of Education announced May 6 that it was dropping its plan to implement OBE on a state-wide basis, because there was too much criticism and no adequate 'marketing plan' to sell OBE to the public... Among the 'reforms' to which Iowa parents and teachers objected was the Bettendorf Survey, a psychological profiling test... [The psychological profiles] acquired become a part of the state's computerized data bank." Pennsylvania: "Under intense pressure from parents, the House of Representatives on Feb. 8 blocked implementation of OBE -- for now... Pennsylvania parent investigators were particularly outraged to discover that the Department of Education was maintaining a data bank based