Gaining Access To and Then Guiding Each Student’s Subjective Perception of Reality to Change the Here and Now

Let’s pretend for a moment that we are all in the same room mulling over why K-12 education is shutting down what works and expanding everything that has ever been controversial or even tragic. We could get out a White Board and pretend to be detective Kate Beckett on the TV show Castle and create columns of what concerns and mystifies us. Concrete, Down to Earth, Tangible Concerns. Then later as I am researching and footnote hopping, I read the title of a 1966 book called The Social Construction of Reality. I remember that White Board and how no one wants to allow Declarative Knowledge anymore (defined in previous post) that would accurately allow me to factually understand the Here and Now.

In fact, we have been noticing that everything to be required in the classroom now seems to be about guiding personal perception of what is actually going on in the here and now. Filtering how we conceive the who or what caused all the problems we are to now notice. We keep wondering why all the focus on emotions and showing your work instead of getting a right answer and making activities and experiences the point of classroom work. To quote again from The Parallel Curriculum book from two posts ago, when did we switch to reading a historical fiction book so that we can imagine how it must have felt to be alive during a time period like the Civil War? Is that history? How about if we use the book to “document the feelings, perspectives, and changes that occur for your characters over time.” That’s not factual knowledge. It’s simply priming the student to accept that a change in conditions could be a reason for personal change.

Psychological role-playing, in other words, seems to be all over classes that are supposed to be about science, literature, history, or civics. Even math. “How would you feel if… ” is psychological role-playing even if the description of your feelings, frustrations, and strategies for what to do next is going in your math journal so that “your teacher can read it and get to know you better.”

I keep bringing up the fact that the term ‘knowledge’ now is not about facts, but is rather concepts that are supposed to guide how we perceive all those activities and experiences. Why does that distinction matter so much? Well, the social psychologists have plenty of research they share among themselves that goes as follows:

“The notion of a concept is essential for understanding thought and behavior. If we want to understand, say, how a child learns through experience that stoves can burn, we assume that the child uses the concepts stove and burn; without this assumption, it is not clear why a child’s experience with one particular stove and one particular burn will be related to his or her experience with another stove and another possible burn. [In other words, if we want to get students or adults to analogize from one situation to another, we convince them that they involve comparable concepts. If we want to convince them about false connections, we train students repeatedly from a young age to believe that situations are connected or equivalent even if they are not.]

“It is only when we treat the objects and events of a situation as instances of concepts that we see what there is to learn. And just as it is hard to think about learning without concepts, it is hard to think about communication and reason without concepts. In short, concepts reflect the way we divide the world into classes, and much of what we learn, communicate, and reason involves relations among these classes.”

Providing the concepts to everyone then instead of each person building them up from facts is a tremendously fruitful means for psychological manipulation. Effective and largely invisible once created. What’s not to love if fundamentally transforming the here and now is the Goal, and undermining the historical Western sacrosanct treatment of the individual and the mind is the Means. Just target how that individual, while they are still young, learns to categorize their everyday experiences. Then make sure that any classroom work that previously bolstered the “ability of language to be an objective repository of vast accumulations of meaning and experiences, which it can then preserve in time and transmit to following generations” is either destroyed or seriously limited in duration and purpose.

We are back to our pretend Murder Board of what’s Being Discontinued and Expanded in Education and my reading nerdy books and then translating them so no one else has to. That is how I felt reading The Social Construction of Reality. It was like getting a Treasure Map to what would need to be stopped or emphasized if manipulation of how an individual saw reality was the Goal. Why? So that their future actions could be reliably planned from afar. How we order social experiences turns out to be a crucial fact to know if someone wants to predict and control other people’s behavior. It’s also something that adaptive software in a Digital Learning program or journals or showing your work in an open-ended question where there is no right answer all reveal. Rigorous assessments of the type required by the Common Core, a Higher Order Thinking Skills emphasis , or the ‘high-quality’ tests of 21st Century Learning all ferret it out too.

Coincidental? I think not as a TV detective would get to say. Keeping school work relevant to real life and everyday life situations makes the routine social stock of knowledge of the average student paramount. If school is no longer about facts, reading is Guided and not fluent, and visual presentations are considered on par with writing papers, then the typical person now exists in a place where “the reality of everyday life always appears as a zone of lucidity behind which there is a background of darkness.” Reading that passage from the 1966 book made me gasp because circumscribing personal knowledge in effect makes that zone of lucidity easy to manipulate. Later in the book, the importance of concepts and subjective categorization of experiences is mentioned as what makes us notice certain aspects of what happens and ignore others.

Now imagine that the Concepts and Principles provided are deliberately chosen to have just that very effect. The Goal? To make the student and the future ‘citizen’ they will become not just amenable to fundamental transformations in society, the economy, and political structures we now take for granted like the US Constitution. The student is to come to believe that radical changes are necessary and desirable. Hopefully the student will be ready to act on conditions and problems in the here and now to make fundamental transformations a reality sooner rather than later.

It turns out that a reverence for logic as in traditional math, chemistry, or physics and abstract proofs or grammar and old-fashioned vocabulary that can contain a sentence full of meaning in a single word are examples of how “language now constructs immense edifices of symbolic representations that appear to tower over the reality of everyday life like gigantic processes from another world.” Well, someone does still appreciate flowery language when they are driving home a point. Unfortunately, the point is how much preferable face-to-face interaction is, which would explain why the Common Core stresses listening and speaking and group dialogues and learning to reach that all important consensus within the classroom.

Once again the groundwork revealing the why in the classroom mysteries of the here and now was laid out back in the 60s attempt at fundamental transformations. We just had to peel back enough layers of the onion to locate this quote:

“In the face-to-face situation language possesses an inherent quality of reciprocity that distinguishes it from any other sign system. [In other words, we can see facial expressions and body movements and infer emotions from them.] The ongoing production of vocal signs in conversation can be sensitively synchronized with the ongoing subjective intentions of the conversants.”

A less convoluted way of making the same point is that conversation becomes the way to get everyone on the same page in how they describe their experiences and using the same concepts. Well, no wonder, we keep hearing hype for Blended Learning or the Flipped Classroom. Just let the computer or Kahn Academy provide what the last post called procedural knowledge and the 1966 book calls recipe knowledge–“that is, knowledge limited to pragmatic competence in routine performances.”

Does that sound like a Competency focus to anyone else?

So what’s your interpretation of why the actual planned classroom implementation under its variety of Orwellian names lines up so perfectly with how the known Social Construction of Reality by most people?

Could it be an organized attempt to manipulate their future behavior as long as accurate factual knowledge is kept to a minimum?

Is it politically useful to keep voters ignorant, aggrieved, and reliable in their likely reactions?


56 thoughts on “Gaining Access To and Then Guiding Each Student’s Subjective Perception of Reality to Change the Here and Now

  1. In the Uk since 1931 government has used its power and taxmoney to prevent learning. I personally have fought for the simple phonics c-a-t that works, and found
    the Blob, LeAs, the central DfE, use all their power to stop the spread of the success I achieve. If other teachers use my Step and succeed, they suffer, lose their job, endure pressure to stop the success. We watch expensive, prestigious conferences, Global literacy! 3 days and the wrong stuff prevails. Politicians are cowards. Instead of common sense, they just leave the power with the DfE and vote more and more £billions to this evil. Taxpayers now fund £100 bn every year ONLY to protect failure.
    But at failure now 45% at 11+, when will politicians and the press join together to say today’s failure of half a century and more is CAUSED by the mistraining of teachers? Half the teachers quit after 5 years. They should get together to challenge this evil that has controlled illiteracy, wrecked millions for life! The solution is there, free, at – perfect for prisons too!
    Mona McNee

  2. For years I have been scratching my head trying to understand why people roughly 30 and younger who have gone through at least high school seem to have such an incomplete or non existent understanding of how state socialism works in practice.

    If they do not romanticize it, they assume it is harmless for the individual. People don’t seem to think a discussion about planned economies even matters. As if it was a unicorn and not recent history or even reality for some.

    I see now that the reason for the gaps in awareness is because the information was simply not disseminated to them in class as it was for me when I was in school. Now the older half of the above demographic still managed to squeak through their schooling with a smattering of facts. And facts could still be found when looked for.

    The younger half? They are the ones currently fronting for all the Occupy and People United activist organizations or Carnegie or Soros sponsored NGO’s. They were gifted with omitted facts in school as well as highly distorted information.

    The plan is working. Many are sufficiently indoctrinated. They have only ever known a stagnant, off shored, “jobs are our right ” economy. The bailout was not just for the International bankers after all. A broken economy was needed as the proverbial petri dish so that the social justice propagandized could practice their real world shared understandings.

    ( P.S.) I attended my 11th graders Bio Honors class at back to school night. All Systems Thinking…. ” and then they might write a paper or do a group project on how this relates to Climate Change.” Got it. Oh. Silly me. Her first graded assignment of the year was on the pros and cons of abortion. Her classmate who chose to do the “cartoon” for this Newspaper Article drew a picture of President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. I kid you not.

    • Mari-the local paper that comes in the mail had an insert on what was going on in the private schools this year. It was all about using laptops or notebooks. Heartbreaking.

      You know who is most skeptical about the computer use? Apart from me since I get to read insiders joke about it being a Trojan Horse imposing new kinds of non-analytical thinking. It’s anyone in the computer business. Nobody knows better than them that it’s a tool or what it actually takes to be really good at writing software. The ability to abstract is essential. Precisely what is being shut down lest the young adult not be ready and willing to change the world without any concept of the consequences.

      I actually wrote in the margin of my notes when the book said that language and print is what gives someone the capacity where “I can speak about innumerable matters that are not present at all in the face-to-face situation, including matters I never have and never will experience directly.” Yes, exactly. That is what it does and that is the reason for the Mind Arson. For pushing a mediatheque as a substitute for a bibliotheque.

      I was talking with one of my kids about the online posting of personal photos. We concluded the role-playing we are seeing as a dominant feature in the classroom has leaked over into too many thinking life is a facade where everyone play acts through life. Then they wonder why life is not going as planned and where are those well-paying jobs.

  3. I also understand clearly now why my daughter who is just beginning Biology is still able to take the ACT in October. I was concerned about the timing recommended by her teacher knowing her silo of biology facts would be incomplete even though she was prepared in other subjects. Joke is on me yet again.

    The teacher said not to worry. Most questions will be based not on mitochondria but on “biological” and human systems.

    Swell. I feel so glad.

    • As I recall from recent reading, when you go in to take the biology test, they actually give you a test booklet containing two tests. You choose one of them and indicate on the answer sheet which it is.

      One of them is the traditional biology, the other is ecology.

      I don’t know why they don’t call them two different things and have you register for them separately, just like you can’t go in to take Math Level 1 and decide in the testing room to do Math Level 2 instead. And those two tests are more similar than the Bio ones.

      • Oh sorry I see you’re talking about the ACT. ACT doesn’t really have subject tests requiring specialized knowledge, just questions involving general reasoning ability using biology facts, or physics facts, or whatever. But you don’t actually have to know anything about those fields.

    • By the way all, found porn and the usual pervy sex ed pushing of gender issues in AP psychology textbook. The chapter called motivations. Neither the college board website description or teacher guide reveal it except for the word sex buried typically in a list within a list, hidden. Trust me it is NOT psychology 101 for 15/16 year olds it is pervy sex of detailed description of masters and johnson…
      I was covering the book and opened to the middle. There it was. And no warning of any kind.

  4. ” recipe knowledge–”that is, knowledge limited to pragmatic competence in routine performances.” ”

    Back in the old days, we assumed that you should have mastered routine performances before going on to the non-routine stuff. Not any more. That would induce excessive reverence for things that actually work, once you know what those things are. Robin has covered this well. We have those we used to laugh at because they always seemed confused by academics, now making the rules to drive equity for “all students”. They should know the problems since they were never good students themselves.

    My younger son’s school is on ipads. But they say they aren’t implementing Common Core. He’s not too communicative about his classes, but soon I hope to get an idea of what they are doing with them.

    • David-now marry all the information K-12 digital learning will be throwing off that flows through to DC to this described Catalist database. I actually was aware of this already and have tried to warn people the dangers of what side being quite familiar with what everyday knowledge is now being emphasized in the school as well as the cross-cutting concepts pushed in all coursework and the rest of the big ideas and hyped problems.

      Let’s also remember that David Coleman said he has had the College Board hire the creators of the Catalist database to work with their data. One political side has both gained access to and is actively manipulating how the next generation perceives reality. That’s on top of what the media is already doing with adults.

      • Robin,
        I know other people have asked before. I probably have as well. But I am beside myself trying to know how best to counter this living nightmare we are in the midst of.

        I speak with intelligent people every day who think I am delusional when I mention facts that I have learned from you. And I am careful with my tone, timing and aware of my audience when I attempt these conversations.

        At times I feel as if people are under some sort of spell. There is this odd unwillingness to consider the layers of everything taking place. People give the impression of only being able to tolerate information in its most simplistic form and its most obvious state.

        And I’m talking about grownups here 40 and older who should know better. How has the mass hypnosis been so successful among the Grownups?

        • Remember the story I relate in the book about ignoring the idea that the Cold War did not end quite as sold and that plenty of people were deliberately creating the successor vision in the 80s? I could not deal with that myself when I first encountered it. I chose to tuck away the possibility, but it just kept coming up until I had no choice. It was the reality, whether I liked it or not.

          The OPM-Other People’s Money–that has been used to fuel the deficit spending that has been used to buy off various voting groups in the Western countries has really run out. We just have not recognized it yet because it turns out the Federal Reserve is propping up the stock market to try to keep the illusion up a little longer. I understand finance. I simply rarely talk about it on the blog. The Un-envisioned world will not happen and this ed model will collapse once people recognize it for pushing what it is. I listened to Linda Darling-Hammond this morning in a 30 minute interview on the Common Core. She said it’s all about menaningful learning goals and the learning progressions. Just what my book describes. She just gave the interview.

          People will be forced to accept that the world is being deliberately manipulated now for political control of every area. It is where I am going next. Thankfully the President’s Chief Technology Officer wrote plans in a book that I have. No need to speculate or infer. It fits other sources I have and what is in the book.

          As a friend of mine says “I know Robin, you just write about things that you can prove that have never worked before and won’t this time.” This is a friend who has probably never voted for a Republican in any race instead of bouncing all over like me. “It is what it is” as I also say and we do get to talk about it factually. It’s why I am so careful not to speculate or go off on any tangent I am not sure matters.

          Most people cannot conceive of a world being different than it currently is. I am too drenched in history to have that problem.

        • Read up on edward Bernays and his mass psychology. The Grandfather of PR. PR was propaganda but got a bad rap after the wars… Once you know the tricks you see them.

  5. Excellent post Robin! Very explanatory. Thank you.

    My young children now attend a very small old fashioned private school. Last week I spoke with the 5th grade teacher for over an hour. She recently spent some time observing a public school classroom. She could not believe how little content they cover, the amount of group learning, the number of students helping other students with work, the amount of screen time used and the overwhelming documentation required by the teacher to complete on the computer.
    There are many new students to this little private school this year from the local public system. None of the new students can write a paragraph in cursive, cursive was used for special projects and only certain letters learned. Cursive is still required learning in her class, and no group projects, very small computer lab, none in the classrooms. It is almost like the school was frozen in time and preserved. I am watching to see when they come under attack. Administrator is now armed with your book.

    • Thanks LL. My youngest went to Montessori from 2 through 5th grade. Apparently she is like the only kid in her high school who writes in cursive. If you will notice the writing being pushed by Common Core is always personal reflections like journaling or role playing in print or reproducing stated arguments verbatim. There is no desire to foster the kind of mental conversation that goes on on this blog daily or in my book.

      It is easy to grasp the social construction of reality when you have read the book and thus know what Rosenblatt wanted to prevent in reading and Freudenthal in math. There’s a reason cybernetics requires constructivism. An abstract mental world immediately sends off alarms on what the likely consequences are in action.

      Radical Ed Reform simply wants that action to remake the here and now without deliberation.

      I am glad you have found such a place. A Strong base during the elementary years is virtually impossible to undo. Especially for those parents like you who know what is being targeted and why.

  6. I’m just passing along an article regarding Maduro and Venezuela. If the progressives have their way what Maduro has instituted will not be so dissimilar to what we have. The names will be different. The control? Not so much.

    Maduro emphasized…, “but now we are going to develop a new economic model, a new social model, where you are living, compatriot, in your community, where your family is. The new economic model will be linked to schools, high schools, it’s to make a new Venezuela and a new revolutionary process. The credits (loans) will continue, but now we will orient them towards the concept of communal socialism.”

  7. pdf

    Just occurred to me the reality stuff is ” the big ideas” of Ubd. They are the concepts. It is simply their way of disguising things in language but it is simply to push the UN agenda points only no facts as we know. Like ” the big idea ” is Gospel. Its just the prog socialist big idea!
    This is pertinent because at the ncea conference this was all pushed and the rad nuns regaled ” the big ideas” especially the ed super of philly
    archdiocese. Her presentation wreaked of this. And frighteningly the PR person for ncea is now the new super of archdioces of boston.
    Kathy Mears of. press release “over 100 diocese are doing common core” lie which was repeated like Everybody is Doing It!!! Come On, get with the HERD! When contacted about that she could not name 100 diocese but maybe 12,
    she said it was actually a casual show of hands at a meeting. Busted!
    and common core catholic identity initiative was disseminated like gospel at ncea conference and done so through leadership of Boston college, patricia Weitzel -Oneill. .( and loyola Chicago lorraine Ozar) Boston College is Also home now of prof hargreaves research partner of
    both michael fullan and accused pedophile benjamine Levin.
    (Levin reminds me of bill gates. Same imperious overlord attitude manner tics and prog code language interview on you tube )
    UDB is pushed in PA by Intermediate Units and put out a paper called ” how to kill UDB” helping teachers slowly ease it in and avoid gatekeepers….
    Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins are all over Texas training teachers in
    UbD because Texas has long used Norman Webb’s Depth of Knowledge rubric.
    They have thus been pushing the social construction of reality for years.

    Seems there are teams of third party authorities and pressure groups working in tandem on their target geoups pushing their specialty, techniques for eliminating facts and reality, methods to distract kids, methods to indoctrinate with the big ideas, deep learning, hypnotism voidoo and creepy sex ed to perv out any left standing…

    • madmommy-you are precisely right about UbD as I have said in previous posts. Grant Wiggins has also said it is grounded in Ralph Tyler’s objective work for the 8 Year Study in the 30s and ultimately John Dewey’s concept of understand. What I am calling a phronetic, experiential concept of understand after Flyv’s work. The phrase “to make sense of” is another tipoff we are dealing with a call for a subjective social construction of how the world works that is politically useful if change is the desire, but it may have little accurate grounding in reality.

      On the UN, our old friend Professor Richard Falk from the World Order Models Project is back laying out his desires for the Great Transition here.

      Love the part where he admits the desire to reengineer what the electorate believes and values to get the desired shift moving along.

      One more point on UbD, the link from the end Goal or Aim to what goes on in the classroom to create it is clearer if we use UbD’s other name–Backward Mapping. That’s the term used in our local school district.

        • LL-that document is using backward mapping to refer to the Learning Progression. I describe that in Chapter 7 of the book with cites to the Gates Foundation funded papers laying it out. In the recent podcast interview of Linda Darling-Hammond she reiterated that the Learning Progression is the fundamental feature of the Common Core. Luckily for us I grasped that 3 years ago when such papers were easier to obtain since it was before any controversy.

          Within the progression you have desired skills or practices and then Big Ideas and cross-cutting concepts like systems that come into play in every class. UbD is used for anything conceptual.

        • Brainwashing the tinies is evil. And when you ask if they like school, they ay “Yes”. Here in UK anything derogatory was forbidden from school reports ?20 years ago.
          Democracy R.I.P.
          Mona McNee

      • Falk is truly insufferable. I read that with my jaw clenched. It’s a whole lot harder for him and others to pitch this garbage without Global Climate Change as the new Armageddon though isn’t it?

        They are relying on this as a guidepost for transforming behavior.

        Semi – related question. Falk refers to the US as a constitutional democracy. Obama has done this as well. I thought the US was a democratic republic. China defines itself as a constitutional democracy. I think russia does as well but I could be mistaken there.

        Am I worrying over semantics needlessly or are definitions like this being repeated and distorted deliberately?

        I’m still fuming over APUSH. Coleman is like a stealthy junior Pol Pot.

        • Yes the language is being deliberately manipulated and misrepresented and the US Constitution is being treated as a document from the past that no longer fits current needs. The idea is that it should be jettisoned just like we did with the Articles of Confederation. The fact that one was an open consensual rejection and this is pure stealth gets ignored.

          This is what I have been working on in recent days and cross-referencing between about 4 different books. Two from this year. It’s rather shocking, consistent rhetoric about governments being in charge and steering society and we are the governed. That we elect politicians to govern us literally, not just represent people in areas under their jurisdiction. Between being a lawyer and a history major, I truly hate a sloppy argument using incorrect information assuming no one will notice in time.

          It also turns out the UN has created a new initiative Global Pulse to deal with its plans involving planning around Big Data.

          Did you notice how many times Falk mentioned altering ‘perceptions’ and consciousness? That’s the role of education. After all I have his 1975 book and at least 5 more WOMP books. Plus I ordered the 2008 book mentioned in the footnotes on the Global Commonwealth. Princeton Press and using the commonwealth term just like Harry Boyte in the White House pushed higher ed initiative on Democracy that commenced in 2012. A Crucible Moment is a component.

          • I did notice Falk’s desire to alter our consciousness and perceptions. So thoughtful of him to determine for us how we should exist as human beings.

            Speaking of constitutions I was encouraged to see a no vote win the day re Scotland’s independence. I am under no illusions that Great Britain is not firmly in the clutches of social justice globaloney but it seemed clear to me that Scotland’s independence was a communitarian beta test.

            Their new and improved and independent constitution would no doubt have granted them lots of responsibilities and not so many rights. Not to mention tons of debt to the IMF .

            So perhaps the social justice indoctrination , I mean education, is not affecting people as much as hoped for?

          • Robin you’re the historian and I am not, but wasn’t the Constitution drafted and imposed secretively by a bunch of men in a locked hall under armed protection, generally with the drapes drawn over the windows so that nobody could even see what they were doing?

            Same place as the drafting of the Declaration of Independence 14 or so years earlier, and a lot of the same guys as well, but a much different event. This was never explained clearly in school history classes; all I recall is that supposedly the old Confederation was too “disorganized”. I’ve never seen such disorganization to be the real cause of an urgent change in regime. Unlike the D of I where the Preamble gives ample and eloquent justification, the Constitution just mentions a “more perfect union” which is not a compelling reason. And the one thing that is clear and jibes with my business experience is that it gave foreign creditors central place to go to collect debts owed by various States.

            Power grabs come from the top. Why would that one be an exception?

          • Aren’t The Federalist Papers the epitome of an open debate? Other than writing under aliases of course.

            Your version is not what I recall, but honestly I am fighting a head cold so it will take a while. The Articles did not give sufficient centralized power to protect anyone sufficiently. IIRC there was also a problem with states issuing debt.

            This article gives an overview of where this is all going. Honestly if I read one more reference to being Governed now I may hit something. Most politicians don’t even seem to manage themselves well.

            Going back decades though the reverence in the US Constitution for the individual has always been seen as an impediment, especially before SCOTUS began to reinterpret its provisions in the 1930s.

            Seriously I will pull my books from college and see what they lay out on the reasons. As I explain in my book or when I speak to groups, the power grab now is a reversion to the historic norm where political power also had the economic power. The problem is there is no mass prosperity when those are joined.

          • Robin, if you are interested in looking into the causes of the adoption of the Constitution, I would be interested in what you have to say. I recall though that there were anti-Federalists, who also wrote Papers, as well as Federalists. And the former were more numerous than the latter.

            You’re a lawyer practicing under the Constitution, and I’ve never seen a lawyer say bad things about it, but you’re also a Southerner. I grew up in Delaware so I guess I am a Southerner too, by about five miles (to the Mason Dixon Line — I was in the northern suburbs of Wilmington.). The Constitution is about the best deal going these days, but I suspect the Articles were even better.

            Nobody could possibly take this to mean I am OK with people taking away our Constitutional rights. Quite the opposite. And so, maybe it’s just a sideline and we are agreeing on the stuff that’s relevant for today.

          • Gee somebody must be monitoring me. Too bad I download and hard copy, make sure I accurately grasp how everything fits, and then mention it.

            When a link goes down like that, it just confirms I am on the right track. In fact we truly are at the core within the pass-protected inner sanctum. Luckily for us I can recognize Uncle Karl’s Human Development Model even if there’s no mention of Human Development or the M word. Yes, there is a good reason so many are afraid enough people will find my book to begin to grasp the DNA of all this.

            Let’s just hope whatever is making my sinuses feel like they are full of toothpaste is better tomorrow.

            I am a Southerner although any NYC can driver who heard the accent and decided to get ‘lost’ decided I was not a Sweet Georgia Peach. Seriously, one said that when I was interviewing up there during law school. But you are confirming my point that there was openness in what was being attempted back in 1787 even if how precisely to shift was in dispute.

            I think it is time for me to revisit the Constitution. On next week’s To Do List

  8. The Venezuelan material sounds like a combination of Paolo Freire and the Cuban model. Needless to say, both reflect the worst of what is to come for our children and grandchildren.

  9. Robin-

    That last link was broken for me anyway. Can you try it again? I want to read it. I think I am finally getting through to my husband.

    He came home a bit perturbed last night having learned that Obama and Holdren want to overturn 30 + years of existing Franchise Law to make parent corps responsible for ill doings of independent store operators.

    Basically they want to eliminate the independent contractor part of being a franchisee that has enabled so many small business owners to prosper for decades.

    What is better for the SEIU after all? Get minimum up, petition food workers to unionize, take a small percentage for their new wage hike for dues of course, and then sue the crap out of the parent corps for Mo’ Money. Finally, ensure that said business model unravels because it is not good for The People anyway.


    • Here’s a slide show while I go work on that UK link.

      Tell your husband I am about to make everything crystal clear. should also help.

      I used to do some franchise work when I worked for a big law firm before I went in-house and that ruling truly was egregious. Must meet needs and pockets with contents need to be lightened to equalize outcomes.

      That link works but I have noticed longer links get cut off when people are trying to access by cellphone. Is that the problem?

      • Accenture is a consulting business. As I understand that business model, they charge by the hour or perhaps the job, and they pay out profits to partners at the end of the year.

        It’s a cash based business. They lease almost everything they use. If the contracts underlying their business were to vanish, there would be nothing there. Everyone is supposed to be generating revenue every microsecond.

        Where do they get the money to do such advocacy for sustainability? Who assures them it will pay off? How will they be paid off for it?

        • Perhaps their partnership with the World Economics Forum? That Davos meeting we keep missing an invitation to.

          They sponsor the Global Cities Forum beginning in 2007.

          I have much more than that link. They are very graphic as to their intentions and those of others. Just the sort of declarations I adore.

      • If we just replaced “Control” or “Controllable” for Sustain or Sustainable every time we read or heard those terms it would all become instantly more clear what are actually the intended goals and aims.

  10. Robin, remember how we have discussed the two distinct sides of groups that object to Common Core? Here is a perfect example that involves your book in the discussion. The two sides go back and forth in the NW arguing about this instead of seeing that it us ALL of it combined. I suspect the man likely part of the bad ass group pushing the need for whole child. See comments here.

    • That was interesting LL. I always love how Diane Ravitch’s blog gets hyped with no one pointing out she was on the Gordon Commission so she is intimately involved with the ultimate synthesis.

      Veteran Educator definitely did not want anyone reading my book. Propaganda does not have 381 footnotes and we do get to take both UNESCO and the OECD at their word for why they are pushing what is known as 21st century learning, which is most assuredly linked to the Common Core. The Next Generation Learning Initiative even affirmed the P21 report I cited from.

      Ok here is Mercedes’ bio Ball State University where she was an ed prof is part of John Goodlad’s National Network for Educational renewal. Its former Dean moved to Georgia to take over as PRISM PI under the NSF Constructivism grant when Jan Kettlewell retired. Kettlewell was also from the NNER NetworK and brought Goodlad to Georgia to meet with the USG Board of Regents.

      The irony is that there is much of what Mercedes writes about I would agree with. As you know I just follow the facts, which is precisely why people want other people to never even pick up the book. It scares me how prescient I was, especially as I have worked on this e-governance aspect in recent days. Book still has the foundation it is all built on.

      • Exactly, Robin. I happen to believe that the Bat movement is an intentional move by those who seek to protect their own private interests and distract from the facts of what is actually going on in the classroom, which as we know, is precisely what you discuss here and in your book. Perhaps they seek to distract educators from the truth because they are easily found once you know where to look. I looked, and have looked up almost everything you mention in your book, and have found most reports you mention but did not site in the footnotes. Why is it that most educators are not questioning this movement before following the leading of a self proclaimed communist? As far as Ratvich goes, she makes some good points, however, is part of the inside movement as you say and is a proponent of things you have made quite clear are not actually about knowledge. I cannot for one minute believe that she is so ignorant to not pick up on some of the vision. How can it not raise a red flag when you know that she defends to no end her close friend LDH, verbally smashing those who claim that LDH is radical.
        To simply dismiss any information that describes that education has become not at all about education but political theory and economic change without considering or investigating for yourself the facts is either denial, naivete, or protection. That individual certainly was not willing to see things in any other form and I highly doubt his ignorance. It is the perfect scheme, distract educators with danger to their jobs and injustice, promote it as an effort to abolish teachers and their job protection and promote ccss as simply an attempt to privatize education. Talk about brainwashing. Squelch any inquiries to those who might begin to question what these movements are actually about. Don’t look any further teachers, this is what it is about, do not question the status quo, nothing to see here, keep moving.

        • LL, remember how I posed the question to the bat group about the whole child? Those people love it. They loooooove it. Same stupid thing with the NWTSJ conference…the groups all hate the CC. Actually, no they don’t, they LOOOOVE it if they think about it. They’re just pissed about the testing and the money.

          • Macey-they are angry I focused on the actual implementation instead of biting into the marshmallow of the rhetoric. I can understand wanting to ignore my research because someone hates the idea it’s all about trying to plan and collectivize the economy and society. I was rather shocked by that turn of events myself. It’s why I put so much effort into being sure and talking about the consequences.

            Your bringing up the Whole Child is the part of the story that cannot really wait. It’s the psychological focus and the violation of trust involved and there’s nothing in a teacher or especially an administrator’s training to accurately tip them off to the dangers to the psyche for some kids. As I have said, it was grasping that PBIS was to be used on every student and that few parents would know that caused me to start this blog.

    • LL-I think Anita Hoge nails it in this piece on what happens when money follows the child under the current ability to then regulate any school touched by that money.

      It relates to what I have outlined to write about today where public payment gives the ability to control the ‘private’ sector while keeping an illusion that capitalism and markets are involved.

      One quibble: I wish Anita had made it clear that the standards are another word for behavioral learning Goals. Someone unaware of that will read standards as about getting everyone involved with the same content.

      • That was easy to understand, difficult to hear. Couple of things in the application of this. First, in OR our title 1 is still functioning the same. In my district (small rural) two schools are labeled title 1, the others are not. Am I thinking correctly that she is saying that the ESEA funded all kids under title 1, or will in the future. Have not noticed that change yet. Was the article saying that Equity is being used for that purpose? ( had that gut feeling on the equity issue, there must be one of those non dictionary definitions for that).
        “There is a huge risk factor for any local school district in a state that passed laws promoting “choice” along with an easy approval process for new charters, especially with no caps on expansion. Race to the Top grants accentuated this process with states promising to drop their caps on charter schools when they took the money.”
        I have OR’s RTT printed and bound, I’ve combed it multiple times. If that is there it is hiding under different language. Is that in Ga’s?

        • Hit the send button early.
          I sense a great deal of angst in the tone of that article. Animosity toward the republicans. As usual party line distraction. I wish people would try to understand that those who identify with so called right are NOT happy with representation! I don’t label myself with any party line anymore. I can’t be fully on board with any of them. The right takes the blame for “choice” maybe some sell outs are down with the vision, maybe some are simply ignorant crony capitalists living in their legislative bubbles to see reality and the views of their constituents. This week my rep was walking the neighborhood. This rep and the S.I. are pals. I’m positive the super informed rep of my involvement at the school board. This reflects the note on my door wanting to chat over coffee from said rep. Guess what, he will not be getting a sweet mild meeting. As he supports the core and just did a education town hall with the focus of equity. No I do not mind making things uncomfortable for him or the school board, time to own up to your selling out.

          • LL I’m with you. I cannot find adequate representation from either party these days. Neither side speaks for me currently and it is so frustrating to be dismissed by people as this or that in lieu of their taking time to absorb and appreciate facts about what is taking place whose importance transcends party lines.

            Robin- That sultanknish post was brilliant. And Anita Hoge does not pull any punches either. It hurts. Bless ’em both. We need more where they came from. Keep it coming.

          • In Britain, children’s education is wrecked from Day 1 by keeping proper phonics (based on 26 letters>sounds, and NOT 44 sounds>letters) out of schools, Publishers say they will only publish what conforms to government! and the disaster gets even worse, now 45% failure at 11+. Gove was waking up, stopped Reading Recovery and HE got the sack! – shifted to Chief Whip! It is people never named who run , wreck this country, no those named at elections. And the result? They kill off education, kill off the Empire, Kill off sovereignty (to EU). If voters really knew the names and intentions of those in control, we would shoot them, not vote for them! Traitors control the UK, parliament.
            Mna McNee

          • Mona-I know it is frustrating to know how to teach reading properly and then to realize that no one wants to actually do that anymore. I explain why symbol systems of print have such a known turbocharging effect on the human mind in Chapter 2 of my book. We will revisit the known effect of substituting visual images via computers today as that weakened, malleable mind when also throwing off unconscious info is a crucial component of this e-Governance vision. What I left out last time is that e-Governance is also a vital component of the UN’s vision going forward.

            As John Dewey recognized a century ago almost to the year, fluent reading bolsters the entire concept of individualism. Distributed intelligence as a right of everyone to access what someone else knows negates it.

          • Dang Robin-

            That paper reads like a manual on how to create generations of infantilized, helpless imbeciles. Cuz it is I suppose.

            I have that old Dire Straights ditty going through my head..” Money for Nothin’…”

            Anecdotal confirmation for kicks and giggle- 11th grade daughter came home from school yesterday fuming:

            ” MOM. Why won’t our Biology Teacher TEACH us anything? ”

            Whoop there it is.

          • They are in the transition phase. Still required to know some content, but they will have to get there on their own. The elementary and middle school kids get it full force now. The 11th graders are about to be the last group to take the old PSAT and SAT. Then there are the group projects where the few kids that can write redo the others’ papers and then parents only see the online posted grade (unless you are me on never check it as a matter of principle). Parents have no idea the child cannot write and wonder why there are no 4s or 5s.

            Closing the achievement gap for the most part, but creating a chasm against the kids whose parents are available and did make sure they were fluent readers and where the household radiates ideas and current affairs as the natural lifeblood of interacting.

   is even worse. Jobs for the Future is working with the federal DoED on the workforce skills as I have written about. That paper from last week confirms in one place precisely what I painstakingly pieced together as the true template in the book.

            Jobs for the Future was also the entity rejoicing over the passage of that egregious Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. At least we know how it all fits and can monitor in real time. The problem is that you and I both know you cannot afford employees that need a team to collaborate with to do their single job.

  11. Mari-
    Welcome to my nightmare called Portland, Oregon. I cannot begin to tell you how warped it truly is here.

    In the OR online FB group there are many complaints on homework, the content was never taught in class but the work is expected to be completed. Something called broken calculator math.

    I will look into this Ed Dennis. sigh… a little scared.

    • Productive struggle. It forces the students to get used to developing strategies and applying current concepts to new situations or situations where there is great ambiguity. It’s not just Rigor and HOTS and preparation for that flexible mindset and willingness to act intuitively. It’s also coming to think of education not as a body of knowledge, but as social practices.

      The Queensland materials were a treasure trove because it’s the same vision, but they are not hiding their rationale. My plan is to explain all that in a subsequent post after we deal with our Double Helix aspiration.

      Scarier is not understanding what is going on. To be 3 years further in and to know there were remedies if only there had been knowledge. Let’s face it, a phonetic fluent reader can only be bored and frustrated by what goes on in the classroom. An Axemaker Mind can be prevented, but it cannot really be undone once it exists.

        • How exciting. He gets to plan both people and places for the future visions of Equity and a new type of economy and society.

          One of my daughters and I were discussing the lack of a thank you note from someone who got a lovely present and also numerous items that we were asked if we could make available for a wedding reception. It’s been a couple of months now and it was not a large wedding. Very Leftist in their visions of the future. My point to my daughter was they seem to want governments to take from others and give it to them without a recognition that is what Sultan Knish called the Rationing State that destroys the very prosperity they want to rain down. But if someone voluntarily does something nice, there does not seem any desire to show gratitude.

          I always taught my kids that the essence of who you are is how you treat the disenfranchised when nobody’s looking.

          • Yes this is the sum of it:


            Its an especially salient point when one observes nowadays the coercive mandate from NGO’s far and wide to publicize one’e do gooderness. Ad nauseum. Narcissism run amok.

            A friend said the other with tongue firmly planted in cheek that a sub definition of the ever growing Public -Private Partnership model is:

            The Public Brand that we show to coerce compliance and participation and The Private Persona that really just intends to tell you what to do and how much to pay.

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