STUTER HAS HAD IT WITH STW APOLOGISTS \doc\web\98\09\stuter.txt Date sent: Sun, 01 Nov 1998 20:12:58 To: ReinhardJ1@aol.com (by way of Fred Battey ) From: "Lynn M Stuter" Subject: Re: STW: A right-wing, fascist conspiracy? Dear Mr Reinhard, With all due respect, Sir, I think you are a little narrow minded. What I hear, in your email, is a great deal of the rhetoric that so many of us have heard so many times that, like you, we can repeat it forward and backward in our sleep. I don't know where or when you went to school, but when I went to school, we were not educated for the "industrial era" as you claim -- we were educated for intelligence. We were given a broad liberal arts education, such that we were quite capable of thinking for ourselves, articulating our thoughts both in writing and in speaking, and were able to use the vast scope of our knowledge to formulate a reasoned conclusion. We were not a bust to employers because we graduated high school intelligent enough that we could walk into a business and what we didn't know, we had the intelligence to learn. Under the system you describe, the education system is being used as a means of producing a workforce -- nothing more. The school is there to meet the needs of the new customer of education: business. Children are exiting the "education" system with a very narrowly defined set of skills that frustrates their ability, now and in the future, of doing what they want to do with their lives. They are forever caught in a SYSTEM that trains and retrains people in accordance with local economic development strategies and local labor market needs. These kids are not getting a broad liberal arts education. That has been usurped by workforce training. As for these children being able to think for themselves, in order to be able to think for themselves they have to have the mental discipline and know how to do so. In the progressive, child-centered, non-directive education of today, children are basically being left on a sea of confusion. In order for the mind to learn how to think, it must be disciplined in the methods of thinking. This teaches children how to think, not simply what to think. The ruler of old, across the back of the hand, while some think extreme, was a tool of disciplining the mind -- teaching the child how to focus, stay focused, and follow through. Kids today can't think because they have never had the disciplined mental training. If you can't think, learning anything and being able to apply what one has learned, is nearly impossible As for "higher standards", I've read manual after manual of subjective "higher standards" -- what the child shall know and be able to do as a result of his/her educational experience -- what the child will exit the education system looking like. Entering the conveyor belt of education at kindergarten and exiting that conveyor belt at the end of the twelfth grade, the child is a cookie cutter model, with the same attitudes, values, and beliefs, as every other child. While they know how they feel about math, have had large doses of environmental psychobabble, and can tell you everything that they believe is wrong with the world and how to fix it, they are long on emotion, long on ego, short on knowledge and even shorter on brains. They are easily manipulated and easily used. And when their egos are bruised, they turn violent. Instead of education being equal opportunity, education is equal outcome. From each according to his ability to each according to his need (Karl Marx). Now, how would I know all this?. Because I decided to find out for myself what education reform was. I have done that by reading local, state, and federal documents, and the books written by the reformers. My knowledge of the system and how it works didn't come from the sources to which you refer, but from the works themselves. Most educators, principals included, have never read the grants -- local, state, or federal. While educrats try to claim that Goals 2000 and STW are voluntary, we know better -- we've read the RFP's over which those grants HAD to be written to be considered. We have the STW grants and the One-Stop Career Center System Implementation Grants and the Goals 2000 grants -- and we have read them -- word for word. Have you? Do you know what your state STW grant says? Have you read the RFP over which your state wrote its STW grant and its Goals 2000 grant? Do you know who Marc Tucker is, and his role in the transformation of our education system to a workforce training system? Have you read his infamous letter to Hillary Clinton and do you know that he was a chief architect of Goals 2000, the STWOA, and that he works with states in writing their laws to comply with these acts? While it is easy to spew the rhetoric of seat time, clock time, rote memorization, and Sputnik, the reality isn't quite the same as the rhetoric. My oldest daughter was a freshman in high school when education reform began showing its ugly head. She was not getting an education. Because of her high IQ, the school wanted to use her for a "peer tutor." Her synopsis was that the kids didn't want to learn, they just wanted the answer and she wasn't going to school to be a teacher, she wasn't getting paid to do their job. If she was involved in a group project, she did the work because of her intrinsic motivation, while the others played around -- and they got her grade for doing nothing. After reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" she sat through four, ninety minute class periods, while her peers -- working in groups -- struggled to come up with a three sentence synopsis of what the book was about. She did hers in five minutes and spent the next four days reading a book. She suffered through drugs in the classroom, alcohol in the classroom, disruptive students, belligerence, and lewd and lascivious conduct . At the end of her freshman year in high school, she begged me to home school her. She is now attending one of the very few truly liberal arts insitutions left in the United States. She aced her SAT. She graduated high school with Analytical Geometry, Physics, Trigonometry and Calculus on her high school transcript. She took American History, American Government, and Economics. She had three years of Science, four years of English and Composition and two years of Spanish. She carried 9 subjects her senior year. At the end of her freshman year of college, she had enough credits to carry her through to the middle of her sophomore year. She challenged several of her freshman required courses and took other subjects. On the other hand, her public schooled peers did not have the benefit of her schooling; they were spending their time getting in touch with how they felt about various social issues, and making uniformed opinions. They have great self-esteem but very little between the head sets. They can't articulate anything much beyond four letter obscenities, which they use liberally demonstrating their ignorance and illiteracy. Most graduated without knowing our form of government, who the Founding Fathers were, and what sets our nation apart from other nations -- why so many have flocked to our shores. These kids have no idea why our country is unique and that the freedoms they enjoy, others do not. Nor do they understand that those freedoms will not long stand, taken for granted as they are. They can't read, they can't write, math is way beyond their comprehension. They do not have the liberal arts foundation they need to do whatever they want to do with their lives. "Less is more" just doesn't cut it. When the core knowledge goes out the window in behest of the feel-good fuzzies of your education reform, kids lose, and they are losing ground rapidly in the public schools. As for your "global economy", an intelligent, well-educated child can fit in to any workforce. But the "global economy" doesn't want well-educated children, it wants drones who will do what they are told without questioning -- what you accuse the "industrial era" of being. That's why in America's Choice, high skills or low wages! Tucker and company state that employers are not looking for well-educated employees. International companies want kids with the cooperative, collaborative, compliant attitudes, kids who will work for a pittance so the companies can make their big profits -- the fuedalistic system that plunged Europe into poverty, chaos and war. As for Diana Fessler being "far right", I could make the same analogy about you and state that you must be a "commie pinko." I don't know you, have never met you, but I'm sure I can make an accurate assessment of you by what you've written. I'm sure you won't like that label, but if name calling is all you have to offer to the debate, the debate will be a short one. Before you criticize Diana Fessler, I would suggest you read all the documents she has read. You will undoubtedly get an education that will change your point of view. Or is it just easier to cast labels and aspersions based on what you feel is true? As for being part of your "solution", I'll take Thaddeus Lott's solution over yours anyday. While he turns out intelligent, well-eduated children from socio-economically deprived backgrounds, and with less, the education reform schools want more to produce illiterate children who will be drones on the assembly line of the globalist internationsl companies of the future. Push this button, pull that lever, go to coffee break . . . Lynn M Stuter Education Researcher Washington State > >With all due respect to the author or this article, when was the last >time you >spent anytime in a public high school in America? The system is broken >and our >kids can no longer compete in a global economy taking courses that are so >outdated that we are setting our kids up for failure. The diploma that >most kids earn today, in some schools it is called a general diploma, is >worth about enough to get them a cup of coffee and 50 cents. The system >that all of us graduated from was an industrial system that was set up to >train workers for the factories , who didn't have to think alot for >themselves. We live in a >different world today. In my school district we have companies that do >business all over the world and they can't find employees with the skills >to hire, so they are recruiting employees from over seas. To me that is criminal. >With all due respect to State Board of Education member, Diane Fessler, >she tends to be on the very far right when it comes to education issues. >I would like to know when was the last time she spent considerable time >in a high school and saw the issues we face everyday. I have a very >different perspective than most people because I am a high school >principal in a school that is benefiting greatly from increased academic >standards and preparing students for improved career readiness, and I >have also been a school board member for 9 years. The problem folks is >the system is broken. It is not the kids, parents, teachers, or >communities, it is >the system. Until we accept that nothing will ever change. We can't >change who >enters our schools. We must accept everyone, just like the Statue of >Liberty. Yes, there are some teachers who need to be removed, but overall >the system is >burning good people out. >I don't agree with the tactics that you described happened in Congress, >but our kids deserve the opportunity to compete on a playing field with >everyone else around the world. The resources we have received through >STW have helped our school to move light years ahead in a very short time >and we don't have anybody from Columbus,Ohio or Washington, D.C. telling >us what to do or how to >do it. >The bottom line is that the very far right needs to do their homework and quit >reacting to reports that they read. They need to get into schools and see what >is going on and become part of the solution, rather than being part of >the problem. > >Jon Reinhard >High School Principal >Clermont Northeastern High School >Batavia, Ohio 45103 >School Board Member >Mason City Schools >Mason, Ohio 45040 > >Thanks and have a great day. Remember, we are in business for kids. > >