August 1997

EDUCATION FOR A BRAVE NEW WORLD

By HUBERT BEYER

VICTORIA – British Columbia has the "Year 2000" educational program. All the states of the US have the "America 2000" or the "Global 2000" program. These programs, which are to prepare students for the new millennium, constitute a dramatic shift in the focus of education that have many experts alarmed.

The most disturbing aspect of the shift in our education program, according to critics, is that curricula are more and more designed to suit the workplace. In other words, the employers of our education system are no longer the parents but industry and commerce.

The US are ahead of us in their revamping of the learning system, and alarm bells are going off all over the place. In a recent speech to a conference under the heading "What Goals 2000 Means to the States," Ron Sunseri, a representative in the Oregon Legislature, described a frightening scenario, the implications of which may ultimately apply to British Columbia as well.

Oregon began its education reform in 1991. The new system was called "Outcome-based Education." Narrowly-focused education programs were to be a thing of the past. No more diplomas in clearly-defined disciplines.

Instead, students would works towards a Certificate of Initial Mastery, to be followed by an eventual Certificate of Advanced Mastery.

Sunseri says the new system is a clear attempt to force an education on children that replaces content with process.

"They talk about self-directed learning and collaboration and understanding diversity. Very little is mentioned about academics.

"It becomes clear why it is important to change (students’) attitudes. And control the behavior of the child at an early age. The goal is no longer to give children a broad base of knowledge so they can make their own choices, but to compete with third-world nations under GATT and NAFTA. A compliant workforce facilitates this," Sunseri says.

Cottage Grove in Oregon was the first to jump on the Certificate of Initial Mastery bandwagon. Sunseri says it was a catastrophe. Of the 183 students in the class that received the certificates, 116 wrote a letter to the authorities, begging the school district to stop subjecting them to that kind of education.

"What’s happening to our children with these Certificates of Mastery is a tragedy," says Sunseri. "Forest Grove school district declined 36 points in verbal skills and 17 points in math."

At the district’s high school level, Sunseri says, they finally agreed to add some academic content by teaching Shakespeare to Grade 10 students.

"After it was over, we found that they read two comic books and watched the video Roxanne with Steve Martin. So much for Shakespeare."

The result of Oregon’s fiddling with the education system to suit the needs of the world of business in the new global economy has been that students leave high school with gaping holes in their education.

Sunseri says that 30 per cent of all high school graduates going on to college need remedial course. That, he adds, "blew the cap off the capitol building" because it involves the spending of millions of dollars for an education the students were already supposed to have had.

British Columbia’s "Year 2000" program may differ from that of Oregon’s, but the fact is that here, too, the education system is shaped more and more to suit future employers. And that, I suggest, will leave is with future generations more suited to Huxley’s Brave New World than the one we hope our children will inherit.