{"id":1671,"date":"2019-11-01T13:00:56","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T17:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deliberatedumbingdown.com\/ddd\/?p=1671"},"modified":"2019-11-01T13:00:56","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T17:00:56","slug":"a-reign-of-terror-impressions-of-kera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deliberatedumbingdown.com\/ddd\/2019\/11\/01\/a-reign-of-terror-impressions-of-kera\/","title":{"rendered":"A Reign of Terror\u2014Impressions of KERA"},"content":{"rendered":"

This letter proves how our nation’s excellent public school teachers were vehemently opposed to the restructuring everywhere it was implemented.<\/em><\/p>\n

Eddie Price, a 39-year-old social studies teacher with seventeen years of teaching experience, wrote \u201cA Reign of Terror\u2014Impressions of KERA\u201d which appeared in the December, 1993 issue of The Hancock Clarion of Hawesville, Kentucky. Excerpts from his important and, one might point out, extremely courageous article follow: <\/p>\n

I would never do anything to jeopardize my teaching career or, even more importantly, the security of my family, but I MUST speak out against what I perceive as a massive wrong in education\u2014the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA)<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The perpetrators of KERA began inundating our schools with mountains of regulations, restrictions, and KERA mandates… When we expressed our concerns we were told \u201cBe patient… Give KERA a chance… <\/p>\n

Teachers, we need your help. This is a partnership. KERA\u2019s Outcomes appeared to throw the hard, objective, factual subject matter out the window in favor of affective goals (more concerned with emotions and feelings). Our curriculum would have to be pared down and structured around values and attitudes. When teachers voiced concerns about not meeting the Valued Outcomes, they were \u201csoothed\u201d with the explanation that schools would be given the chance to improve. \u201cA \u2018Kentucky Distinguished Educator\u2019 will be sent to your building to help you grow.\u201d Then I learned that this official had the absolute power to declare the school \u201cA School in Crisis\u201d! The principal, and individual teachers could be eliminated with the single stroke of a pen. Past performances, evaluations, educational degrees, experience, awards, student achievement outside of KERA would mean nothing…<\/p>\n

When I sat down and read the entire history of KERA\u2019s evolution, I realized that our lawmakers and, even worse, our public had been skillfully and strategically duped. KERA had been slickly packaged in deceptive language of \u201cglittering generalities\u201d that the public seemed eager to swallow in the name of reform. Who could argue with such glossy words as \u201cexcellence,\u201d \u201crevamping,\u201d \u201cprogress,\u201d \u201coutcome-based,\u201d \u201cself-esteem,\u201d etc., unless they are \u201ctraditional,\u201d \u201chidebound,\u201d \u201cinflexible,\u201d and \u201cresistant to change\u201d? I realized that our distinguished and infallible commissioner basked in the full limelight of a press he had masterfully managed. Kentucky newspaper editors had been appointed to state committees in the name of \u201cprogress\u201d and their editorials provided\u2014free of charge\u2014an excellent soapbox from which to indoctrinate the public. Pro-KERA articles and comments have no problem making headlines while others with opposing views must pay exorbitant sums for \u201cpolitical advertisements.\u201d School principals and test scores can be subjectively manipulated from above to bring down the Kentucky Distinguished Educators upon schools \u201cnot politically correct.\u201d For a \u201cdissident,\u201d teaching in the public schools today is similar to living under a Stalinist \u201cReign of Terror.\u201d <\/p>\n

This is all so incredibly un-American that someone, maybe the FBI again, must investigate our legislature to discover how and why such a massive piece of legislation passed without more discussion. How many millions have already been squandered? How many millions more? No one truly had a chance to examine it fully. The public education hearings held across the state were structured around a preconceived plan devised by a national organization\u2014the Pritchard Committee. The whole thing was rammed down the public\u2019s throat before anyone could mobilize. Most concerned were placated by the false notion that parents and teachers would have more control with the \u201cdepoliticalization\u201d of education. The end result? Our local, elected school boards (those most responsive to a community\u2019s needs) were virtually stripped of their power while state control drastically tightened. The state now mandates the outcomes, approves the curriculum, trains the teachers, and judges the performance of students\u2014all of which must conform to KERA. <\/p>\n

[Ed. Note: Had the media, over the past ten years, been willing to publish the many articles and letters to the editor which mirrored Eddie Price\u2019s concerns, the national restructuring effort would be dead in its tracks. Even with censorship of opponents\u2019 views, restructuring has run up against intense opposition and is \u201cin deep trouble.\u201d An article which appeared in the October 10, 1998 issue of the Louisville, Kentucky Courier Journal entitled \u201cKentucky Schools Test Scores Vary Little from Last Year\u201d shows that KERA has been a total flop, as have all the other multi-million dollar, corporation-backed state reform acts implemented across the country. Wherever Carnegie\u2019s David Hornbeck goes one can expect a first-class academic flop! Of course, flops are essential in order to convince the public that \u201cworkforce training\u201d is the solution\u2014the deliberate dumbing down at work.]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This letter proves how our nation’s excellent public school teachers were vehemently opposed to the restructuring everywhere it was implemented. Eddie Price, a 39-year-old social studies teacher with seventeen years of teaching experience, wrote \u201cA Reign of Terror\u2014Impressions of KERA\u201d which appeared in the December, 1993 issue of The Hancock Clarion of Hawesville, Kentucky. Excerpts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deliberatedumbingdown.com\/ddd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deliberatedumbingdown.com\/ddd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deliberatedumbingdown.com\/ddd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deliberatedumbingdown.com\/ddd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deliberatedumbingdown.com\/ddd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/deliberatedumbingdown.com\/ddd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1672,"href":"https:\/\/deliberatedumbingdown.com\/ddd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1671\/revisions\/1672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deliberatedumbingdown.com\/ddd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deliberatedumbingdown.com\/ddd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deliberatedumbingdown.com\/ddd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}