During a talk group exercise yesterday (StrengthBank® for HIgh Schools’  Talk Groups), I was dumbfounded by how superficial the kids answers were about where they saw themselves in the year 2020.  None could think past today and said, for example, that in 2020 their closest advisor would be Mom or Dad, that they would still be living where they are now, and that the majority of their time during work hours would be hanging out with friends, watching tv, or going to the movies.  Aaughhhhhh!  I was taken aback.  Previous years and talk groups’ responses actually “dreamed” and “imagined” beyond today and with details.

My teacher/facilitator of the talk group nodded sadly and commented that kids are no longer taught to think but taught the answers to the standardized test assuming that is all they need to know.  If you don’t present them with an A, B, C choice, they cannot comment to another possibility.

Alarmed, I did a bit of research on what the “education gurus” have put out since the early 90′s and the “break with tradition.”  I had heard about Outcome-Based Education but had not until now “done my homework.”  Shame on me and shame on all of us who have let this muddle our kids minds to down rather than up.

What’s Wrong With Outcome-Based Education?

In order to master all outcomes, children with a particular talent are required to forfeit time in their area of strength. Because no child moves ahead until all demonstrate mastery, the inevitable happens: the faster learners quickly learn to slow their pace in order to avoid extra work, and they just give the answers to the slower learners so the group can move forward. Incentive and motivation are reduced, and boredom and resentment increased. The result is that all students demonstrate “mastery” of mediocrity, and none can aspire to excellence. Every child loses under this system….

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the famous Russian author and former political prisoner in Soviet Gulags, said in a speech in the mid-1970s:

“Coexistence on this tightly knit earth should be viewed as an existence not only without wars . . . but also without [government] telling us how to live, what to say, what to think, what to know, and what not to know.” Unfortunately, that’s what Outcome-Based Education is — a process for government telling our children how to live, what to say, what to think, what to know, and what not to know. What the children say, think and know must conform to the liberal Politically Correct ideology, attitudes and behaviour. What they do not know will be everything else. And because they won’t know the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, they won’t be able to find out. OBE is converting the three R’s to the three D’s: Deliberately Dumbed Down.~ May 1993 Phyllis Schlafly Report

What can we do about it now!  MENTOR! with meaningful content that brings back the upcoming generation to the relational prowess that creates thinking and creativity. Be a StrengthBank® Mentor in your local high school – Quick – before they are “out there” stumbling around and dumbing down American free enterprise.  Call 817 230 4523 or email Sandra Shelton for more information.