Do you remember a previous posting on this site about the Rockwood School District and other area districts in the St. Louis area teaching morals in the classroom? We were concerned about Dr. Marvin Berkowitz's being hired by several districts to teach lessons and theories in morality as these values have been traditionally reserved for parents and religious institutions to teach children.
A brief summary of Dr. Berkowitz's beliefs that are being implemented in public classrooms in the Midwest:
He described a “teaching tool” that would help children explore their feelings and solve problems. This “tool" involved the children sitting in a circle, rating themselves on how they are feeling, and then being asked to share, with the entire group, what their problems were. Their peers would then be called upon to help solve said problems.
American Thinker dissects this type of children centered problem solving dynamics and have named it for what it is: Utopian collectivism.
Play the "game." Stay "in step with the group." Mind "the leash." In one illustration of how these collectivist metaphors are set into action, a Tools of the Mind counting exercise requires children to take turns regulating and inhibiting each other's behavior. In TOTM's "mature, dramatic play," teachers "help children plan, and stay true to their plans in a way that emphasizes inhibitory control..." The Vygotskyian method exploits little minds and turns play into a job performed to communal specifications. Children comply. Acclimation to the centrally planned society begins at three years old.
and
In kindergarten and preschool classrooms all over America, tiny young humans are being taught to regiment each other's behavior. Obedient little collectivists are learning to submit to group wishes in order to be judged "correct" -- politically correct.
Instead of focusing on pizza sales, wrapping paper drives, swimming pool initiatives, and selling bedding plants, perhaps the Parent Organizations should be asking the important questions of their schools:
The room buzzes with little voices. Little children engage in "mature, dramatic play." An adult helps the children "regulate" and "monitor each other's compliance" with "rules and assigned roles." Each child knows his or her place. Each child does the group's bidding, nothing else.
and
In kindergarten and preschool classrooms all over America, tiny young humans are being taught to regiment each other's behavior. Obedient little collectivists are learning to submit to group wishes in order to be judged "correct" -- politically correct.
Instead of focusing on pizza sales, wrapping paper drives, swimming pool initiatives, and selling bedding plants, perhaps the Parent Organizations should be asking the important questions of their schools:
- Did this school sponsor training from Dr. Marvin Berkowitz?
- Does this school sponsor character education?
- If this school does sponsor character education, please explain in detail what type of character education is taught to children.
- Does this school/district employ constructivism as a learning theory?
The room buzzes with little voices. Little children engage in "mature, dramatic play." An adult helps the children "regulate" and "monitor each other's compliance" with "rules and assigned roles." Each child knows his or her place. Each child does the group's bidding, nothing else.
Orwell's 1984? No, a scene played out in thousands of classrooms across America. The drumbeat of collectivism begins in preschool. And a long-dead Soviet psychologist helped define that drumbeat.
It's no wonder there is a huge push for universal preschool. You know, it may "all be for the kids" after all. It's just not exactly what you might have in mind for your human capital. Call your district today.
