THE E-FILES           NUMBER SIX           NOV.00-JAN.01

THE SUBJECT OF THIS E-FILE IS DIALECTICAL EDUCATION.

DESPITE ALL THE NEWS COVERAGE about funding, standards, testing and leaving no child behind, there has been little discussion about some of the fundamental changes that have taken place in schooling in the last 40 years. TV and movies always show classrooms as they were in "Leave It To Beaver," with desks all in rows and the teacher lecturing in front. This is all wrong.

THESE DAYS, desks are grouped in pods of two to six, the students facing each other. These must be as heterogeneous (by ability, sex, race, personality) as possible. Teachers have been trained to be "facilitators" of learning; each is a "guide on the side" instead of a "sage on the stage." They guide students through a group process of learning in which lecturing/fact-learning is minimized and student-led group "cooperative" problem solving is used. Whether the lesson is in math or drug education, there are usually rules of the process that prohibit "put-downs" and encourage "open-ended" thinking. There may be no respected educational standard or authority in subject areas-phonics, grammar and spelling in language arts; precisely correct answers in math, and so on. Students may work on projects for a group grade. Education reformers have long noted the lack of content (i.e., facts) taught to future teachers, while teachers' colleges insist that the PROCESS is what is important. Students are led to a different way of thinking and learning. They are often required to discuss controversial social topics, while admonished to be non-judgmental, tolerant and respectful of all views. Suggest to a teacher that group learning might be too noisy, inefficient, and anti-individualistic, and you might receive a horrified look and the stern response, "Children must learn how to work cooperatively!", as I have.

PARENTS, SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS, AND OTHERS involved in education reform efforts find themselves sitting through meetings, meetings, and more meetings. The format of meetings has also been restructured in the last decades. Frequently a facilitator replaces the old-fashioned chairman. There are circular seating arrangements. There may be an agreement to drop Robert's Rules in favor of consensus for reaching decisions. There may be giant pads of paper on which a recorder busily takes notes. Smaller discussion groups may be formed from the larger group and seated in circles. A facilitator may be placed in each of these groups. Warm-up exercises to make the participants identify with the group are sometimes included. Participants are encouraged to "open up" by expressing their dissatisfactions and other feelings, while nobody encourages the use of rules or laws for guidance. Language may be used deceptively. You may discover too late that the facilitator's definitions of words may be different than yours.

The E-Filer once attended a large meeting introducing a number of proposed programs. Favorable opinion had already been drummed up among many of the attendees. Employees and others who would benefit financially from the programs greatly outnumbered parents whose children would be affected. The question, "Should we implement the programs?" was never asked. Instead, the question, "What steps do we need to take to successfully implement the programs?" was the task the participants of group discussions were given to "brainstorm." It would have taken a BRAVE soul to stand up and declare the process bogus. This is an example of how important decisions are sometimes made in advance, with input requested later to give the appearance that the public has some control and has "bought" into the decisions made by administrators.

DEAN GOTCHER IS AN EXPERT IN FIGURING OUT HOW THE DIALECTIC IS USED IN SOCIETY TODAY. With a background in European history and philosophy, he became alarmed at what he saw in the federal education plans in Goals 2000. This stalwart man took five years and read over 600 books by social psychologists in order to find the origin of all the theories and techniques of the educators' designs. Many of these books are readily available here in Berkeley and probably are in most university towns. The information contained in this E-File is largely taken from lectures given by Mr. Gotcher and others who speak out with him-police detective Phillip Worts, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Robert Klenck, dentist Phillip Ring, mechanical engineer Steve Goss, radio host John Loeffler, and farmer Steven Rea. Each performed his own research to explain their observations of facilitator-led group processes in other areas of society-police forces, corporations, the military, the church, others--in which the dialectical process takes the form of Total Quality Management, Total Quality Leadership, etc.

WHAT IS THE DIALECTIC AND WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

Thomas Sowell (a Marxist in his younger days) said in "Marxism": "Out of the massive and complex writings of G.W.F. Hegel…certain key concepts of Marxism developed…What Marxism philosophy derived from Hegel was that the way to understand the world was not to see it as a collection of things but as an evolving process. An acorn or a caterpillar could not be understood as a fixed and isolated thing, without seeing that it was a transitory stage of an ongoing process that would eventually turn into an oak tree and the other into a butterfly. Social analogies to metamorphoses in nature abound in the writings of Marx and Engels…Dialectics in Plato referred to the counterpoints of an argument. Dialectics in Marx referred to opposing forces in reality-internal and inherent forces whose mutual conflicts produce metamorphoses."

The dialectical technique is used to create change. In diverse situations two forces exist in conflict or "contradiction" to each other. Marx said that one is "thesis" (the progressive) while the other is "antithesis" (or reactionary.) In the course of applying opposing force, the antithesis is slightly moved, creating a new "synthesis," a new state of conflict. The thesis temporarily retreats. The process is repeated. Progress is made in a series of advances and retreats.

Another way of looking at the dialectic is put by Phil Worts this way: "Hegelian dialectic is simply relative values. Truth is no longer found and stood on something transcendent, that you have to submit to. You can discover it yourself. It's a merging of opposites…Since there is no such thing as absolute truth, "my truth" is just as good as "your truth," so don't tell me what to think or how to behave. As Nietzsche would later say, "There is absolutely no absolute." Now 2 + 2 can equal 5, or 17, or whatever you feel is right."

Student of German history John Loeffler said that Europe, influenced by philosophers such as Feuerbach, Hegel and Nietzsche, has been dialectical since the mid-nineteenth century (circa 1850s.) By the time of Hitler's rise to power, the Lutheran church had been so weakened that few recognized what was happening or had the strength of conviction to oppose the Nazis. The dialectic works to oppose conscience, by constantly questioning absolutes and justifying compromising or jettisoning them. Joseph Stalin said, "Dialectics is the soul of Marxism."

HOW THE DIALECTIC CAME TO AMERICA

MARTIN JAY DOCUMENTED THE HISTORY OF THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL, originally called The Institute for Marxist Research and later changed to The Institute for Social Research, in "The Dialectical Imagination," 1973. Jay wrote, "The unexpected success of the Bolshevik Revolution…created a serious dilemma for those who had previously been at the center of European Marxism, the left-wing intellectuals of Germany." They had to decide if they should "support the moderate socialists and their freshly created Weimar Republic" or "accept Moscow's leadership, (and) join the newly formed German Communist Party…" Instead, they decided to perform a "searching reexamination of the very foundations of Marxist theory with the dual hope of explaining past errors and preparing for future action." The Frankfurt School was formed to do this research and planning. It was "to become a major force in the revitalization of Western European Marxism in the postwar (WWI) years."

Jay noted: "In addition, through the sudden popularity of Herbert Marcuse in the America of the late 1960's, the Frankfurt School's Critical Theory has also had a significant influence on the New Left in this country."

The twenty one Frankfurt School intellectuals included George Lukacs, Karl Korsch, Richard Sorge, Friedrich Pollock, Karl Wittfogel, and others. Later joiners were Max Horkheimer, psychologist Erich Fromm, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, and Kurt Lewin. Theologian Paul Tillich participated in meetings.

Jay wrote: "With the Nazi assumption of power on January 30, 1933, the future of an avowedly Marxist organization, staffed almost exclusively by men of Jewish descent-at least by Nazi standards-was obviously bleak." Frankfurt School members soon left Germany and most came to America to continue their work.

The Frankfurt School members and their later followers were also known as transformational Marxists. Using the theories of the dialectical praxis and the cultural infiltration schemes devised by Italian communist Antonio Gramsci, they planned to create a revolution without blood and bullets. Their goal was to create world peace. They believed that it was absolute-minded people who were creating wars. The focus of education, they decided, should be to create change in the way subsequent generations thought by teaching them always to compromise.

Theodor Adorno came to Berkeley and published "The Authoritarian Personality" in 1950. Erich Fromm said in "Escape from Freedom" that parents in America were producing future fascists. Influential, long-lived American philosopher John Dewey also wrote that children raised by parents who teach them absolute "rights and wrongs" produce in them a rigid way of thinking not conducive to compromise.

The behavioral psychologists Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner believed that if they could create the right environment, they could create the right kind of people. Kurt Lewin built on Pavlovian/Skinnerian laboratory research of stimuli, pain, pleasure, reward, and punishment activity, and applied the Gestalt (holistic) theory by using it in a group setting within a controlled environment.

Lewin and others devised the group method of creating change with which to eventually create the Utopian future of peace. For this, it had to (paradoxically) create conflict. The dialectical method requires a conflict (antithesis) so that the original state (thesis) becomes changed (new synthesis.) Noting the human need for social interaction and approval, the devisers of group dynamics placed a diverse group (there must be diversity or there is no conflict), dialoguing to consensus (the dialectical process) over a social issue (any crisis, conflict, issue, or problem), in a facilitated meeting (it must be a controlled environment) to a predetermined outcome (the group planners know where they want to take the group, to transform them all in the process.)

A person who speaks up in disagreement risks being attacked as uncooperative and inadaptable to change-and ridiculed, ignored or alienated. This experience is painful enough to usually produce compliance in going along with the group-- as Gotcher puts it, to compromise position for the sake of relationship. To hold to one's position is to be considered an "extremist." Gotcher says, "Consensus forces compromise, crumbles convictions and forces individuals to abandon principles and beliefs they know are right. Consensus is devoid of accountability; it precludes free thought, free speech, open debate and critical analysis. (It) involves groupthink, a leveling influence…wastes time, leads to mediocre options, generates compromised decisions, curtails commitment."

In the 1940s and '50s books discussing the dialectical process included Kenneth Benne's "Human Relations in Curriculum Change," Warren Bennis's "Planning of Change," and "Planned Change" by Ron Lippett. Ronald Havelock wrote the widely used "Change Agent's Manual." It teaches a change agent how to come into a community (city, school district, parish, corporation, school board association, etc.) and manipulate people. "Change agent" being a rather obvious term, the word "facilitator" is now usually substituted. There are hundreds (thousands?) of people now employed in the facilitation profession; there is even a national association of facilitators. Adapting to change, the rapidity of change, and management of change, are concepts constantly being emphasized.

The major tool of the change agent is the Delphi technique, developed in the 1960's by the Rand Corporation. Education researcher Lynn Stuter wrote: "The facilitator goes through the motions of acting as an organizer, getting each person in the group to elicit expression of their concerns about a program, project, or policy. The facilitator listens attentively, forms "task forces," urges everyone to make lists, and so on. While he is doing this, the facilitator learns something about each member of the target group. He identifies the "leaders," the "loud mouths," as well as those who frequently turn sides during the argument-the "weak or non-committal." Suddenly, the amiable facilitator becomes devil's advocate. He dons his professional agitator hat. Using the "divide and conquer" technique, he manipulates one group opinion against the other. This is accomplished by manipulating those who are out of step to appear "ridiculous, unknowledgeable, inarticulate, or dogmatic." He wants certain members of the group to become angry, thereby forcing tensions to accelerate. He is able to predict the reactions of each group member. Individuals in opposition to the policy or program will be shut out of the group. The method works. It is very effective with parents, teachers, school children, and any community group. The "targets" rarely, if ever, know they are being manipulated…."

WHAT CAN AND SHOULD ONE DO ABOUT THE CONSENSUS PROCESS?

1) If you want your children to retain the important values you teach them at home, choose their school VERY CAREFULLY and monitor it constantly. If your child is in a bad school, take him/her out. Kids shouldn't be expected to hold their own against the manipulation they will be subjected to. Group processes (such as values clarification, group counseling) are in wide use in public schools, but may be used in private schools too. DON'T ABDICATE YOUR POSITION AS PARENT, THE PERSON MOST RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR CHILD. Nobody loves him or her as much as you do.

2) Parents' rights organizations have compiled lists of suggestions for meeting attendees. This is one shorthand list: 1) If you have an organized group, meet before the meeting to strategize. 2) If you have an opportunity to speak: address the crowd, don't get angry or emotional, ask clear questions, remain courteous. 3) Stay focused. Write your questions down. Don't be put on the defense. 4) Always, always ask for definitions; clarify ambiguous or deceitful language. 5) Be persistent, don't let yourself be worn down. 6) Never become angry or the facilitator will look like the victim. 7) Know parliamentary procedure. 8) Come with knowledgeable friends and sit in a diamond formation. 9) Announce another meeting that you will host to consider the same problems. 10) Meet with your organized group to analyze and strategize. There are many such strategies in B.K. Eakman's book "Cloning of the American Mind."

3) You can insist on parliamentary procedure, and call for votes rather than deciding by consensus. Check the by-laws of the organization or board in question. The Parliamentary Authority should be named in Article VIII. If "Robert's Rules of Order" is named as the governing authority, insist these rules are utilized. Keep Robert Rules in your library.

4) Learn your rights as a parent in your state. There has been lots of legislative action concerning parental rights in the last decade, which you will NEVER learn about from reading your local newspaper or watching the 5 o'clock news. The truth is, parents stand in the way of more social engineering, and the education establishment can never get too much of that. Parental rights will be discussed more in a future E-File.

5) Learn how to recognize who the change agents are, anticipate what they will do, make others aware of the situation, follow procedures to counteract the moves of the change agent (whether it's a superintendent, minister, supervisor, elected official, etc.) Knowing there are attempts to manipulate you helps you to be forearmed. After I learned about change agents in education, I discovered that similar people have infiltrated other institutions, often using deception or intimidation, and have caused misery and disruption in many lives.

6) In all aspects of your life, don't be bullied into compromising what you know is right, though there is intense social pressure these days to do so. Defend what you believe in.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE.