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John Taylor Gatto Fact Check #12: Congress Investigated the Secret Puppet Masters Part II: The Cox/Reece Committee

Part I of Congress Investigated the Secret Puppet Masters confirmed that the Commission on Industrial Relation’s 1916 report found evidence that the leading American philanthropic foundations were using their funds to gain control over American citizens, with the takeover of public education being only one means of achieving this larger goal.

Part II will examine the published findings of Norman Dodd, the research director for the Reece Committee.

The Dodd Report

The Dodd Report, published in 1954, presented the findings of the Reece Committee that continued the investigative work that was begun by the Cox Committee in 1952.

The Dodd Report offered the following conclusions about the leading nonprofit foundations [Bullet points paraphrased]:

From Pages 6-7:

∙The takeover of American educational institutions by the foundations in the early 20th century conditioned the American to the extent that they were not unduly alarmed when the Executive Branch of the Federal Government made its power grab during the 1930s.

∙Many of the responsibilities of providing public education were centralized, limiting the oversight of local communities.

Continue reading John Taylor Gatto Fact Check #12: Congress Investigated the Secret Puppet Masters Part II: The Cox/Reece Committee

Ignorance is Kinda Understandable

We live in an age of uninformed people with strong opinions.  Our lack of knowledge is understandable.  There’s a lot of new stuff to keep up with every day.  Plus, there’s the whole entirety of human history to try to absorb and process on the fly.  On top of that, people keep secrets and tell lies.

Everyone of us views reality through a lens of false perceptions and beliefs.  Given how widespread this condition is, it would be silly to quickly ascribe sinister motives to someone over a difference of opinion.

The constant finger pointing and score keeping is sucking too much joy from this world.  Frankly, I’m getting tired of it.  Let’s try to cut some of it out.  There will still be plenty of real bad guys left in society to keep us on our toes.

A “How To” for Multiple Choice Reading Tests

While I’m not an advocate of the modern testing culture, I do believe that children who are subjected by law to having the quality of their minds assessed by state-mandated multiple choice tests should be given the best possible chance to prove that they are valuable commodities.

Multiple Choice Title The following products were designed to help students navigate their way safely through the common snares found in multiple choice reading tests:

Introducing the Common Types of Multiple Choice Reading Questions: 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Introducing-Types-of-Multiple-Choice-Reading-Questions-Practice-2366941

Multiple Choice Reading Practice Set #1:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Multiple-Choice-Reading-Practice-Set-1-2404994

Free Sample:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Multiple-Choice-Reading-Practice-Series-Free-Sample-2384103

What If?

Originally published by AMERICANSCAPEGOAT.COM

January 7, 2016

book-933280_960_720Approximately 2.4 million students who attended American public schools in 2011 were classified as learning disabled.

Approximately 80% of those students (or nearly 2 million) had a reading disability.

Students who are labeled as learning disabled in reading must first demonstrate that their skills are “well below the average range of scores in culturally and linguistically appropriate tests of reading.”

Prior to diagnosing any learning disability, students are screened to ensure that health impairments, such as vision and hearing deficiencies, are not the cause of their reading difficulties.

There is no test to measure the quality of the reading instruction that students receive prior to being diagnosed with a reading disability.

What if some of those nearly 2 million students who were diagnosed with a reading disability failed to receive effective reading instruction prior to being evaluated?

Source: https://www.ncld.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/2014-State-of-LD.pdf

Book Study #1: Best Preface Ever!

Originally published by AMERICANSCAPEGAOT.COM

November 11, 2015

JohhnyAn eagerly awaited copy of Why Johnny Can’t Read: And What You Can Do About It arrived in the mail today.  If it’s true that you can judge a book by the opening paragraph of its preface, this is going to be a delightful read.

Preface:

This double-purpose book, with its rather awkward double-purpose title, needs a bit of explanation.  Let me put it this way: Just as war is “too serious a matter to be left to the generals,” so, I think, the teaching of reading is too important to be left to the educators.  This book, therefore, is not addressed to teachers and teachers’ college professors but to fathers and mothers.  I tried, to the best of my ability, to write a book they can use to help their children read.

-Rudolph Flesch