The day delivered a sense of admiration and praise for speakers like columnist Debra Saunders who didn't mince words when it came to challenging illogical educational fads. She spoke in detail of the California experience with feel good education and admonished states that dare to venture down the same path. The model developed in California leads to a nadir where state governments are engaged in debates about whether teachers with four year college degrees should be competent in eighth grade level math. Of course they should! This is school isn't it??
(Saunders article on Wisconsin Standards-First Draft)
(Saunders article on Wisconsin Standards-Second Draft)

And oh, what a different world it would be if every school district could have a curriculum director like Dr. Hawthorne Faison of Oklahoma City. He refused to blame parents for the schools' ultimate responsibility of teaching children how to read. He explained why intense instruction in phonemic awareness and understanding is vital for children who are learning to decode words. He did not hide under the cloak of our "broken society" as an excuse for failure but was willing to go out on a limb and be held personally and publicly accountable for his programs. Yes, it was a refreshing and, oh, so rare dialogue!

The audience response to Dr. Michael Sanera's discussion of the environmental myths that have replaced scientific inquiry in the classroom was equally enthusiastic. He undoubtedly was pleased that his newly published book, Facts Not Fear, sold over one hundred advance copies during the lunch hour. Imagine that! People are actually more eager for scientific debate than for the dooms day speculation promulgated by many textbooks. Maybe we should all become more positive.

But what was perhaps the most enlightening and at the same time frightening session of the day was the afternoon review and panel discussion of Wisconsin's attempt to set academic content and performance standards. Radio talk show host and education author, Charles Sykes served as panel moderator. He astutely observed during his introduction that perhaps the real rub in this whole standards process is that the folks in charge are the same players involved with the outcome based education movement. Later, panelist and state representative Gregg Underheim, pointed out, some of the standards were actually antithetical to the essence of what a standard is supposed to be. What is one to make of a twelfth grade language standard which states that students must be able to "recognize and refute attacks on the worth or validity of variations of oral English?" As Underheim explained, students are being asked to view phrases like, "he didn't do nothing to no one no how," as a perfectly acceptable idiom. For those who wonder why there is a lack of core knowledge being taught in school, and a lack of emphasis on grammar, spelling, and mathematical computation, the culprits are lurking in the hallways of our own Department of Public Instruction. It's an alarming view but, nevertheless, it's where one of the juggernauts of education reform can be found.

If every parent in Wisconsin had attended the Third Annual Press Conference in Waukesha, it is safe to say that the public schools in our state would never be the same. Parents whose instincts have been telling them that schools today do not expect enough from their students would rise up with a new sense of militancy. School districts that currently deliver a first class education, despite the wave of trendy reform, would rush to bar to door from the insidious influence of the educational bureaucracy.

VHS Video tapes and Audio tapes of the conference are available for purchase.(Order Forms)

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