Did you know...

I am beginning a series of infographics on Education Reform information that is helpful in understanding how the transformation in American education has happened, from various sources, called- Did you know...

Excerpts from ABCs of DumbDown by Charlotte Iserbyt

"...Under Bill Bennett's tenure. U.S. PRESIDENT REAGAN AND SOVIET PRESIDENT GORBACHEV SIGNED AN AGREEMENT IN 1985 calling for 

cooperation in the field of science and technology and additional agreements in other specific fields, including the humanities and social sciences; the facilitation of the exchange by appropriate organizations of educational and teaching materials, including textbooks, syllabi and curricula, materials on methodology, samples of teaching instruments and audiovisual aids, and the exchange of primary and secondary school textbooks and other teaching materials.... The conducting of joint studies on textbooks between appropriate organizations in the United States and the Ministry of Education of the U.S.S.R.

At the same time, the Carnegie Corporation signed agreements with the Soviet Academy of Sciences which resulted in “joint research on the application of computers in early elementary education, focusing especially on the teaching of higher level skills and complex subjects to younger children.”

The U.S.-Soviet education agreements were discussed in an article entitled “U.S. and Soviets to Share Insights on Computers” by Fred M. Hechinger, education editor, in the December 10, 1985 issue of the New York Times:

A meeting of American and Soviet educational computer experts has produced an agreement to exchange specialists involved in the improvement of elementary and secondary education.

The initial American-Soviet exchange is intended as a first step toward cooperation among education reformers from a number of countries, including Britain and Japan. One goal is to reduce the present emphasis on training computer programmers, and stress instead the computer’s potential to restructure the education of young children, beginning in third grade or earlier.

Several issues are listed for joint investigation. They include computer-based methods to develop creative abilities of primary school pupils, creation and testing of software for use in primary school, and proposals for the restructuring of the curriculum and of teaching methods through the use of computers in the early grades.

Additional issues include evaluation of the training of teachers in the use of computers and elimination of teachers’ fear of computers, and creation of Soviet-American pilot projects for joint experiments."

Below is a link to a copy of Agreement between United States (President Reagan) and the Soviet Union (President Gorbachev) related to many fields of endeavor, but with special reference to a merger of U.S.A. and Soviet (Russian) education systems. Important excerpts follow regarding the purpose of the agreements: "The facilitation of the exchange, by appropriate organizations, of educational and teaching materials (including textbooks, syllabi, and curricula), materials on methodology, samples of teaching instruments and audiovisual aids." "The Parties will encourage exchanges of representatives of municipal, local and state governments of the U.S.A and the U.S.S.R . to study various functions of government at these levels: https://womenonthewall.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Agreement_Between_US_and_USSR_in_all_Educational_Fields-1990-41pgs-GOV-EDU.sml_.pdf 

More on this to come...