A Problem With Public Education - Bad Philosophy

It is only in the context of a philosophy of education that aims at intellectual leveling as a method of egalitarian socialization that we can understand some of the recent educational developments that anger parents: the “mainstreaming” of mentally and emotionally handicapped children in regular classrooms; the gradual abolition of ability tracking, academic acceleration, and enrichment programs for the gifted; the push for cooperative projects and “team” learning that increasingly replace individual work; the proliferation of therapeutic “life skills” and “human relations” courses that focus on “self-esteem,” on “feelings,” and on group psychodynamics; the vanishing of high culture — especially of literary classics and serious music — from the classroom; the dwindling of academic work to less than half the time children spend in school; and finally the appearance of outcome-based education — a method of instruction that ties the pace of the brightest children to their slowest peers.  All of these reflect the ascendancy of an educational philosophy of “inclusion” in which a far higher priority is placed on making children conform — on homogenizing them culturally, intellectually, and emotionally — than on helping them learn.

Dana Mack, “The Assault On Parenthood: How Our Culture Undermines the Family,” p.112-113.