KINDER'S COMMENTARY: SUBTERFUGE IS PART OF OBE STRATEGY

I have alleged here that many in the higher reaches of Missouri's educational establishment are engaged in a massive and fundamental campaign to deceive Missourians about Gov. Mel Carnahan's so-called reforms in Senate Bill 380. One writer has called the tactics of officials in the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education "terminological evasion" -- essentially a shell game with words whose conscious design is to confuse, disorient, mislead and deceive us about the true nature of their agenda. This campaign of deception is not confined to state bureaucrats. It has infected education at the local level as well.

At a social event about a month ago, I was visiting with one of our fine Southeast Missouri classroom teachers from a district outside Cape Girardeau, the name of which every reader would recognize. She brought up the subject of Outcomes Based Education. This teacher volunteered to me, "For literally years we have been told that OBE is coming to our district and how great it is and that we should be preparing ourselves for it. But then an opposition group sprang up in town, and the administration sent down the word: `Don't use the words OBE. Make no mention of portfolios'." As I have explained here, "portfolio" is an OBE term that in many districts has replaced report cards as you and I have traditionally understood them.

Responding naively to the teacher who had just become my informant, I blurted out: "But that's deception!" Amused, she replied, "You don't understand, this kind of thing goes on all the time in our schools."

What are we to make of people who, engaged in sweeping reform, are prepared to engage in conscious acts of deception toward the taxpayers and citizens to whom, after all, our schools belong?

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Millions of fans across America are transfixed by a sensational NCAA basketball tournament currently under way. In their heartbreaking, last-second loss Sunday afternoon, our own Missouri Tigers probably just missed going to the elite Final Four for the first time ever. For basketball junkies accustomed as always to following a sport known for objective standards of individual excellence and achievement, this is surely the best time of the year.

The following satire on Outcomes Based Education brilliantly illustrates the folly of the approach Gov. Carnahan and Commissioner of Education Dr. Bob Bartman are taking in their reforms of Missouri schools. In five brief paragraphs, it concisely makes many of the points I have been writing about over the last 12 columns. A friend sent it to me, and I am unaware of the author's name.

Outcomes Based Basketball

"It has been announced that all high school basketball teams must use Outcomes Based Basketball beginning next season. To ensure that all teams feel successful, we will not keep score. It is more important that all teams learn the process and finish the game at the skill level determined by the coach rather than be winners.

"To make sure everyone meets all of the outcomes, poor players must be given more practice time and coaching. No scores will be kept and no winners will be announced. During games anyone who fails to make goals, double dribbles or fouls will be remediated during timeouts. The better players must sit on the bench, help coach the others until they demonstrate the right moves, or go ahead and run enrichment plays on their own. These games will last much longer, so be prepared to stay.

"All teams will complete 12 games and will receive the same trophy. No records will be kept, no statistics will be needed, nor will we need any playoffs, all-star teams or recognition banquets. Trophies will be meaningless but everyone will get one.

"Psycho-behavioral basketball experts feel that this will encourage all teams to do their best and increase the abilities of every player, who will feel great about his/her accomplishments. We discourage playing any games against teams that don't have the same regulations. This would be unfair competition since they would be emphasizing excellence and winning. The peer pressure of not being part of our group should be sufficient motivation to conform the `traditional' team to our Outcomes Based Basketball model.

"This is Outcomes Based Basketball, where excellence is relative and everyone is equal. Is this really what we want for our athletes, or worse yet, for our academic programs?"

~Peter Kinder is the associate publisher of the Southeast Missourian and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.