Behavior
modification, similar to operant
conditioning, can be achieved by various means: reinforcement (positive or
negative via rewards or lack of them), punishment, extinction, shaping, fading,
and chaining.
Behavior
modification can be used to treat obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD),
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), phobias, enuresis (bed-wetting),
generalized anxiety disorder, and separation anxiety disorder.
Behavior
modification draws from the operant conditioning principles developed by the
American behaviorist B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) who discussed using operant conditioning to shape behavior
of humans and animals by reinforcement or lack of reinforcement in his 1938
book, The Behavior of Organisms. Skinner
is highly regarded and studied in universities across the country, particularly
in Education and Psychology.
Extinction,
such as putting a child in time-out when he/she misbehaves is an example of “nudging”
unwanted behavior by separating a child from his parents or an individual from
a group.
Negative
reinforcement is a “behavior whose reinforcing properties are associated with
its removal.” Terminating an existing electric shock after a rat pressed a bar
is negative reinforcement.
By rewarding
desirable behavior, undesirable behaviors are replaced with more desirable
ones. Using punishment through aversive or unpleasant stimuli is a way to
discourage unwanted behavior. One example would be taking away smart device
privileges. If the reinforcement is removed permanently, behaviorists call it
extinction.
Two very
important questions remain, who decides the desirable behavior parameters and
to what ends? Do the ends justify the means?
Suppose your
desire is to have a “national conversation on race” because you believe the
majority white population is racist and therefore their behavior must be
extinguished. Aside from non-stop race-baiting discussions on the liberal main
stream media outlets with low viewership, you engage the liberal academia at
various colleges through their progressive departments of studies of women,
race, and social justice.
If their
outrageous accusations and ideas don’t stick, then they move the notch to “interrupting
whiteness” in American schools, “leading while white,” “challenging white
supremacy in society,” and eliminating “white privilege” of Caucasian students,
“white domination of thought,” achieving “racial equity,” and how to “decenter
whiteness.”
If these
topics seem twilight-zonish, then perhaps we should attend the national
conference for teachers and school administrators taking place in Baltimore, MD
on October 10, 2015 which focuses on race, “leading while white,” and “systemic
racism” in our schools and society. http://www.summitforcourageousconversation.com/overview/
The conference
titled The National Summit for Courageous Conversation 2015 is organized by the
Pacific Educational Group (PEG), “a large and influential consulting firm hired
by hundreds of school districts nationwide – often under pressure from the
federal government – to address ‘racial gaps’ in scholastic performance and
behavior problems in the classroom.” According to PEG, “public education should
be infused with Afrocentrism.” http://www.pacificeducationalgroup.com/public/pages/home
Why not discuss relevant topics such as improving reading scores, math
scores, science scores, overall achievement in school, graduation percentages,
and reducing violence, truancy, drugs, and dropout rates in school? Why not attempt
to fix what is wrong with families and society in general that produce such
moral and mental decline in our children, regardless of skin color?
In the
fundamentally transformed new and improved America, “is this the kind of
race-obsessed confrontational philosophy that should be guiding instruction and
curricula in the nation’s public schools?” http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2015/10/07/interrupting-whiteness-education-conference-blame-white-teachers-and-students/
No mention is
made of personal responsibility, the destruction of the black family unit by dependency
on welfare programs, the absence of dads in the home, drugs, violent behavior of
blacks on blacks, recidivism after jail, abortions, the lack of self-control, lack
of motivation to study, school dropout rates among black students, huge
unemployment rates among black teens, and other issues that plague the black
community.
It is convenient
instead to blame non-existent “white privilege.” Critical Race Theory dissects
the concept of “whiteness” as the focus point of guilt for all societal problems.
Because we are Caucasian, we somehow benefit unjustly from this “racist” system;
we are part of the system, and thus automatically racist. The struggle of
millions of whites to succeed by working hard against many odds is somehow
irrelevant in this half-baked theory.
According to
Critical Race Theory, “racism represents both prejudice and power. Since the
theory espouses that blacks have no power in society, they cannot possibly be
racist.”
The PJ Media
post of October 7, 2015 lists some of the workshops. The titles are sheer propaganda
meant to re-educate, to shape the white population’s behavior into the desired
direction of utopian “racial equity.” Communist societies used “re-education”
to force people into confessions of their non-existent guilt and acceptance of
the new ideology. If they refused, they were sent to re-education camps, labor
camps, prison, or shot. http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2015/10/07/interrupting-whiteness-education-conference-blame-white-teachers-and-students/
To nudge
students into desired behavior, PEG focuses on “restorative justice,” an
euphemism for eliminating detention and suspension for students who exhibit
violent behavior at school and offering them therapy and counseling sessions
instead. Since July 2015 “restorative justice” is now official government
policy.
The September
15, 2015 Executive Order titled “Using
Behavioral Science Insights to Better Serve the American People,” will use
behavior “to support a range of national
priorities, including helping workers to find better jobs; enabling Americans
to lead longer, healthier lives, improving access to educational opportunities
and support for success in school; and accelerating the transition to a low-carbon
economy.”
The Social and
Behavioral Sciences Team (SBST) proposed in this EO will use empirical findings
from government-recruited behavioral science experts to help people “access
public programs and benefits” with ease, to present information in such a way that ”affects
comprehension and action by individuals,” to “most effectively promote public
welfare, as appropriate, giving particular consideration to the selection and
setting of default options,” and “review policies and programs that are
designed to encourage or make it easier for Americans to take specific actions,
such as saving for retirement or completing education programs.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/09/15/executive-order-using-behavioral-science-insights-better-serve-american
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