Behavior Modification and "Interrupting Whiteness"

Behavior modification is a type of therapy also known as applied behavior analysis. First mentioned in 1910, it focuses on “decreasing maladaptive behavior through extinction or punishment.”

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

 

 

Dr. Savage Asks, "Where is America's Marine Le Pen?"

Marine Le Pen 
Photo credit: Wikipedia

In his valiant attempt to save our country from the illegal immigration invasion, the conservative talk show host Dr. Michael Savage asked with much passion the rhetorical question, “Where is America’s Marine Le Pen?”   

Savage dedicated his monologue intro on March 6, 2015 to the issue of amnesty, fast tracking millions of illegal aliens, potentially 30-50 million by 2016, who, armed with Social Security cards and driver licenses, will install Democrat party rule in perpetuity, with Republicans whining about their minority status while enjoying full privileges of the ruling elite.

Stating that we don’t have another party in power, Savage continues, “We have the most extremist, anti-American administration in history. They must be stopped. There is no precedent in the history of the world to accept 30 million illegal aliens into a nation and to change the demographics forever, unless that nation lost a war and was conquered by a foreign power.” Have we lost a war and, if so, which one?

According to Savage, the current administration is flooding the country with illegal aliens, the “New Americans,” at imperative speed; they are presented by progressives as part of the “civil rights movement,” even though they are violating our borders and breaking into our country.

The Democrats, seeking a majority, are building up a voter base that does not speak our language and has no desire to do so; in gratitude, they are going to vote Democrat, so long as they are getting a pathway to citizenship and Obama welfare. “They’ll vote Democrat for thousands of years!” Savage exclaimed in frustration. “Who will watch the watchers? The FBI is supposed to watch this. But it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the administration!” White people are now expected to step out of the way and give the country over to the flooding immigrants who are going to be integrated into mini-countries inside the United States. They will be the protected “New Americans” while the real U.S. citizens will suffer.

To facilitate this fundamental transformation, our children will be tracked with behavioral assessment for kids. “If your child is too American, or too hetero, they are going to red flag him,” said Savage.

Mental health care and substance abuse care for all the junkies will be paid for by Obamacare at a cost of $30,000 per week even though recidivism rate is high. The treatment facility, he says, will offer “group therapy, yoga therapy, sex therapy, meditation.” He believes “cold turkey therapy works.” All this expensive therapy is just a con, he said, “They are looking for sympathy.” And the treatments for substance abuse “will add to the huge cost of Obamacare.”

“Why do we not expend money on the exceptional [kids] in America? When was the last time the Obama administration spent any money on the exceptional, not the downtrodden, not the junkie, not the substance abuser, but the exceptional children who are not challenged enough in the classroom because they are spending time on the stupid ones? Has there been any money earmarked for the gifted child,” he asks. “I doubt it; it’s called the lowest common denominator. You keep sinking the class lower and lower. No gifted classes, nobody is looking for the bright children, as if they are the freaks of society.”

To make matters worse, the Common Core standards of education, now adopted around the country, teach anti-Americanism, proselytize children into Islam, and teach students revisionist history, making them ashamed of who we are, of our achievements around the globe, of our country, of our culture, and of Christianity. Symbols of our nation, our flag, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the National Anthem are often stripped from official locations and public events. Lessons indoctrinating children into Islam and communism are now common around the U.S.

Looking at France, trying to save itself from the “scimitar of radical Islam that is threatening to cut their throats,” Savage describes how Marine Le Pen proposes to do so. Smeared as a far-right politician, Marine is a “nationalist who loves France.” Savage said that “she is hated by the Socialist scum who have ruined France and exposed them to the Islamic sword.” The “slimy political class considers her xenophobic because they pander to third-worlders whom they flooded into their country,” but she wants to return the power to the French people.

Le Pen views the French government’s plan to control homegrown jihadis as nonsense.  Her solution is a zero tolerance on Shariah Law, no Muslim holidays, enforcement of French-speaking in mosques, no Arabic in mosques, and stripping dual citizenship jihadis of their French citizenship.

“Why wouldn’t’ that work in America,” asks Savage?  Marine Le Pen thinks an overhaul of French foreign policy is necessary and a review of relationships with countries like Qatar and Turkey who support terrorism.  Chaotic mass immigration has created places where the French public is afraid to go. “There is no Islamophobia in France,” Savage is quoting Le Pen. “There are no anti-women acts.  There is a rise of anti-Semitism.”

Savage describes Le Pen as the champion of the little guys against globalization; France should leave the euro from the Euro zone, boost the franc in trading; France does not need experience, “it needs a fresh pair of eyes.”

“She is hated by President Francois Hollande. She has laid out her vision for France. Why don’t we have a Marine Le Pen? Why don’t we have a true conservative party in this country,” asks Savage. But then he readily admits that a third party would be a catastrophe at this point in our country.

Who is Marine Le Pen? Member of the European Parliament, President of the Front National, the third-largest political party in France since 2011, lawyer and youngest daughter of long-time Front National leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine is criticized as a far-right politician based on her “divisive approach to immigration,” which urges the west to “eradicate the cancerous cell that Islamic fundamentalism represents.”

Marine Le Pen said, “When we fought Islamic fundamentalism, when we denounced it, they dismissed us as Muslim haters.  It is those people who dismissed us as Muslim haters who have created the confusion – not us.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/11343571/Charlie-Hebdo-Will-Marine-Le-Pen-destroy-fragile-France.html

In a recent article in the New York Times, “To Call This Threat by Its Name,” Marine Le Pen states that “France, land of human rights and freedoms, was attacked on its own soil by a totalitarian ideology:  Islamic fundamentalism.” She describes the need to distinguish between Islamist terrorism and their faith because “Islamist terrorism is a cancer on Islam, and Muslims themselves must fight at our side.” http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/opinion/marine-le-pen-france-was-attacked-by-islamic-fundamentalism.html?_r=0

She continues, “Everything must be reviewed, from the intelligence services to the police force, from the prison system to the surveillance of jihadist networks.”  She identifies three mistakes made by those in power.

1.      The free movement of people and goods across the European Union borders must be revisited as it encourages the free flow of tons of weapons from the Balkans and jihadis move unhindered across many nations.

 

2.      The massive wave of immigration does not include an assimilation policy.  The desire to assimilate on the part of the immigrants does not exist. Culture is a major influence “on the way immigrants relate to French society and its values, on issues such as the status of women and the separation of state and religious authority.” She infers that immigrant cultures are at odds with French secularism, the “laïcité.” High unemployment is exacerbated by this massive immigration.

 

3.      French foreign policy is in a “geopolitical incoherence,” supporting Syrian fundamentalists and alliances with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, supporters of jihadi fighters. Le Pen suggests stripping jihadists of their French citizenship, reinstating national border checks, and zero tolerance for any behavior that undermines French Law.

Le Pen stresses that safety, liberty, sovereignty, French values, and independence are most important if France is to be saved from Islamist Fundamentalism.

And the words of Dr. Savage seem to echo in the wilderness, “Where is America’s Marine Le Pen?”

Copyright: Ileana Johnson 2015 

 

 

Common Core Teaches Community Organizing for the Collective

Do we still teach in public schools our common culture, common identity, common true history, or values such as hard work, charity, morals, virtue, and the rule of law? With the exception of home schooling and a few private schools, the answer is no. We do teach secular education, “green” environmentalism, the new religion of Mother Earth, and now Common Core Education.

Few parents actually know what Common Core Education is. Teachers who are finding out do not seem to care, let the state fight it out. For teachers, it is a means to an end; the end translates into keeping their jobs and a paycheck coming in this tough economy which the current administration celebrates as a “recovery” from a self-induced coma.

Although touted as a means to improve education standards, the Brookings Institution said, “The empirical evidence suggests that the Common Core will have little effect on American students’ achievement. The nation will have to look elsewhere for ways to improve its schools.”

The Department of Education paid two Washington, D.C., organizations, the National Governors Association’s Center for Best Practices and The Council of Chief State School Officers, to come up with the Common Core national standards. (Pioneer Institute)

According to Lance Izumi, author of Obama’s Education Takeover, the President “strong-armed the states into adopting these Common Core standards through a number of devices, principally through the Race to the Top competition through federal grants.”

The Race to the Top $4 billion “historic” grant scheme was awarded to states “leading coherent, compelling, and comprehensive education reform.” The grant was authorized under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The Department of Education at the federal and state levels had developed many experimental programs that promised to be breakthroughs in education but were discarded later as giant wastes of time and taxpayer dollars while the achievement levels had continuously declined.

Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, described Core Standards as an important tool for international competitiveness, access to high quality education, and a way to prepare “all students for college, work and citizenship. These standards are an important foundation for our collective work.” I emphasized “collective” because that is what Common Core is about, indoctrination into the “collective” mindset.

In spite of the fact that we have different brains, IQs, learning styles, and God-given talents, Common Core standards insist that “all children can and should learn to high achievement standards based on a “universal design for learning.” This would be achieved by having different sets of standards based on race, ethnic background, socio-economic background, and disability, a type of “separate and unequal” education. All students will receive the same diploma but for “unequal” work in mathematics and reading and for “unequal” achievement.

Furthermore, a video surfaced that shows that wrong answers in math are acceptable under Common Core standards as long as students can explain how they got the wrong answer and feel good about it. http://www.libertynews.com/2013/07/unbelievable-common-core-shill-says-new-education-does-not-require-students-to-have-right-answers-only-that-they-explain-how-they-got-answer/
 

The states who adopted the Common Core Standards were excused from the detested No Child Left Behind Act which set the standards too high for low achievers and low motivators who are not really interested in education. It is criminal and sad to see semi-literate individuals receive diplomas when they cannot actually read or write, cursive or otherwise, very well and are glorified by the MSM for speaking Ebonics.

“Beginning this fall, Alabama public schools will be under a new state-created academic accountability system that sets different goals for students in math and reading, based on their race, economic status, ability to speak English and disabilities.” (Tuscaloosa News)

The English Arts Curriculum textbooks used in Utah, called “Voices, Literature and Writing,” emphasize the Democracy Plan, preparing students for community organizing. The German poet Goethe, a classical liberal, warned us that democracy is incompatible with liberty. He said, “Legislators and revolutionaries who promise equality and liberty at the same time are psychopaths.” Even Hans Hermann Hoppe of the Ludwig von Mises Institute said, “Political centralization would lead to the destruction of the culture.”

The Utahans Against Common Core has mounted an opposition. A short video shows the first grade textbook, Voices, Literature, and Writing, that teaches nothing about literature or writing.  Instead, “In the Voices of Democracy theme, students use their voices to advocate solutions to social problems that they care deeply about. They are engaged in learning the following theme-related social knowledge and skills: social role models, social advocacy, and respect for each other. They learn to develop a Democracy Plan in which they develop ways to help people in need.” My six-year olds thought about recess and play, reading, writing, and arithmetic. Is this what first graders do now, they think about ways to organize people in their communities to fix social problems? This is community organizing; this is communism, not literature and writing. http://www.utahnsagainstcommoncore.com/usoe-recommends-social-justice-curriculum-materials-for-1st-grade/

In the same series of books, educators are directed to teach first graders about emotional words of anger and fear in order to accomplish their social justice goals. The workbook gives the following example, “My mom_____ (tells) (nags) me to clean my room.”  Students are supposed to choose “nags” because it is an emotional word of anger. If a student chooses “tells,” the answer is incorrect. Students are taught about feelings instead of logical thinking and parents are marginalized as some annoying individuals who nag their children. Would the collectivist village take over the rearing of our children?

Homework activities include practicing being upset and angry because “feelings cause people to act.” Is there any wonder that we have the Occupy Wall Street mobs, angry mobs, flash mobs, and people talking over each other? Liberals are taught to be ruled by feelings and not by logic.

Are these curriculum materials limited to first grade? No, all grades have the same theme, the Democracy Plan. By third grade teachers must “measure attitudes, believes, and dispositions,” making specific notes on the Student Observation Form whether “growth and change in individual students behavior and attitudes is observed. One rubric asks, “Does the student use the plural “we” and “our” to advocate ways to solve social problems?” In other words, I and my, individualism, are frowned upon. Behavior and attitudes are measured in each grade and teacher check marks are made for each student under the rubrics, Beginning, Learning, Proficiency, or Mastery.

I remember receiving pass or fail grades under communism for good or bad behavior at the end of each semester. Parents were called in, humiliated and criticized in front of everybody if their child had a bad grade in behavior. Both parents and child had to undergo an attitude adjustment in line with the communist propaganda.

According to Michelle Malkin, the 2009 stimulus package contained a State Fiscal Stabilization Fund offered to states for a “longitudinal data system (LDS) to collect data on public school students” such as health, family income, religion, and homework. http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/343040/common-core-trojan-horse-michelle-malkin

The Blaze described a 44-page Department of Education report which indicated the possibility of implementing through Common Core monitoring techniques such as “functional MRIs” (scanning and mapping a child’s brain function), “using cameras to judge facial expressions, electronic seats that determine posture, pressure-sensitive computer mouse, and a biometric wrist wrap.” http://theblaze.com/stories/2013/03/27/indoctrination-and-data-mining-in-common-core-heres-why-americas-schools-may-be-in-more-trouble-than-you-think/

Is this what we are trying to do with Common Core standards? Force every student into a government-dictated and enforced mold, dumbing down the curriculum so much that everyone appears equally intelligent, equally capable, equally trained, equally able? The focus will no longer be education, the classics, language, government, mathematics, science, history, chemistry and individual achievement in those fields but social justice, activism, and community organizing for the socialist collective?