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PeF: 0- `79 <br /> For presentation to the Chapel Hill Carrboro School Board <br /> Alan Belch, September 1 , 1994 <br /> Members of the school board and more importantly, parents and <br /> members of the community. Tonight, Putting Children First and others in <br /> the community who are interested in seeing all children succeed in <br /> school are embarking on an educational campaign about Curriculum <br /> Restructuring. Curriculum Restructuring is the title given to the Chapel <br /> Hill-Carrboro School System's attempt at Outcome Based Education, or <br /> OBE for short. <br /> OBE is an insideous attempt to control all aspects of the student's <br /> thought - both intellectual and affectional. It focuses on the outcome <br /> or end product rather than the input or the knowledge offered to <br /> students. One of OBE's strongest advocates and designers wrote that <br /> "the purpose of education and schools is to change the thoughts, <br /> feelings and actions of students." In order to do this, a series of <br /> outcomes which sound wonderful are designed. However, to meet <br /> these outcomes, steps are designed which have the effect of pulling <br /> children toward the school-defined value system and away from the <br /> family-based value system. Less emphasis is put on providing <br /> students those necessary factual building blocks from which to form <br /> thoughtful conclusions and more emphasis is put in controlling what <br /> those conclusions are. We just went through a year-long battle over <br /> academic freedom. It is unfortunate that the end result of curriculum <br /> restructuring will be academic slavery for our children. <br /> The administrators in the school system deny that their curriculum <br /> restructuring is OBE. In fact, they are taking great pains to avoid even <br /> whispering that word. Our intent over the next few months is to expose <br /> the Curriculum Restructuring process as OBE and compare it with other <br /> OBE programs which are failing from all over the nation. <br /> Putting Children First intends to define the confusing edu-babble terms <br /> which accompany the restructuring program - terms such as "exit <br /> outcomes", "new basis", "higher order thinking skills", "critical thinking", <br /> "mastery, "portfolios", "exhibitions", "authentic assessment", etc. In fact, <br /> one of the first sure signs of OBE, stealth or otherwise, is the use of <br /> deceptive and confusing language mischievously chosen to mislead <br /> parents. We will expose the real intent and meaning behind this <br />