The SCANS Report

Katy Citizen Watchdog$

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The SCANS Report

Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin, who served under George H. Bush and was a staunch Reagan supporter, initiated under her administration something called the SCANS REPORT (the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills). The report was the culmination of a concerted effort by the Commission to “examine the demands of the workplace and whether today's young people are capable of meeting those demands.” Specifically, the Commission was directed to advise the Secretary on the level of skills required to enter employment.

In carrying out this charge, the Commission was asked to:

· Define the skills needed for employment;

· Propose acceptable levels of proficiency;

· Suggest effective ways to assess proficiency; and

· Develop a dissemination strategy for the nation's schools, businesses, and homes.” (Taken verbatim from the Department of Labor web site http://wdr.doleta.gov/SCANS/whatwork/)

A Federal government brochure from the 1990’s titled “What Work Requires of Schools: Workplace Know-How” has the following information:

The know-how identified by SCANS is made up of five competencies and a three-part foundation of skills and personal qualities that are needed for solid job performance.

COMPETENCIES--EFFECTIVE WORKERS CAN PRODUCTIVELY USE:

Resources--allocating time, money, materials, space and staff;

Interpersonal Skills -- working on teams, teaching others, serving customers, leading, negotiating, and working well with people from culturally diverse backgrounds;

Information -- acquiring and evaluating data, organizing and maintaining files, interpreting and communicating, and using computers to process information;

Systems -- understanding social, organizational, and technological systems, monitoring and correcting performance, and designing or improving systems;

Technology -- selecting equipment and tools, applying technology to specific tasks, and maintaining and troubleshooting technologies.

THE FOUNDATION - COMPETENCE REQUIRES:

Basic Skills -- reading writing, arithmetic and mathematics, speaking and listening;

Thinking Skills -- thinking creatively, making decisions, solving problems, seeing things in the mind’s eye, knowing how to learn, and reasoning;

Personal Qualities -- individual responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, and integrity.

On the back of the brochure there is a “personal” note from Lynn Martin:

“I hope you will begin a SCANS discussion in your community. Ask yourselves these questions:

1) Are the schools in our community adequately preparing the workers of today and tomorrow?

2) If not, what are we going to do about it?

As President Bush said in his America 2000 plan, we must begin to prepare better our students and our present workers for life-long learning and for work. Together, we can make this plan a reality.

Our joint efforts will ensure that America’s workers are prepared for the demanding, high-skills workplaces of today and tomorrow.”

And it’s signed by Lynn Martin, Secretary of Labor.

At this point you may be saying to yourself, so what’s wrong with Mary McGarr that she can’t see that this all sounds good? What can be wrong with getting people ready for the “world of work”?

I hope that’s NOT what you are saying, but if you are, I would ask that you step back a moment and ask yourself these questions:

1. Why is it the job of our public schools to teach children workplace skills?

2. When did we as a Nation decide that? Where was the public discussion held? Who got to participate? Did you have any input into that decision?

3. Does this educational design for our children sound vaguely familiar and very much like the five year plans of Stalin and Hitler before him?

4. How far are you willing to allow the government to intrude into your life and your child’s life by taking away from him his inherent right to have the opportunity to receive a free public academic education?

All of these “workplace skills” are things people learn, on the job, AFTER they receive an education and acquire their job. They are simple, easily learned abilities that before 1991, anyone with half a brain could master in the first few weeks of any job. If one cannot master them, then one would (prior to 1991) not have gotten the education and the job in the first place!

When we assume that workplace training is the purpose of our public schools and agree to STOP teaching academic matters and instead supplant those academic efforts with training skills, then we have forgotten the purpose of public schools. Please re-read my last sentence. It is the crux of this discussion!

The public schools have accepted this doctrine, and in the last fifteen years have transformed completely the purpose of public education. The SCANS implementation document (cited below) says specifically that these “competencies” must be incorporated into the regular subject matter and not taught separately, an indication of the less than subtle effort to create the illusion that these workplace competencies are the same as the academics they replaced. THEY ARE NOT!!

To implement such a devious scheme was a mindless, senseless decision by governmental and educational leaders, but it was planned, with the conniving help of many politicians who had/have the hands of big business so deep in their pockets that they have no remorse or shame for what they have done. Big government, big business and greedy citizens have all conspired to make children the victims of their scheme. Sea change comes by controlling the minds of our children. And yes, I am suggesting a conspiracy.

Ask yourself this question: What was wrong with the public school education that you received prior to 1980? The answer is: there was nothing wrong with your public school education if you received it prior to 1980. It was the very best that had ever been offered to public school children anywhere, so why did they have to change it? The answer is: they didn’t, and that is the issue that should concern all parents and citizens. The reason for the change lies in politics, not empirical educational research. All research that exists to support the changes has come from those with a vested interest in the change. Any research that opposes the movement is summarily discredited and/or discarded.

Blame the media, the federal and state governments, the big business CEO’s, the greedy public school administrators who have made fortunes with implementation products, and local school boards who sat around with no questions and let it all happen. Blame yourself for not paying attention to the few who sounded the alarm and whom you ignored.

Go to this website: http://wdr.doleta.gov/SCANS/teaching/ and download the PDF file that describes the implementation of the School To Work agenda. See if you can find, anywhere an academic element. The plan centers on “learning to learn” (a phrase heard quite regularly at Katy ISD school board meetings) and on process (as opposed to cognitive academic content acquisition) and on social acceptability.

Anyone who cannot see the problem with this program has himself already been SCANNED, so to speak.

I will not belabor my point, and if it is lost on the reader, so be it.

For what it’s worth, former Secretary of Labor, Lynn Martin, now hires out as a “corporate entertainer” giving “motivational speeches.” Her fee is not listed. (http://www.grabow.biz/Speakers/LynnMartin.htm)

Mary McGarr, Katy Citizen Watchdog$

Date: 06/05/2006