Who Is New Horizons for Learning?
On September 26-28,
1996, the "Assessing Learning II: Revitalizing Instruction Through
Assessment" conference cosponsored by Seattle Pacific University; New
Horizons for Learning, Washington Education Association (WEA),
Commission on Student Learning (CSL), Center for the
Improvement of Student Learning (CISL), Washinton Goals 2000, Washington Association of School
Administrators (WASA), Association of Washington
School Principals (AWSP), Puyallup School Distict, Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges:
Washington State Accreditation Committees, and the U.S. Department of Education
was held at the Shoreline Center in Seattle, Washington. The three-day conference was designed to
help teachers, administrators and parents learn how quality assessment
strategies are related to instruction.
Keynote speakers included Terry Bergeson,
Glenn Hiemstra (World Futurist), Shirley McCune, Ron
Sims and Chris Unger.
At another conference held in September
1995, New Horizons for Learning was also a sponsor. Who are they?
New Horizons for Learning is based out
of Seattle, Washington. They are a
nonprofit international education network.
Dee Dickinson, founder and CEO of New Horizons, presents quite a
biography, including ...
[
vice-president
of the International Accelerative Learning Association, based at the University
of Rio de Janeiro;
[
director
of the Seattle Creative Activities Center;
[
chair
of the educational advisory board of the National Learning Foundation;
[
fellow
of the International Corporate Learning Association;
[
sits
on the boards of national and international organizations:
European Lifespan Learning
Initiative,
George Lucas Educational
Foundation,
National Inventive Thinking
Association;
[ member of President Bush's (Sr) Task Force on Innovative Education.
New Horizons for Learning publishes a
newsletter, On the Beam, which can be found on the shelves in the
library at the headquarters building at the Office of Superintendent of Public
Instruction in Olympia, Washington.
Past and present issues of On the
Beam sport an interesting roster of advisors and directors, including ...
Terry Bergeson Executive
Director, Commission on Student Learning; past president of the Washington
Education Association; has had articles published in On the Beam;
elected OSPI, November, 1996.
Brian Benzel Superintendent,
Edmonds School District; Superintendent, District 81 (Spokane), with
connections to National Center on Education and the Economy (Marc Tucker),
Goals 2000, and the Governors Council on Education Reform and Funding (GCERF).
Steve Nielsen Head
of GCERF; has worked for Brian Benzel;
formerly with U.S. West; on the National Education Goals Panel.
John Anderson Director,
Center for the Improvement of Student Learning; formerly, head of Schools for
the 21st Century program.
Donna Dunning Washington
Education Association; GCERF Learning, Outcomes and
Assessment subgroup.
Reese
Lindquist Chair
of the GCERF Learning, Outcomes and Assessment
subgroup; past president of the WEA; past president
of the Seattle Education Association.
Bob Hughes Board
of Directors, Lake Washington School District; Business Roundtable; Boeing
retired.
Martha
Darling Boeing,
Government policy; GCERF Learning, Outcomes and
Assessment subgroup.
Betty Jane Narver formerly
of the University of Washington; GCERF Resources,
Funding and Accountability subgroup; chairperson, Workforce Training and
Education Coordinating Board, Washington state; Governor's Task Force on
School-to-Work Transition.
Cal Crow Center
for Career and Work-Related Education, Highline Community College
Shirley McCune was
with Mid Continental Regional Education Laboratory (McRel);
founder and CEO of Learning Trends, formerly of Aurora, Colorado, now of
Washington, DC; past and current consultant to the Commission on Student
Learning; Education Liaison, Office of the Superintendent of Public
Instruction, Washington State.
Barbara Clark author
of Growing up Gifted, a book on how to bring New Age techniques
to your gifted program.
Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi referenced
no less than six times by Michael Fullan in his book,
Change Forces Probing the Depths of Education Reform. The material noted is of a New Age
perspective. Also reference in
Renate and Geoffrey Caine's book, Making
Connections, Teaching and the Human Brain — another book with a
decided New Age bent. Also referenced by Howard Gardner in his books, Multiple
Intelligences and Frames of Mind. Author of several
books including Flow and The Evolving Self.
Jean Houston New
Age guru and author; has connections to Hillary Clinton.
Arthur Costa consultant;
past president of the National Education Association; involved with the Teacher
Assistance Program in Washington state.
Howard Gardner author
of several books, including Frames of Mind, Multiple
Intelligences, The Unschooled Mind, To
open Minds, Creating Minds, and Leading Minds;
head of Project Zero at Harvard University which resulted in the theory of
multiple intelligences. Project
Zero was involved with Project Intelligence in Venezuela. Some of the materials from Project
Intelligence were published in English under the title of Odyssey: A Curriculum for Thinking.
David Perkins worked
with Howard Gardner on Project Zero.
Also works with Richard Paul on his "Critical Thinking" series
that is being used extensively in schools in Washington State.
John Sternberg IBM
Professor of Psychology and Education, Yale University; on the editorial board
of Human Intelligence newsletter, 1981; referenced in Washington
State Teachers Assistance Program and in the area of gifted education;
referenced in STEP/STAR program.
Reuven Feuerstein Professor,
Bar Ilan University, Israel; on the editorial board
of Human Intelligence newsletter, 1981; referenced in Washington
State Teachers Assistance Program.
Luiz Alberto Machado appointed
Minister of Intelligence, Venezuela, 1978; Chair for Research into Human
Modifiability and the Development of Human Intelligence, Bar Ilan University, Israel.
James Botkin member,
Club of Rome — a group long known for their advocation
of one world government.
On the Beam has also listed, as board members or advisors, such names as
Marian Diamond, Jane Healy, and Paul MacLean — all names found in
reference to education in some capacity.
Also, in the Winter, 1992, issue of On
the Beam, thanks is given to Boeing for their "generous
contribution." In another
issue, Gonzaga University of Spokane, Washington, is
listed as an "organizational member."
New Horizons for Learning is listed as
a resource reference in the back of Marilyn Ferguson's book, The Aquarian
Conspiracy; she being a New Age author and guru who was a presenter at
a New Horizons for Learning seminar held June 18-21,
1985, at Western Washington University in Bellingham. This seminor
was co-sponsored by, among others, the Washington Education Association.
New Horizons for Learning is
also listed as a "resource for change" in the back of Freedom
to Learn; Third Edition, (Rogers, Carl and H. Jerome Freiberg; New
York; Macmillan College Publishing Co, Inc.; 1994) in which the use of guided
fantasy/guided visualization is promoted on pages 135 and 136.
Dee Dickinson, Bruce Campbell and Linda
Campbell (or MacRae Campbell) and On the Beam
are listed in the Appendix of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner,
Howard; New York: BasicBooks; 1993); all being
associated with New Horizons for Learning.
Linda MacRae Campbell has also been a
consultant to the National Education Association.
On the Beam has published articles by Beverly Galyean,
New Age author and promoter of confluent education (another euphemism for
transpersonal education). Another
article instructs on how to take students on a guided fantasy/guided
visualization trip. Newsletters
sport articles on TQM (General Systems Theory), the
global village, mindmapping, holistic education,
global curriculums, etc. The
publication is distinctly New Age in orientation.
Listed in this article are people who
hold key positions within the education reform structure in Washington state. To borrow
from Marilyn Ferguson in The Aquarian Conspiracy,
You can only have a new society, the visionaries have said,
if you change the education of the younger generation ... Of the Aquarian
Conspirators surveyed, more were involved in education than in any other single
category of work ... 'The psychology of becoming has to be smuggled into the
schools.'
Everywhere we turn in the context of
education reform, we find New Age concepts heavily infused — whether it
is guided fantasy/guided visualization in the classroom, the Gaia hypothesis
embedded in the environmental curriculum published by the Office of
Superintendent of Public Instruction, Washington state, or in general systems
theory which provides the foundation for systems education (outcome-based
education), systems management (total quality management, the high performance
work organization, continuous quality improvement ...), or systems training
(school-to-work, workforce training and retraining).
© November 2002;
Lynn M Stuter
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