Nancy Vernon
PMB 192
17404 Meridian E., Suite F
Puyallup, WA 98375
December 13, 2005
Governor Christine Gregoire
Legislative Building
P.O. Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-0002
Dear Governor Christine Gregoire:
I have demonstrated over time that the State of Washington has based the design of education reform on the conceptual framework of Robert Carkhuff. Carkhuff’s conceptual framework is based on the belief that the physically sick and under resourced are sub-human with no soul. Please see the enclosed letter dated January 23, 1998, from OSPI to the Office of Financial Management confirming my claim.
Until the leaders of Washington State address the source of the WASL and the education reform efforts (conceptual framework of Robert Carkhuff), the problems relating to the WASL and education reform will continue to worsen. Discrimination and racism will be the only outcome of the current education reform and standardized testing process of the WASL. Your limited attention to this matter will eventually reflect upon your leadership. In the end, your refusal to listen to the truth will result in our children continuing to suffer; this is particularly true for children with severe disabilities. As I have stated time after time, the Carkhuff conceptual framework, which has been adopted by the State of Washington, is based on the belief that children with severe disabilities are sub-humans with no soul and unable to think. Carkhuff concepts are designed around the belief that minority races of color are “intellectually retarded” and “impotent and homeless.”
Your continued support of the current WASL design and current education reform policies endorses the Carkhuff conceptual framework (see attached document outlining the Carkhuff concepts because it is what you are endorsing).
Sincerely,
Nancy Vernon
Carkhuff Conceptual Framework
I received under public disclosure a letter written January 23, 1998 by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The letter states, “The Carkhuff conceptual framework and materials were used by the state’s Commission on Student Learning to plan and implement education reform.” The letter explains, “[Robert Carkhuff] has worked with groups in developing both national and state education reform efforts. His writing and training procedures are used in universities throughout the nation and they have been used in schools to increase student learning and achievement.” OSPI contracted with Carkhuff under the Bergeson Administration to design the educational system; he received three contracts, $25,000, $400,000 and $667,000. I have copies of all contracts and delivered products.
Carkhuff concept about people with disabilities and people with limited resources:
“The unhealthy end of the curve is marked by the laggards or attenuators…These personalities, whether individuals, organizations, or cultures, can be described as: Physically sick and under-resourced; emotionally unmotivated, even by the incentive system; interpersonally unrelated, even to their families. They are intellectually conditioned…Most important, the unhealthy personality cannot think…the unhealthy personality is imprisoned by the same walls it employs to define itself; it is fearful to look inside itself because it has no soul… (The New Science of Possibilities, Carkhuff, 2000, p.165-66). (OSPI purchased 500 of these books, I have the purchase orders)
Carkhuff concept on cultural differences:
“In their maturity or immaturity, one culture will live within itself, entropically exhausting its own resources; the other will live in an integrated world, heuristically multiplying its resources and their benefits. One is a retarding culture ultimately produces socially and intellectually retarded people. The other is a facilitative culture and continuously generates socially and intellectually facilitative people” (The Freedom Doctrine, Robert Carkhuff et al., 2003, p.235).
Carkhuff concept on Higher-Order Thinking:
“In short, interdependent processing is the vehicle to higher-order thinking” (Human Possibilities, Robert Carkhuff, 2000, p. 240). (OSPI purchased 1000 of these books, I have the purchase orders.)
Carkhuff works with Superintendent Bergeson to establish a Washington State school System of Interdependent Processing systems:
“The design team was composed of Superintendent Terry Bergeson, D.Ed. and staff members Andrew Griffin., Shirley McCune, Ph.D….not until the team employed…interdependent processing systems did they understand the phenomenal possibilities for [Human Capital Development]…The lower-order processing systems are initiated at the elementary levels, while the higher-order processing systems culminate at the secondary levels. Clearly, these educational leaders view Washington’s educational system as existing in higher-level organizational and marketplace conditions…We can only approach God when we ‘phenomenalize’ His Universe….God is the great Montessori Teacher: He co-processes only with those of us who use His most precious gift—the intellect with which He has endowed us” (The New Science of Possibilities, Robert Carkhuff, 2000, p.232-259)
Carkhuff on who is the Human Processor:
“Less than 5% of the personnel—the processors—elicit and expand their information inputs and sources, process the information by factoring the significant contributions of the information, and then dedicate their processing toward incrementally greater productivity…The conditioned responders are counterproductive, because their limited response repertoires force them to consume increasing levels of resource inputs but produce decreasing levels of result outputs…The conditioned responders are the dinosaurs of the Information Age. They are increasingly isolated as they teeter precariously on the edge of distinction” (Human Processing and Human Productivity, Robert Carkhuff, 1986, p.4-5).
Carkhuff concept on minority races:
“We must use all that we are, to become more than we are now. We must learn to live as militant humanists…or ‘die like the Indians—impotent and homeless in our own world because we were unable to get together in time…If a man chooses not to work, he is a victim. Victims are not to be trusted because they kill. Once they kill they cannot stop killing (Belly to Belly, Back to Back, Robert Carkhuff, 1975, p. iv and xvi).
“During the early days of the colonies, relations between Negroes and whites were harmonious…In short, blacks and whites were treated and treated one another with equality and equanimity, accumulating land and servants—black and white—in the bargain. They shared the same hopes or freedom, of opportunity, of achievement. Indeed, blacks and whites died for one another…A realization that before the invention of the cotton gin and the need for cheap labor, black-white relations in the American colony were exemplary would enable a teacher to understand the years of conditioning that enter the phenomenology of the student before him (The Development of Human Resources, Robert Carkhuff, 1971, p.14 & 79).
Carkhuff concepts on African American cultures:
“One is a retarding culture [African American] and ultimately produces socially and intellectually retarded people. The other [White] is a facilitative culture and continuously generates socially and intellectually facilitative people” (Freedom Doctrine, Carkhuff et. al., 2003, p.235)
Nancy Vernon
