A+ Commission Comments and information submitted                                                  
November 8, 2004                                                                              

Dear Dr. Terry Bergeson

The evening of September 3, 2004, I attended a debate at the 1st Democratic District in which you participated.  During the break I approached you and attempted to discuss with you the content of The New Science of Possibilities, specifically beginning with the section discussing the human attenuators.  You simply ignored me.  At the end of the debate I again approached you to discuss The New Science of Possibilities, and this time you said, “Leave me alone.” 

The rules of the debate specifically stated, “Questions of a particular nature can be made directly to the candidates either at the break or after the forum.”  I was acting within the guidelines of the rules; however, you did not honor the intent of those rules, which would have allowed you to discuss my specific questions and concerns.  I have been forced to approach you in the public forum arena due to the fact that you refuse to address my numerous letters requesting answers to my concerns relating to the teachings of The New Science of Possibilities and your development and implementation into our public schools the concepts discussed in the book Possibilities Schools, Carkhuff contract deliverables, Links Learning grants and delivered products.

It is clear that you intend to maintain your religious practice of forcing the interdependent processing with the phenomena as described in The New Science of Possibilities into our public schools.  I have reviewed your 2004 Summer Institute presentation and see that you included in your presentation the Exploring, Understanding and Acting (EUA) human development idea with emphasis on the Relating, Representing, and Reasoning processing skills, and the Living, Learning and Working functions as the learning process and goals to be implemented by Washington State educators.

Based on my research, I have concluded that it is the intent of the WASL, in the existing form, to determine the Human Capital Development of our students, based on the components: physical, emotional and intellectual, and calculated in the P x E2 x I5 equation.  These components are enabled by the New 3Rs: Relating, Representing, and Reasoning, which is ultimately teaching our children how to co-process with God—the phenomena.  The lower and higher-order processing systems are as follows:


This is clearly outlined in Robert Carkhuff’s book, The New Science of Possibilities.  This book serves as the doctrine defining the development of Possibilities Schools, of which you, Dr. Shirley McCune and Dr. Andrew Griffin designed along with Carkhuff Thinking Systems, and piloted through the Unity Project (26 elementary schools).  The ideas presented throughout the Possibilities Schools series are the same teachings you, McCune, Griffin and Carkhuff have been promoting for nearly 30 years, however each time it is called something different (teaching skills—70s, productive—80s, and now possibilities).  These are your religious beliefs and practices, and are not to be forced upon our children and educators. 

In order to specifically address my concerns as they relate to my children, I have decided it would be beneficial for me to clearly define my understanding of your teachings so that you can respond to each area I discuss.  The questions will be designed to address how your system will affect my children in the public schools.  Pages referenced are from The New Science of Possibilities.   I will start with page 243 which states the following:

"The Washington Educators [Bergeson, McCune, and Griffin] promote their learner-   products as themselves the standards for their 3Rs project:  Living, learning, and working functions are discharged by physical, emotional, and intellectual components enabled by 3Rs processing systems under conditions of freeing and self-organizing organizations as measured by uniform, diverse, and changeable processing responses."

I understand this to mean you are testing by way of the WASL (format being uniform, diverse and changeable) my children’s human capital worth (P x E2 x I5) enabled by their ability to interdependently process (3Rs processing system) with the phenomena which ultimately frees them to co-process with God or the gods of phenomenology, however this god is a god of Universal oneness.  This meaning—you have designed an entire system that ultimately teaches a form of spiritual communion with God; however, the student is unknowingly being taught how to commune with many gods that are merged as one, including the student as being a god of this oneness.

You also demonstrate this system idea of achieving god-hood in the booklet The New 3Rs: Skills for the 21st Century, March 1999.  On page 18 you present a diagram that specifically defines the WASL as a tool being used to assess the conditioned (uniform), selected (diverse) and generative (changeable) responses.  The WASL is designed to test the metacognition of students by relying on internal, subjective feelings as absolute truth. You list other tests as well, however, the one test being used to judge the processing skills and metacognition of the student is the WASL; therefore, I am limiting my discussion and questions to this test.  Please offer a response that specifically addresses the WASL and provide clear direction to any misunderstanding I may have reached in relation to your teachings and intent to transform the learning, teaching and leadership environment.

Page 165-166

The New Science of Possibilities expresses doctrine that defines the worth of an individual based on their ability to interdependently process with the phenomena.  Page 165 and 166 discuss the human attenuators as unable to think, having no soul, and ultimately references them as “it.”

I take this to mean, based on my reading the books, Towards Actualizing Human Potential, Robert Carkhuff, HRD Press, 1981, and Human Possibilities, Robert Carkhuff, HRD Press 2000, that the level scale of 0-4 used to score the WASL is the same as the level determination of achieving actualization used in both of the books.  In the 1981 book Carkhuff discusses three human case studies; two of them being OSPI employees and members of your Cabinet: Dr. Shirley McCune and Dr. Andrew Griffin (Pages 107-110 and 115-119).  In these case studies Carkhuff determines their level of actualization/mission being a level 4 and 5 on a scale of 1-5.  The components are the same components used in the Possibilities Schools design; however, the intellectual component has five levels now rather than three.  The book, Human Possibilities, discusses the five levels of intellect (the State of Washington purchased hundreds of these books for conference trainings).  Considering that you have presented the P x E2 x I5 in OSPI Power Point presentations, I believe you are determining whether children are fully human and of superior intelligence, all based on the feedback you receive from the WASL.  Please specify your intent of using these components to determine whether a child is considered a Human Attenuator, and further explain the idea of the equation, P x E2 x I5, developed by Carkhuff and incorporated into your Administration as a determining factor of whether a child is human or not.  Please discuss your understanding of the reference to these individuals considered to be laggards, attenuators, sub-human, detractors and “it” unable to think, to get or give anything and why they are soulless.   

Page 259 and 260

The New Science of Possibilities claims “[w]e came to know God only when we came to generate human and phenomenal possibilities, for God is in the phenomena [and that] we can approach God only when we ‘phenomenalize’ His Universes, for God assumes the form of His Phenomena [and] [h]e co-processes only with those of us who use His most precious gift—the intellect of which he has endowed us.”   You teach that the New 3Rs: Relating, Representing and Reasoning is a culminating processing system to ultimately achieve interdependent processing, which is generating the “most powerful images of phenomenal information” (page 240).   As mentioned in the book (page 232) you are a member of the design team which determined that the “lower-order processing systems are initiated at the elementary levels, while the higher-order processing systems culminate at the secondary levels…these educational leaders view Washington’s educational system as existing in higher-level organizational and marketplace conditions…In short, they are preparing youth to become invaluable human capital” (page 240). 

It is my understanding that those select few who achieve the culmination of processing skills are able to co-process with God; they have reached the highest level similar to a celestial body or a divine being.  So basically, you have designed a system that ultimately will achieve divinity for the children able to reach the highest level of processing, exhibiting superior intelligence.  Also, it is my understanding that you, Dr. McCune and Dr. Griffin are interdependent processors with Carkhuff (page 266) you have become an organizational phenomena (oneness—you have merged), making an organizational phenomena of yourselves becoming divine beings pure of mind, body and spirit—merged into oneness with the Universe.  Do you believe yourself to be a god and divine, with the mission to design a system that will transform the curriculum to allow children to evolve their metacognition, bringing the chosen to their divine state?  Please provide clear direction of how this will impact my children should they not be able to achieve this divinity, and become one with your organizational phenomena.  In answering my questions please address the healer process used to describe the abilities of the interdependent processor, see page 121 -122. Please provide direction of what I should expect to witness once my child is able to interdependently process and enter “the body and spirit of the other.” This idea is described in the book as follows:

"Phenomenologically, then, the healer enters the body and spirit of the other, dedicating his or her own body and spirit to the recipients health…pure of mind, pure of body, pure of spirit…the healer is dedicating his or her purity of belief and health to defeating the ravaging illness of the recipient."

Page 131

The New Science of Possibilities discusses spiritual rebirth associated with achieving interdependent processing, which is achieved through mastering the New 3Rs: Relating, Representing and Reasoning.  It is specifically stated, “This is an experience that is, at once, exquisitely fulfilling and agonizingly painful.  First, we become “pregnant” with phenomena: they live inside us.  Then, we give “birth” to the phenomena: they live outside us.  It is during this latter phase that the phenomena take on lives of their own—changeable lives!  Indeed, we learn to live inside the phenomena, processing with them, receiving their generative responses to stimulate our further processing.”

It is my understanding that once my child is able to generate phenomenal images this spiritual rebirth will take place.  Please describe the “agonizingly painful” state he will experience once achieving this birthing process.  Is the pain physical or emotional? What should I expect from him when he achieves this state of mind?   How should I explain to him the phenomena that lives inside of and that he is processing with to receive generating responses?  Will he hear voices, and should I expect him to speak to the phenomena with words as if the phenomena are alive, similar to a human?         

Page 242

The New Science of Possibilities discusses how “learner-performance functions are discharged by school-curriculum components enabled by teacher-performance processes in the New 3Rs; this involves relating, representing, reasoning, along with content-development lesson design and teaching delivery.”  Learner responses are defined as conditioned responses, selective responses and generative responses (see diagram 6-23 page 242).  And, finally it is discussed how these generative responses are measured, “generative learning is discharged by measuringly process-centric content enabled by The New 3Rs under freeing and changeable cultural conditions as measured by diverse and changeable processing responses.”

It is my understanding that the WASL is designed in a manner that will test the level of processing (metacognition) a child has achieved from his learning experience.  The teacher-performance processes in The New 3Rs: Relating, Representing and Reasoning, along with content-development lesson design and teaching delivery is what determines the learner-performance processes.  

My son is in the 7th grade, which I understand to be the transitional phase (moving from Representing to Reasoning) of learning to interdependently process.  The diagram on page 241 of The New Science of Possibilities gives a visual description of the three phase process that indoctrinates my children into following your sectarian beliefs and practices. 

Basically, my 7th grader is at the lower end of the higher-order (metacognition) reasoning processing system; my son will be training at the I3 (individual processing) level.  This level is “dedicated to generating new images of phenomenal information” (page 240).  This stage of the indoctrination will allow him to individually explore and generate (create) new phenomenal information.  The information presented in the curriculum will allow him to begin the spiraling effect needed to advance to the next level of processing, I4 (interpersonal processing), he will then begin to understand your religion and begin “generating more powerful images of phenomenal information” interpersonally to in the end act upon those beliefs by interdependently processing and “generating the most powerful images of phenomenal information” (page 240).  This spiraling effect ultimately will teach my son to co-process with the gods of Universal oneness of all who have achieved the actualized state of interdependency with the phenomena, such as you, also meaning he has achieved godhood.  Once achieving this state of divinity my son will then be ready to interdependently process to be one with the organizational capital development (educational arena), to then advance to the marketplace capital development (workforce arena), to then be labeled phenomenal intelligence, which initiates deductive processing with the ultimate outcome of Cultural Capital Development; living, learning and working in a culturally transformed society.  I believe this to mean that my son’s beliefs, values and attitudes will be transformed to create this new cultural capital society, which is solely based on your religious beliefs, attitudes and values.

The curriculum is not only designed to teach him how to interdependently process—to become one with the Universe; it is also teaching him the ideas, values and attitudes of a sectarian nature, which is establishing a religious belief system organized around the theosophical ideas that reject Judeo-Christian revelation and theology, often incorporating elements of Buddhism and Brahmanism, and held to be based on a special mystical insight or on superior speculation.  A complete analysis of the curriculum will support this assertion.  I am in the process of completing my analysis.

The content of the WASL in its present state tests the processing levels (metacognition) of a student, and the teacher-performance processing.  The WASL is being used to decide whether my son will receive a certificate of mastery, which is equivalent to a diploma, which will decide whether he will be able to go to college.  Should my 7th grader not achieve this superior level of processing with the phenomena, or the co-processing with the Universal oneness, he will ultimately be placed in society at a level that labels him as being a human attenuator, detractor, laggard and soulless.  My 10 year-old son who is deaf and visually impaired will have no place in society, as you are advocating the removal of special education students from the WASL; this test determines whether they will advance in society.  What happens to him?  What will happen to my 12 year-old son should he not perform at a superior level on the WASL? 

On page 36 of the Human Possibilities Carkhuff defines the level of a person’s Human Capital Development.  The diagram is set up similar to the social caste system of Hinduism; however, Carkhuff has added the components P X E2 x I5 to determine the worth of a human being.  You have incorporated these components into the Possibilities Schools design, which you developed in partnership with McCune, Griffin and Carkhuff Thinking Systems.  The Human Capital Development is presented by Carkhuff in the Human Possibilities as follows:

Levels of Functioning

Leader—Interdependently Acting
Contributor—Interdependently Understanding
Participant—Interdependently Exploring
Observer—Interdependently Goaling
Detractor—Non-Engagement 

It is my understanding that the 0-4 scoring level on the WASL will determine the level of functioning a child is in relation to their Human Capital Development (HCD). 

WASL Level of Functioning

Leader—level 4
Contributor—level 3
Participant—level 2
Observer—level 1
Detractor—level 0

In the end, my 10 year-old son will be a detractor due to his inability to participate in the WASL, and you reinforce this by advocating to have the law exclude children in special education from being required to take the test.  And, my 12 year-old son will be a detractor as well, should I object to his taking the test; however, if I allow him to take the test it will ultimately determine his level of human capital.  Based on Carkhuff’s teachings the detractor who is physically sick and unable to think is soulless, therefore unable to co-process with the Universal god of oneness, and considered to be sub-human.
      
In closing, I would like to point out that the books The New Science of Possibilities and the Human Possibilities were purchased by the OSPI with federal dollars and intended for State conference distribution.  Five hundred copies of The New Science of Possibilities and 500 copies of Human Possibilities were purchased.  The OSPI purchased 5,000 copies of the book, Possibilities Schools.  Carkhuff Thinking Systems received nearly 1 million dollars in contracts to develop and design the Possibilities Schools material, and the LINKS Learning grants, totaling 12 million dollars, served to fund the promotion of your religious order.

You continue to promote the higher-order processing skills enabling the physical, emotional and intellectual components to then determine the level of living, learning and working functions (human capital development) of a student by forcing our schools to conform to the present design of the WASL; this monitoring tool determines the academic success of our schools, teachers and students.  However, it is designed to test the metacognition of a student, which ultimately determines their level of worth and intelligence as defined by The New Science of Possibilities, your religious belief system. Based on the findings discussed above you have clearly forced upon our children your religious practices and beliefs, and have used our tax dollars to establish your religious order into our public schools.


Sincerely,
Nancy Vernon


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message or provided with this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.

Back to Index
OSPI Response to Questions
My Response