Historical: Educational

This part of the research paper focuses on how education is at its most succinct and successful level in all of history, where more people are being taught concurrently than ever before (Neilsen, 1999; Iynegar, 1994; Johnson, 1999). This paper is about the education of the many by the very few, where the past is being re-written and the future is being for-ordained, where we can feel free because there is no longer any awareness of the discrepancy between truth and falsehood (Eagleton, 1991; Fromm, 1955; Gerbner, 1995; Mander & Goldsmith, 1996; Orwell, 1949). This review examines how industry and education ran a parallel course in their need for efficiency in dealing with the increasing demands of a growing population (Mander, 1978; Postman, 1986). This review also examines how society's concept of time has changed as it relates to work and to leisure (Mander, 1992; Winn, 1985).

Prior to the 1940's, before television, society spent its time in doing things that required an active involvement of the individual, where one learned to do new things as an active participant (Eagleton, 1991; Mander, 1978; Piaget, 1972; Pinar, 1975; Neilsen, 1999). With the introduction of television into the every day activities of most people (Neislen, 1999, 2000), there has been a steady and not so readily discernible transformation of not only 'what' is being learned, but with 'whom' is doing the teaching in regards to people of every age (Eagleton, 1979; Gerbner, 1995; Huffman, Vernoy & Vernoy, 1995; Johnson, 1999). No longer is education occurring from only that which is near (Macionis, 1998; Mander, 1978; Eagleton, 1991). According to the Neilsen Media Research Services, there were 99.4 million households in the US who had at least one TV set as of March 1999. With up to 106 million people tuned in on any given day during prime time, approx. 8PM-11PM (Neilson Media Research, May 1999). Education can now occur directed by those who may be in a totally different locale (Mander, 1978; Johnson, 1999; Iyenger, 1994). Changes have taken place within our society that would have been almost impossible to predict, although a few sci-fi writers did a seemingly amazing job in foretelling many aspects of these changes (Asimov, 1982; Waugh and Greenburg, 1982; Bradbury, 1953; Huxley, 1945; Orwell, 1949).

In the late 1800's and early 1900's conceptual-empiricism evolved, according to Franklin Bobbit, because the age of science was “demanding exactness and particularity” (Bobbitt, 1918, pg. 61). The industrial revolution was running at ‘full steam ahead’. Immigrants were entering America at record levels (Postman, 1985). The training of the uneducated masses seemed a daunting task to the businesses that required skilled laborers (Mander, 1978; Postman, 1985).   There “seemed to be a growing acceptance of a powerful and restrictive bureaucratic ideal for education which looked toward the management techniques of industry as its ideal of excellence and source of inspiration (Pinar, 1975, pg.51)".   In 1891, a Boston architect well known for his design of sleek high-rise buildings is quoted as saying, “form follows function” (Legrand, 1989, pg. 1007). Functionalism defined as “a philosophy of design holding that form should be adapted to use, material, and structure; a theory that stresses the interdependence of the patterns and institutions of a society and their interaction in maintaining cultural and social unity: (Merriam-Webster, 1973, pg.465). This belief of form following function can be traced back to the works of Charles Darwin and his book, The Origin of the Species, published in 1858. Darwins’ entire theory of evolution rested on the premise that the development of all characteristics and differences in nature results from the needs of the organism to survive. This thinking platform of functionality also could be seen in other industries such as the automobile industry (Postman, 1986). As Henry Ford and other major industrialists were actively pursuing ways to increase production efficiency in their factories, the design of the automobile was adjusted to allow for easier production techniques (Postman, 1986). Postman goes on to write how the signs of individuality of design were lost in the new production methods of the time. Form does follow function.   Function in the way the manufacturing process could be streamlined thereby predicating the form of the product. In 1913 Ford introduced his Model -T assembly line in Detroit, Michigan. The true era of mass-production was born. Each worker was assigned a specific task to perform in a repetitive manner. In the true form of efficiency, the time necessary to build an automobile from start to finish was dramatically decreased. Customized automobiles would prove to be too costly and slow down the process time from raw material to marketable product.
Along with the fast-paced production lines of the factories, communication technology was also developing at a heightened rate of speed. In 1902 the development of movable images in the film industry brought a sense of vitality and realism to the static look of the photograph. It was not long until the industries’ advertisers realized the potential of the moving image in providing a format to carry their message more efficiently too (Postman, 1986).   The production industry and the newly developing marketing industry formed a lucrative partnership in their quest to educate the population of the necessity of purchasing their products (Hobbs, 1996; Mander, 1992). Advertisers were needed to make the consumer believe that the ever changing, new and improved ‘form’ better met the users needs, that is, the product’s ‘function’ (Postman, 1986).
The late nineteenth century brought about many changes in society that would influence the development of Franklin Bobbitt’s and David Snedden’s philosophical theories (Postman, 1985).   Pinar states, “ the bureaucratization of the school curriculum that was to take place in the twentieth century was manifest in the general social and intellectual climate of American society at the turn of the century” (Pinar, 1975, pg.52).   In the late 1800’s, inventions such as Thomas Edison’s light bulb; Christopher Latham Sholes’ first practical typewriter; Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, and Louis Daguerre’s daguerreotype (photograph) brought about a new sense of time and its use (Postman, 1986). With the invention of the light bulb, no longer was it necessary to stop production work in a large factory because of the dim lighting of kerosene lanterns. Night and day could be now treated equally. Speed of information transmission brought an increased sense of urgency to matters that would have once seemed of less importance. An example of this could be the effects on the production levels of a certain item caused by hearing news about some event happening hundreds of miles away. The typewriter brought a speed to the printed word that had previously been unheard of. It was then possible to time the words per minute of a typist and then to set speed goals that had to be adhered to (Postman, 1986). Quality of the shape of the letter was no longer a factor as it had been with handwriting. Quantity was now the overruling factor. “The late nineteenth century saw the breakdown of a community-centered society and with it the ideal of the individual as a unit element in social life. The press of the corporate expansion and urbanization made the individual merely a cog in a great machine” (Pinar, 1975, pg.52).
Scientific management, as it related to the study of efficiency in the factory, was now being turned towards all aspects of everyday life. Frederick W. Taylor, known as the principal spokesman of the scientific management bureaucracy (Pinar, 1975), studied every aspect of efficiency as it related to industry. Taylor’s concept was that “productivity is central, and the individual is simply an element in the production system” (Pinar, 1975, pg.53). One of the strengths of this viewpoint is that it “carried with it an ethical dimension which bore a superficial resemblance to some of the tried and true virtues of the nineteenth century” (Pinar, 1975, pg. 54). An example of this would be the combination of increased production levels to the employee’s level of energy output. The ideals of such virtues as doing an honest day’s work would be used as a means to eliminate employee laziness and slow work (Pinar, 1975).   Pinar gives as another example of how morality came to be intertwined in the issues of efficiency, the Eastern Rate Case of 1910-11. The railroads had begun asking for an increase in their freight rates. By faulting their use of efficiency-management methods in the workings of the railroads, Louis Brandeis was able to talk the American middle-class into believing that it was the misuse of time management methods that were causing all of the problems. In time, many Americans let this belief of the all importance of efficiency and time management seep into the workings of every day life. This was all happening at the same time that Ivan Pavlov, a Russian medical researcher, began publishing his findings concerning “conditioned reflexes” in 1907. “Animals, Pavlov says, need to form conditioned reflexes in order to survive in a changing, predictable environment. His experiments are confined to dogs and monkeys, but there is no doubt in Pavlov’s mind that humans, too, form these conditioned reflexes” (Legrand, 1989, pg.103).
The entire concept of utilizing scientific management theory as a method of controlling the educational systems’ curriculum put the student in the position of ‘raw material’, to be molded, processed and packaged into a viable, marketable and productive ‘product’ (Postman, 1986). J. Franklin Bobbitt’s only concern for the individual was in determining his/her predetermined role, as it would suit the corporate world. Individualism was never a factor to be considered. By the 1920’s the curriculum was under a massive upheaval in order to make it fit the standards being laid out by the production metaphors. Bobbitt believed that the curriculum of the schools needed to focus on the objectives that would not be attained in the normal, day-to-day undirected experiences. (Bobbit, 1918). “Systematic labors of directed training” (Bobbitt, 1918, pg. 44) were required to correct any aspect of failure on the part of regular upbringing in society in teaching the correct manners of language usage, mathematical skills and other scholastic subjects. Bobbitt felt that the “controlling purposes of education had not been sufficiently particularized…and the scientific task preceding all others is the determination of the curriculum” (Bobbitt, 1918, pg.61).

With the mind-set of the conceptual-empiricists making such an impact on education, and the scientific management principles being put into every aspect of industrial decision-making, ripples could be felt in other sectors of society. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, published in 1932, gave voice to his concern of what could result from society’s fascination with social efficiency. According to Ross Finney (1929) and written just prior to the release of Huxley’s work, “if leadership by the intelligent is ever to be achieved, followership by the dull and ignorant must somehow be assured” (Finney, 1929, pg.386). This was exactly what Huxley warned about in his book. Through the use of a science fiction type of story line, Huxley described how there was not only predetermination being made from studying a group of students, but an actual “Social Predetermination Room” where there were test tube embryos. As explained by the fictitious character, Mr. Foster, in the story, “We also predestine and condition. We decant out babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future…” He was going to say “future World Controllers,” but correcting himself, said, “future Directors of Hatcheries,” instead” (Huxley, 1932, pg.12). In Huxley’s book historical time was dated in relation to the ‘Year of Our Ford’ and ‘A.F.’ instead of our ‘A.D’. In the forward of the second printing of Brave New World in 1946, Huxley wrote, “A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and schoolteachers” (Huxley, 1946, pg.xv). Others in society also were reflecting their interpretations of the dynamic implications that would result from the full incorporation of such a philosophy as conceptual-empiricism. The artists of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s displayed their internalized reactions to such a controlling philosophy by rebelling in how they created their works. The opposite philosophies of the Futurists, “who extolled the machine world and saw in mechanization, revolution, and war the rational and logical means, however brutal, to the solution of human problems” (Arnason, 1977, pg.307), and the Dadaists who felt “that the only way to salvation was through political anarchy, the natural emotions, the intuitive, and the irrational” (Arnason, 1977, pg.307) could be interpreted as society’s confusion with which philosophy was the best. Rebelling against any kind of societal control, the Zurich Dadaists “were violently opposed to any organized program in the arts, or any movement that might express the common stylistic denominator of a coherent group (Arnason, 1977, pg.307). The inner conflict, which can be best exemplified by Marcel Duchamp’s post 1911 works, shows his struggle with the validity of art. His works were at the opposite extreme of the Cubists. “Their dynamism, their “machine aesthetic”, was an optimistic, humorless exaltation of the new world of the machine, of speed, flight, and efficiency, with progress measured in these terms” (Arnason, 1977, pg. 310). One playwright, Raymond Roussel, in 1911, portrayed the “notion of a painting machine to render all man-made forms of representational art obsolete” (Arnason, 1977, pg.310), in his performance of Impressions of Africa. There is a continual expansion on the effects of the industrial mode of thinking on life and on art. This can be seen in the works of a school of machine painters and sculptors from Germany. Their art “both extolled the machine as a hope for the future and pointed out the danger that men might be turned into robots in a soulless machine society” (Arnason, 1977, pg. 327). By the 1930’s the art form known as Abstract Expressionism, was building in popularity among artists. “The essence of abstract expressionism is the spontaneous assertion of the individual” (Arnason, 1977, pg. 508). The works were so fluid and spontaneous from unpredictable actions of the artist that they would be impossible to be copied. It was a powerful and successful way to combat the mechanization of movement in the growing industrial age.
According to Pinar (1975), there was a temporary decline in society’s interests of the efficiency model of education by the late 1920s. There was a renewed interest in this philosophy soon after World War II. Pinar explains this renewal of interest on the two revolutions in society, “just as the first great drive toward standardization, predetermination, and fragmentation in the school curriculum came about in the aftermath of the first industrial revolution, so the renewal of these tendencies has come about in the aftermath of the second one- what is sometimes called the electronic or technological revolution” (Pinar, 1975, pg.64).
As the worlds of art and education were coming to terms with the philosophies that dealt with efficiency and technological advances, there occurred a very famous conference. This conference was held at the Mt. Washington Hotel, Brenton Woods, New Hampshire, in 1944. This conference created the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and soon after, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The goals of the world leaders who met at this conference were to create the institutions that would promote the vision of a world united in peace through economic prosperity (Korten, 1994). These leaders were powerful members of the U.S. corporate and foreign policy establishments. David Korten, Ph.D., who, at Bretton Woods, gave the keynote address at the fiftieth anniversary of this conference to the Environmental Grantmakers Association of America, is the president of the People-Centered Development Forum in New York. He feels that beginning in the 1930s with the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations and continuing through the 1940s from Bretton Woods and onward, there has been a systematic and unified progression of steps being taken economically and politically that are meeting the goals set forth at this conference. “The structure and ideology of the existing Bretton Woods system is geared to an ever-continuing expansion of economic output- economic growth- and to the integration of national economies into a seamless global economy” (Korten, 1964, pg. 23). After World War II, the factories that had been running around the clock to provide to the war effort were facing the dire consequences of scaling back to pre-war production. Fears of returning to the days of the Great Depression loomed over everyone. “With industrial capacity and capital investment expanded as they were, the consequences of a drop in production could make the 1930s look like the golden years” (Mander, 1977, pg. 135). Right after the Bretton Woods conference “government and industry started making identical pronouncements about re-gearing American life to consume commodities at a level never before contemplated… a new vision was born that equated the good life with consumer goods. An accelerated economy, continuing the booming expansion of wartime, added to a new consumer ideology, achieved the greatest economic growth rate in this country’s history from 1946 to 1970 (Mander, 1977, pg.136). In 1954 another extremely important meeting occurred among North American and European corporate and government leaders. This group was known as Bilderberg and played a critical role in advancing the European Union. “Participants included heads of state, other key politicians, key industrialists and financiers, and an assortment of intellectuals, trade unionists, diplomats, and influential representatives of the press with demonstrated sympathy for establishment views” (Korten, 1964, pg.27). As time went on, Japan, which was becoming more influential in the world market, needed to be included in this forum. The Trilateral Commission was formed in 1973 to meet this need. This commission was formed by David Rockefeller, then Chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, who, until, 1977, served as the commission’s director/coordinator. He then left to become the national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter. Decisions concerning global economic and political policies were being made by a select group of individuals. These policies affect every aspect of our lives, including educational curriculum.

“The members of the Trilateral Commission include the heads of four of the world’s largest non banking transnational corporations; top officials of five of the world’s largest international banks; and heads of major media organizations. U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter, George Bush, and Bill Clinton were all members of the Trilateral Commission, as was Thomas Foley, former speaker of the House of Representatives. Many key members of the Carter administration were both Bilderberg and Trilateral Commission Members. Many of President Clinton’s cabinet and other appointments are former members of the Trilateral Commission…Particularly significant about these groups is their bipartisan political membership. Certainly, the participation of both George Bush and President Clinton in the Trilateral Commission makes it easier to understand the seamless transition from the Republican Bush administration to the Democratic Clinton administration with regard to U.S. commitment to pass GATT and NAFTA. Clinton’s leadership in advancing what many progressives saw as Bush agendas won him high marks from his colleagues on the Trilateral Commission” (Korten, 1964, p. 27)
The implications of this partnership among industry and government leaders for every aspect of education in America are immense (Korten, 1994). For corporations to make the greatest amount of profit that is possible necessitates them to streamline the needs of their consumer market and to control those needs in a very predictable manner (Barlow & Robertson, 1994; Mander & Goldsmith, 1996). The article written by Finney holds the answer to the corporate requirement to control the wants of society, effectively determining what will be purchased and when. Finney believed that democracy is short lived unless the leadership was able to control the masses since he also felt that most individuals were so absorbed with their own private affairs that they were unwilling to contemplate anything else. By using that as a basis for developing a rationale for control and by combining it with Finney’s other beliefs. “Even the most intelligent of persons who pride themselves inordinately upon the direction of their lives by reason, will be surprised upon introspection at the extent to which their own behavior is conditioned by such short-cut intellectual methods” (Finney, 1929, pg. 392). That it could be so simple to control the patterns of behavior of the masses by including in their educational experiences proverbs, slogans, rhymes, catchwords and epigrams tailored to the values that those in control deemed important was of great interest to Huxley as well as to Finney. Finney further argued that “the dull and the bright behave similarly in response to epigrams and slogans which the intelligent are at great pains to rationalize, but which the dull accept through the most passive sort of social suggestion… the safety of democracy is not to be sought, therefore, in the intellectual independence of the duller masses but in their intellectual dependence. Not in what they think, but in what they think they think” (Finney, 1929, pg.391). Through the fine-tuning of the art of advertising since the mid 1940s and the introduction of television into the households of nearly every American family, this theory of controlling the masses is being used with unprecedented success. Through these suggestive slogans and sayings combined with another factor that Finney was unable to predict, the even more thought controlling image on the television screen, values and perceived needs and desires are being introduced to the sub-consciousness of the masses (Hardebeck, 2000). The feelings of apathy and powerlessness among the nation’s voters could be attributed to this method of suggestion (Hardebeck, 2000; Hunter, 1958; Stuphen, 2000). Our entire educational system is at risk of being taken away from local government control yet individuals feel that it is beyond their abilities to change the course that it is following (Barlow & Robertson, 1994; Hunter, 1958; Klass, 2000). Under the agreements signed under GATT and NAFTA, our schools could very easily become under the control of transnational corporations that have no vested interest in the democratic principles of our country (Barlow & Robertson, 1994). As political leaders continue to mouth metaphors tearing down every aspect of our present educational system the public slowly begins to repeat the defeatist slogans (Hunter, 1958; Iyengar, 1994). Heard enough times by those who don’t take enough effort to find validation, seemingly benign slogans can turn an entire populace into docile sheep (Sutphen, 2000; Mander & Goldsmith, 1996). Once a community makes the grave error of accepting privatized schools for their children they will be unable, legally, to change their minds. “Once a service is privatized, it must be governed by NAFTA rules of “national treatment” and cannot be returned to the public sphere without financial compensation to private interests that were making money in that area or might one day” (Barlow, Robertson, 1994, pg.64). Yet communities don’t combine resources to help combat the forces that are trying to break them up because they are too busy working at odds with one another. This is yet another ploy used by large corporations to gain advantage over other smaller entities. One way that corporations work is by externalizing the firm’s operations on the community, “pitting localities against one another in a standards lowering competition to offer subsidies, tax-holidays, and freedom from environmental and employment standards… workers are pitted against one another in a struggle for survival that pushes wages down to the lowest common denominator” (Korten, 1964, pg.29). Korten continues with the theme by saying that this can be seen all too easily as state mandated reform initiatives are forced upon school districts without adequate funding to help them to be implemented properly. School Choice is an example of how school districts are pitted against each other vying for the extra dollar while sometimes trying to get expensive students out from under their budget and into another systems by withholding information about needed services. Even the federal government’s promise of hiring 100,000 new teachers to help alleviate over crowded classes is a false claim of help without also including the money to improve the school structure. A teacher cannot be added if there isn't any classroom for he or she to teach in (Barlow & Robertson, 1994; Korten, 1994)

By utilizing the strategies laid out by educators such as Finney, Bobbitt and Snedden, the transnational corporations soon realized that education could occur not only in the classroom, but also in the world at large (Barlow & Robertson, 1994). The corporate world built upon the premise that education does not necessarily mean learning just the basics of math and grammar, but in learning values and habits, subjects that could be manipulated to be conducive to the betterment of the global economy (Barlow & Robertson, 1994; Mander & Goldsmith, 1995).

The many philosophies of education agree on a major point, that we all do learn (Best, 1970; Knight, 1998; Skinner, 1979; Tyler, 1949). What we learn, how we learn and why we learn are all topics for debate, yet studies are in agreement that learning occurs throughout our lives and through many ways (Joyce & Calhoun, 1996; Knight, 1998; Piaget, Skinner, 1979; 1972; Spock, 1998). In his book, To Understand Is To Invent, Piaget said the basic principle of active methods can be expressed as follows: "to understand is to discover, or reconstruct by rediscovery, and such conditions must be complied with if, in the future, individuals are to be formed who are capable of production and creativity and not simply repetition" (Piaget, 1972, pp 20). Yet many realists feel that "students can be programmed in a manner similar to the way computers are programmed (Knight, 1998, p. 49)". Knight goes on to says that this programming may not be successful at first and may require reinforcement for the student to be disciplined and shaped. With this point in mind the examination of how children sit in front of the television for hours at a time (Jana, 2000; Neilsen, 1999; Spock, 1998) and its effect on behavior modification needs to be done. B. F. Skinner suggests a need for studying the technology of behavior (Skinner, 1979) and in Robert Kocher's studies of attitude channeling and brainwashing we find evidence that rationality and truth are no guarantee of protection against the irrational forces used in behavior manipulation. Kocher wrote, "The function of intellectual process seems to be the fabrication of some excuse enabling the individual to bring his thought and behavior in line with outside pressures. To mean anything, rationality must be disciplined and a prevalent element of the environment" (Kocher, 2001, pg.5) These findings are not new, for centuries ago similar words were written, "We are called upon to use our reason when our senses receive opposite impressions, but that when they do not there is nothing to awaken thought" (Plato, 375 B.C.,p. 331 as cited in Lee, 1987).
Learning occurs in many places (Knight, 1998; Macionis, 1998; Postman 1986; Skinner, 1979). The school, one of society's specific centers of learning, is not necessarily the most responsible for the vast amount of teaching that is happening each and every day (Gerbner, 1995; Knight, 1998; Postman, 1996; Tomlinson, 1999). "Educators are finally coming out of denial: Students are more interested in "The Simpsons" than in Socrates" (Conover, 1996. p.2). By conservative estimates, students spend 1,500 hours a year in front of the TV and 1,100 hours a year in school (Jana, 2000; Conover, 1996). In a Children NOW Poll, it was found that the average American family has 2.4 TV sets with 54% of children between the ages of 10 to 16 having a television set in their own bedrooms (Gardner, 1995; Neilsen, 1999). Combinations of family participation, the media, peer group and church all contribute towards the learning event (Knight, 1998; Postman, 1996; Tomlinson, 1999). It may be argued that the family and media play the major role in the education of most children. (Dickenson, 2000; Haredbeck, 2000; Knight,1998 ). Children view, on the average, more than 25,000 hours of TV before they graduate from high school (Clinton, 1996; Neilsen, 1999; Spock, 1998). We seem to be learning less and less about more and more until one knows nothing about everything (Best, 1970, p. 19)". Media specialists, taking advantage of deregulation of the telecommunications and media markets over the last ten years, have launched an array of commercial programming aimed at young viewers (Gerbner, 1995; Smillie, Crowell, 1997; Rushkoff, 2001). The 'teacher' need not be an employee of the school system but may be any of those who become involved in the student's lives throughout a given day (Barlow & Robertson, 1994). Learning takes place through what an individual experiences and how he reacts to the environment (Gerbner, 1995; Shujaa, 1997; Skinner, 1979; Taylor, 1949). A television show has all the pre-requisites of a curriculum including a sense of truth and reality and teaching methodology (Gerbner, 1995; Knight, 1998; Mander, 1978). It is up to the producer of the particular program, influenced by the corporate sponsor, to decide on the lesson being taught, in stark contrast to a teacher who has completed the many pre-requisites for obtaining a teaching certification and has been hired by a school department (Barlow & Robertson, 1994). According to Jerry M. Landay, writing for the Christian Science Monitor (1995), the content of television influences events and the way we perceive them. Since behind everything that commercial TV airs is profit (Hobbs, 1996), the message being taught has but one purpose, "the delivery of the large, targeted audiences to the sponsors as a commodity, in exchange for sales dollars (Landay, 1995)". "The purpose of TV is not to entertain you… it is for the profit the companies make on the products they're selling (Hardebeck, 2000)".

The act of imitating has long been recognized as an instinctual practice by infants to help them to begin the long process of learning how to survive in the world (Erikson, 1963, Piaget, 1972; Spock, 1998). Imitating a smile from a primary caregiver usually produces more smiles in return and a lesson in successful interaction sets the foundation for further social development (Piaget, 1972; Spock, 1998). The same can be said of the imitation of sounds that an infant hears. The coos and babbles of an infant are again, instinctively repeated by the mother and father, which produces a powerful, happy sense of interaction and control to the developing infant (Mander, 1996; Spock, 1998). The ramifications of cause and effect are continuously explored and experimented with by the infant with the results, either pleasant or not so pleasant, being internalized and stored for future use (Mander, 1996; Huffman, Vernoy & Vernoy, 1995). The use of the instinctual and many times subliminal participation in imitation is used with extreme success by advertisers to obtain the necessary marketing share for their clients (Hobbs, 1996; Rushkoff, 2001; Warrebey, 2000). Observational learning, or social learning theory, occurs when the viewer's behavior changes after viewing the behavior of another person, be it in an actual situation or one viewed from the TV or computer screen (Huffman, Vernoy & Vernoy, 1995; Murray, 1999). There are four separate processes involved with observational learning: attention, retention, production and motivation (Murray, 1999). When learning through observation in the 'real' world there are a combination of factors that combine to increase the degree of learning retention that takes place (Jana, 2000; Needlman, 2000; Spock, 1998). From the behavioral point of view, an internalized representation of the learned event is formed in the brain during both conscious observation and active examination (Rybak, Gusakova, Golovan, Podladchikova, 1999)