Public Education-A Report Card

Blame it on the Feds. When I was in college many years ago, I thought it good thing when Jimmy Carter elevated the Department of Education to a cabinet level post. Then Ronald Reagan came along, followed by Bush the First, and the dumbing down of American education began in earnest. Today, under Bush the Lesser, we have "No Child Left Behind," also known as "No Parent Left a Dime." Under NCLB, students are required to endure "proficiency tests" that attempt to measure what they've learned. If they fail the test, they don't advance to the next level. Thus, schools are forced to teach to the test, a process that we learned in my second go-round at college is counter-productive at best. BTW, my degree is in Secondary Education; so I DO have some knowledge in this area. . .

Today, under NCLB, students are no longer taught how to think; the schools are too busy "teaching to the test" to encourage creative thought. Rather, students are taught WHAT to think. The end result is a generation of graduates who've had their heads stuffed with facts but are unable to interpret those facts. For example, most high schoolers probably know that our government has three branches (legislative, judicial and executive); but, I suspect most of those same students would be hard pressed to explain WHY those three branches of government exist.

Interestingly enough, students seem to do better in school under Democratic administrations than under Republican administrations. There's a trend toward anti-intellectualism that runs deep in the Republican party. One of the more disturbing side effects of this is the current sorry state of science education in this once-great nation we call the United States. We need to wake up before it's too late. . .

PenDragon679, my grandson, the high schooler, remarked to me that less than half of his political science, junior year classmates, knew there were THREE branches of government! He told me this year, in literature, his classmates would tackle Washington Irving's 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow', a work his teacher pronounced 'too difficult' for students younger than the junior level of high school, to comprehend. I read, and understood, Hollow, before the age of 12!

I once believed the Dumbing of America, a radical, nonsensical theory. Today, I stand convinced of the steady, vigorous, anti-intellectualism rampant in our American society.

One last comment here: A friend's daughter, an 18 year old, high school senior, recently landed, and abruptly lost, her first job. She was hired as a cashier. Although her register told her the amount of a customer's change, she was UNABLE to count it out! You had better believe, we need to wake up, before it's too late!