I’ve read that. “The Underground History of American Education” by John Taylor Gatto is also extremely interesting.
One of the things the Education Establishment keeps largely hidden is the fact that a significant percentage of students never learn to read fluently, and that this is because they are not taught to read. When I was teaching 6th grade Sunday School last year, fewer than half the students could easily read from our textbook. I quickly learned to ask for volunteers, rather than going around the room expecting everyone to be able to read! And these were not children from the “groups” that many like to consider uneducable: these were the comfortable, surburban white children, receiving good grades at those county “Schools of Excellence!” with palatial facilities and every technological aid.
Billions of dollars (just in Charlotte!) are thrown into trying to improve the educational results of high school students, and it’s all money down the drain because they can’t read, because they weren’t taught to read in the K-3 years, when they needed to learn.
(/rant)