Posted on 08/26/2007 2:25:54 PM PDT by mathprof
Last week I went shopping in our small rural hometown, where my family has attended the same public schools since 1896. Without exception, all six generations of us - whether farmers, housewives, day laborers, businesspeople, writers, lawyers or educators - were given a good, competitive K-12 education.
But after a haircut, I noticed that the 20-something cashier could not count out change. The next day, at the electronics outlet store, another young clerk could not read - much less explain - the basic English of the buyer's warranty. At the food market, I listened as a young couple argued over the price of a cut of tri-tip, unable to calculate the meat's real value from its price per pound.
As another school year is set to get under way, it's worth pondering where this epidemic of ignorance came from.
Our presidential candidates sense the danger of this dumbing down of American society and are arguing over the dismal status of contemporary education: poor graduation rates, weak test scores and suspect literacy among the general population. Politicians warn that America's edge in global research and productivity will disappear, and with it our high standard of living.
[snip]
We should first scrap the popular therapeutic curriculum that in the scarce hours of the school day crams in sermons on race, class, gender, drugs, sex, self-esteem or environmentalism. These are well-intentioned efforts to make a kinder and gentler generation more sensitive to our nation's supposed past and present sins. But they only squeeze out far more important subjects.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Recommended reading.
If you want to read something sobering, find one of those school exams on the internet that were given to kids before the turn of the 20th century. Most college kids would fail them miserably. I consider myself to be pretty educated with a Masters and I had a hard time with many of them. My wife is a HS chemistry teacher and I often help her grade papers. I am appalled at the quality of the grammar and spelling from these HS juniors and seniors. What good is it to know the concepts if you cannot communicate them properly?
But at least they know how to be sensitive to muslims and illegal immigrants. That is what is really important anyway.
do the young teachers know anything else to talk about for 45 minutes and never tire from it?
I don’t know if the old drill-and-recite method is taught in schools anymore, but I still feel that is the most successful way to get young skulls full of mush a lot of what they need to know. I speak for millions of kids who passed through Catholic schools where the nuns didn’t tolerate any bad actors, and we didn’t hear lectures about the supposed shortcomings of our country. Forced memorization may be a dirty word in educational circles, but it would do wonders for poorly schooled children who can’t add two plus two.
Have you seen this video?
School principals are no more than staff of the Superintendent, without as much power as the underlings in the Administration building. My observation as a former teacher from many years ago who went on to other things, is that the larger the Administration staff, the poorer the quality of education. They need to place the most important emphasis on the schools themselves, get rid of the governments involvement with their mandatory social programs, place the best leaders in the school buildings, and strive for excellence in traditional curriculum, not this road mediocrity we see today.
As long as public education remains a government run monopoly,don’t expect any real improvement !!!
thanks! the video is amazing (and hilarious)
Dumb 'em all down and fleece the taxpayers.
LOL
Right/
As I sit here nibbling on my pork chop, I speculate how much longer before we hear that the super markets have capitulated to the sensitivity of the muzzies and will no longer carry pork...
I say this facetiously, but I fear with what we have already witnessed around the world, this may not be so far fetched a scenario.
The erosion of our educational system has gone on too long to be merely neglect. It can only be happening as part of a greater strategy, one designed to destroy this nation from the inside without a shot being fired. How else can anyone explain the skyrocketing cost of education when charted against its plummeting effectiveness?
Welcum to the workeng world, u are ready.
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This is highly effective indoctrination material used by the Marxists running our schools. Kinder and gentler generation? What they want are emasculated men and highly confused, man-hating, self-pitting women as future voters.
Get rid of it? Are you kidding? How would the Marxists succeed in it goal of destroying freedom by using the ballot box? It needs material like this to raise up the next generation of Marxist voters!
The Marxists in this country are more of a threat to our nation´s survival than any other issue! I seriously mean this. We can survive nuclear suit case bombs, economic depressions, World Wars, oil embargo, etc. BUT...We will NOT survive if the Marxists succeed in indoctrinating our nation´s youth!
Government K-12 schools and our nation´s colleges and universities are the Marxist´s most important weapon against future freedom.
1) SHUT DOWN government K-12 schools forever!
2) Work to completely and thorough reform or shut down our existing colleges and universities, or open new ones.
3) Get your own children out of government schools.
4) Join with neighbors to elect representatives who will completely and forever CLOSE DOWN the Marxist government school indoctrination camps!
It can only be happening as part of a greater strategy, one designed to destroy this nation from the inside without a shot being fired.
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Bingo! You win the ¨Hit the Nail on the Head¨ prize!
You understand the Marxist strategy.
They need to place the most important emphasis on the schools themselves, get
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The solution is to permanently and completely SHUT DOWN every government K-12 school.
Government schools are the Marxist´s most important and effective weapon in its quest to destroy freedom.
The disintegration of the American nuclear family is also at fault. Too many students don’t have two parents reminding them of the value of both abstract and practical learning. ( from the article)
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And the Marxists and their useful idiots in the government schools are doing EVERYTHING in their power to further destroy the family. Every day they teach attitudes and principles that make two parent families every more unlikely!
Again, government schools are the Marxists´most effective and important weapon in its quest to destroy freedom.
American schools fail because American schools are SUPPOSE to fail.
An illiterate, unthinking population ignorant and uninterested in its own history is an elite’s dream.
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It is a simple and quick way to separate my comment from the comment of the person to whom I am responding. I don´t always use the same symbols.
In more than a year of posting on Free Republic you are the only person to comment that they were confused with it.
By the way,,,,was the word ¨hell¨ necessary?
Yep! Part of the Marxist plan to destroy freedom. And,,,they have plenty of very stupid ¨Useful Idiots¨( mis-named teachers) to help them.
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