Why is Public Education Failing? By Tom DeWeese

Children are coming out of school dumb because they aren't taught academics. They have, instead, become experiments in behavior modification.

It's a fact. Most of today's school children can barely read or write. They can't perform math problems without a calculator. They barely know who the Founding Fathers were and know even less of their achievements. Most can't tell you the name of the President of the United States. It's pure and simple; today's children aren't coming out of school with an academic education.

Colleges know it. They have to set up remedial courses for incoming freshmen just to prepare them for classes. Parents know it. Their children grow dumber everyday.

The politicians say they know it. They hold hearings to grill education "experts," and they hold high-powered education "summits" to debate and discuss the "problem." And they keep coming up with more federal programs and dictate more standards and spend more taxpayer dollars to fix the problem. But the problem continues to explode. Why?

Frankly, any parent can find the answer simply by looking through their child's textbooks or taking a close look at the classroom structures that their children are forced to endure.

That's just what I'm going to do for you and when I'm through, see if you still wonder why there is an education crisis. And ask yourselves why all the politicians, with huge staffs to do their bidding, can't seem to find the problem.

It comes under many names; block scheduling, group learning, cooperative learning. It's all part of a radical change in the way children are handled in the classroom.

Children are paired with others for group grades. Individual achievement is de-emphasized. Under block scheduling a number of subjects are tied together in one long class. For example, math, science, health and physical education have been combined in one school. Children are supposed to learn these skills by working on class projects, such as launching an imaginary rocket to the Moon.

Presumably when faced with various problems in building their rocket, students will seek out the necessary information. They'll need math to calculate the projectory, science to find where the Moon is and health to know what to feed the astronauts. Obviously health is for astronaut training. Children are not instructed on how to do the math calculations or how to find the information they need. They are to find it for themselves. And children who can't keep up are to be helped along by other children in their group. It's called "kids helping kids." That's why teachers are now called "facilitators."

"Cooperative learning" is nothing more than a classroom-management technique that provides a convenient hiding place for bad teachers and under-achieving students. The student who doesn't care to learn, or has failed to grasp a concept, allows the rest of the group to do the work and yet gets the same grade.

What students coming out of such classes cannot do is perform math problems, recite multiplication tables, conjugate a verb or structure a sentence. Random facts picked up in the rush to complete a project do not supply the proper base or structure to understand a subject.

Perhaps the most bizarre of all of the school restructuring programs is mathematics. Math is an exact science, loaded with absolutes. There can be no way to question that certain numbers add up to specific totals. Geometric statements and reasons must lead to absolute conclusions. Instead, today we get "fuzzy" Math. Of course they don't call it that.

As ED Watch explains, "Fuzzy" math's names are Everyday Math, Connected Math, Integrated Math, Math Expressions, Constructive Math, NCTM Math, Standards-based Math, Chicago Math, and Investigations, to name a few. Fuzzy Math means students won't master math: addition, subtraction, multiplications and division.

Instead, Fuzzy Math teaches students to "appreciate" math, but they can't solve the problems. Instead, they are to come up with their own ideas about how to compute.

Here's how nuts it can get. A parent wrote the following letter to explain the everyday horrors of "Everyday Math."

Everyday Math was being used in our school district. My son brought home a multiplication worksheet on estimating. He had 'estimated' that 9×9=81, and the teacher marked it wrong. I met with her and defended my child's answer. The teacher opened her book and read to me that the purpose of the exercise was not to get the right answer, but was to teach the kids to estimate. The correct answer was 100: kids were to round each 9 up to a 10. (The teacher did not seem to know that 81 was the product, as her answer book did not state the same.)

Children are not taught to memorize multiplication tables. Those who promote this concept believe that memorization is bad. Instead, children, they say, should be taught to "discover" multiplication. Students, they say, learn to multiply over several years by "thinking about math."

Social, political, multicultural and especially environmental issues are rampant in the new math programs and textbooks. One such math text is blatant. Dispersed throughout the eighth grade textbooks are short, half-page blocks of text under the heading "SAVE PLANET EARTH." One of the sections describes the benefits of recycling aluminum cans and tells students, "how you can help."

In many of these textbooks there is literally no math. Instead there are lessons asking children to list "threats to animals," including destruction of habitat, poisons and hunting. The book contains short lessons in multiculturalism under the recurring heading "Cultural Kaleidoscope." These things are simply political propaganda and are there for one purpose – behavior modification. It's not Math. Parents are now paying outside tutors to teach their children real Math – after they have been forced to sit in classrooms for eight hours a day being force-fed someone's political agenda.

Conjugate a verb? Diagram a sentence? Learn to spell? This is language class. We have more relevant things to learn.

In a seventh grade language arts class in Prince William County, Virginia, children are given a test entitled, "What makes you good friendship material." Children are to circle "yes," "no" or "maybe" to questions like, "Am I someone who is trusting of others; likes to have close personal friends; is able to influence others; enjoys sharing with others; can keep a secret? If you answered yes to most of these then you are really good friendship material. If not, you need to work on yourself."

One book being used in classes is called The Book of Questions. Designed around situation ethics, the authors openly admit that "this book is designed to challenge attitudes, values and beliefs." Again behavior modification – not academics — is the root of this exercise.

(1) On an airplane you are talking pleasantly to a stranger of average appearance. Unexpectedly, the person offers you $10,000 for one night of sex. Knowing that there is no danger and that payment is certain, would you accept the offer?

(2) A cave-in occurs while you and a stranger are in a concrete room deep in a mineshaft. Before the phone goes dead, you learn that the entire mine is sealed off and the air hole being drilled will not reach you for 30 hours. If you both take sleeping pills from the medicine chest, the oxygen will last for only 20 hours. Both of you can't survive; alone one of you might. After you both realize this, the stranger takes several sleeping pills and says it's in God's hands and falls asleep. You have a pistol; what do you do?

And so it goes, in Geography where, instead of looking for Colorado on a map, children are instructed to make a "Me" map to psychologically profile the children. In Civics, instead of learning how the government runs and of the great checks and balances that the Founding Fathers installed to protect our liberties, children are taught how to be "global citizens" under the UN's Declaration on Human Rights." In Health classes children are taught about Mother Earth — Gaia — with lessons on the Sierra Club as heroes.

Children are coming out of school dumb because they aren't taught academics. They have, instead, become experiments in behavior modification to prepare them to be citizens of a global village. The fault lies with the U.S. Congress, which now dictates curriculum and perpetuates the Department of Education, from which all of these evils flow.

Tom DeWeese is publisher and editor of The DeWeese Report and president of the American Policy Center, a grassroots, activist think tank headquartered in Warrenton, VA. ampolicycenter@hotmail.com http://www.americanpolicy.org/

“I think you give too much credit to the NEA. I am a teacher in Georgia. GAE is an affiliate of the NEA. Most teachers that I know opt to join PAGE (Professional Association of Georgia Educators) because it’s cheaper. We see these folks once or twice a year at sign up time.”

I agree with that. I think many forget, even though some national standards have been established, that states and even smaller units still establish curricula and select textbooks to be used. Things are far from uniform nationwide, and most teachers have more interaction with their state associations than with the NEA. But the NEA is the lobbying arm for education in DC, and I know a significant minority, or even a majority of teachers nationwide disagree with their liberal advocacy on most issues.

More conservative states have kept some of the more liberal advocacy out of textbooks (or just picked more conservative textbooks), and out of the reading books for lower grades.

You’re lucky — parents involved is also a key factor. In affluent communities the parents scream like stuck pigs if SAT scores drop a quarter point. This isn’t “all of the children,” either. They realize home prices are tied to SAT schools and the quality of the schools.

The bottomline remains the same — education is expensive. It’s a “get what you pay for” world and education is no exception.

My husband is an engineer and other engineers who he’s talked to about Saxon Math who know about it, say it is the absolute best math curriculum for practical use in the real world.

What grade level math is your daughter doing? When my kids were in 3rd grade, we started them on Math 54. Yes, there is a lot of repetition and it seems to move slowly at times, but I’ve found that by the time they are done with it, they KNOW the math. My daughter got well over a 700 on the SAT Math section (I don’t remember her exact score). Both my son and daughter, who have taken Physics, have done very well in the Physics as well, in large part because of their proficiency in math.

And I learned a lot. All that math that they tried to shove down my throat in high school that I didn’t learn finally made so much sense. I found the lessons very well and clearly explained, and that from an adult perspective. I think Saxon is great. My kids did well with it and it helped me tremendously.

How many upwardly mobile white school districts are failing?

My children over the years have attended a number of them. None were failing though their politics aggravated me.

But now here in Nashville after aged 10 or so when white flight really kicks in and all of the middle schools sans magnet schools become mostly minority and dangerous then the big problems start...unteachable kids with huge behavioral issues ruin it for everyone.

You either go private or magnet....only two choices.

We folks who live in high minority districts know this....and it’s more the parents of these kids’ fault than it is anyone else.

mighty easy to blame the schools and not face the reality of trying to educate kids from a disintegrating culture.

i will grant though that the great society contributed to that now for two generations but folks do have free will....at least conservatives used to believe that

Beg to differ. You think it was spent efficiently because you have no basis for comparison. Public education hates longitudinal studies because they show that compared with students of fifty years ago, high school graduates, even in the “classy” school districts do not perform intellectual tasks as well. The root of the problem is the need to graduate eighty percent of the 17-year olds and at least twenty-five percent of the WHITE ANGLO population is not up to the rigor of a 1955 English class, as no rigorous as that often was. The high school was designed back in the 1890s for the top ten percent of the 14-19 population, for college prep. The drive for secondary education for all has gradually caused a breakdown in the model. Didn’t help that the intellectually most excellent part of the teacher cadre—bright young women —has since the 1960s been drawn off into other fields. Law, medicine, higher education etc. They have been replaced by womenwho in earlier times would have been secretaries and clerks. The exceptions prove the rule. Teachers by and large are more polished socially than they were, more broadly knowledgeable, but less thorough and, of course, never drilled in the basics of education.

“In grade-school math classes, though, an estimate is a quick approximation of the answer to a complicated calculation. If that approximation says that the result should be around 100 and your calculated answer is over 300, you immediately know that your result is suspect.”

But what is the practical application of this exercise, other than as a test question on grade school math exams?

I’m still guessing the only practical application is to give a passing grade to students who can’t successfully calculate enough math problems correctly to earn a passing grade.

Most real world calculations are checked with something called doubling checking, or methods built into computer programs or spreadsheets.

My daughters kindergarten teacher, was a gay man. I attended the first parent teacher conference to listen to this man b*tch about too many letters in my daughters name.

Wrong time of the month for him I guess. Had to deal with this man for many years. He was never personable to me. He graduated with my sons class to the middle school and became the computer lab teacher. He brought his life partner into class to discuss his lifestyle, and their dog. The kids were cracking up about how silly this man was.

finally when my kids entered high school, we were done with him.

And I’m confident the estimated calculations are total nonsense, of little or no value in the real world of business, science, or any other field.

I disagree. I use estimations all the time when shopping.

If I have only a limited amount of money with me at the time, I keep a running total of estimates in my head to see just how much I can buy on that trip.

It also has allowed me to catch mistakes in pricing or the way the cashier rang up an order.

One time the bill came up about $20 off what I had estimated and when the cashier checked the receipt, it turned out someone had entered the wrong amount into the computer system for green beans and was charging about $50 a pound for them.

When I was getting my degree, my science professors encouraged us to use estimates to see if we were close in our answers.

To me 80 or 90 would be correct, 9 up to 10 x 9 = 90- 10% =80

I have used this method many times.

Most adults use estimation every day, both on and off the job.

The important part of estimating is that it requires prior and thorough knowledge of basic arithmetic: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Education theology doesn't recognize such prerequisites.

It’s not a question of getting the word right. He says, “They’ll need math to calculate the projectory, science to find where the Moon is and health to know what to feed the astronauts.”

“Science to find where the moon is” ???

“It is plausible that the men on the moon, if they do exist, are slight of body and capable of being nourished by whatever comes their way.” - Plutarch

I have often had to use estimates, until I had time and/or tools to do an accurate answer.
To me 80 or 90 would be correct, 9 up to 10 x 9 = 90- 10% =80

I have used this method many times.

Good point. You're right that 10 x 9 would be a better estimate than 10 x 10. There's no reason to bump both numbers up. (Your 10% fudge factor improves on that.)

BTW, these kids would know that adding a zero multiplies by 10 if they had memorized their multiplication tables.

““In my classroom I do sometimes use cooperative learning. Although I teach a 3rd grade class. The receive below grade level, at grade level, and above grade level on their grade cards.”

I missed this - getting sleepy - east coast time.

Why do you grade like that?

We use the traditional grading system:

A+ ........100

A .........96-99

A- ........94-95

B+ ...........92-93

B ............88-91

B-........... 86-87

C+ ...........84-85

C ............80-83

C- .......... 78-79

D+ ...........76-77

D ........... 72-75

D- .......... 70-71

F .... 69 and below

Honor roll will be marked on the report card of any grade 3-5 student who has fulfilled the following criteria:

No more than one academic subject may be marked with a B- (86% or 87%). All other academic subjects must be 88% or higher. Academic subjects are the following: Bible, Reading, English, Spelling, Mathematics, Science and History. Because XXX is concerned about the development of the whole child, a Â“behavioralÂ” grade that is less than an 86% will automatically dismiss a child from honor roll.

Handwriting and special subjects such as Art, Music, Choir, Band, Physical Education and Computers are not calculated into honor roll qualifications.

They are strict there but I like that.

Sounds like a good private school. I agree that small group work for reading would be more beneficial for those who are struggling at their level. For those at grade level or above, I’m sure they would wizz through it and rather do more independent work and would benefit from that instead of being at their classmates pace.

We use Mcgraw-Hill math books. It is a great series. This is the first year for them. I have activities for students at all levels. Therefore for my high achieving students I can keep them challenged. I am actually not too familiar with SAXON math.

For Science, I rarely use the book in my classroom. I actually use the library and find book I like in there. For my unit about “why things move” I found a great book from the library.

It is so great that you are able to work with your daughter so much! That is awesome. I hope that when I have children I will be able to stay at home with them. I truly believe that benefits the child greatly!

How do you feel about Shurley English? This is my second year using it. Its great they are learning how to diagram sentences, but I’m not sure it is helping their writing.

There are some exceptionally bright people going into teaching. I’ve actually met some of them. The problem is, they go where the pay is highest. NYC regularly poaches teachers from Texas and other low-paying states. A teacher can jump their salary from $30,000 to $50,000 by moving from Houston or Ft. Worth to NYC. Of course, then the suburban schools poach from NYC — so the teacher can bump their salary from $30,000 with the move to NYC up to $80,000 by moving to Westchester County. That’s a $50,000 raise in 8 or 9 years.

“My husband is an engineer and other engineers who he’s talked to about Saxon Math who know about it, say it is the absolute best math curriculum for practical use in the real world.”

I don’t know ... the word problems are so predictiable ... when the S.A.T. rolls around ... kids don’t relate to their word problems - that what I don’t like about it. The rest of it is okay. I see a weakness in their word problems.

“What grade level math is your daughter doing? When my kids were in 3rd grade, we started them on Math 54. Yes, there is a lot of repetition and it seems to move slowly at times, but I’ve found that by the time they are done with it, they KNOW the math. My daughter got well over a 700 on the SAT Math section (I don’t remember her exact score). Both my son and daughter, who have taken Physics, have done very well in the Physics as well, in large part because of their proficiency in math.”

She’s in 3rd grade. She does very well. So maybe I’m just being impatient? My daughter pointed out how bored she is with it and that’s when I looked at it more closely.

“And I learned a lot. All that math that they tried to shove down my throat in high school that I didn’t learn finally made so much sense. I found the lessons very well and clearly explained, and that from an adult perspective. I think Saxon is great. My kids did well with it and it helped me tremendously.”

Okay ... I’ll not complain about it.

I agree completely with you on Saxon Math: by the time they are done with it, they KNOW the math.

Ours are at 9th grade Algebra and 7th grade, and I am impressed with their ability to use their math skills in everything they do.

We also started with the Saxon 5/4. Their 1-3 courses didn't appear impressive, and we already had other books and workbooks for the elementary math.

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