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/

Knocking NEA doesn’t get to the root of the matter. NEA contributes to the inefficiency just as the employee unions contribute to the inefficiency of the federal government. But the public schools are, after all, government agencies. and therefore profoundly political in nature. All the way down to the local school level, politics determines most of what happens. Who gets what, when and how much are questions upmpst on the minds of people, and it often gets in the way of the mission. The public schools are also, as no other great institution is, thoroughly ideological in character. They have certain goals that get in the way of the basic function of the schools which is to produce a literate or numerate population. The NEA certainly, but also the shcool boards and administrators who actually operate the schools:who decide who is taught by whom and what they shall be taught, and how they shall be taught are as much caught up in this ideology as the teachers. The schools constantly churn their methodology as they try and try to achieve goals which are virtually unattainable by the schools. They want to reform society, to produce this egalitarian world without social injustice etc. Esentially socialist goals, by the way.

“Outward appearance of public structures matters to people who want to maintain the value of their homes. Granted, it has nothing to do with education — just local politics.”

It’s pretentious with hollow results.

I can attest to that. We’ve had “remodeling” projects in our local school district and still the QUALITY of what and how subjects are taught is some of the stuff described in this article.

“Once again — appearances of public structures impact home prices. They matter to those folks living in the community.”

It’ll make our house easier to sell ... but I would not defend this as “good” for anyone. It’s the quality of education that I am concerned about - whether property taxes are HIGH or LOW. It’s HOW the money is spent. If kids aren’t being educated and indoctrinated instead - public schools are are not properly serving the community and that is the ISSUE.

And what about 10 times 10? Do we actually multiply that?

Probably not. Most people don't need to even think about calculating it.

Calculating 10 times 10 can be done, though, by two different methods:

You can append a zero to any number to multiply it by 10. This is a shortcut which is only available for the base of the number system. (I work with hexadexcimal, base 16, a lot. I know that I can multiply a hex number by 16 by simply appending a zero to it.)

You can also multiply it out longhand as you would do with any other multi-digit numbers.

1 0
x 1 0
-----
0 0
+1 0
-----
1 0 0

I am not sure there is any difference in not multiplying 9 times 9 and not multiplying 10 times 10.

What steps can you follow to multiply 9 times 9? How would you teach someone how to do it?

You can either:

1) Count up by 9s until you reach 81. (This is actually addition, not multiplication.)

2) Multiply 9 times 10 by adding a 0 and then subtract 9 from the result. (This is just a shortcut for adding up the 9s.)

3) Remembering that it's 81 from having memorized the multiplication tables.

"Because it’s run by government."

From Mr. DeWeese; 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.

Actually, going farther back, one finds that the original reason it is now being run by government is because the socialists wanted it that way. (see Marx)

"Where's the failure? Designed to subdue youthful spirits and to prepare the stupid masses for a life of obedience, public education is quietly working its perverse miracle!"

Exactly!

When one considers the real purpose of government-controlled public education, one finds that it is enjoying remarkable success.

How the money is spent is up to the people in the community. Unfortunately, we live in an age in which the middleclass feel the same sense of being disenfranchised that was once reserved exclusively for the poor.

Note the use of the term “government schools.” As if the local school board — made up of neighbors, co-workers, etc. in many communities — was some sinister monolithic group of strangers with uncertain motives in a distant city.

I know ... just venting my frustration ... .

I didn’t mean to take out so much of my frustation on you ... .

I agree with you completely, except for the conclusion from your prior post. Just as we get 9x9=81 from memorized multiplication tables, we do the same regarding 10x10. So, instead of using the numbers given and then applying the multiplication table, we change the numbers and THEN apply the multiplication table. Neither is really estimating, it seems to me.

Your college must have been very different than the university where I teach. My dim view comes from my experience teaching the air-headed ditzes in the one mathematics course they are required to take, and from my wife’s observations of the state of colleges of ed (she took a Ph.D. in School Psychology, and has seen close up the contentlessness of the Elem. Ed major and, to a lesser extent Secondary Ed majors of various flavors.)

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.

I'm surprised to see no comments on this idiotice idea of "cooperative learning." Bascially what it means is this:

You get the same grade as everybody else in the group, so if you are unlucky enough to get stuck in a group with slackers, your grade may be pulled down regardless of your individual contribution.

Let's say there are two students with equal ability and work ethic name Bob and Danny. Throught the luck of the draw, Bob gets placed in a group with mostly A and B students. Danny, unfortunately, isn't as lucky as Bob; he gets placed in a group with C and D students. Obviously, Bob will benefit from having high performing students in his group and his group grade will be high. Danny will have a lower group grade because even though his individual contribution may be the exact same as Bob, His teammates performed lowered than Bob's teammates and therefore the group grade is lower.

Danny will be receiving a lower grade even though his individual contribution is equal to Bob.

Just as we get 9x9=81 from memorized multiplication tables, we do the same regarding 10x10.

That's true but, unlike 9x9, there is a way to actually multiply 10x10 without having memorized it. That was the point of my questions on the steps to do it and how you'd teach someone else to do it.

So, instead of using the numbers given and then applying the multiplication table, we change the numbers and THEN apply the multiplication table. Neither is really estimating, it seems to me.

I think that it is because you're changing the numbers to convenient numbers that are "close enough" to the original ones for your purposes. Doing that lets you easily generate an answer that's "close enough" to the real solution for whatever purpose you need. IMHO, that's what estimating is all about.

Sometimes, you need the exact answer and the estimate tells you the your final answer is reasonable. In other cases, the estimate is sufficient to meet your needs and it's a waste of time to calculate the exact answer.

The quality of public school education in the US is inversely proportionate to the growth of the NEA (National Teachers’ Union).

This actually didn’t happen overnight. The concept of public school education was designed to reduce the inequities of private school education for the rich, not just by raising the level of education for the poor, but to hopefully encourage the rich to keep their kids at home to attend the public schools, so that some kind of equity of education could be achieved.

You have to remember that is was socialism, and anti-capitalism which drove public education movement, and still
does. The state department of education in Washington is very open about their objectives. They state that the WA state public education system is goal based, meaning that they educate the kids to fill the type of jobs which are available. They claim that there are not enough jobs for college educated people in WA State, so it would be foolish to prepare too many students for college. An over educated worker is an unhappy worker.

I once read a definintion of a professional in an article in the LA Times, that defined a professional as one who put public service above financial remuneration. By that definintion, no teacher who is a member of a union can be considered a professional. I have a plan for public education which does an end around play on the teachers unions. I propose a two tier teaching staff, a professional level and a union level. The professional staff would work a professional, year around schedule and supervise the union level, and be responsible for curriculum. Professionals would have degreess in their subject matter, not education degrees.

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