Posted on 08/23/2007 10:49:01 AM PDT by neverdem
The calculator/computer generation.
” Our present ambition to make every American youth college material — in a way our forefathers would have thought ludicrous — ensures that we will both fail in that utopian goal and lack enough literate Americans with critical vocational skills. “
Bingo.....
Yea, but they do know the important things...like how to put on a condom, give a BJs and where to get an abortion.
Naturally the only touches on the biggest problem in the rest of his diatribe....
Parents...
They’re the ones with the influence to make children believe in education....
They’re the ones who can ensure the kids do homework...
They’re the ones who feel entitled to world class education in a system that pays its teachers abysmal salaries.....
They’re the ones who scream bloody murder if their “baby” gets a B.....
Parents...
Worse than that, his solutions (and I'm generally a VDH fan) all smack of spending more on schools, paying teachers more, etc. If we got rid of the teachers' unions, required new teachers to have real academic majors before getting a teaching credential, and gave teachers/principals the ability to expel (or at least warehouse somewhere else) students who are unruly or won't do the work, the education the kids get would improve dramatically without spending a whole lot more.
This is the soft underbelly of the American economy and geopolitical power: the governmental school system. Students are simply not learning basic skills, let alone anything approaching “advanced education.” And it is not a matter of computers, and calculators and other hardware. It is a matter of a literal motivation crisis.
Go to ANY university in this country and simply look at students in classrooms: 60% don’t want to be there, and an even larger number are barely cognizant, let alone attentive. And this is college. Go to ANY high school, and you’ll see worse. There, however, you’ll also see blatant incompetence by the teaching staff: people teaching math who don’t know the subject, others teaching English or writing who are syntatically challenged themselves, etc.
Bush at least tried to do something here. But the Dems will hardly attempt anything, given their knee-jerk deference to the teachers’ unions. Unless and until these unions are eradicated - from top to bottom - and ALL “education departments” removed from college campuses, so that graduates with real majors can apply for teaching positions, nothing will correct our downward trajectory. Why parents put up with the status quo is beyond me, but they do vote Dem, don’t they?
“Of course, most critics agree that the root causes for our undereducated youth are not all the schools’ fault. Our present ambition to make every American youth college material — in a way our forefathers would have thought ludicrous — ensures that we will both fail in that utopian goal and lack enough literate Americans with critical vocational skills.”
The money quote if there ever was one.
No human being can MAKE any other human being believe in anything they do not want to.
The only way a parent can ENSURE that home work gets done is to do it for them.
Teach pay is what the market will bear for a job that only works 66% of the year.
And about the B ... ok you have a point there.
The UGLY truth is that providing and education is one thing... it deals with opportunity. GETTING an education is something else and requires the student be motivated. There are many things a parent can do to encourage student motivation and facilitate the opportunity to learn. But parents can't MAKE a child learn. And the system needs to be prepared to allow such students to FAIL.
Great article. I graduated in ‘58 from a Los Angeles school. Great education for a high school. Get rid of the teacher unions and go to a pay for performance system. Also get rid of tenure. Who else in industry has tenure?
You hit the nail on the head. Universities should be so difficult that many more students fail, and then this should trickle down to high schools and middle schools. The “self-esteem” movement is killing any educational baseline, let alone educational excellence. And there is little parents can do to swim upstream against this torrent. The result, ironically, is that the typical student suffers - because sea level is so level - and intelligent students learn to reign themselves in. Quite sad.
“and ALL “education departments” removed from college campuses,”
EUREKA!! Dewey, dooodooowey educraps.
My grandfather taught elementary school at age 16 with a HIGH SCHOOL education. That was when a high school diploma was something that only about 25% of the students in this state completed, in other words, when it meant something. Most of his friends didn’t finish because they were just going to work on the family ranch anyway.
Make every grade tough and an accomplishment to get through. When a kid has gone as far as possible, teach him/her a vocation.
“Reform Math” is preventing an entire generation from excelling in science, engineering, architecture, etc.
ping
I asked a family member - a teacher - why kids can’t count change backwards - counting up from the cost of the item to the amount you gave them. The reason that is done is so one won’t be short changed as easily. A valuable skill and one that used to be taken for granted.
She said it’s because it’s one of those things that needs to be taught individually. She taught her own kids when they had the odd moments waiting in the dentist office etc.
Yes, PARENTS, who are forced to have both spouses work to afford a modest home. PARENTS, who have to live far from work to afford a place safe for their children. PARENTS who are getting squeezed from all sides thanks to the huge increase in energy prices and real estate.
Maybe if our workforce was more PROTECTED, then PARENTS could afford to have a single income family and spend more time with their CHILDREN.
Before the homeschool crowd starts up: according to the HSLDA, public school kids outscore the homeschool bunch in math.
Now, I am a public school teacher, I have a Master’s degree in Latin. I teach Latin and English. I am tenured, but I do not want my job tied to the fact that no matter how many ways I present material, modify, scaffold, assist, allow, communicate, beg, and do everything I can to help a student succeed, they still do not make it.
I am, as a teacher, capable of so much before the student must take some responsibility for their learning. It is here that the line falls sharply and the author of the piece gets it.
Another winner from Hanson.
Currently reading his “An Autumn of War - What America Learned From September 11 and The War on Terrorism” - good stuff.
I wonder how many of our high school “graduates” could actually read it?
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