I have long held that American children are academically dumb and getting dumber, and I’ve held that the reasons for same are the intrusion of the federal government into our education system, illiterate teachers full of elaborate teaching methods that do not work, and parents.
Parents do not like to hear that their children aren’t getting a marketable education. It is easier to live in denial than face the reality that their children are being poorly educated, despite a stint or two on the honor roll. I hate to be the skunk at the picnic, but more times than not, it does not mean your child has learned anything substantive. Plus, I am unapologetic in my condemnation of parents who do not provide consistent learning environments for their children. Children are the future of our nation.
So-called educators have gone to great lengths to dumb down the children of America, and most parents don’t give a rat’s tail about it as long as they can say their child made the honor roll. But my position is that making the honor roll in most public schools means less than nothing. It, at best, means little if the parents aren’t providing a consistent learning environment outside of the classroom.
With the above-referenced always in my mind, this morning the first news that caught my attention was an article written by Kala Rama “Passing Score Lowered For FCAT Writing Exam” in Florida. (http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Passing-score-lowered-for-FCAT-Writing-exam/-/1637132/13396234/-/k1ckc2z/-/index.html) Rama reported: “The Board of Education decided in an emergency meeting Tuesday to lower the passing grade on the writing portion of Florida’s standardized test after preliminary results showed a drastic drop in student passing scores.”
FCAT is the acronym for Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test exam. Rather than being resolved to the expectation that children are in school to learn and those charged with ensuring that happens are teachers–Florida, like many other school systems, found it easier to lower the requisites for passing.
I would hope that it is glaringly obvious that lowering the score needed to pass an exam does not increase the students‘ learning capacity. Parents need to understand that. A poorly educated child who has been the beneficiary of lowered expectations and lowered grades necessary for passing may graduate from high school on the honor roll–but then what? What will the child do with their “I graduated on the honor roll, and I’m going to college, graduate and get a good job.”
The truth, however, is must less optimistic. They may graduate from college, but it won’t be with the requisite marketable employment skills to even give them a chance of landing a high-paying good job. They will, however, leave college in debt from student loans, and with an education that hasn’t prepared them for the future.
It is a variant form of socialism that believes lowering scores required for passing gives everyone a better opportunity to succeed. What it does, in reality, is ensure that there will be another generation of unemployed and underemployed.
In 2003, I wrote “No Foundations, No Future” in which I addressed this very problem. I wrote:
“In Florida, minority students are accepted into college, but are unable to pass the multiple choice FCAT test that requires only a 40 percent score and can be taken five times to pass.”
In Pennsylvania, between one-third and one-half of prospective math and science teachers failed their certification tests. About one-third of applicants flunked special-education certification. Nearly 50 percent of prospective Spanish teachers failed their tests. More than one-third of the applicants failed both the pre-professional skills test in writing and social studies. On the “content knowledge” portion of the math test, 43 percent of the teachers failed. (Jane Elizabeth /John M.R. Bull, Post-Gazette – “Up to half of teacher candidates failing tests,” Jan. 17, 2002)
In Illinois, 5,243 teachers failed key exams. The New York Times asked the question: “What to do about [New York] teachers who chronically fail their certification exams? Some in New York have failed 10 times – 3,000 have never passed.”
Parents may not like what I am saying, but the truth is my defense. It doesn’t take money to ensure children are educated; it takes commitment from the parents and teachers. My family set the bar high when it came to education, and the expectations that my cousins and I would achieve and exceed them were as much an absolute as sunshine. My teachers didn’t care about our color–they cared that we learned. Our parents didn’t demand teachers of color, and diversity was the number of different books we read, not a color-coded faculty.
I’ve had conversations with editors who tell me how ill-equipped and unprepared many of the young people they interview are. I personally observe the lack of professional skills in young people today. Sadly, many parents today are more concerned about themselves than they are their children. And they are willing to turn to those who will validate (for a price) whatever excuse they feel will absolve them of guilt and/or responsibility.
Parents need to open their eyes and see what they are allowing to happen to their children. Many children today have no interest in learning, their interests lie in X-Box, the latest electronic gadget, worthless television programming, and the latest song. Unfortunately, that doesn’t ensure capable contributors to our free-market; it ensures that, at some point, we will see the further erosion of skilled employees.
I concluded the 2003 piece referenced above saying: “The foundations of America are being destroyed: A watered down, diluted god of convenience; moral decay within the family; poorly educated teachers and students; and a government that governs for the posterity of itself is – agree or not – the death knell of our nation.”
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Mychal, Thank you. I didn’t think you were being hateful. :) Why are schools so different from the one-room schoolhouse you learned in? HAHA! LOL…couldn’t resist!
Where to begin with all the factors that have changed since you were in school? Many if not most people cannot possibly know what teaching really entails. It isn’t any wonder. Remember, teachers are bound by confidentiality laws. I will try and highlight some of my thoughts on why schools are so different. I’m sure you can find a lot of published research should you want more information.
1. The student population is fundamentally different. Back in the day you were most likely part of a “one size fits all” educational program. I’m guessing most of your classmates were “average” or “normal”. Not so much anymore. For example, in one classroom composite ONE teacher may have a student who is diabetic, a student who has a peanut allergy, and a student with Cystic Fibrosis and students who have to go to the nurse daily to receive medicine for behavior or “puffs” for asthma. On top of that 5-6 students with Personalized Ed. Plans, 3-5 who have Individualized Education Plans, 3-5 who do not speak English in the home, 2-4 who are mainstreamed (now called inclusion) who receive pull-out special ed. services (due to a wide range of issues Autism, ADD, OCD, THI, Down’s Syndrome (or a multitude of other health or behavior related issues). Most are from single or divorced/volatile homes (few are traditional homes). The PEP &IEP will be a developed plan to instruct the teacher on ways to improve the student’s achievement, behavior, health, or nutrition needs. Even students born premature, fetal alcohol, crack babies, poor nutrition, chronic ear infections, speech and language due to bottles/ pacifier fed too long and limited interaction with speech and communication. As you can imagine 1:24 is not a good teacher to student ratio for this class composite. Some of the most successful programs have 1:6 for Kindergarten and 1:12 for up to 8th grade. Even our special education programs might have 1 teacher to mentor 1 profound Autistic child all day. Can you begin to see why our student populations have many more health and learning problems than those of 20 years ago? Hence our schools face more challenges.
2. Society and the family unit are fundamentally different. Remember the race to space? Remember Sputnik? America realized we they were behind in math and science (since students couldn’t pass BASIC college entrance exams) and thus began the “push-down” curriculum. Community colleges and junior colleges began to crop up and supplement basic education so high school graduates could aptly apply to universities or learn a trade. Basically, all the colleges/universities got together and decided to come up with everything a student should know in order to be successful in their first year of college. So they chopped it up into 12 parts and decided that was how it was to be taught in public schools, regardless of whether or not they were developmentally ready. Well, little did they realize that the values of the 60s began a downward spiral in our society. Free love, free sex, drugs and rock n roll! Children began coming to 1st grade without basic/essential skills. So they started Kindergarten, just 1/2 day at first then full-time. Parents began to work to earn more income; mothers were no longer at home raising children. The women’s movement started. The on-set of processed food from Betty Crocker, T.V. dinners, instant potatoes, veg-all and what not have led to fewer conversations and less meaningful preparation of foods and nutrition. Children are born out of wedlock to single parents with little education and few economic resources to provide nutrition and academics. Drugs are used before, during and after birth and many babies are born premature. Baby formula presents two problems: essential nutrients and parent-child bonding. Collectively all these areas prove more and more frequently to have a negative impact on maturation and learning. I really believe parents are tired too. Both work, TVs and Xbox are the family entertainment. Games and physical activities along with conversation, debating and parental communication are stifled by electronics and over-worked parents. According to research most parents no longer read to children, say prayers, eat together etc.
The extended family is no longer valued as it was in the past. Your parents (like mine) most likely took care of your grandparents. Now many if not most of the aging are in nursing homes or retirement communities. Recently I read that baby-boomers are either out getting eyelid lifts (#1) or knee surgery (#2) because they are very active with their life-styles and living longer due to modern medicine on social security/pensions. We are also more transient than ever and able to be more mobile for jobs, career etc. Many move away from immediated family.
Additionally schools cannot discipline students; by that I mean punish. All I can do is call the parent and hope they support me. Children come to school after being informed, “A teacher can’t put their hands on you.” There have been many cases where parents have sued schools for using force to break up fights or using force to restrain children; some bigger than the teachers. We can’t make them do anything. Learn, play, eat,…nothing. Parents don’t discipline kids and yet don’t want schools to do it. There is no such thing as punitive or corporal punishment any more. Read about NY schools they are essentially manned or monitored by the police department or resource officers. Gangs, violence, drugs, these are major issues in many schools.
Is it any wonder private schools are successful? Those that care and have the resources put their kids there to learn in their least restrictive environment. Additionally, private schools usually have a low teacher to student ratio. Because educated and economically astute parents chose to put their child in private schools they are usually more involved and better disciplined. Many private schools are para-church organizations teaching respect, Godly principles and values. Sadly, many public education parents will fight for their child regardless of wrong doing. Many public school children are not taught to respect others, honor adults or value public property. They project the discriminatory values of their parents and reject others based on race or economics. They are not taught that we are all created in the image of God. We are to respect and value one another on a basic and fundamental level. Each has a right to speak, live, and be respected as an individual. Essentially, they are being raised Godless. They refused to put others before themselves. They refuse to respect a higher authority of any kind. We are raising a nation of narcissists; look no further than the White House. Ours schools are ranked nationally as some of the lowest for academic success, but highest in self-esteem.
3. The shift from Sinclair’s concrete jungle to the information highway has vastly changed society. We have experienced a paradigm shift in careers and training. Science and technology have and continue to influence our entire culture. However, more than ever ethics is called into question. Evolution permeates society. When an individual is taught to believe we come from nothing and are going back to nothing why do morals matter? Without a divine creator we are all in a state of evolutionary flux. Abortion and euthanasia are seen as viable ways to end life. Why stop there? If you are able to kill baby or an old person because they are inconvenient why not your inconvenient neighbor or local policeman? Where does it end; Auschwitz?
The amount of information and research done on the topic of education has been expansive in the last 10 years. Our schools have a hard time keeping up with that. My school has very little technology. We have the computers that the local USCG gave us because we do not have funding to get technology. If we had lower test scores we could get funding. Strange huh? You have to be failing to get funding. Sound like gov’t to you? Yep, I’d have gotten lots of $ for college and eligible for many gov’t programs if I’d been a single mother. That is another rant!
I do teach at a public school and it is a good school. Its demographics show it is almost like a private school. We have very good test scores. However, each year we face more problems and diversity. Remember, diversity embraces many categories: economic, race, religion, gender, academic, learning, disabled, etc. This diversity pressures teachers to teach with differentiation. This is not easy with similar students and becomes almost impossible for 1 teacher with a lot of diversity. Differentiation means the teacher tries to provide specific ways for each student to learn as deeply as possible and as quickly as possible through different modalities and through appealing to different interests.
Again, while I embrace diversity on many levels, diversity can crush a public school. Our schools are a reflection of our community. Want to know the area? Look no further than a public school’s profile listed on line. You can find all the test scores, percent of teacher’s that are highly qualified, and school demographics. In NC you can go to your school’s Board of Education and get your child’s teacher’s professional credentials from his or her employer. I’m not sure but this may be a national law. What you won’t see on the site is the money raised by our PTO. What other government run program has constituents who raises thousands of dollars to help fund its government program??? Amazing.
I am a middle-income white (I look Hispanic due to American Indian descent) female teaching to a small, primarily middle-class school population of little diversity. I know American Sign Language (deaf communication) and some conversational Spanish. I live in an area that is mainly White with about 8% diversity. However, even our diverse students are primarily from middle-class traditional families. I can still converse with most of my peers/administration and student’s families about traditional values. We live, interact and co-exist in the same community. We volunteer together, our kids play community league sports together, attend church, and parents attend local high school sporting events together, weddings, funerals; our families are very intertwined but not enmeshed. I think this is why it works. Honestly. We are all trying to live value based lives and raise ethical children to live value based lives. Perhaps more than that, we still agree on the same values as a collective. I have seen the climate change in recent years. We used to pray as a class before lunch; one parent stopped that 3 years ago. Now I pray alone (in a moment of silence) at the lunch table. Don’t misunderstand me. I value diversity. I respect all life. However, it can bring immoral change to a school and community.
Thank you for opening this dialogue. Sorry for the l-o-n-g commentary. I’m sure I could write a book. I am passionate about my job and my students’ learning. If I can open a few eyes to the difficulties of this system perhaps more people will volunteer, get involved and fewer will bash the system. Yes, it is very flawed and like all professions it has room for improvement.
mnm2: ok wise guy…my mother went to one room school house…I went to modern elementary school…so there…everyone wants to be a comic…hahaha…I appreciate your illuminating and substantive words…
Joan, sorry for the typos…I’m not ignorant, just tired. Also, didn’t take time to spell check or proofread carefully. Six o’clock comes early it’s time for bed. :)
mnm2: no demerits here…not to worry…
Joan, Thank you. I love teaching. I really do. However, my job has less and less teaching in it anymore. The poor behaviors of students and parents, lack of respect for learning and/or the school environment, the disregard for others feelings, beliefs, etc., lack of funding for real hands-on activities, poor salaries and lack of high standards in the profession have caused activity to be mistaked for academics. The overwhelming documentation, paperwork, and academic triage of teaching is overwhelming. Sadly, many parents have had bad school experiences and they instill those in their kids, sometimes unknowingly.
I recently got a computer printer. Mine broke and I was without one for 4 weeks. This is a small inconvenience but I had to print at home of go to a community lab to print. This year and last we ran out of printer cartridges. I bought my own. Last year we ran out of copy-paper. Our PTO raised funds to but some. I wrote a grant last yea to get a Presentation Station so I could use internet resources with my class( lessons,games and educational tools/ videos).
I teach math and science. I get no money to buy insects,small animals, other animals for instruction or food/bedding/supplies,etc. I provide these myself to teach the curriculum. I purchase items from teacher supply stores, pet stores, Biological Supply (ladybugs,crickets, mealworms, praying mantids egg cases) or go out and collect frog eggs, tad poles, frogs, ect. from local ditches. I get $150. (and must include tax and shipping in this) to purchase school supplies for my classroom. Construction paper, supplies, whiteboard markers,paper clips, index cards, nametags, folders, staples, etc. takes up that purchase order. As a 2nd grade teacher it is essential for kids to experience science not just watch videos and do drill and kill activities. It is very difficult but it helps creates a love of learning in children and helps them to experience learning and ecourages curiousity and exploration. Curiosity and exploration are almost lost inate behaviors in children these days. Science is the only reason some kids come to school. They hate everything but love science. This is often a hook for me. I also teach math and the science helps to have then open up and engage in learning math. This year our class hamster bit a child. I was worried the school would make me get rid of it. I have to be careful because the hamster food has nuts/seeds in it and some children have allergies to pets and nuts. This can be tricky for kids to paticipate in the feeding and handling. Luckily the child and parent were fine and it was a teachable moment. We hatched butterflies again this year;one was born with deformed wings. It too was a teachable monment. One student has a brother with MS. She enlightened us all with her intellect and perception. It was a discussion/dialogue I will never forget. Occassionally, I see true critical thinking and can tap into a knowledge vein that begats wisdom. When I get overwhelmed I remember those kids that have made those 180 degree turns. I know my reward is not on this earth. God knows my heart. I hope these bloggers won’t be “biased generalist” and lump all teachers together as worthless, ignorant and “So-called educators that)have gone to great lengths to dumb down the children of America”. I am somewhat a victim of the system too. Trust me when I say I speak up and let my “concerns” be known. Luckily for me my voice is echoed in my school. Many teachers are not as lucky, even so I can only say so much without a reprimand. Teachers really are almost bullied by the system. Now NC is talking about taking away tenure. Then we really won’t have a voice. That is another rant though. I’m sure many of the issues I have raised here most readers have never considered. This is barely the tip of the iceberg. So many things have to be considered in today’s classroom.
mnm2: not trying in anyway to be sarcastic or condescending but I how did teachers do it when I was in school…we had that which you referenced of course the old mimeograph machine was a favorite because the ink smelled so good…now we hear that all that’s needed for the students to learn is more money…year after year after year…and year after year the grades and scores get worse…something obviously isn’t working…not in anyway questioning your teaching abilities money doesn’t seem to be the answer…many small private schools have a percentage of the budgets that public schools have and are demonstrably superior to public schools…
One more thing… There have always been and always will be abused, lonely, hungry, and abandoned students. It was never an excuse before, they were told to sit down and shut up, and they did. But now kids are catagoried and labeled by overtesting and ridious counslors and therapists that spoon feed them nonsense about being minority and what they are entitled to for being stupid and bad.
joan, dallas, texas: that just goes to complete my argument that honor roll in most cases means about as much as the student getting a roll of bathroom tissue for doing their homework…
All of you, thank you for speaking my mind! Especially, MNM2. As I have said before, as an underemployed, not in the chosen career path substitute teacher for my local “upscale” district, I see all of the above. Students have out of control behavior in the classroom, disrespectful attitudes, threatening behavior, talking, laughing, and goofing off loudly, watching music videos, getting on Facebook, playing video games, texting, eating, filming, etc. all during class. Students get info on the Classics from Spark Notes instead of reading books their parents bought and forming an opinion themselves. Half the teachers are worthless, another quarter are afraid of the students or are dealing with special student needs, another 15% are just plain tired, the final 10% try hard but still sometimes fail due to classroom dynamics. The administration does nothing to reinforce teachers. Parents are unaware, afraid or too lazy to speak up.
We have more miniority students every year. Some moving from one district to another during the school year, bringing havoc with them. More and more “free meal” kids whose parents know nothing than living off of others and who teach their kids to throw the word “racist” out whenever it’s convenient for them to circumvent consequences for bad behavior. Blacks fighting blacks in the hall, classrooms disruptive.
Hispanics are among the worst. Bad behavior, attitudes, and they don’t care about learning. They act very much like gang members. I live in Texas, I know what I’m talking about. A hispanic friend told me that when they first arrived in the US, her son, then in Middle School constantly got in trouble in school. They frequently got called to a meeting with teachers. Her husbands reply to this was “they don’t understand hispanics”. This is the mind set. BTW, that son, now in his first year on college on a “scholarship” rewarded no doubt for bad behavior and failing grades. So what, right? Hope he’s not your doctor some day.
America is nearly done for it.
joan, dallas, texas: your comments further substantiate what I know to be the facts of public schools…
Mychal,
I can agree with much of what you have said and forgive your ignorance on the other parts. . I’m not really trying to be cheeky; I truly respect you and your knowledge. However, there are so many variables that the “average” person does not consider or understand about schools.
I am a teacher in NC. I have a BS in Theology and Education, a minor in counseling and a MA in Elementary Ed. I too was salutatorian and graduated top of my classes. Much of what teachers are trained to do in college is barely a drop in the bucket for the avalanche of expectations placed upon them as educators. There are many days when I would love to walk out! I get so frustrated with the ”system” and so aggravated with the futility of my job. Other days are rewarding and blissful; those days have become more and more rare. I am in my 9th year of teaching. This is a prized year for this profession; most teachers across the nation quit between years 3-5.
Consider this: Do you really want your 12 year old daughter to be in a class with a 14 year old boy who barely speaks English, has been expelled 2 times, lives in the” projects”, has flunked out of his grade 2 times , is being raised by an alcoholic father, wears gang tattoos and has been molested by his uncle? These are very real circumstances in public schools across the nation.
SADLY, many if not most our schools have become a reflection of our pitifully pathetic communities. How can a teacher “teach” a child who is psychologically abused or neglected? One word, “Columbine” should make your throat tighten. Society today is not the society of the 1950’s. How can a teacher truly “reach” a child in a classroom of 22 or 30? One teacher may be responsible for 3 classes of 22-30 students depending on the district. One classroom can also have an immense diversity. Diversity such as: academic, race/ethnicity, learning disabled, language, physical accommodations, economic, twice-gifted (AIG and Special needs) etc. It’s easy to point fingers when you are not there every day.
The paper work is also overwhelming. Teaching is anything BUT teaching anymore. For example: local policy says the teacher must prepare a 6 page detailed Personalized Education Plan to begin a systematic education plan for this child who may be “at risk” for academic failure. This means to meet his/her needs and basically “tutor” them (in class) until you can show evidence of growth(min. 6 weeks) or if no evidence is shown the next step is an IEP to refer the student for testing Another 8 page document of data and statistics to continue the process for Individualized Education Plan. Then ensue the meetings and meetings and meetings with 6-5 staff, administration and parents, when and if they show up (mean while I have a sub teaching my class). A classroom with even 4 or 5 of these students is overwhelming to a regular education teacher. Many large districts and inner city schools have 30-50% of these students. Keep in mind students who place become “disabled” and tax dollars allotted to their parents each month to help with educational needs and home living. The problems facing teachers is astronomical. A child could present on 3 or 4 axis’. A student might be obsessive-compulsive, Add, oppositional defiant, and suffering from PTSD because he/she was removed from the ABUSERS home. Are REGULAR education teachers TRAINED for this type of psychological warfare? Some classes seem to be taught by academic triage. On top of this teachers must manage a classroom of other students and actually TEACH? I can tell you one child like this is a full-time job. Meanwhile, all the other kids who are capable of learning (middle to high) get robbed. Teachers are bound by confidentiality. Talking to anyone about the TRUE problems of education can result in dismissal due to a breach of Professional Ethics clauses. Seriously, teachers lose their freedom of speech when they walk in their building. That is another rant. A student like this can wreak havoc in a classroom that is 50 min. I have 8+ years of education but often have to call someone to watch my class to use the restroom. I work in NC where we are 7 out of 10 for the lowest paid teachers in the nation. No, we don’t have unions. I also don’t think they are good and don’t want them. I get 30 min. to eat lunch with my students. Often ten minutes is spent in lunch lines waiting for lunch ladies to dole out over processed cafeteria food to my too small students who can’t reach their trays. There are so many more examples.
MANY parents are tired, lazy, ignorant, irresponsible, uneducated, and apathetic etc. Yes, it is true. HOWEVER, many are educated, inspired, and motivated to give more than they got and be better than the average person. Teachers can be this way too. But honestly, look at society. Even now congress is trying to legislate homosexuality into the schools-indoctrination disguised as anti-bullying instruction. Prayer is no longer allowed, religion is not to be discussed, and history has been watered down and politically corrected beyond recognition. We live in a system where it is considered a violation of First Amendment Rights to pledge allegiance to the US flag. REALLY??? Amazing. Teachers are told what to teach and how to teach, and the amount of time to teach it in. Our computers are monitored by “big brother” to make sure we are not saying and doing what we shouldn’t be. Well, so much for personal responsibility and self-regulation. Students are basically dealt with the same way. Time for processing and critical thinking is not valued. Push-down curriculum is just a bunch of regurgitated facts and replayed verbiage. The ALMIGHTY govt. wants Americans to work and fill the tax buckets; women are devalued if they don’t. Children are being raised by “care takers” with values and morals that are not reflective of their parents or a developmentally appropriate curriculum/care. We are seeing more and more health problems (mental and physical) from premature births, induced pregnancies, drug-abused mothers, diseases, Autism, Downs-syndrome, over medicated infants, poor nutrition and health. What is the real question here? In my opinion…What will it take for Americans to practice the Godly values of our ancestors?
I cannot talk about any state but my own; however, most of the same problems are categorically seen in all schools to degrees. I wish this profession could get an over-haul. I believe family values and class-size is the key to real lasting changes. This is unlikely due economic values and due to classroom space and the cost of work force salaries. Additionally, I am a firm believer that if parents did their jobs from conception to age 8 (where 80% of learning takes place) then students would not have the social and academic issues seen in schools today. Additionally, while diversity can be healthy, too much diversity often causes paralysis and overwhelms the system. Yes, there are many problems but schools and teachers are (by far) not the only variables.
My parents were both teachers in Florida in the 50′s and 60′s. It was so bad back then that you could teach with just a year of “teaching school”. They both had their Masters degrees and were good at what they did. But they never made more than around $2,000 a year. Florida historically has a crappy record for education and it sounds like it hasn’t improved. Thankfully in the 6th grade, my mother took me out of public school and put me in a parochial school for three years. I went to Mass every morning (we were Protestant) and it didn’t hurt me a bit. That’s where I learned to appreciate other religions.
And in reading the comments, it truly is pitiful that employers are looking at only the young for jobs. I would love to have a better paying job, I can write well, am a published author, written many articles for different magazines, organized, punctual and responsible. Yet I am passed over for so many youngsters that write “Bostin Tom was hear”. Sheesh. Wake up, people!
millie: writing and linguistic skills are practically non-existent in todays young people…
Don`t know if it`s been mentioned, but I`d throw one more ingredient into the stew–the Teacher`s Union. The T. U. is the perpetuator of the incompetence that is becoming increasingly common in the school system. I worked in the school system in a well-to-do Chgo. suburb for five years, and I saw this firsthand. Of course, if the teachers are performing at a substandard level, how can the students do otherwise? The logical progression is to then lower the standards on achievement tests, lest they be discovered. This pattern is prevalent is so many aspects of American life that that which once would have been considered commonplace is now viewed as exceptional. Today`s “honor student”, in a far more demanding time, now bygone, would have been seen as quite average.
jim: and in many cases a they would be a very low average…teachers and parents are frequently offended by my comments…but I wrote this nearly 10 yrs ago…and things have gotten worse…listen to the teachers talking when they’re on the picket lines…and like good little union automatons they refuse to acknowledge themselves as a large part of the problem…admittedly there are good teachers…but they are by far the exception…
I’m with you on this one, Mychal, But I must add a couple of words. I can’t speak for other public schools but one where my granddaughter teaches seventh grade in NC. Her main problem with her seventh grade is that one half of students coming from the sixth grade into the seventh read at third grade level. She must take extra time out of her own personal life to prepare work for the poor readers/learners. She has complained about this situation but there doesn’t seem to be any answer other than what she is doing. Students are passed to the next grade no matter what their achievement. Reason for this is that the older students would feel badly if they had to stay behind with the younger students. And, some of her poor reading students come from homes of illegal hispanics who do not speak one word of English. The hispanic student’s attitudes are that they don’t want to learn English. Her job as teacher, which she prizes, has become a nightmare but she is determined to hang in there for the time being. With all of this said, I believe that many teachers simply give up because they know they have to advance students regardless if they can read or do any of the class work, and a lot of this comes from having hispanic and other students who really don’t care and their parents don’t care. Parent-Teacher nights are a real jewel for my granddaughter. Although she can speak some Spanish, they cannot understand each other so parents just smile and nod their heads and their children do not achieve anything but a free school meal each day. Perhaps this is some of the problem with our public school systems every where. Had Government not stuck their big noses into demanding that students be advanced to each grade no matter what their ability I don’t think this would have ever happened.
When I was a youngster, we had a few students who didn’t achieve ‘passing marks’and they repeated a grade until they did achieve. Some of those students went onto colleges and became successful people. We didn’t have but a handful of foreign students who became U.S. Citizens and they excelled in all work and grades. They also had wonderful parents who set up guidelines for their children. I was very fortunate to have semi-strict parents who actually cared about my future. I taught my mother some English and my father who could not attend school after the eighth grade helped me through mathematics and Algebra. He had passed the eighth grade exam to attend ninth grade but his family only had one horse and a wagon which was needed on the farm. Ninth grade was fifteen miles from their home… in upper NY; not walking distance. I tell you this because what my father learned through the eighth grade was far superior to today’s public school cirriculum, and the new ideas on how students must be advanced, ignorant or educated, was never an option.
marilyn: you make very good point…that said the teaching methods are like something they came up with while sitting around getting high…add to that that the books are written by revisionist anarchists…voila you have perfect recipe for witches brew that when coupled w/ lowered bars of expectation and brings forth underachievers and failures…
Dear Mychal, if we ever get a chance to meet face to face, I will give you a BIG sisterly hug. I love this article and I’m posting it on my blog. Thank you sir for affirming my deepest convictions as to my reasons for home schooling my 4 kids. Thank you!
clara: and I shall let you as long as you bring a good full body cigar for me as well…lol…the teacher’s unions understand the threat of home schooling to the classroom…that’s why they are fighting it in california…it’s like opposing chemo therapy because it might put undertakers out of business…
Why does everyone assume that the test itself is valid? The fact is that every question must be vetted. For example:
Students who understand the subject MORE completely than average students often do poorly because the question was too simple, or used an ambiguous term. This is most often a problem with multiple guess questions – which have no validity in high-stakes testing, but should be used only for quicky-quizzes that teachers use for instant feedback.
A real-life example: my very creative son, when in kindergarten, was marked wrong because he identified a banana as white. In fact a banana is white, it is the skin that is often yellow. Teachers know about these pit-falls. Politicians and pundits don’t have a clue, so we get blather like that espoused above. When that many children do that poorly on a test, the first thing to suspect is the test – especially if the failure is across the board, not just among the lower performing students.
By the way – that very creative son is now in his 30′s, having graduated 3rd in his high-school class, B.A., Summa Cum Laude from a prestigious University with dual major, and M.B.A. from a Big 10 University, employed 100% of the time since graduation from High School, except for a two-month bicycle/community service trip across the U.S. the summer after College graduation. Most of his school career he has used his massive intellect to recognize the mistakes of the test writers, and provide the answers they expected, even knowing them to be incorrect answers in reality, so he has always finished in the highest percentiles of both standardized and locally produced tests. Oh, and he is severely dyslexic – a characteristic he now considers to be a gift – and very proud to be the product of a rural public school with flawed, yet loveable teachers who, more than anything else, taught him to think for himself and identify and build upon his unique talents. That will happen less and less in the new corporatized, standardized, sliced, diced and packaged education system imposed under NCLB, that demands and rewards only compliant behavior and unimaginative pseudo-intelligence.
bbob: you make a point…albeit it appears the problem your son experienced was not having a challenging classroom environment…which also further proves my point…
The local school system howls that parents are not involved in their children’s educations. My wife and I became involved when my son started getting “demerits” for misbehavior but the teacher would not tell us what he was doing to get the demerits. I made an appointment with the pricipal and the teacher to discuss the problem. Nothing changed. I persisted in my insistance that the teacher tell me what my son was doing and I gave her a guarantee that I would correct the behavior if I knew what it was that he was doing. His teacher diagnosed him with attentionn deficit disorder and suggested we put him on Ritalin. I aske her where she went to medical school to make such a diagnosis. I was labeled a trouble maker parent because I wanted to be involved. The next year, with a different teacher we had absolutely no problems. My son was moved to the gifted program and remained there as a straight A student throughout his entire school career. It turns out that the teacher that diagnosed our son with ADD was one of the failure teachers who did not know how to recogize or deal with a gifted child.
allen cotton: what a perfectly horrible experience…I would have served 10-15 yrs for leaving my shoe in someone’s behind…no way in heaven’s good name would I allow my child to be brainwashed, indoctrinated w/ revisionist history, and taught how to be a victim…and it would have been katie-bar-the-door the very first time they tried to teach my son about homosexuality…
This is true Mychal, which is why my daughter goes to a private school. It’s a sacrifice even with the sliding scale fees. She is a straight A student at the prep school, but that came at a cost of years of abuse towards my parenting skills! The public schools accused me of being a “helicopter” parent, of destroying her childhood, of “pushing” her too hard, etc. None of this is true. It’s all about personal best, and pride of accomplishment. None of this matters to the public school teachers. Sure there were a few good ones but most were substandard. In no way could they cope with a bright motivated student!
I was thrown off school grounds for taking exception to the teacher wanting to train MY child on how to reveal her test scores so as not to “hurt the feelings” of the other students. This woman was determined to obtain scholastic mediocrity from my daughter, (so that the other students wouldn’t feel bad! boo hoo) while pretending that the United States was the worst, most selfish country on the planet, and other assorted crack pot, left wing ideas! Funny thing, as soon as I yanked my daughter from that school, those traumatized students who couldn’t bear it that my daughter scored higher than they did? Their achievement scores sank like a stone. Those students needed the competition.
So, no matter how hard parents try to get their children an education, the kids will be bullied and tormented by the “educators” and their parents will be denigrated and goaded into fury by a bunch of lunatic teachers. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t had personal experience with the absolute MORONS at the school.
Ps my daughter mentioned that if she could just do only kindergarten classes in hs, then she wouldn’t have to worry about being summa cum laude. This IS what they are doing to students…
j-m: my son attended private Christian schools…k-8 one yr…he spent 9th grade at private Christian school that was more like an elite suburban enclave for the children of parents w/ money…so in 10-12 he went to Christian high school that was superb in every way…
At the time I was first being introduced to reading, by mother reading to my older sister and I, my mother noticed, at about 1 and a half, I was having difficulties my sister, at four, had experienced. She assumed it was a problem worthy of note, and deliberately exposed us at greater length, with more depth, and careful selection of books to entice my interest.
She did this because it was taught in her literacy classes in college, as she was a library science major. She read to us every day, for learning’s sake, and had high standards, and read to us at bedtime, from classics, but carefully focused on stories for children.
If my sister read from the book the next day, and we both knew the chapter beyond what my mother read, she would take up where we were. If we did not have it solid, she would take up where she left off the night before.
As it turns out, I am dyslexic, and that was not understood until after I had graduated high school, however my mother’s method enticed my intrigue, and gave me a challenge, and I learned to read by memorizing the shapes of words, without having learned the alphabet.
I was never allowed to not read, and books were always available, and there was competition between us, particularly when my younger sister was born, and all three of us learned to enjoy reading long before kindergarten, so even while have tremendous difficulties with school and failing utterly in every way, I was passed through school because I demonstrated I had learned, even though I never once passed an ordinary test, never passed homework assigments, and was in fourth or fifth grade before I could read the alphabet, although I knew it by heart by three, to state it.
Most children have a weakness in learning, with few being exactly alike, and it takes the simple expectation of success, and the willingness to experiment, to overcome most children’s problems, but it requires attentive parents, who expect to deal with problems, and don’t expect things to go easily, but are adamant they will not raise ignorant adults.
I have an extreme hatred for government being in education, because bureaucracies cannot deal with individual problems and issues, but can only deal with mass problems, affecting all.
It takes personal individual attention to determine the stumbling point, and then to extrapolate to find the root cause. Only parents have the time and sufficient motivation to simply refuse to let a problem stand in the way.
Anyone can teach a child who can read, and has an insatiable curiosity. All they have to do is assure books are always at hand. It takes the full measure of love to teach a child who has difficulty, and gets vexxed by his or her problems, and be able to help the child get past frustration, by teaching how to find the problem, and then finding a method of getting past it.
We cannot do better than parent based community school houses, such as those my grandparents went to school in, and every other method is worse, except to the odd and unusual child who can’t live without knowing, and is driven. They alone can excell when the schools are utter wastelands, as most are and have been since my childhood, in the sixties. The mere existence of a central department of Education assures us we can’t have worthwhile schools that work without doing away with it.
It’s sole purpose is cookie cutter education, and it has long proved to be utterly worthless except to indoctrinate children with lies. I daily do the work of a mechanical engineer, a metalurgist, a chemistry major, and deal with physics in the design work of engines and machinery, with a high school diploma, a a couple thousand books in my personal library. Without those books, I would be suited for menial labor alone, and have no education worth mentioning. Instead, I’ve taught advanced electronics delving deep into quantum theory to explain the workings of solid state electronic devices. We become as educated as we consider necessary, but it all starts with parnets who believe education is worth its weight in gold.
John McClain
GySgt, USMC, ret.
Vanceboro, NC
john mcclain: summing it succinctly public school is intended to create passive, obedient, anarchist minded haters of american exceptionalism, embracers of debauchery automatons…
My wife and I were both from what we eventually realized were poor families. We both had teen years of unfortunate family issues and deaths of parents and somehow were able to get through high school and find a job making enough buy a car and begin a family at 21 and 23 respectively. Working two jobs each at times while caring for her widowed mother we had learned how important it was to have a college education before entering the job market and starting a family and that gave us the initiative to make whatever sacrifices were necessary to see that our four children received their degrees. Succeeding in this endeavor made all the sweat and tears worthwhile and has enriched all of our lives. If parents do not understand that a prerequisite for their marriage is to provide a better life and more secure future for their children along with a deep faith in the God of all creation and love of their country they reduce themselves to mere co-habitants in the basic human societal structure. And unfortunately there are a lot of those in the couples of our homes of today.
bill sr: not everyone needs college but everyone needs jobs skills, a trade, and a skill set that enables them to make a living…
I buy shoes from a particular store, first, for the quality they offer, but secondly I consider it a plus knowing I can get under the skin of the manager who is an avid NL sports fan and because I am a died in the wool AL fan. He was not there on my last trip so I asked the Assistant Manager to leave a note for me. She wrote, “Bostin Tom was hear”.
Twenty plus, cute and sociable. God help us downwind.
thom’s thumb: that pretty much sums up…you can’t make it up…
I can remember when I went to school in South Florida back in the 50′s, we got a good education. However, I noticed when I was giving CLAST tests to university students in the early 90′s that the test to evaluate them for promotion to junior year was so simple that even I, with only a high school education and a few college courses, could answer them. Parents need to be alert…
barbara: sadly all most parents need is a placebo of honor roll of some sort of achievement and they are happy…nothing else need be looked into…
That kids are loaded up with touchy feely busy work adds to the denial that they accomplished anything of value. They think effort equals education. However, they know nothing of the contrast between our constitutional republic and Marxism or other totalitarian gov’ts, so they are unable to recognize them, or take part in being part of the self-government of this country. And, considering this is a capitalist society, they are not taught economic theory, or entrepreneurship. Schools have adopted a No Gender Difference approach, and calling for medication when those innate differences arise. Hence, the huge drop out rate for boys.
shari mauriello: I can add nothing to that which you have said…excellent points and contribution…
Liberalism and poor educations go hand in hand. I live in one of the poorer counties in Florida, my daughter works in the school system. Six +/- years ago, a new superintendent was hired at a salary of well over $210,000 and $5,000 retirement contribution; her hiriing was contingent her husband being hired as a consultent to the school board for $150,000. When she left 5+/- years ago the salary escalated to ~ 250K, 18K going to her retirement. One project she (needlessly) undertook was having the District School Board building remodeled with money we could not afford; Oh, she had a $6,000 remodel to her bathroom including a ‘silent flush’ toilet $$$$. Teacher salaries were so low that if two teachers married, they could not qualify for a decent mortgage.
Needless to say, the Florida Teachers’ Union needs reorganization and oversite but that won’t happen.
The ‘I don’t believe it’ moment came when I read Mayor Bloomberg in NYC decided that teachers who were undergoing drug and/or alcohol rehabilitation treatment would not be paid for the duration. Of course they would never allow drug tests but it’s fine if your child is taught by a coke-head or drunk.
Florida’s children are being cheated just as those to whom teachers gave passing grades to keep them rolling along in the system – and they will all graduate dumber than coal buckets. This country which was magnificent and full of overachievers has deteriorated to the point where we will never make a comeback or be #1 in anything again. Believe it.
smogdew: your very first sentence says it all…florida public schools are are a disaster…but they do produce thugs and athletes…
Politics is the ruin of our school system….why does a kindergartener need so much testing? Much time is wasted on FCAT preps….during this time, teachers are not teaching what they want to….they HAVE to do the FCAT preps….
The majority of parents are not involved and don’t care. Period….at home it is easier to put an X-Box or video game in front of their faces to keep them entertained..or keep them in sports..most of these kids are fed poorly, fast food, prepackaged food, soda, sweet drinks/snacks….most come to school on an empty stomach or just a ‘pop tart’. How can one learn hungry?? Hunger distracts the mind from learning…..
barb: testing takes the place of teaching and learning…I disagree about the myth of the hungry student…children oft-times leave home w/out food by choice…and that said how many more billions must we spend to give the child what they already have or do not want…
Well said Mychall! My parents also very diligent about a good education. 94% retention on a test got an A. A quote from Malcolm X never used is, Education is our window to the future. Our future looks a little tarnished and half baked.
simmjz: I’d say our future looks bleak…
You are exactly on point again. I believe we would have a much different mindset in today’s generations if they had been taught anything significant about what it took to create and build this nation. But any meaningful history lessons have been pretty much deleted so that hasn’t happened in the leftist controlled, government and NEA set, curriculums that have pervaded our public schools for at least the last thirty or so years. I think it is all part of “The Plan” to eventually subjugate the people. Dumb them down so they don’t know where they came from or the sacrifices it took for them to have what they have. They don’t really know what is being destroyed right in front of their noses as they zip around in their cute little vehicles trading unnecessary text messages with their friends. Your next to last paragraph is right on.
So far life for most of them has been a free ride and they don’t see any reason why it should end. And many of them start having temper tantrums when the realization hits home that the ride is over and they can’t find employers willing to pay someone that is practically illiterate and has no marketable skills to offer. Hard to convince a prospective employer to hire you when your major skill is playing games on your little hand held electronic gadget.
wakinyan: well said my friend…well said…