Return to school is upon many and what can we reasonably expect from the schools and students? I do not apologize for being critical of parents who leave the education of their children to teachers who are very often only slightly more educated than the students, their college degree notwithstanding.
I went to school in the dark ages. We didn’t have computers; we didn’t have teachers making over $50,000. We didn’t have all of the failed programs teachers today insist are necessary for children to learn. We didn’t have the ritalin epidemic and we didn’t have ADHD.
We were in school to learn and there were few options for not doing same. We weren’t passed from one grade to the next because someone came up with the brilliant idea that failing students was harmful to their self-esteem. The color of my skin had nothing to with expectations and demands placed upon me to learn and complete the requisite work with a grade average commensurate to allowing me to be promoted to the next grade.
Books weren’t banned because they contained original period language and standards weren’t lowered to show a non-existent positive. History hadn’t been rewritten; we pledged allegiance to the flag; we celebrated Christmas; we openly prayed, and, as surprising as it might be, no one suffered harm from same.
But in many schools today, the children are only marginally less educated than the teachers.
According to ACT (The American College Testing Program), 60 percent of 2012 high school graduates are at risk of not succeeding in college and career. In ACT‘s newly released report, The Condition of College and Career Readiness 2012 they found:
More than a fourth (28 percent) of ACT-tested 2012 graduates did not meet any of the four ACT College Readiness Benchmarks in English, mathematics, reading and science, suggesting they are likely to struggle in first-year college courses in all four of those subject areas. Another 15 percent met only one of the benchmarks, while 17 percent met just two. In short, a total of 60 percent of test takers met no more than two of the four benchmarks. In comparison, only 25 percent of tested 2012 grads met all four ACT benchmarks, unchanged from last year.” (http://www.act.org/newsroom/releases/view.php?lang=english&p=2402)
The tragedy is that some parents don’t care whether their children are learning; other parents leave it all up to the schools and teachers. And then there are the parents who applaud themselves and their children for meeting a worthless academic standard that the bar was lowered on years before.
I can tell you that there are public school systems that are no longer teaching grade-school children to write in cursive (or long-hand as it was called when many of us were in school). There are public school systems where written essays by high school students are the equivalent of “See Spot run.”
I work in a policy and information-driven technical world. Linguistic ability and technical ability pursuant to being able to communicate and work with technical equipment are imperative. My point is, how will the children of today who are not home-schooled, private schooled, or the products of the few remaining public school systems that are actually teaching children, contribute intellectually in tomorrow’s global world?
I recall having an in depth conversation with a managing editor not so long ago. They spoke of how poorly equipped many young people right out of college actually are. We spoke about the lack of true, marketable skills they possess.
Many parents today have no real idea what their children face in the future. They have this misguided Pollyanna belief that their children will graduate from high school, go to college for what amounts to a degree in lollipop making or basket weaving–graduate and get a job making lots of money (the specific amount depends on the parent and/or child’s ability to fantasize).
Writing for MarketWatch.com, Quentin Fottrell paints a very grim picture for future graduates:
After commencement, a growing number [of] young people say they have no choice but to take low-skilled jobs, according to a survey released this week…And while 63% of “Generation Y” workers — those age 18 to 29 — have a bachelor’s degree, the majority of the jobs taken by graduates don’t require one, according to an online survey of 500,000 young workers carried out between July 2011 and July 2012 by PayScale.com, a company that collects data on salaries. (Trading Caps And Gowns For Mops; 8/22/12)
Part of the problem is that people have no clue how businesses and the real world work. They envision their children finishing school, getting a great job near them, and living happily ever after. The problem is that it doesn’t work that way.
Obama and others have convinced young people that they must go to college and that they can go on the old “go now, pay later” plan. And by the time they graduate college they are in debt from student loans and in credit card debt thanks to the card companies passing them out like candy to students.
Employment isn’t about skin color or gender: it is about marketable linguistic skills, marketable educational skills, marketable social skills, and marketable employment skills.
The race-mongers and political parasites will claim all kinds of injustice and call for more money to be spent. But in the final analysis money doesn’t educate people. Poorly prepared, poorly educated teachers produce poorly prepared, poorly educated students.
Parents who do not raise the bar of expectation for their children, parents who place sports over academics, and parents who are just clueless are condemning their children to the harshest of realities.
People may not like what I’ve said, especially teachers, but the statistics don’t lie–and neither does the job market.
I think public school is ‘successful’ only because it is SO EASY to give someone else the responsiblity of raising your children, then if they do great YOU can have the accolades and if they fail you can blame THEM! (It win, win! except that the children have a 50% or less chance of success.) Health care is the same way. If people had to accept their true responsiblities they would do things VERY DIFFERENTLY! (Oh, need I mention, welfare?)
Again I submit,
You only have to look at how the administration and the progressives who run the Democratic party (and are doing their best to infiltrate the Republicans) view human relationships to understand why and how our society is in shambles today.
There is hardly any human condition for which there is not an over bloated fraud ridden virtual money pit governmental solution coming out of Washington either through legislation or edict perpetrated by the career minded ruling class who have assumed the mantel of benevolent masters of a nomadic entitlement seeking citizenry.
There is plenty more but we can start with the CHILDREN.
There are government schools in every community which have a curriculum set up to teach what every growing child should know. These include but are not limited to, How to sing Obama Um, Um, Um, how it’s possible to have two moms or dads and not just one of each, and why it is ok if moms like women best or dads like men best. As they mature they are taught the various ways they or adults can show affection for each other male or female, the dangers of sex with the opposite sex and how to apply a free government supply of condoms to protect against the main danger, what government assistance is available to them if sex gets them “sick”, and most importantly if they, god forbid, should be punished (the presidents word not mine) by being pregnant the government well funded Planned Parenthood is just around the corner to get rid of your problem child. Now you can graduate with honors (and with a little help from the public school administration that has covered for your inaptitude in order to preserve their funding) try to find a job in a jobless market. But if you can’t find one the government will foot the bill for you at the nearest fun and games college of your choice IF you promise to go to work for the wonderful government that gave you all the blessings of a godless anti-voucher budget busting unionize LIBERAL education.
Every lockstep Democrat in congress has to admit this is all true and they are the architects of it. AND it is not only available to every American citizen but also the illegal aliens within our wide open borders which the Obama DOJ refuses to protect and won’t allow the states to police.
Case Closed
Mychal, as usual you are right on the money and Bill Sr.is also.I am sending your Daily Rant to my 18 yr. old grand daughter who is entering college today. i am also sending it to my 15 yr. old grand daughter to prepare her for what is ahead of her. Both girls are very bright and doing very well in a public school that has received national attention for its excellent programs and staff,parent,student commitment to excellence.I want them to know how important a great education is. Not to waste college with useless subjects that result in useless degrees.
Right you are Mychal. For nearly 40 years the entire American educational system has been dilapidated. offering young minds a sub-standardized form of learning which has produced an entire generation of self entitled air-heads, like Obama’s occupied wall street foot soldiers! The good liberal educators have indoctrinated our young children with a series of anti-American rhetoric while brainwashing them into overlooking the numerous and extremely important contributions and inventions developed by white men.
Today the educational system encourages young people to celebrate diversity, unsung minorities and women who ascribe to the phylosophy of liberalism, homosexual interests, spanish as the revered language of choice, Hispanic history, multiculturalism. If you have any children or take care of any who are unfortunately educated through the public school system, just open up their history and science books and breeze through the number of pages overemphasizing a number of multiracial individuals who are being shamelessly held up as astounding figures within their respected fields.
Christianity is frowned upon while nearly every other man made religion, especially Islam is celebrated! Technology is advancing us scientifically but is producing a generation of unproductive minds who have adopted an extremely selfish mindset of entitlements!American patriotism is no longer emphasized in the United States educational school system. Instead our children are being brainwashed into embracing a globalist mindest of egalitarianism!
Mychal, I recently “stumbled” upon your blog, you are, without doubt, the best of the best commentators of the American political scene I have read in a long time. Keep up the good fight bro!
Mychal, I’m older than you and can relate well to this post. The public school system is an abysmal failure.
btw, I would be very interested in reading your biography. What your home life was like, where you grew up, school, college, career path, etc. I do this research on nearly everyone that I read. You’re something of a mystery.
You have got to be kidding! Your writing is full of nothing but vitriol, hyperbole and bombast. It smacks of a high school sophomore trying to fill up an essay with big words and disjointed thought. In which dictionary do you find your words and meanings?
You appear to worship at the altar of Rush…if logic and facts don’t work, just scream louder and longer than your opponent.
The credibility of your argument is undermined by excess.
Um, Bubba? Perhaps you need to critique your sentence structure before giving lessons in grammar.
I assume bubba is your surname, your reply is evident your were uneducated in our government schools. You can neither carry on an intelligent converstion with someone who holds a different view than yours, nor can you form cohesive thoughts required of such a converstion, so you retort to name calling and character criticism, nothing germaine to the topic currently being discussed. You sir are an idiot!
Right on again! Romney was not my first choice, or even my third, but, I am hopeful that he does realize most of the problems in this country, the NEA being one of the worst. The NEA, in league with the Marxists at the helm are destroying us from within and are aided by complacent spoiled parents who are raising spoiled children.
If we do not remove political correctness and political criminality from the schools we are doomed.
Dear sir, what you have described here is nothing less than the training for the Proles.
I write here facetiously, but it’s frightening that you can take the examples in this post, place them in the framework of Mr Orwell’s writings, and they would fit in without much alteration.
For those who wonder what it is I refer to, please take some time to read – not watch on tv – the works of George Orwell. They are an apt forewarning of things to come, and in some cases, an essay on what has come to pass.
Mychal, is a big part of this problem the unionization of teachers and the union bosses at NEA? And perhaps a combination of the federal government intervening and mandating and meddling? I personally think so. How else to explain the level of good education many Boomers received by those “wonderful and highly underpaid” teachers at that time?
My personal experience was a Catholic education through all 12 grades, then training at a Catholic hospital. My husband was educated in public schools, and felt that I learned things in high school that he had to wait until college to learn.
How I deplore the “new” system where everyone is a winner, no prayer in school, no pledge of allegiance, distorted history, emphasis on appreciating gays, no real discipline and education. No wonder the U.S. is so far behind other countries when it comes to education.
Thank you for your very accurate and insightful analysis of education in this country today!
Excellent message. I was asked only yesterday to proof a cover letter for a person with a master’s degree in special education. Four spelling errors, run on sentences, disorganized. I made it look tip top for her. She is a very bright young woman, and to be fair, perhaps the letter was written in haste so that I could proof it. She’s looking for a job. I have a job in retail, cannot find one in my field and have given up, it’s been so long since I graduated I don’t think I could do that job anymore.
Colleges are about money. They will tell you anything they need to, to get you to sign up with them. I was promised that there were lots of jobs, no problem getting one, although we would probably have to move. Turns out the school was not accredited because in order to be accredited you have to have 60 % of the people in a job in that field in a year, I think it was. One person in 14 managed to get one. The rest of us are working at other things, now, in debt. College is NOT the way to go anymore, get to a trade school, learn plumbing or electricity work or go to cooking school.
I agree with you, Millie. There will always be a demand for plumbers, electricians and all other blue collar workers. The unions need to be abolished so the blue collar workers will get the pay for the jobs and not the unions.