The State of American Education

I've been involved in education for many years - as a parent, as an adult student, and as a teacher.

Many say that kids are just dumber than ever before. I'd have to disagree with that. The raw material is there, basic brainpower.

It's just not been activated by decent schooling.

This is not a criticism of the teachers. Most teachers do their very best with the materials they've been given. It's just that those materials - Common Core and the Wanna-Be curriculums - are not designed to reach the populations that desperately need them.

The kids whose background puts them at a disadvantage is those who come from 1-parent homes, with noisy environments, and families that value other things more - such as music, dancing, fashion, and athletics - but NOT formal education. What money there is in those homes goes to entertainment, primarily of the popular kind, and toys that do not teach, but entertain.

The difference is obvious in preschool and kindergarten. Some kids come in with experience in sorting, classifying, and explaining their thinking. Others repeatedly interrupt the lesson to put the focus on THEM. A lot of time is wasted just working to get the boisterous to settle down for some learning.

Much of a child's learning takes place in a relatively quiet environment. Quiet observation of nature, creation of artistic work, thinking, and listening to others with more experience or knowledge. Despite the educational world's preference for group (collaborative) work, "meaningful" conversation, and other activities that create a noise-filled classroom, this is still true. When children are truly concentrating, the class is amazingly quiet - what talk is going on is purposeful, not just aimless gab.

Some members of the classes are so unable to allow others to learn, that they inhibit their peers' progress. Hence, the Elite push for "gifted and talented" classes. Most of the kids in those classes are neither particularly gifted, or exceptionally talented. They're good students, however, who won't disrupt the classroom. That's what the Elite want for their children - a relatively quiet environment - something that was the norm when I was in school.

They can't just SAY that, as they might be accused of being anti-minority. Instead, they couch their desires in terms of their child being "special" in a way that would justify their separation from the rest of the kids.

It's NOT an academic thing, as much as a cultural thing. Parents in the upper classes want to have their kids taught in a setting that conforms to classic Euro-American norms.

The upper level classes generally get kids prepared for college; sometimes, the content is force-fed them in ways that make it hard to retain concepts - I'm talking about you, AP courses.

Too few math classes use a well-structured approach in the elementary and middle schools. Teens arrive in high school still confused about the use of fractions and decimals. I'm talking AVERAGE ability students, not those who have special needs.

If you doubt the inadequacy of American education, read the story at the link - it will horrify you.

Are there solutions to the problems in American education? I believe that it's possible, but it will take a lot of effort, a willingness to toss out the ideas that are NOT working, and a willingness to pare down the bloated administration/staffing that exists in many of the most troubled schools.

I've mentioned the dreadful curriculum above, but I need to add a few words about the ridiculous administrative bloat. "Free Money' comes with a BIG catch - getting it requires a major  time and personnel commitment that can only be met through hiring more people - which means that money will NOT be available for the line function (to use the business term) of teaching.

Add to all the above the horrors imposed by clamping on the Diversity Bandwagon - a wagon that is filled with staff, expenditures, and paperwork - and you have effectively slowed the Education Train to a crawl.

For another perspective, let's look at Chicago Boyz, who've been looking bad at the Not-So Good Old Days of School.

They do make a valid point near the end of that post - in the Old Days, those who managed to get to the graduation point were a selected bunch. That the high school curriculum was more rigorous would be a given, considering that the less-able (and the poorer able) were persuaded to leave long before that point.

Here's another post by the Chicago Boyz, who de-construct an old Harvard entrance exam, and how it does NOT show that the students were so much better.

One FAST and EASY way to improve math education is to narrow the span of topics taught in a single year - AND, add in some drill (which today could be a game-type practice - high scorers to be posted on the wall). I'd rather see the average middle school kid COMPETENT in basic arithmetic, then mediocre in many areas of math. Relatively few professional fields call for advanced math. MOST jobs involve arithmetic, maybe some PRACTICAL geometry.