Educated idiots: Bill Steigerwald evaluates Harper's special classroom report

Ah, but does it work? And remember, whether something "works" is determined by your purposes for it.

It is producing a populace of uncritical, barely-educated worker bees, suited mostly to punching buttons, consuming the latest new gadgets and mindlessly watching TV.

Suppose that's what it's intended to do? Suppose these results to be in accord with the desires of the people and institutions that dominate the system? Wouldn't that be an adequate explanation for the lack of change we've seen?

Or it could be a bit less sinister... but only a bit. The effect the school system has on its client-students could be irrelevant, because its more important purpose -- to provide cushy sinecures to several million educrats -- is being served brilliantly. So long as that desideratum is intact, change for any lesser purpose that might threaten the educrats' wallets will be resisted.

Cynicism can be good protection, but it's a dreadful companion to one's morning coffee.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

I think I agree with you. Although the fact is that it is not just the "elite" who go to four year colleges in this country today. If you can read and you want to go to college (and are willing to pay the small fees at state schools) then you can go.

One thing we have no consensus on in this country is what schools SHOULD be doing. There is no agreement among the discutants on this, and without agreeing on basic terms, discussion of the issue degenerates quickly into shouting and misunderstanding.

Your point about the problems if the "elite" (for lack of a better word) are separated out from the mass at an early age is a good one, and many in education are equally troubled by it, but the solution is not easy. Should parents of smart kids be forced to leave their children in substandard schools just so the dumb kids can get to know what a smart person looks like?

"One thing we have no consensus on in this country is what schools SHOULD be doing."

I think schools should teach reading, writing, math and history. People that are armed w/ these basic skills can do anything they wish. The implication that only those people who attend the "right" university are truly educated is hogwash.

Furthermore, the notion that public schools need to be palaces is equally foolish. Anyone that desires an education can achieve it regardless of the quality of the local school. The sad fact that many of our young people are illiterate is more a reflection on their home life than on the public school.

The diefication of the teacher is equally dubious, afterall, most of the truly great teachers in my life had little or no formal education. Great teachers, in my opinion, contribute no more to society than do great bricklayers or great office managers.

No doubt education is a great and good thing, but like so much else in life, it's an individual responsibility.

Dusting off an earlier work of mine...

Everyone is always looking for the quick fix, yet rarely is there one that does the trick. In the case of the educational mess our country is in, there is just such a cure, even though I have argued against that idea on numerous occasions. My eyes have been opened.

The biggest source of trouble in our schools can be traced to the problems implementing one word, and it surprisingly isn't "discipline" or "character". It is "compulsory".

Interestingly enough, our basic idea of education comes from the tenth plank of the Communist Manifesto: Compulsory free public education for all. When I learned this, I was offended on many levels. Being oppsed to Marxism, I wondered how this affects education overall.

I am a schoolteacher, and I know that it is in every child's best interests to get the best education they can. I live by that premise every day of my life with my craft. However, mandating common sense ought to rile the sensibilities of any American who loves Liberty. What next, a compulsory diet for children? Federally-dictated reading times? How about police-enforced little league attendance?

The benefits to removing this single word are numerous and awesome. Once attendance is voluntary, test scores will shoot through the roof. I can tell you from first-hand experience that in most cases, those who score poorly are those who do not want to be in class in the first place. Knowledge for its own sake simply isn't a motivation in their lives, and no teacher can motivate a student who staunchly refuses to be motivated.

Secondly, state-mandated attendance turns school into something akin to a prison, for pupil and districts. It is not the job of the state to tell someone where they must spend half of their waking hours unless they have been incarcerated. Yet this is what we do to every child for over a decade each. Many simply rebel against such imposition, and assume the role of classroom disruptor. There are at least two in EVERY classroom. Their action ensure that they get that negative attention they want (and even need), and that little gets done in class.

If I were to disrupt people in line at McDonald's, they have the right to remove me. Schools, however, are required to educate, and only the most violent disruptions could ever get a student removed. Most consequences are laughed at for anything less. (Three day vacation? Yee-ha!)

Thirdly, once parents realize that they will be responsible for their child's care during the day, and schools are no longer simply state-funded day-care centers, then they will either shell out the dollars to send their child to a real day-care, or they will make sure that their kids are going to behave in class and do the work necessary to stay in school. This is where the motivation should come from, and will get parents more directly involved in their child's development: motivation, goals, desire, discipline, work ethic, and character.

Fourth, parents will become free to choose what schools they want their child to attend, since the requirement to attend is gone. Schools will then work to attract the best, and glorious competition will work its magic in much the same way the highly-touted voucher system would.

Fifth, for those who love Liberty, it is important to remember what a free citizen owes to the state, and even more importantly, what they do not. There is no obligation in the Constitution to raise a person's IQ or knowledge base to any level whatsoever. You and your child owe the state nothing along these lines. You simply owe it to yourselves to do the best possible for your family, and to make that determination yourselves. I hope you will choose many years of exciting, interesting, developmental, and basic education. But I also hope the state stops forcing you to choose to do so.

You want solutions? grab a hold of some of these...

end 'compulsory' education
make it easier to fire bad teachers
shut down the Dept. of Ed. in DC
make it easier to hire competent teachers, even if they haven't had the 'required' (garbage) courses
end preferential treatment for 'diagnosed' children
end all federal influence in schools and curriculum
let parents send their kids to any school they want, as long as they arrange for transportation
stop ham-stringing schools by requiring them to only do business with certain providers, driving up their costs
stop requiring multitudes of non-classroom personnel
make it easier to remove students who are not participating in their own education
end the seniority-pay system that destroys all incentive to improve
enforce the Beck decision so that the unions will stop buying Democrat protectionism

(Many of these would be almost immediate benefits of de-fanging the NEA.) I'm sure there are a thousand more... I'll leave it to you FReepers to post 'em, though. *grin*

I think schools should teach kids how to think for themselves. Schools over the years, especially colleges have become too vocational and not liberal enough ( I mean liberal arts ed.) There should be liberal schools and vocational schools separate from each other. That was the way things were when my parents were young and education was better. My mother did not get a degree in business admin, she went to Business School. My dad went to school through the 8th grade and then became a boiler maker. What colleges proudly call "Information Systems" definately belongs in a vocational school, not a university. They actually have graduate programs in this vocation. Colleges have spread themselves too thin in order to boost enrollments or to keep them high.

Also, grade schools are so caught up in getting every dime of state funding that they keep kids in school who don't want to be there, lowering the quality of education of the kids who do. Teachers are too busy baby sitting disruptive students instead of teaching the ones who want an education. If the kids don't want to be there, we should let them with their guns, knives and grievances go. We need better adult education for the idiot adolescents who squadered their opportunity in grade school to get an education and upon adulthood realize what a mistake they made.

Schools should also get out of the business of propaganda and indoctrination, and back to the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic

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