(It isn't nice to wind me up when I'm on my way to sun tanning)
CLONING OF THE AMERICAN MIND by B.K. Eakman (1998, Huntington House Publishers) is a well-documented explanation of what is going on.
I'm a retired Math teacher, who retired with a modest pension, not waiting for the cynicism and dislike of my career to set in. For the past decade or so, all I've hear is how bad our generation of teachers (college grad, 1967) was and how we had to be removed for real teaching to occur. For our whole careers, we had to put up with idiots running schools who were more interested in mind control than discipline. Administrators who lusted to be Caesar, ruling over dependent inferior people...both the teachers and the students. Yet, many of my peers maintained our standards...not being afraid to stand up to people who told us to dumb down tests or put up with BS in the classroom or to not question authority.
Well, they're pretty much rid of us, replaced by "more competent and educated" people from other fields or alternative certification programs. Last year (and maybe this) I'm substituting in my old HS (never say you'll never do something...fate hears you) and let me tell ya', it isn't pretty. Teaching to the state MCAS tests, people explaining synthetic division who can't line up numbers in long division, no adherence to traditional curriculum, topics approached superficially or perhaps by showing a video if they don't know it....
We're turning out people who don't question things, accept what we hand them, and think they're smart because they can circle what the test author wants them to on multiple choice tests.
And, I make them feel so insecure. Oh well. <^..^>