US Schools Are Under Attack!

SCHOOLS ARE UNDER ATTACK!

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this:  If we have been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle.  We are no longer interested in finding the truth.  The bamboozle has captured us.  It is simply too painful to acknowledge – even to ourselves – that we have been so credulous (so the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new bamboozles rise).  Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance and courage.”  -- Carl Sagan

Below is what we know about public education in the United States:

Some of our schools are probably the best schools in the world (especially in our more affluent areas in the State).  Many of our schools treat all children, even those with profound learning disabilities, with the dignity and respect due citizens of a democracy.  Many of these schools actually raise the IQ’s of poor and culturally deprived students (something once thought to be impossible), and their brightest students are among the best learners in the world.  If we look at the entire person and not just school testing, the results are even better.  Their suicide rate is low, our students are accomplished independent thinkers, and they are infinitely better-rounded people than their contemporaries from other countries.  I can personally attest to this as I am currently hosting a foreign exchange student.  Our young students are awesome problem-solvers and possess common sense that is the envy of the world.  They can handle freedom and diversity and know a lot about numerous things.  They can do a plethora of tasks that are not always tested in school.  Most kids around the world want to be like our kids.

Unfortunately, we do have problems with our education system.  It is not perfect by any means.  There are some real concerns.  For example, our curriculum is “a mile wide and in inch deep”.  In fourth grade math, we try to teach more than 40 objectives while the Japanese only teach the 25 most important objectives.  The rest of the world has a curriculum that is set at the national level so that seventh and eighth grade students must take algebra, geometry, chemistry and physics.  Here, many students end up never taking these more challenging courses.  By eighth grade, only a few U.S. students have had algebra and almost none have had geometry, chemistry or physics.  U.S. high school students have no requirement to take all of these courses.  Our kids can not learn what they are not taught.

Schools are eager and willing to change this.  Today, over 45 states have taken it upon themselves, without the input of the federal government, to attempt to address these issues through the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  Schools and teachers want to teach essential concepts at an earlier age and in greater depth.

Our schools and students in the United States are both very good and very bad when it comes to comparisons in international testing.  So, what are the real issues with education?  Most say money and politics – little else!

Willie Sutton said he robbed banks because “that is where the money is.”  Corporate America has 610.1 billion reasons to tell everyone that our schools are failing.  Currently, the U.S. spends approximately 610 billion on education across the country.  Private schools, corporate curriculum and after-hours learning centers already make big money, but getting their hands on public education money would be finding the “goose that lays the golden egg.”

Excerpt taken from Jim Dunn – Former NSPRA President