The Failure of Schools and Education

Children ride the bus into an uncertain academic future. Can schools survive the onslaught?

I was disappointed with my last semester's group of students. Never in my career have I had so many students drop out of classes. Phhhht! Gone. No word, no proper withdrawal. Just gone. Never have I had so many fail, with a capital F. I feel badly for the students, many of whom showed up to class. Yet, after weeks of prodding they still had not turned in any of the required written work. Some neglected to turn in the final research project. Some turned in nothing. Nothing! Not a single assignment! A dozen turned in a plagiarized final essay or research project. Yet, I venture, all of them expected, for whatever reason, to pass my class.

I was disappointed with my son's school this year. He came home the other day and, as usual, reported on what he had done at school. In band, the teacher didn't have him learn or play music, instead she had the students put numbered stickers on the band lockers. In science (this is 7th grade mind you, not 2nd), the teacher had the students color paper butterflies to learn about camouflage. In English, he took another district exam to determine if that particular district exam was valid or not - another exam with one week of school left. In social studies, his homework consisted of writing definitions of so many words, it took him hours to finish.

Then I find this sort of news. A news agency in Massachusetts reported that 73 percent of all the applicants for teacher licensing in the state failed the math test. Seventy three. Percent. Failed.

Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester was not surprised by the results. He told the Boston Globe that these results indicate many students are not receiving an adequate math education. (WPRI.com)

I'm not surprised by the news either (although the numbers are impressive). These applicants probably thought they were ready to teach. They probably thought they could pass the licensing exam. They might even have thought that they had learned something in school.

What does surprise me is this statement:

Tom Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, said "The high failure rate puts a shining light on a deficiency in teacher-prep programs. (WPRI.com)

Tom Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, looks at the problem of 73 percent failure rate as a deficiency in teacher-prep programs?

Here's the basic problem with teaching and the schools in the US today. Those who are in charge of being in charge have absolutely no idea what the problem is. Instead of blaming a defiency in teacher-prep programs, Scott should have immediately come to the conclusion that the K-12 schools aren't properly teaching math. Colleges and universities aren't properly teaching math. The conclusion to the problem is that school policies over the past several decades have failed in their objective to teach.

An obvious and disturbing side problem is that if teachers are failing to learn basic education, what possible chance do the new up and coming group of children have?

I sincerely wish there was some quick solution to get students back at the levels I saw fifteen, ten, or even five years ago. Yet, alas, there is no quick solution because the problem is systemic. It begins with the failed school policies created by modern liberalism which, has at its core, the propagation of liberal ideals versus real learning. Liberalism has held our school systems in thrall for over 40 years. (Please do not point to Bush and the No Child Left Behind Act. Bush's system was liberalism at its worst.)

It is time we acknowledge that the education system in the US is broken and come up with other means of educating our children. May I suggest we turn to teaching models from the earlier part of last century as a model? Sometimes progress isn't the best ideal on which to build our future.