Norman W. Wilson: A National Disgrace: The Education System and the Dumbing of America

by Norman W Wilson, PhD

America is in serious trouble. Whenever a nation's educational system falters because of misplaced and often misguided learning-teaching goals, the whole country suffers. Maybe not today, but a couple of decades down the road it will be all too obvious. We will have a very heavy price to pay for the dumbing of America.

As an educator for forty years I am concerned about current trends in the educating of our country's young. In 2007 (the year for which figures are available) there were 4,000 'charter schools' in the United States serving over one million students. Forty one states now have laws allowing charter schools according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Charter schools were created with less restrictions than regular schools. Why was it necessary to create a secondary system? If legal restrictions were the primary issue, why not just change the laws?

Early in the month I came upon an article announcing the African American Charter School Administrators Association was bringing suit against one of the southern states. I have found this disturbing that there is such an organization. I thought we had gotten past the disgusting discrimination of the 1960's. Certainly the existence of African American Charter Schools is blatant discrimination. Reversed discrimination? This raises the question of the real reason for the creation of charter schools to begin with. Are they created to perpetuate racial discrimination? Are they a way to circumnavigate both federal and state laws?

According to the June 2010 Associated Press, many of our schools are switching to a four day week. And this is not because of some deep philosophical approach to educating our young. It's to save money. What would be saved if the expensive sports programs were eliminated? How much did it cost to build the USS Gerald R. Ford Aircraft Carrier? In 2009 the estimated cost was $14,000,000,000, that's 14 billion. Think what could have been done with that money had it been spent on a viable national educational system.

Home schooling is now in a rampant up surge. According to the U. S Department of Education over 1,000,000 students are home-schooled. (Figures available for, 2007 only). It is predicted that this growth will continue at a rate of about 15% per year. John Holt author of Why Children Fail estimated that nearly 500,000 families would be doing home schooling. That was back in 1978. It has passed that figure. What's happening to the higher math? The sophisticated physical sciences? Are parents equipped intellectually and physically to teach these courses to their home schoolers? No. They send them to the public schools, the very institution they have held in such disdain.

Not all that new upon the stage of education is what has been called unschooling. [John Holt again] Unschooling refers to those educational philosophies and practices that supposedly allow children to learn through their natural life experiences, including child directed play, game play, household responsibilities, work experience and social interaction, (hmm, does that include sex, too) rather than through a more traditional school curriculum. Smacks of the musical Mame doesn't it?

Unschoolers often state that learning any specific subject is less important than learning how to learn. And they may be right, but withdrawing children from 'formal' educational programs certainly is not the answer. The answer lies elsewhere? Europe, Japan, China? No! It lies with the parents and non-parent tax payers. But there's the real challenge. Getting a positive involvement.

Surveys report the reason why parents are choosing to keep their kids out of the public education system is three-fold: safety, dogma, and the lack of moral values being taught in public schools. Keeping the children at home or creating charter schools is avoiding the fundamental issue.

If parents want the system to change then they have to do it. And that does not entail withdrawal. It means getting directly involved. And not just when it comes time to vote on bond issues. It means daily involvement in the schools, working to change the focus of curricula, making the teacher a learning manager and not a dispenser of non-relevant information.

A personal anecdote illustrates. While I was an undergraduate in college I decided to hitchhike home for the weekend. I was picked up by a truck driver. Upon learning I was studying to become a teacher he asked if I could name all the presidents of the United States and the years they served. I could not. He could and did. Then he commented: "And you call yourself educated." I thought to myself, "So what? If I want to know who was president at any given time I can look it up." That kind of information was not relevant then and it is not now.

I conclude with a quotation from Susan Jacoby's Washington Post article, The Dumbing of America. Ms Jacoby states, "There is no quick cure for this epidemic of arrogant anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism." She continues, "It is past time for a serious national discussion about whether, as a nation, we truly value intellect and rationality." [Dated January 17, 2008]

Guess we don't.

Norman W Wison and his wife Suzanne are Camano Island residents.  This essay used by permission from the author. His website is http://www.shamanicmysteries.com

Comments

[Ann Charles]

Norman,

An eye-opening, thought-provoking article. As a parent of two young kids who are just entering the public school system, you've given me a lot to consider. I had planned to be active in my kids' school, now I will make sure I am. Thanks for the early wake-up call.

Thanks!
Ann C.

[Robert W. Walker]

I have taught for some 30-35 years as well, and what I see that has eroded horribly is on the one hand the respect given to the act of teaching itself; teaching has never been valued highly enough as an art in and of itself--they give one teacher a year a prize for being the best. Teaching is not valued in this country. Colleges and university programs meant to prepare teachers are doing a poor job of it, and as we pay teachers so little that it has become a national joke, the profession does not entice the brightest and the best. Throw on top of that problem, the fact most school districts, esp. at the high school and junior high levels have burdened teacheres with so much reponsibility for everything and anything that has nothing to do with teaching -- as in policing students who do not have a clear Code of Conduct stamped on their little psyches, students who get away literally with getting teachers fired because the system makes it easy to do so, etc.--and real time teaching in a day might amount to an hour or an hour and a half.

Meanwhile burnt out teachers are the rule rather than the exception, teachers who stand about simply waiting for retirement--their big goal in life, and teachers who can say to a teacher intern "Ya know these kids care only about one thing--what's between their legs." Teachers who watch the clock and pray for the end of the day. These are the norms today.

I teach college because I could not function in high school settings anymore--ever. You might call me a coward, a traitor, a runaway or whateveer but I did not sign on to become a police man, and the runaway situation inside most high schools in this country today make it as difficult to teach as to be an RN in an overcrowded ER. We built our schools too big; we created malls of them, and we let the inhabitants of these big "mall-jails" run the place like the inmates of many prisons run the place. Meanwhile, inept school boards and administrators who have helped create the circumstances under which no one can reasonably teach math or science or English can work. At a faculty meeting, you bring up the question of why is there not a Code of Conduct, a simple 4 or 5 Sentences any kid can memorize in this institution nowadays and you are looked upon as a dinosaur.

If a teacher wants to actually teach, nowadays, he has to go elsewhere as I did--to the college level.
There students have a clear idea of why they are in the classroom, and they have goals and aspirations beyond text messaging.

Robert W. Walker
author of Children of Salem & Dead On Writing