http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/the-failure-of-american-public-education/ Just another WordPress weblog Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:05:23 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/the-failure-of-american-public-education/comment-page-1/#comment-18056 NEA Robert Chanin bids Farewell with a Surprise Admission :: The 912 Project Fan Site Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:07:18 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/uncategorized/the-failure-of-american-public-education/#comment-18056 [...] and AFTexposed.com have both been designed to expose these unions for their true intentions and the failures they have created in America’s school systems by their strong opposition to holding teachers [...] [...] and AFTexposed.com have both been designed to expose these unions for their true intentions and the failures they have created in America’s school systems by their strong opposition to holding teachers [...]

]]> http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/the-failure-of-american-public-education/comment-page-1/#comment-18054 NEA Robert Chanin bids Farewell with a Suprise Admission :: The 912 Project Fan Site Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:42:16 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/uncategorized/the-failure-of-american-public-education/#comment-18054 [...] and AFTexposed.com have both been designed to expose these unions for their true intentions and the failures they have created in America’s school systems by their strong opposition to holding teachers [...] [...] and AFTexposed.com have both been designed to expose these unions for their true intentions and the failures they have created in America’s school systems by their strong opposition to holding teachers [...]

]]> http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/the-failure-of-american-public-education/comment-page-1/#comment-10314 ART Thu, 07 May 2009 22:58:10 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/uncategorized/the-failure-of-american-public-education/#comment-10314 The US educational system is failing, I agree, because of over-regulation, unions, uninspired teachers, antiquated reward systems, etc. However, the author fails to make a cogent case dismissing discipline as a primary explanatory variable by saying that \'it fails to explain why American students do not possess the communication and computational skills they need today to succeed in college or in the working world\'. Although I agree that discipline alone cannot explain the k-12 system failure, it is abundantly clear that if students don\'t respect their teachers, schools, principals, or indeed even themselves, then attempts to teach them anything will fall far short of success. Up through the late 70s students were taught that some things just needed to learned for their own good. Yes, learning about diagramming sentences in the 6th grade would now days be argued to somehow demeaning or irrelevant, but in fact it was a step in the development of our critical thinking skills--which aren\'t taught today. I know of where I speak because I used to teach in major university, which is ranked in the top 10% of all universities in the US. My students were a representative cross section of the college and had only average academic writing abilities and even poorer critical thinking skills. Now, that being said, it has never been easy to teach students how to think, in fact, holding a doctorate in education along with 7 other degrees in 5 other fields has not revealed to me how one might actually teach others how to think. Yes, you can teach logic and other related skills, but you cannot teach anyone to know exactly how to generalize logical skills to a given situation at given moment, except in specific fields. That is, mathematicians, physicists, historians, etc. can learn how to think in their fields, but may be hard pressed to apply equally rigorous skills outside their chosen areas. This is why we have need to teach thinking in many areas--so that thinking in any area becomes easier with time and experience. However, since students these days know that they are in charge (in any real sense), then anything that is too challenging they can deem to be unfair, or gender/race biased, etc., and have removed from their educational experience. Simply put: everything was harder when I was in school and in university. I was taught that if I wanted to get an A or anything else, then I had to earn it--an idea that infuriates students today. When students grow up in a society in which they get a trophy for simply showing up to an event, what incentive do they have to actually work for something? Our teachers and principals know it; our lecturers and professors know it--American student want \'something for nothing\', indeed they feel they are entitled to such. This is a lack of DISCIPLINE, period. The author also left out the monumental effect that feminism has had on virtually all aspects of this problem. It was feminism that progressively evolved our K-12 system into a pre-school mentality where there are no grades, no comparisons, no competitions, no winners or losers, no angst, no unhappiness, and no male behavior--and consequently, no standards. Another disastrous policy that feminism brought us is the idea that everyone is supposed to go to college, or even to graduate high school. Should everyone have the opportunity to do so--absolutely, but the fact is that spending hundreds of millions of dollars to provide largely unsuccessful programs aimed at making sure that unqualified, and indeed unmotivated young people get diplomas or degrees is ridiculous and just being politically correct. If you look at, for instance, the level of academic qualification for college students in the 1970s and compare to today, there is a vast difference, along with there being many fewer students going to college in the 60s and 70s compared to now. Ask any college professor of significant tenure and they\'ll tell you that what were undergraduate level programs in the 70s are now graduate level programs, and that tests in virtually any subject were much harder then than now and that \'harder\' means requiring more critical thinking skills. Over-simplistically, a vast increase in the number of students meant that each student would be given less attention and that standards had to fall. Feminism along with the \'revolution\' of the 50s and 60s also brought us the idea that no one should not have to obey rules if such rules made them feel uncomfortable in any way. I had a coed demand to know why I insisted that all submitted papers have page numbers!! We used to be taught to critically examine our world in order to understand it better and therefore make better decisions. Now children are taught to simply criticize their world in order to make it understand THEM BETTER. Now, let\'s go back and examine all the institutional traits the author attributes as causes for US educational failure--monopolistic, bureaucratic, over-regulated. Were these not also the case in the 50s and 60s? There were teachers unions then; there was tenure then; there were uniform salaries then--but there wasn\'t social engineering then and there WAS discipline then. In fact such social engineering could not get traction until the discipline was gone--so feminism started to take significant hold in schools as the 70s and school discipline became extinct. The author also fails to consider a major possibility: that the failure of American schools is, in fact, by design. Feminist social engineering is an attempt is gain control of American society by taking men out of the picture. Of course getting men out of the picture meant systematically reducing their ability to think. Thinking less means relying more on sexual politics or emotions in relationships, which is where women know they\'ll always prevail. Emasculating men meant a slow decline in men\'s abilities to be good husbands and fathers. And, so the process was complete by the mid 90\'s. Look at the statistics or trends regarding the current social status of men and women: 70% of divorce cases brought by women (who claim men can\'t commit); 75% of students from broken families; 90% of child custody going to women; 22% more boys not graduating from high school; 70% of women wouldn\'t marry their current husband again; fathers on a regular basis made to pay child support for children who are not biologically theirs; most domestic violence perpetrated by women, who are rarely jailed; an increase of false rape accusations that go unpunished, etc. Women are unhappy with men for not-so-ironically becoming the very thing that they--women--created through sabotaging the educational system. American society is now a solid reflection of the narcissism that feminism has been constructing for the last 30 years--full of itself, unaware of its own needs, unable to think, unaware of what others in the world think, childish, and desperately in need of self-discipline. Thus, what in the end is really different about the 60s US k-12 educational system vs. that of today? Well, in essence: social engineering = feminism; a lack of discipline = feminism; poor standards = feminism; too many students who all have to be placated = feminism; a lack of rigorous thinking skills = feminism; a focus on narcissism = feminism; and a depraved indifference toward the welfare of our children at the behest of meeting a social agenda = feminism. All this being said: should women have every right to a good education, to good jobs, to good careers, to control over their destiny? Of course, but what radical feminism has done to the US is nothing short of Nazi-ism. And, where they started was our educational system. Take away men, families, and the ability to fight back using critical thinking skills and you have met your goal. Of course had this not been backed by the government-wealth complex to break up families and make us all more dependent on the state (at a financial cost of course), it would have never seen the light of day--but that\'s another story. AS The US educational system is failing, I agree, because of over-regulation, unions, uninspired teachers, antiquated reward systems, etc. However, the author fails to make a cogent case dismissing discipline as a primary explanatory variable by saying that \’it fails to explain why American students do not possess the communication and computational skills they need today to succeed in college or in the working world\’. Although I agree that discipline alone cannot explain the k-12 system failure, it is abundantly clear that if students don\’t respect their teachers, schools, principals, or indeed even themselves, then attempts to teach them anything will fall far short of success. Up through the late 70s students were taught that some things just needed to learned for their own good. Yes, learning about diagramming sentences in the 6th grade would now days be argued to somehow demeaning or irrelevant, but in fact it was a step in the development of our critical thinking skills–which aren\’t taught today. I know of where I speak because I used to teach in major university, which is ranked in the top 10% of all universities in the US. My students were a representative cross section of the college and had only average academic writing abilities and even poorer critical thinking skills. Now, that being said, it has never been easy to teach students how to think, in fact, holding a doctorate in education along with 7 other degrees in 5 other fields has not revealed to me how one might actually teach others how to think. Yes, you can teach logic and other related skills, but you cannot teach anyone to know exactly how to generalize logical skills to a given situation at given moment, except in specific fields. That is, mathematicians, physicists, historians, etc. can learn how to think in their fields, but may be hard pressed to apply equally rigorous skills outside their chosen areas. This is why we have need to teach thinking in many areas–so that thinking in any area becomes easier with time and experience. However, since students these days know that they are in charge (in any real sense), then anything that is too challenging they can deem to be unfair, or gender/race biased, etc., and have removed from their educational experience. Simply put: everything was harder when I was in school and in university. I was taught that if I wanted to get an A or anything else, then I had to earn it–an idea that infuriates students today. When students grow up in a society in which they get a trophy for simply showing up to an event, what incentive do they have to actually work for something? Our teachers and principals know it; our lecturers and professors know it–American student want \’something for nothing\’, indeed they feel they are entitled to such. This is a lack of DISCIPLINE, period. The author also left out the monumental effect that feminism has had on virtually all aspects of this problem. It was feminism that progressively evolved our K-12 system into a pre-school mentality where there are no grades, no comparisons, no competitions, no winners or losers, no angst, no unhappiness, and no male behavior–and consequently, no standards. Another disastrous policy that feminism brought us is the idea that everyone is supposed to go to college, or even to graduate high school. Should everyone have the opportunity to do so–absolutely, but the fact is that spending hundreds of millions of dollars to provide largely unsuccessful programs aimed at making sure that unqualified, and indeed unmotivated young people get diplomas or degrees is ridiculous and just being politically correct. If you look at, for instance, the level of academic qualification for college students in the 1970s and compare to today, there is a vast difference, along with there being many fewer students going to college in the 60s and 70s compared to now. Ask any college professor of significant tenure and they\’ll tell you that what were undergraduate level programs in the 70s are now graduate level programs, and that tests in virtually any subject were much harder then than now and that \’harder\’ means requiring more critical thinking skills. Over-simplistically, a vast increase in the number of students meant that each student would be given less attention and that standards had to fall. Feminism along with the \’revolution\’ of the 50s and 60s also brought us the idea that no one should not have to obey rules if such rules made them feel uncomfortable in any way. I had a coed demand to know why I insisted that all submitted papers have page numbers!! We used to be taught to critically examine our world in order to understand it better and therefore make better decisions. Now children are taught to simply criticize their world in order to make it understand THEM BETTER. Now, let\’s go back and examine all the institutional traits the author attributes as causes for US educational failure–monopolistic, bureaucratic, over-regulated. Were these not also the case in the 50s and 60s? There were teachers unions then; there was tenure then; there were uniform salaries then–but there wasn\’t social engineering then and there WAS discipline then. In fact such social engineering could not get traction until the discipline was gone–so feminism started to take significant hold in schools as the 70s and school discipline became extinct. The author also fails to consider a major possibility: that the failure of American schools is, in fact, by design. Feminist social engineering is an attempt is gain control of American society by taking men out of the picture. Of course getting men out of the picture meant systematically reducing their ability to think. Thinking less means relying more on sexual politics or emotions in relationships, which is where women know they\’ll always prevail. Emasculating men meant a slow decline in men\’s abilities to be good husbands and fathers. And, so the process was complete by the mid 90\’s. Look at the statistics or trends regarding the current social status of men and women: 70% of divorce cases brought by women (who claim men can\’t commit); 75% of students from broken families; 90% of child custody going to women; 22% more boys not graduating from high school; 70% of women wouldn\’t marry their current husband again; fathers on a regular basis made to pay child support for children who are not biologically theirs; most domestic violence perpetrated by women, who are rarely jailed; an increase of false rape accusations that go unpunished, etc. Women are unhappy with men for not-so-ironically becoming the very thing that they–women–created through sabotaging the educational system. American society is now a solid reflection of the narcissism that feminism has been constructing for the last 30 years–full of itself, unaware of its own needs, unable to think, unaware of what others in the world think, childish, and desperately in need of self-discipline. Thus, what in the end is really different about the 60s US k-12 educational system vs. that of today? Well, in essence: social engineering = feminism; a lack of discipline = feminism; poor standards = feminism; too many students who all have to be placated = feminism; a lack of rigorous thinking skills = feminism; a focus on narcissism = feminism; and a depraved indifference toward the welfare of our children at the behest of meeting a social agenda = feminism. All this being said: should women have every right to a good education, to good jobs, to good careers, to control over their destiny? Of course, but what radical feminism has done to the US is nothing short of Nazi-ism. And, where they started was our educational system. Take away men, families, and the ability to fight back using critical thinking skills and you have met your goal. Of course had this not been backed by the government-wealth complex to break up families and make us all more dependent on the state (at a financial cost of course), it would have never seen the light of day–but that\’s another story. AS

]]>