June 28th, 2008
Unfortunately, this isn’t news, or shouldn’t be. http://townhall.com/news/us/2008/06/27/poll_schools_not_properly_preparing_kids
America’s public schools haven’t merely been falling behind. They’re in a freefall compared to other nations, including “developing” nations such as Slovakia, et al. which, almost literally, don’t have a pot to pee in but yet succeed in educating kids far better than we do.
Thing is, it’s not news simply because it’s been going on for a generation, at least, and if anyone noticed, they haven’t said much about it, and those who try to say much about it are derided as simpleton reactionaries.
The causes of the misedumacation going on in most schools today aren’t complex. They can easily be pinned on the National Education Association, the NEA, which says on its website that, “We’re Fighting for the Right to a Great Public School” (http://www.nea.org/index.html) when, in fact, it has been the major force behind diluting curriculum, undermining traditional values, endorsing and promoting liberal thought, and pushing diversity, all at the cost of abandoning the primary role of public schools, to provide a good, fundamental education.
There was good reason for U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige to have called the NEA a terrorist organization a few years back. I would refer the reader to one of many simpleton reactionary articles which capsulates the problems with this socialist, terrorist organization and which concludes with the optimistic view that “there just might be hope for the future of America’s schools.” http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39598
Personally, I don’t share that optimism, especially in the near term, based on my personal, anecdotal observations. Those are admittedly limited to public education in the Long Island, New York area but unfortunately don’t appear to be rarities.
Rudolf Flesch’s blockbuster, Why Johnny Can’t Read, is now half a century old and Johnny (and Joanne) STILL can’t read—or write or compute or even think very well. Even worse, compared to the Johnny of 2008, those now-retired Johnnies are bloody geniuses!
(For the rest of this article, please see my website: http://genelalor.com/)