The BlogFodder just did a post about Turkey. I commented that most Americans probably couldn’t
find Turkey on a map, much less give a crap about what is happening outside of
their own personal world.
OK, I’m old;
and I am sure every generation, as they age, looks down on the younger
generations with disdain. But actually,
I feel sorry for the young people of today.
We have screwed them. We have
destroyed the environment and dumbed down their education.
Even in the
Mississippi Delta of the 1950’s I received a good basic education. I was taught Civics, American History, World
History, Geography, General Math, Geometry, Algebra I, Algebra II, General
Science, Biology, Chemistry, English and Literature. The only elective I received was typing,
which has served me well.
I came out
of school with a good basic education.
Today there
is so much more information to cover, than in my day; and politicians, who have
no background in education, legislate the education standards.
We have for
profit companies turning out Standardized Test that students are required to
pass in order to graduate. Just the very
idea of Standardized Test disregards the obvious point, that there is no such
thing as a standardized child.
The result
is that children are leaving high school with a smattering of a lot of
information without actually mastering the basics.
It is not
the teacher’s fault. They are forced to
focus on students passing the God Damn Standardized Test – their jobs depend on
their students scores.
In the right
world, teachers would have autonomy over what they are able to cover in their
classroom. Some classes move slower and
some move faster. It is better to
thoroughly cover what a class is able to retain than to rush through to the
next standard while leaving part of the class behind.
Back to the
point. We have shorted the last few
generations on a basic education. Now,
along with the ‘woke’ generation living on social media and waiting with
anxiety for the next technical innovation, it is no wonder that young people
today have such a limited understanding of today’s world; or how we arrived at where
we are today.
the Ol’Buzzard
Note: my
wife and I were both school teachers. I
have taught grades three through twelve and been principal of four schools.
