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.
When I was in school we had the same education as you just listed minus the ST as the kids have today. The problem is the government. Republicans are taking away education and the Democrats are just standing by and watching them do it. That is the problem with Democrats they're a bunch of weenies.
ReplyDeleteEvery up and coming generation has it tough, I think. These poor buggers may have it toughest of all.
ReplyDeleteThen when you toss in the fact local school boards always have at least one nutcase who ran just to push their own lunatic agenda and when there are attempts to come up with common basic standards nationwide people howl like banshees (look at the reaction to Common Core) it's no wonder American education is falling behind the rest of the world. Of course, if I wanted to do a really good rant on public education, I'd also toss in the taxpayers who won't pass a millage to fund a library but will happily pay for bleachers for the football field. . .
ReplyDeletewow! this is a very old rant of mine - I gave up teaching for 2 reasons and this was the major one. I was expected to teach the kids how to pass the test so the school looked good...there was little to no time to teach them how to think, research, form opinions, etc. I finally had enough and left the field. (Second reason: I hate teacher's unions!)
ReplyDeleteI look at education today & I see another industry.
ReplyDeleteEducation certainly needs an overhaul. One way is to return to the days when basics were not hinted at, but required knowledge to have to move into secondary education. Then we need to lose the everyone needs to go to college notion. Not everyone is meant for college. Like a european model, begin testing them out in junior high to find out where their inclinations and abilities are . The trades often offer better advancement and stability than the new employment reality of the cubicle existence.
ReplyDelete