For example, the best car speaker system for a young person listening to a lot of rock ‘n roll or rap music might be different than the ones that an older person prefers to use when listening to classical music….

I have several friends who are teachers in the public schools. They do what they can with what they are given. Sure, there are a few teachers I know simply taking up space, but the majority are committed to their kids.

The tipping point was two months into the school year, we get a note from one teacher. “Did you know your child had a studder?”

Yes, the teacher wrote “studder” and if the teacher spent any time speaking with my child, the teacher would have realized early on that yes, he does stutter.

The next week he was homeschooled. That same week, the principle was hounding us to have him come back to school for the standardized testing. All in the name of money for the district….

The dumbing down was in full swing by the early 80s. 25 years later that garden of mediocrity is in full bloom.

The high school education of Americans during the mid 19th and early 20th century required a higher aptitude to complete than your average Bachelors degree at a state college/university of today in America. Don’t take my word fer it- lookitup.

Three main ingredients-

1) How teachers are trained to teach their specific levels;
2)Educational psychology and medication strategies to regulate the behavior of kids in schools;
3)Textbook industry

The educating process of kids in public schools is a meat grinder. Kids are taken apart to fit those three models.

Research funds were spent to “prove” the existing models are “better” than the others, that educational psychology models have anything to do with human children; and that Textbook Model a is better than Textbook Model b.

The students and the learning are secondary to “systems” “tools” and “models”.

And “they” have the “science” to prove it.

The system is rife with damaged adults who are still reacting to their childhoods and don’t want “any child” to have to go through what they went through.

Reactionary political beliefs that are predominantly liberal in nature and anti-capital, anti-military, anti-gun, anti-business, anti-male, anti-meat, anti-memorization, anti-running, anti-boy, anti-heterosexual……the same marxist stew oozing out of the university environment is pre-dominant on school boards, district offices, teacher leadership councils in schools, and in many classrooms.

Education is the most political activity in our Nation. And we are losing the fight to Marxists.

Great post, but why would they fix it if it wasn’t broken to begin with? (I am assuming its changed since the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s…I know its been carp in the 80’s)?

See how they get out of their seats, how they talk, how they use their cell phones in class, how they argue with me, how they don’t do homework, how their parents accuse me of racism and worse. Then see if you can still blame me for their failure to learn what they should.

Please…a little balance here!

Thanks for providing it. There are many schools doing a great job. By and large 80 per cent of public high schools are just like your 3rd period class.

From time to time I go into a nearby district as a sub. I get to give something back and support some of the good teachers who take some days off.

What you describe is real. And it is endemic.

The product of the parenting that comes to your classroom is the result of a failed generation of policymaking and Presidential vision, low expectations and involvement by communities, and mass media culture’s impact on the young.

Not all bad. Not all good. I agree. And the endemic problems, if they were addressed, would be met with alot of resistance by the very people who are in need of a solution other than jail, low wages, underemployment, and welfarism.

Nation building requires tough love and making dead beat behavior- which you describe so well- UNTHINKABLE.

Get busy living and working or get busy dyin’. There’s some modified “Shawshank” for ya.

Thanks for providing the balance.

Maybe I’m not remembering well, but it seems to me, reasoning and logic were skills brought by new employees 20 years ago.

20 years ago I was placing engineering and industrial technology students in cooperative education and internship assignments with Fortune 500 firms throughout the midwest.

The fruit of that experience for most of the students involved was they were able to get into the work environment where their basic logic and reasoning skills (not to mention spelling, grammar, and human relations skills) were put to the test in an evaluated work-learning experience.

These programs are still going strong, and in many areas, are pre-reqs for getting hired in engineering and technology careers.

The undergrad business students have a harder row to hoe. Accounting is a pretty rigorous discipline and Finance is getting that way– but it is still a cousin to the brass accounting degree. Marketing etc is not the best preparation for business. All in all, the business undergrads needed an MBA to be marketable in jobs that paid real money.

My own training was in the classics and humanities, including the history of science. The goal: learn to read, study, debate and give oral reasons, and be able to transfer what was in my noggin onto the page/screen. That was the 4 year degree.

The next degree was in agricultural studies in power mechanics, hydraulics, electrical systems and electronics, cropping systems, agribusiness accounting, finance, banking, and enterprise planning.

That led to a graduate degree in employment training and curriculum development.

I managed to work closely with different industries as a consultant which allowed me to hybridize my experience between industry and education. That is very old school: those who could do did both back in the day— they taught and invented things or made companies or built stuff that worked.

Not anymore. The specialist is tracked and seldom can crossover into education or into industry to make a contribution.

We need more of that. And there is a way to educate and train people to do it. That keeps the classroom real and exciting to kids.

Some, not all, of these public school teachers are real knotholes when it comes to making a contribution to society other than showing up to teach.

It’s a real problem. But we don’t, as a nation, have a nation building mentality. We are living off our past glories.

The strategy was 1) learn how to learn; and then, 2) learn how to teach and train human beings to function in a multi-faceted employment environment.

My kids have been educated the same way. The generation before me went to camp schools as migrant working families in the California agricultural valleys. But even they learned how to learn and have never stopped.

Lots of folks confuse the reasons why kids should go to school. It’s not the content so much as the process. The kids are given ridiculous “learning strategies” that would confuse anybody.

We had to re-teach our son basic arithmetic because the “strategy” he was taught was pulled out of somebody’s hind parts. Basic arithmetic works.

Go figure

My Children went to elementary and some High School in Jenks, Oklahoma. A very good public school, same requirements as your students. So you see, it depends on the district and the state. The problem is that is not the norm, it is the above norm.

As I said, in California and probably most of the border states they are teaching English language and babysitting. Sad and pathetic state of education.

One of my biggest issues with our public school is that they were teaching my 2nd grader about Hinduism and Buddhism. And I don’t mean a casual mention that there are other religions (which is fine with me) but I mean an in depth study. Way too in depth for the mind of a 7 or 8 year old. I understand giving kids a broad education on other cultures but at the age of 7? Our school was using this as “enrichment” and going above and beyond the social studies requirements from the state. We chose to take my daughter out of class that week (just during social studies which was at the end of the day) I was just not comfortable with how it was being taught.

Thanks to everyone who commented on homeschooling. I really believe that may be what we start doing for next school year. I just have to really be prepared to take my kids education upon myself. Actually, those few years as a teacher have probably prepared me. If I can handle a class of unruly 4th graders, I can handle my 7 and 5 year old.