A Generational Decline Of American Education
The very disturbing signs of atrocious test results in basic education skills by America’s children are flashing by in the news like any other nickel and dime headline and receding into the borg without a ripple just like all the other nothing burger stories.
At a time when emerging technology, robotics, computer technology, the integration of advanced software, artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation are revolutionizing the workplace, our education system is not-and more importantly-has not kept up and has not been worth the squeeze for at least the entirety of the 21st century (if not longer.)
We see signs of the failure of our education process all around us, but society has set such a low bar from an expectations standpoint-the bigotry of low expectations-that we blithely ignore public displays of ignorance from all ages of humans from the young to the old: most evident in our political leaders, particularly successive generations entering office.
For past generations the saving grace was often common sense: but it ain’t so common anymore. Several recent indicators caught my attention and reminded me of high school. Full disclosure, I was not a big fan of school, saw no value in studying things like history-it was so yesterday-and I had little to no use for any of the class options.
My high school moved away from (50 years ago) classic English classes -whatever that means-and went to a series of options for 11-12th grade. The two I picked for 11th grade were “Reading For People Who Hate To Read” and “The Sports Page:” if I’m lying, I’m dying…
Naturally, I loved (and love) to read-a dozen or more books a week-including at the time my favorite Alfred Hitchcock periodical (weekly in the 1970s?) Reading was like putting my socks on. And I lived for sports-hockey, tennis, baseball, golf, basketball-all of them.
The only reason I did any work at school was to stay eligible to play sports: that was it. To say I did work is akin to describing a day’s activity in terms of waking up, dressing, eating, etc.
Contrast my high school years with seventh grade English. Mr. Edwin Dwyer was a bow tie wearing, effervescent, perennially happy character whose idea of a good teaching session started off with conjugation drills.
For a set period of class time until it was mastered, each student would get the chance to compete. You would be surprised how fast a class of 23 students can go through the conjugation tables and move on to other topics. It was competitive, fun and educational. A decent “time” was under 15 seconds. Ready, go: Present Tense, I am, you are, he, she or it is, we are, you are, they are: Past tense, I was, you were…
To Be, Eight Words Showing Its Various Forms
You need eight words when conjugating the verb to be:
| Form | To Be |
| Infinitive | 1. be |
| Present Tense | 2. am 3. is 4. are |
| Past Tense | 5. was 6. were |
| Past Participle | 7. been |
| Present Participle | 8. being |
Kids today are being taught at even younger ages-when they have not yet learned the English basics-that there is no standard conjugation applicable because you need a decoder key and insight to the proper pronouns to know how to even begin. But I doubt anyone is teaching conjugation like happy teacher and English warrior Mr. Dwyer: so yesterday.
You would think a high school “student” with my attitude would end up a barely functional illiterate (and some editors might argue that statement😊,) but I was fortunate-lucky enough-to join the Army in time to get the GI Bill, serve in a good unit, and have leaders that took an interest in and harassed me into smartening up: thinking.
I often think of CPT Reichart, our Executive Officer, who was still laughing at me as he moved on to graduate school over my response to his interview question about my goals, to which I responded, “what is an example of one?”
CPT Rodriguez and CPT Asura in my second unit were subject matter experts in Soviet Doctrine who taught me a lot. CPT Rod went to graduate school at Yale, CPT Asura to Wharton. All to say, mentors and leaders can be very impactful: both ways.
A series of events and articles continue a trend of dismal results that directly indict our American education system, representing a claxon call to action to address the continuing degradation in student performance at all levels.
This recent NY Post article highlights several issues that expose and epitomize both the root of the problem, as well as the zany cultural response that highlights the challenge for our society coping with the ramifications.
Harvard College enjoys worldwide fame and is an institutional behemoth reference education and influence in government and society. Successive presidential administrations often procure talent from Ivy League Schools to fill posts throughout the government. A Harvard degree will get you a good start in industry or government that can provide momentum for decades.
Harvard recently instituted a remedial basic mathematics curriculum to shore up deficient skills of freshman students. The problem is seemingly straight forward, as the students are clearly deficient in an important basic educational skill and Harvard is taking steps to alleviate the problem.
College level students who lack basic high school level skills indicts the education system that produced them.
Where it becomes a cultural and societal challenge is the fact that many of these truly renowned schools have self-inflicted this problem by ignoring, disregarding or eliminating the heretofore standard testing-like the Scholastic Achievement Test, or American College Test-intended to disclose such issues. From the piece:
The school’s math department is providing a new scaled-back math class for freshmen who are apparently arriving on campus lacking “foundational skills” in high school math basics like geometry and algebra.
Harvard is quick to blame these math gaps on pandemic learning losses — but, in truth, administrators brought this mess on themselves by scrapping standardized testing requirements during the pandemic, all in the name of equity.
Why would a top American college-world renowned, with a sterling reputation in the educational business-scrap a best practice like relying on here-to-fore criterion in the form of SAT and ACT results? More from the above cited article:
Harvard was capitulating to the pressure of those who insisted standardized testing is a vestige of racism and argued that scrapping the process altogether would advance equity.
As 2020 antiracist icon Ibram X. Kendi put it: “We still think there’s something wrong with the kids rather than recognizing there’s something wrong with the tests. Standardized tests have become the most effective racist weapon ever devised to objectively degrade black and brown minds and legally exclude their bodies from prestigious schools.”
But, much like Kendi’s $55 million antiracist center at Boston University turning out to be a bust born out of a pandemic-era moral panic, so too was the case against standardized testing. To Harvard’s credit, the school announced in April last year that it is finally bringing back standardized testing requirements for the class of 2031.
I don’t think any parent thinks there was or is “something wrong with the kids.” Johnny didn’t suddenly lose the ability to learn. Some might observe that it is amazing that school children have been able to learn the letter people’s language and been indoctrinated into woke ideology, yet many can’t read nor do math and science on level.
The bottom-line issue here is a lowering of standards to meet societal quotas that disservice all those involved-not the least of whom the struggling student-but harm to the institute reputation, the Alumni and all those downstream, should the student struggle through and gain the coveted degree.
Far more of these students are not making it through at all. The one thing these elite schools offer all students regardless of success or failure, is high cost and hefty debt.
No graduate is going to be bragging about that year spent doing remedial math and other basic courses in the midst of lowered expectations for their degree.
The problem-issues with our education system-is more widespread than you might think. This Townhall article by Guy Benson ‘Mississippi Miracle:’ How a Deep South State Has Dramatically Improved Education and Student Performance presents a good news story but exposes a dreadful contrast in the drive by. From the piece:
Earlier this year, a Fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum summarized the latest data from America’s annual national ‘report card’ on education, warning that math and reading scores represent a “five-alarm fire,” as “America’s public schools are plunging our country into an epidemic of illiteracy and innumeracy.” The starkest result found that “one in every three 8th graders are functionally illiterate,” which should be a national scandal.
Testing results in many big cities-Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago-show that the majority of children are below grade and performance level on all scholastic measures. The below chart is typical but nonetheless shocking and quite a contrast to the chart that follows.
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These data can be difficult to assess when aggregated to a number vice an area by area review. A top-level assessment reveals (from the piece):
“How is Mississippi doing it? How is demographically blessed Oregon botching up so badly? Is there a correlation between how states vote and how well their schools work?”
“The answer to that last question, it seems, is yes. While many Americans were lamenting the national ‘report card’ scores overall, Mississippi officials were celebrating major improvements, including the following:
- Highest-ever rate of students scoring proficient or advanced in all four tests: 4th and 8th grade reading and math
- No. 1 in the nation for achieving highest score increases in 4th grade reading and math since 2013
- No. 9 in the nation for overall 4th grade reading scores and No. 16 for 4th grade math scores (up from No. 49 and No. 50 in 2013)
- Mississippi is one of only 13 states with gains in 4th grade math, which is the only subject and grade nationally that showed statistically significant improvements since 2022”
Meanwhile as referenced above, how did Oregon manage to come in dead last, completing a near total reversal over the last several decades? From the piece:
Worst on the demographically adjusted list is Oregon, which has perhaps the highest percentage of truly Woke crazies in the country. Unadjusted, Oregon outscored the country on 8th grade math by 8 points in 2000, but trailed by 4 points in 2024.
An astounding statement in light of the results includes the following:
Notably, African American, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged Mississippi 4th graders outperform their peers nationally. African American students rank No. 3 in the nation for reading and math scores, Hispanic students rank No. 1 for reading and No. 2 for math, and economically disadvantaged 4th graders rank No. 1 in reading and No. 2 for math.
There is much more to digest from this article. Suffice it to say that the unions and educators can learn a lot from studying the steps Mississippi made to achieve such a turnaround in a relatively short period of time.
These data point to disturbing correlations in many areas, not the least of which concern the seeming ineffectiveness of the teacher’s union, teacher compensation and student performance.
Only in America would we be expected to put up with such dismal student performance in the face of what appears to be continuous incentives in terms of influence and money for the union and the teachers they represent.
It is difficult not to add “at the expense of their students.”
24 April 2025
LSMBTGA: Lamestream media echo chamber (LMEC-L) social media (SM) big tech tyrants (BT,) government (G) and academia (A)
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