"Plus, if we flunk out half the student body and drive the university into bankruptcy, all we’re doing is depriving the good students of an education."
There is an overabundance of Colleges and Universities. Some of them need to go bankrupt and quit siphoning away societal wealth and wasting it on useless degrees that create or explore nothing. Higher education costs a fortune because there IS a fortune there awaiting exploitation with very little risk to an institutions bottom line from providing education in a crap field, or for individuals that have no propensity or desire to pursue what they're studying as a passion.
"Good Students" aren't getting a quality return on their investment by being saddled with the costs created by a system that is grossly inflated by millions of phone zombies and professors whose time and efforts are diluted by dealing with them.
The first thing to correct education is to make debt incurred for a degree dischargeable in bankruptcy again. Following that, when providing an education actually entails a degree of risk, the loan interest rate and amount should be predicated on the degree sought and average wage/salary in the associated job market.
That's going to be a demolition crew level job there. The special interests, hand wringers... Well, actually it's probably going to have to be parents extracting their children out of the system and individually or in groups creating their own means/methods. And that's subsequently depending on the parents themselves having a clue and functional knowledge base, or someone to look to with that.
And... How is the concept of deferred gratification going to be instilled into children? You can, if you are grounded in that deferral, make it to stable and successful self-sufficiency on an extremely low wage (like minimum, but most folks that have that type of outlook don't stay there long) but is that ever a target for marketing and consumerism propaganda!
Axe: Longtime readers know my answer: teach them to be critical thinkers. For example, a critically thinking person will appreciate the value of deferred rewards, etc.
However, ZERO states are teaching Critical Thinking. Making this ONE change would profoundly benefit everyone.
Well stated assessment of current education. I just saw a post saying that Melania T is starting a group: First Lady Melania Trump on Tuesday launched the inaugural summit of her Fostering the Future Together global coalition, convening leaders from 45 nations and representatives from leading technology companies to expand children’s access to education and technology while strengthening online safety protections.
Perhaps she would be interested in your 2 cents about how to correct education in America for America's sake.
This is easily the most dismaying and perturbing thing I’ve read about our current crop of college students. I feel that I don’t have any relevant experience with which to compare: during my educational lifetime (in England and the US), the predominant environment was that we all—schoolboys, college kids—knew we were there to learn and most of the time wanted to do so and to do well on tests etc. Those who were not so motivated were few and far between.
I’m certainly glad I was never motivated to become an educator myself for I’m sure I’d have found this kind of environment intolerable.
Oh well, another reason to be grateful for my life experience!
Can society be led, or incentivized toward that objective? The great weeping and gnashing of teeth from both students and parents will be profound.
In the early decades of the 20th century there were high schools where students (9th to 12th grade) had to learn to conceptualize, layout and produce ALL of the components of a functioning 4 stroke engine and build/run it as a part of their requirement for graduation.
My maternal Grandfather got to around 10th grade, went off to an apprenticeship program and became a Millwright. I'd easily in retrospect consider him at a MS or PhD level in hands on mechanical engineering. I work with "STEM" derived folks now that can't change a tire, install a spark plug, or noodle through a simple tool or mechanical device repair.
Right now most institutionally sponsored K-12 education appears to be oriented towards insulating children from any physical or emotional risk while preparing them to be debt enslaved mindless consumers. The future will have opportunity, but it's going to be opportunity taken advantage of by students that have a bedrock of financial and skill base knowledge able to forge their paths outside of the environment of the Net and Smartphone wasteland.
Axe: As I wrote above, having K-12 students formally be taught to be Critical Thinkers would have extraordinary benefits to them, theirs families, their teachers, and out society.
I believe every word he wrote. In early 2000s, I went back to finish my degree. I had to be part of a group paper. One person submitted his part and it was from The Onion. I didn't know what The Onion was back then, but I could read the satire. He missed it completely and I told him it would not be included. Another member checked in, but never submitted anything. So, then I saw what college had become. I can imagine trying to get them to read Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzche, etc. People coming from homes without a religious bone in their bodies, will not even know what questions these men were trying to answer. This generation has been told everything is an existential threat and they don't even know what that means.
John, I could have written the exact same essay except from a science point of view. I have noticed, especially sine the Covid debacle that many, not all, students have gotten much less curious about the word in general. Unlike the author I do put a lot of the blame on K-12. 30 year ago went I stated teaching at the university level all my students have physics and calculus before coming to my class but now almost none have. Plus, having tortured several high school teachers trying to transition to a science curriculum, I noticed that the teachers themselves are not nearly as up to speed in their areas as thy should be. Very depressing.
Brings back memories of High School English class in 1975. Required class. A charade. I knew I was being treated as an idiot by holier persons (teachers) who chose Academia as their vocation. I had already chosen Computers as my future vocation. A got an "A" as usual, but graduated High School with near contempt for the education establishment that destroyed the Vocational Schools in favor of pushing everyone toward College. All for the benefit of the government-funded education business, at the expense of children in their most energetic years.
The "adults" have only themselves to blame for children who couldn't care less about the adults who couldn't care less about the children.
DD: Not sure which adults you are speaking about. My 2¢ is that this is all being done on purpose by the Left, as they hate America. If enough students are "stupefied" America will soon fall.
I'm speaking of the people who infested the school board, who decided to delete vocational schools from the community I lived in the Pittsburgh suburbs. Harming most boys' chance for a productive future. For what?
I’m curious as to what you believe is the answer to this issue, John? I know that if you look back at tests given to students 100 years ago they were so difficult compared to what was expected of us in the 60’s and 70’s. Is this a new phenomenon or something in education that’s been trending downward for decades?
Penny: The curricula in K-12 education has been taken over by progressives/ socialists/ Marxists, so it has been trending downward for decades.
For example, in K-12 Science (NGSS) children are taught to defer to authority, to go along with what is politically correct, to accept consensus views, to buy into computer projections, etc. All of these are the OPPOSITE of Critical Thinking.
When these children show up for college they: 1) are fully indoctrinated with progressive ideology, and 2) have been intensively trained to be conformists.
The simplest answer is to formally teach K-12 students to be Critical Thinkers. We have now written the first ever Standards for doing that.
Yes, Sir, I am aware of the progressive/socialists/Marxists takeover of education, but I thought maybe it was more than just that which had caused our education system to be in decline. I don't know the cause, but I wonder if there are other contributing factors. I was fortunate in that I went to a small K-12 school in Louisiana where we had excellent teachers who were definitely not woke in my opinion. But I do know that much of what I learned was memorizing facts rather than being taught critical thinking skills. I graduated from a relatively small university in Louisiana with an accounting degree and again I don't recall any type of indoctrination towards liberal views, thank God! I've just seen some of the old tests that children had to learn and it made me wonder what changed. Are we not as smart as our ancestors? But what is happening now in education is an altogether different kind of problem, and I am with you 100% that things need to drastically change. The indoctrination is sickening and wholly un-American!
Oh, please don't misunderstand me, I completely agree with you that that is an enormous matter!!! I didn't mean to imply that I was discounting this horrific problem!
This is so absolutely true. And its initiation clues were there 40 to 50 years ago. ... And there was a time when students were embarrassed by their failures to understand. ... And there was a time when students came to school neatly dressed - indicating their (and their parents') desire for them to be alert and ready - and when their teachers didn't come to school wearing their "I'm your buddy" clothes.
I think clothing needs much more attention in any discussions about reforming the schools. Sixty years ago I and my fellow workers wore ties and dress pants, with lab coats when necessary. And when I came home I changed my clothes because it automatically changed my attitude. But when management gave us (imposed on us) portable laptops, the home experience was immediately corrupted. ... It also needs to be emphasized that the unions should not dictate to the system. Better teachers should receive raises, even at the expense of all the other teachers. ... bandglynch@gmail.com
Of course, but attitude and motivation are dominant.
With a bad attitude, one won't even notice if the curriculum is actually excellent.
The system deserves the most blame; the politicians and the political administrators deserve the next level because they use false metrics and spill out lies; the parents deserve the next level of blame (much more so than the teachers); the unions introduce the next level of blame since they absolutely are at odds with the principles of TEACHING; and, finally, probably less than half the teachers deserve blame, and that is because any extra effort they exert comes with no reward but only with feelings of futility.
I was a military instructor for a few years and the classes were large, but "control" was easy. I found that full submissiveness was not a good sign of progress being made; one student jokester was good because everyone seemed to stay alert. Two "trouble-makers" was even better, but three (or more - which never happens in these schools) brings others into a competitive game of disruption. Yet, the lack of home-learned discipline and politeness destroys too many classrooms in today's public schools.
I'm just saying it's not just Critical Thinking that will save the day. ... Bill Lynch
Bill: I'm not saying that "only" critical thinking will save the day, rather that it is the most important first step that must be taken. For example, if students are genuine Critical Thinkers, they will behave better. Etc. etc.
Having taught graduate and undergraduate courses at a Division I University for 30 years I can only say amen! Students treat the classroom as optional. I make them put their phones away but they still sneak a look at them under the desk when they think I am not looking. What is it with those that go missing? I try to contact them by phone, email, text only to get no response. Then they suddenly turn up on finals week, or worse yet the day before grades are due, and wonder what they need to do to pass! The excuse - "I am at a bad place in my life right now. My friends boyfriend left her". Have we raised such fragile flowers that just a puff of wind blows them away? Where are the parents? You have a responsibility for this life you created! Discipline is an act of love. Allowing anything and everything is an act of indifference which is worse than hate.
A great perspective. School and college are not what we remember if our experience was 30 or more years ago. Easy loan money and the slippery slope of ever-lowering standards (cough ... DEI) have on ongoing eroding effect. Education is a check-box to be "gotten through" - at best - for the piece of paper it confers, increasingly having no value as an indicator of anything. It is cliche, but when you don't pay, you don't pay attention. Student loans and grants need to become much harder to get, and ought to have a requirement of being in the upper 20% of the CLT (just dump the ACT and SAT as no longer being a useful measure of anything). If some (many) colleges and universities go down in a ball of financial flames, so be it. Make education a revered privilege again.
Christopher: I remember when I went to college there there was a difference between those students who paid everything (like I did) and those whose parents paid...
Our children are being dumbed down, but are we at fault or is it by design? Food, fluoride, distractions?
I feel it in my own brain. True, I do not read like I used to. I can still comprehend well but have lost my zest to do so. I will pick up my books Rape of the Mind, The Judas Goats, and Creature from Jeckle Island to read ASAP. It's depressing, but reality. 1984 isn't so far fetched.
I taught elementary since 1995 only to stop 4 years for each of my 3 children. I left for good in 2020 over the mandates. Teaching was joyful until it became very stressful and the pay was not worth what was expected. Teachers are not prepared for the job nor are they paid enough so they get what they create and pay for. The system is bloated and wasteful. They could invest in better teachers if they wanted.
I taught in private schools, public, and charter. A couple served low income children and the rest served average to higher income children. The difference was vast... teachers, admin, equipment, parents, behavior...
The most successful schools had effective leaders (does anyone have leadership skills anymore?) and challenged the teachers as well as the students.
The worst ones allowed the teachers to wear flip flops and I can only imagine how lazy they were in the classroom.
I noticed when the parents valued education, the students cared and put forth effort, but when they didn't, the students were apathetic and did what they could to get by.
Schools test them constantly for state funding purposes which is exhausting although testing is good to measure progress to adjust your teaching. Poor schools have little support. If a child is hungry or living in a horrid situation, how can we expect them to focus on learning? Why blame the school when the majority of students are living in poverty and difficult conditions that affect their ability to learn? They respond by giving those schools LESS money. Is it motivation or punishment? These particular schools need so much more everything because they did not start out on the same level. These kids depend on the food 2x a day, but the food is garbage and minimizes brain function. Meanwhile, the root of the problem festers....
I did my best making sure they felt valued and school a place to enjoy learning. Every day I greeted them and said positive things to each child entering the room to set the tone of the day on a positive note. This also helped me gage their needs and feelings that day.
I also noticed when common core standards rolled out, that is when students began really struggling. I taught 3rd grade when they must learn multiplication but the curriculum ensured they wouldn't grasp it so I used my own. How could they do decimals and fractions without knowing numbers? Before CC, they could count by multiples and even prime numbers and understood squares at 8yo. Common core decimated math, but also reading. Phonics was thrown in with no rhyme or reason. Kids struggling to read need phonics that include prefixes and suffixes to comprehend larger words. How could we teach this ridiculous curriculum when these children have no foundational knowledge to build on? Now, throw in the many kids with autism today that they caused, and imagine what that does to a room full of kids.
The failing system is by design.
Not all kids are college material, but they hard push all of them to go. Many do not want to be there or become debt slaves because of it.
College is not for everyone and we need more plumbers, electricians, and wood workers. If they don't go to college the armed forces hunt them down promising greatness and unity. I do not want my children to be cannon fodder for profit or some other country's crimes.
I am an optimistic person, and what I wrote may seem cynical, but this is reality.
Our society has shifted and we had no control in stopping it. Like I wrote, it is by design.
I don't have any solutions other than we need God.
On a positive note, nature is the best way to enjoy life.
I'm going to rant now because it makes me feel better. 😆
Society has to change where parents raise their children and not a daycare at 6wks old or in broken homes. They purposely destroyed the family unit. Phones, wifi, TV, and music are polluting us, even the water dumbs us down. What is happening is not organic nor is it progress.
The middle class is evaporating and can't afford to buy a home on a teacher's salary.
This system was set up to educate how they see fit and not for our benefit. Schools resemble jails rather than beautiful learning places for children to learn and grow.
Shouldn't the students grow gardens and food, play an instrument or maybe care for animals? Learn to be healthy and exercise? Be a part of something that benefits others? Is it too late and society so far gone with broken families and values? In some areas it is very bleak. TV and phones are teaching our children to become self absorbed idiots who enjoy dark magical arts and hedonistic sexuality.
Critical thinking will help, but will the system change or tolerate being questioned? It is what they say it is.
Meanwhile, science is questioning and always changing but their science is not to be questioned. I experienced that with the mask BS.
Much of what we have been taught is a lie. I am not a great critical thinker, but I question things. The last year I taught was 5th grade science and we, like most 5th grades, went to the Kennedy Space Center.
At that point I was a skeptic but, like most people, just accepted their vidoes, pictures, calculations, and explanations as proof. I didn't really understand it so who am I to question? However, after looking into the moon landing and more, it seems more likely we never went anywhere. The sun and moon seem to be in our atmosphere but am I just a crazy fool since that science is settled? I just have to trust the science but it seems wrong.
Critically thinking, I wondered about simple questions. How could we have gone to the moon in a 6th grade science project looking contraption, gone through the radiation belt, spoke to the president on a landline with no time delay, rode around in a dune buggy that somehow fit into the capsule, was able to carry enough fuel to get to the moon and return to earth alive? It makes no sense like so many things. Ignore the man behind the curtain and don't ask stupid simpleton questions!!! Its because blah blah blah.
In 2023, my youngest was a senior. Prior to her junior year, she went to a private school that taught classical education. It was mostly wonderful but she wanted to dual enroll for a local tech school rather than college. It was then I SAW the public HS texts and the horrid fearmongering place it became within 10 years... Metal detectors and leave your purse in the car for events.... I hate it. It protects nothing, but it does instill fear.
Sidebar... I once wrote an essay called "I'd Rather Be A Bus Driver" about the teaching profession and left it in the lounge. It raised some brows and I probably would have been in trouble if they knew who wrote it.
Anyway, the seniors were literally taught to pay their taxes and play the stock market (gambling with cheaters IMO) which was half their grade in economics. Civics breezed over the Bill of Rights and Constitution and focused on the history, rather than importance. Even the literature had occultic stories like the story 1666 The Year My House Burned Down that showed pics of weird artifacts, a globe, a skull, etc that the students were asked why these treasures were important to the author. What? There was also hidden racism. There was a story called The Back of A Turtle or something similar where there were 2 brothers that were good and evil. The one brother was good and created beautiful animals and the "dark skinned" brother created animals that ate the animals his brother created. He also ruled the night and enjoyed the suffering of mankind. They made him DARK skinned, so I was curious and looked up several other versions of the same story and the only version that specified skin color was this HS text book! It was way worse than I can explain here. The questions about the story made the students compare the brothers. It made me angry so I emailed the school board with pictures. Their reply was that I would be investigated for copyright infringement. Disgusting. This was Broward County Florida.
Education has ensured we don't know what our rights are, if they even exist.
Ai source...
"The Declaration of Independence (1776) establishes the right to "throw off" a government that violates unalienable rights through a long train of abuses. It frames this duty as a response to absolute despotism, justifying the dissolution of political ties. The Bill of Rights serves to protect citizens from such overreach by restraining federal power."
Such government are guaranteed safe because we fight amongst ourselves, have no idea about rights, and are too sick, tired, or distracted to do anything.
God bless and thanks for reading if you made it to the end of this angry mom's rant.
Sure, but perhaps they will be happy and fulfilled citizens as plumbers or electricians rather than teachers and doctors. Decades ago I had a friend who worded in the Admission office at UTDallas and they had minority applicants who were admitted with low SAT scores. The thought process was that they would find their footing and thrive. The opposite would happen. They would be unable to complete the coursework, they felt stupid and dropped out. Who knows what the ramifications of “not making it” had on their lives? My friend concluded that giving people a leg up when undeserved by merit was not charitable. There is nothing wrong with going into the trades and in fact it should be encouraged
Emanuela: Maybe you missed the point of the article. It is NOT about students who are not suitable for college. There your points are valid.
However, this article is about about the reality that 95% of US students graduating from K-12 are not only indoctrinated with progressive/ socialist/ Marxist ideology, but they have been trained to be unthinking lemmings.
Failing that from college is NOT addressing this disastrous situation.
But wait, isn’t the entire enterprise of public education based on a collectivistic or socialistic theory of the “public good?” Suppose, for example, that the state did not provide or even require education. Suppose that it was up to each individual parent (representing the interests of their children) or each individual adult (pursuing higher educational achievement) to choose what to study and how much to pay from their own pocket. Under such an arrangement, it’s not hard to imagine that there would be very few students who would be careless with their investment. All manner of public education, including subsidized higher education, has made it too easy for millions to squander a resource because the resource that they’re squandering is ultimately OPM. Moreover, the numbers and types of degrees available has gotten completely out of balance with the natural demands of the market. This is a classic consequence of socialistic central planning that we see over and over and over again. Electric car, anyone?
Not every parent is equipped to teach their own kids, not every parent has the time or the resources. Public education is a great and good thing. The idea is to improve on it. Lowering the standards at any stage is not a good thing IMO. I made sure my child could read and write early on but I sent her to public school. When the teacher told students that spelling was not important I complained. I complained again when the teacher decided that kids didn’t need to know multiplication tables. Both times the teacher agreed with my requests. And I didn’t do it so much for my own child but for everyone else’s because I realize that these are my child’s peers and one day she will hopefully marry and young man who has been properly educated. Then I put my child in private school and I still feel the need to make sure public school kids get a good education because of the same principle I wrote above. I think lowering standards and watering down curriculum is a great disservice and a fraud to our children
Stephen: A good education is beneficial to both eht individual and society... There is no way that most parents could educate their own children. They do not have the time or capability to do that.
Oh no. I think we agree. The left has succeeded in leveling the masses downwards. And yes, we can point to iPhones and TikTok but the lack of standards and the watering down of curriculum is the issue. When I was growing up I loved reading comics and books. I loved sketching and painting. I still clocked in every day to do my brave Latin and Greek translations and math and biology chemistry and physics and philosophy and literature history etc etc.
If I may; 80 years ago when I started school because my mother taught and I was a rotten little kid that disagreed with the hired girl, the interesting students were the grade 8s who were getting their completion certificates. They were ready to be productive adults, mentally competent to reason from evidence and become full citizens because they were provably rational.
Mental health was less a problem when everyone knew the parameters.
There was much less belief in magic and miracles when sanity was a prerequisite for graduating high school.
And as the American experiment showed, a rational outlook was infinitely superior to any ideological belief.
Canada is trapped into believing in elite competence instead of rational governance…..please keep the US sane
I recently listened to a podcast by a Gen Xer. Their world seemed pretty grim. The world of college students today is worse. I went to a private grade school and high school in New York State in the 1950s. Despite problems typical at that time, I remain impressed with the quality and dedication of the religious teachers. However, the Catholic "system" could have done better in teaching world religions, history, and literature. John Droz and Hilarius Bookbinder have done us a service in posting this article.
This process all starts with the parents. Are parents reading to their little ones at bedtime anymore? Are books a part of a child's life, or is it all electronics? Are there any lively discussions around the supper table? Do families even eat together anymore? Most kids aren't physically fit, and if they had to take the Presidential Fitness Test today, the one that we used to have to take every year, they'd flunk. Most of these kids graduate not knowing, or caring to know, how to read or write and most have never held a job. They live in "smart homes" that turn on the room lights or media when commanded. AI is their new brain. Soon humans won't even know how to turn on lights or open doors. Will they be able to compete for jobs against kids from other nations that take education seriously? Of course not. Teachers can't teach anything if education isn't taken seriously, as that college professor so painfully conveyed in his post. A classical education should be the corner post of every child's learning years, but how do we get the parents to wake up and start parenting again? The seeds of critical thinking are sown long before first grade. Parents have to step up to the plate and participate in their child's education. It's entirely possible that AI, and "smartphone scrolling" addiction, will be the end of humanity as we know it.
Nadia: Indeed parents are an integrsal part of putting a child on the right path — and then being there with help and encouragement when they inevitably drift off it...
It’s so disturbing on so many levels. Thank goodness for classical education. At least we’ll have some leaders that are attached to reality, can think deeply and lead effectively.
MTOW: Yes, but Classical education in K-12 and college is less than 5%. That means that 95% of citizens will be deficient... unless we do something about this NOW.
Agreed. The situation is dire…abolishing the Department of Education and eradicating Teachers’ Unions would be a good start. Removing all things non-academic related from schools is another. Raising the bar for academic excellence and expectations beginning in kindergarten is another. Back to basics. All of this will require the re-education of the k-12 workforce…so why not abolish teacher certification while we’re at it and hire people committed to teaching, who actually LIKE kids, and are subject matter experts? So many solutions, so little time…
"Plus, if we flunk out half the student body and drive the university into bankruptcy, all we’re doing is depriving the good students of an education."
There is an overabundance of Colleges and Universities. Some of them need to go bankrupt and quit siphoning away societal wealth and wasting it on useless degrees that create or explore nothing. Higher education costs a fortune because there IS a fortune there awaiting exploitation with very little risk to an institutions bottom line from providing education in a crap field, or for individuals that have no propensity or desire to pursue what they're studying as a passion.
"Good Students" aren't getting a quality return on their investment by being saddled with the costs created by a system that is grossly inflated by millions of phone zombies and professors whose time and efforts are diluted by dealing with them.
The first thing to correct education is to make debt incurred for a degree dischargeable in bankruptcy again. Following that, when providing an education actually entails a degree of risk, the loan interest rate and amount should be predicated on the degree sought and average wage/salary in the associated job market.
Axe: TY for your insights. The FIRST thing to correct education is to fix the inadequate education these kids are getting in K-12...
That's going to be a demolition crew level job there. The special interests, hand wringers... Well, actually it's probably going to have to be parents extracting their children out of the system and individually or in groups creating their own means/methods. And that's subsequently depending on the parents themselves having a clue and functional knowledge base, or someone to look to with that.
And... How is the concept of deferred gratification going to be instilled into children? You can, if you are grounded in that deferral, make it to stable and successful self-sufficiency on an extremely low wage (like minimum, but most folks that have that type of outlook don't stay there long) but is that ever a target for marketing and consumerism propaganda!
Axe: Longtime readers know my answer: teach them to be critical thinkers. For example, a critically thinking person will appreciate the value of deferred rewards, etc.
However, ZERO states are teaching Critical Thinking. Making this ONE change would profoundly benefit everyone.
Well stated assessment of current education. I just saw a post saying that Melania T is starting a group: First Lady Melania Trump on Tuesday launched the inaugural summit of her Fostering the Future Together global coalition, convening leaders from 45 nations and representatives from leading technology companies to expand children’s access to education and technology while strengthening online safety protections.
Perhaps she would be interested in your 2 cents about how to correct education in America for America's sake.
Terry: TY for the support and good suggestion. Anyone have connections with Melania?
This is easily the most dismaying and perturbing thing I’ve read about our current crop of college students. I feel that I don’t have any relevant experience with which to compare: during my educational lifetime (in England and the US), the predominant environment was that we all—schoolboys, college kids—knew we were there to learn and most of the time wanted to do so and to do well on tests etc. Those who were not so motivated were few and far between.
I’m certainly glad I was never motivated to become an educator myself for I’m sure I’d have found this kind of environment intolerable.
Oh well, another reason to be grateful for my life experience!
Hugh: Indeed the message here is dismaying... That said, I have proposed a practical solution — formally teach K-12 studentsato be Critical Thinkers.
Can society be led, or incentivized toward that objective? The great weeping and gnashing of teeth from both students and parents will be profound.
In the early decades of the 20th century there were high schools where students (9th to 12th grade) had to learn to conceptualize, layout and produce ALL of the components of a functioning 4 stroke engine and build/run it as a part of their requirement for graduation.
My maternal Grandfather got to around 10th grade, went off to an apprenticeship program and became a Millwright. I'd easily in retrospect consider him at a MS or PhD level in hands on mechanical engineering. I work with "STEM" derived folks now that can't change a tire, install a spark plug, or noodle through a simple tool or mechanical device repair.
Right now most institutionally sponsored K-12 education appears to be oriented towards insulating children from any physical or emotional risk while preparing them to be debt enslaved mindless consumers. The future will have opportunity, but it's going to be opportunity taken advantage of by students that have a bedrock of financial and skill base knowledge able to forge their paths outside of the environment of the Net and Smartphone wasteland.
Axe: As I wrote above, having K-12 students formally be taught to be Critical Thinkers would have extraordinary benefits to them, theirs families, their teachers, and out society.
I believe every word he wrote. In early 2000s, I went back to finish my degree. I had to be part of a group paper. One person submitted his part and it was from The Onion. I didn't know what The Onion was back then, but I could read the satire. He missed it completely and I told him it would not be included. Another member checked in, but never submitted anything. So, then I saw what college had become. I can imagine trying to get them to read Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzche, etc. People coming from homes without a religious bone in their bodies, will not even know what questions these men were trying to answer. This generation has been told everything is an existential threat and they don't even know what that means.
Linda: Excellent.
John, I could have written the exact same essay except from a science point of view. I have noticed, especially sine the Covid debacle that many, not all, students have gotten much less curious about the word in general. Unlike the author I do put a lot of the blame on K-12. 30 year ago went I stated teaching at the university level all my students have physics and calculus before coming to my class but now almost none have. Plus, having tortured several high school teachers trying to transition to a science curriculum, I noticed that the teachers themselves are not nearly as up to speed in their areas as thy should be. Very depressing.
Stephen: It is indeed depressing! Maybe this piece will inspire you to send me something to post on this topic...
Brings back memories of High School English class in 1975. Required class. A charade. I knew I was being treated as an idiot by holier persons (teachers) who chose Academia as their vocation. I had already chosen Computers as my future vocation. A got an "A" as usual, but graduated High School with near contempt for the education establishment that destroyed the Vocational Schools in favor of pushing everyone toward College. All for the benefit of the government-funded education business, at the expense of children in their most energetic years.
The "adults" have only themselves to blame for children who couldn't care less about the adults who couldn't care less about the children.
DD: Not sure which adults you are speaking about. My 2¢ is that this is all being done on purpose by the Left, as they hate America. If enough students are "stupefied" America will soon fall.
I'm speaking of the people who infested the school board, who decided to delete vocational schools from the community I lived in the Pittsburgh suburbs. Harming most boys' chance for a productive future. For what?
DD: If you are referring to STATE School Boards, you are correct.
I’m curious as to what you believe is the answer to this issue, John? I know that if you look back at tests given to students 100 years ago they were so difficult compared to what was expected of us in the 60’s and 70’s. Is this a new phenomenon or something in education that’s been trending downward for decades?
Penny: The curricula in K-12 education has been taken over by progressives/ socialists/ Marxists, so it has been trending downward for decades.
For example, in K-12 Science (NGSS) children are taught to defer to authority, to go along with what is politically correct, to accept consensus views, to buy into computer projections, etc. All of these are the OPPOSITE of Critical Thinking.
When these children show up for college they: 1) are fully indoctrinated with progressive ideology, and 2) have been intensively trained to be conformists.
The simplest answer is to formally teach K-12 students to be Critical Thinkers. We have now written the first ever Standards for doing that.
Yes, Sir, I am aware of the progressive/socialists/Marxists takeover of education, but I thought maybe it was more than just that which had caused our education system to be in decline. I don't know the cause, but I wonder if there are other contributing factors. I was fortunate in that I went to a small K-12 school in Louisiana where we had excellent teachers who were definitely not woke in my opinion. But I do know that much of what I learned was memorizing facts rather than being taught critical thinking skills. I graduated from a relatively small university in Louisiana with an accounting degree and again I don't recall any type of indoctrination towards liberal views, thank God! I've just seen some of the old tests that children had to learn and it made me wonder what changed. Are we not as smart as our ancestors? But what is happening now in education is an altogether different kind of problem, and I am with you 100% that things need to drastically change. The indoctrination is sickening and wholly un-American!
Penny: Surprised that you say that you thought it "would be more than just progressive/socialists/Marxists takeover of education."
That is an ENORMOUS matter!
Oh, please don't misunderstand me, I completely agree with you that that is an enormous matter!!! I didn't mean to imply that I was discounting this horrific problem!
Penny: TY for the clarification.
This is so absolutely true. And its initiation clues were there 40 to 50 years ago. ... And there was a time when students were embarrassed by their failures to understand. ... And there was a time when students came to school neatly dressed - indicating their (and their parents') desire for them to be alert and ready - and when their teachers didn't come to school wearing their "I'm your buddy" clothes.
I think clothing needs much more attention in any discussions about reforming the schools. Sixty years ago I and my fellow workers wore ties and dress pants, with lab coats when necessary. And when I came home I changed my clothes because it automatically changed my attitude. But when management gave us (imposed on us) portable laptops, the home experience was immediately corrupted. ... It also needs to be emphasized that the unions should not dictate to the system. Better teachers should receive raises, even at the expense of all the other teachers. ... bandglynch@gmail.com
William: Agreed that having a good attitude helps. However, if the curricula is corrupt no amount better clothes will be able to fix that.
Of course, but attitude and motivation are dominant.
With a bad attitude, one won't even notice if the curriculum is actually excellent.
The system deserves the most blame; the politicians and the political administrators deserve the next level because they use false metrics and spill out lies; the parents deserve the next level of blame (much more so than the teachers); the unions introduce the next level of blame since they absolutely are at odds with the principles of TEACHING; and, finally, probably less than half the teachers deserve blame, and that is because any extra effort they exert comes with no reward but only with feelings of futility.
I was a military instructor for a few years and the classes were large, but "control" was easy. I found that full submissiveness was not a good sign of progress being made; one student jokester was good because everyone seemed to stay alert. Two "trouble-makers" was even better, but three (or more - which never happens in these schools) brings others into a competitive game of disruption. Yet, the lack of home-learned discipline and politeness destroys too many classrooms in today's public schools.
I'm just saying it's not just Critical Thinking that will save the day. ... Bill Lynch
Bill: I'm not saying that "only" critical thinking will save the day, rather that it is the most important first step that must be taken. For example, if students are genuine Critical Thinkers, they will behave better. Etc. etc.
Having taught graduate and undergraduate courses at a Division I University for 30 years I can only say amen! Students treat the classroom as optional. I make them put their phones away but they still sneak a look at them under the desk when they think I am not looking. What is it with those that go missing? I try to contact them by phone, email, text only to get no response. Then they suddenly turn up on finals week, or worse yet the day before grades are due, and wonder what they need to do to pass! The excuse - "I am at a bad place in my life right now. My friends boyfriend left her". Have we raised such fragile flowers that just a puff of wind blows them away? Where are the parents? You have a responsibility for this life you created! Discipline is an act of love. Allowing anything and everything is an act of indifference which is worse than hate.
Ronnie: THANK YO for that powerful insight. I also ask you to consider writing a piece that I can post here, on this topic.
A great perspective. School and college are not what we remember if our experience was 30 or more years ago. Easy loan money and the slippery slope of ever-lowering standards (cough ... DEI) have on ongoing eroding effect. Education is a check-box to be "gotten through" - at best - for the piece of paper it confers, increasingly having no value as an indicator of anything. It is cliche, but when you don't pay, you don't pay attention. Student loans and grants need to become much harder to get, and ought to have a requirement of being in the upper 20% of the CLT (just dump the ACT and SAT as no longer being a useful measure of anything). If some (many) colleges and universities go down in a ball of financial flames, so be it. Make education a revered privilege again.
Christopher: I remember when I went to college there there was a difference between those students who paid everything (like I did) and those whose parents paid...
Our children are being dumbed down, but are we at fault or is it by design? Food, fluoride, distractions?
I feel it in my own brain. True, I do not read like I used to. I can still comprehend well but have lost my zest to do so. I will pick up my books Rape of the Mind, The Judas Goats, and Creature from Jeckle Island to read ASAP. It's depressing, but reality. 1984 isn't so far fetched.
I taught elementary since 1995 only to stop 4 years for each of my 3 children. I left for good in 2020 over the mandates. Teaching was joyful until it became very stressful and the pay was not worth what was expected. Teachers are not prepared for the job nor are they paid enough so they get what they create and pay for. The system is bloated and wasteful. They could invest in better teachers if they wanted.
I taught in private schools, public, and charter. A couple served low income children and the rest served average to higher income children. The difference was vast... teachers, admin, equipment, parents, behavior...
The most successful schools had effective leaders (does anyone have leadership skills anymore?) and challenged the teachers as well as the students.
The worst ones allowed the teachers to wear flip flops and I can only imagine how lazy they were in the classroom.
I noticed when the parents valued education, the students cared and put forth effort, but when they didn't, the students were apathetic and did what they could to get by.
Schools test them constantly for state funding purposes which is exhausting although testing is good to measure progress to adjust your teaching. Poor schools have little support. If a child is hungry or living in a horrid situation, how can we expect them to focus on learning? Why blame the school when the majority of students are living in poverty and difficult conditions that affect their ability to learn? They respond by giving those schools LESS money. Is it motivation or punishment? These particular schools need so much more everything because they did not start out on the same level. These kids depend on the food 2x a day, but the food is garbage and minimizes brain function. Meanwhile, the root of the problem festers....
I did my best making sure they felt valued and school a place to enjoy learning. Every day I greeted them and said positive things to each child entering the room to set the tone of the day on a positive note. This also helped me gage their needs and feelings that day.
I also noticed when common core standards rolled out, that is when students began really struggling. I taught 3rd grade when they must learn multiplication but the curriculum ensured they wouldn't grasp it so I used my own. How could they do decimals and fractions without knowing numbers? Before CC, they could count by multiples and even prime numbers and understood squares at 8yo. Common core decimated math, but also reading. Phonics was thrown in with no rhyme or reason. Kids struggling to read need phonics that include prefixes and suffixes to comprehend larger words. How could we teach this ridiculous curriculum when these children have no foundational knowledge to build on? Now, throw in the many kids with autism today that they caused, and imagine what that does to a room full of kids.
The failing system is by design.
Not all kids are college material, but they hard push all of them to go. Many do not want to be there or become debt slaves because of it.
College is not for everyone and we need more plumbers, electricians, and wood workers. If they don't go to college the armed forces hunt them down promising greatness and unity. I do not want my children to be cannon fodder for profit or some other country's crimes.
I am an optimistic person, and what I wrote may seem cynical, but this is reality.
Our society has shifted and we had no control in stopping it. Like I wrote, it is by design.
God bless and help us.
Dawn: TY for your extensive comments. Please consider writing a column about your experiences, focusing on the Critical Thinking aspect...
I don't have any solutions other than we need God.
On a positive note, nature is the best way to enjoy life.
I'm going to rant now because it makes me feel better. 😆
Society has to change where parents raise their children and not a daycare at 6wks old or in broken homes. They purposely destroyed the family unit. Phones, wifi, TV, and music are polluting us, even the water dumbs us down. What is happening is not organic nor is it progress.
The middle class is evaporating and can't afford to buy a home on a teacher's salary.
This system was set up to educate how they see fit and not for our benefit. Schools resemble jails rather than beautiful learning places for children to learn and grow.
Shouldn't the students grow gardens and food, play an instrument or maybe care for animals? Learn to be healthy and exercise? Be a part of something that benefits others? Is it too late and society so far gone with broken families and values? In some areas it is very bleak. TV and phones are teaching our children to become self absorbed idiots who enjoy dark magical arts and hedonistic sexuality.
Critical thinking will help, but will the system change or tolerate being questioned? It is what they say it is.
Meanwhile, science is questioning and always changing but their science is not to be questioned. I experienced that with the mask BS.
Much of what we have been taught is a lie. I am not a great critical thinker, but I question things. The last year I taught was 5th grade science and we, like most 5th grades, went to the Kennedy Space Center.
At that point I was a skeptic but, like most people, just accepted their vidoes, pictures, calculations, and explanations as proof. I didn't really understand it so who am I to question? However, after looking into the moon landing and more, it seems more likely we never went anywhere. The sun and moon seem to be in our atmosphere but am I just a crazy fool since that science is settled? I just have to trust the science but it seems wrong.
Critically thinking, I wondered about simple questions. How could we have gone to the moon in a 6th grade science project looking contraption, gone through the radiation belt, spoke to the president on a landline with no time delay, rode around in a dune buggy that somehow fit into the capsule, was able to carry enough fuel to get to the moon and return to earth alive? It makes no sense like so many things. Ignore the man behind the curtain and don't ask stupid simpleton questions!!! Its because blah blah blah.
In 2023, my youngest was a senior. Prior to her junior year, she went to a private school that taught classical education. It was mostly wonderful but she wanted to dual enroll for a local tech school rather than college. It was then I SAW the public HS texts and the horrid fearmongering place it became within 10 years... Metal detectors and leave your purse in the car for events.... I hate it. It protects nothing, but it does instill fear.
Sidebar... I once wrote an essay called "I'd Rather Be A Bus Driver" about the teaching profession and left it in the lounge. It raised some brows and I probably would have been in trouble if they knew who wrote it.
Anyway, the seniors were literally taught to pay their taxes and play the stock market (gambling with cheaters IMO) which was half their grade in economics. Civics breezed over the Bill of Rights and Constitution and focused on the history, rather than importance. Even the literature had occultic stories like the story 1666 The Year My House Burned Down that showed pics of weird artifacts, a globe, a skull, etc that the students were asked why these treasures were important to the author. What? There was also hidden racism. There was a story called The Back of A Turtle or something similar where there were 2 brothers that were good and evil. The one brother was good and created beautiful animals and the "dark skinned" brother created animals that ate the animals his brother created. He also ruled the night and enjoyed the suffering of mankind. They made him DARK skinned, so I was curious and looked up several other versions of the same story and the only version that specified skin color was this HS text book! It was way worse than I can explain here. The questions about the story made the students compare the brothers. It made me angry so I emailed the school board with pictures. Their reply was that I would be investigated for copyright infringement. Disgusting. This was Broward County Florida.
Education has ensured we don't know what our rights are, if they even exist.
Ai source...
"The Declaration of Independence (1776) establishes the right to "throw off" a government that violates unalienable rights through a long train of abuses. It frames this duty as a response to absolute despotism, justifying the dissolution of political ties. The Bill of Rights serves to protect citizens from such overreach by restraining federal power."
Such government are guaranteed safe because we fight amongst ourselves, have no idea about rights, and are too sick, tired, or distracted to do anything.
God bless and thanks for reading if you made it to the end of this angry mom's rant.
College is not for everyone. Fail them. Don’t fail them upwards. Fail them.
Emanuela: Yes, but that doesn't solve the real problem. Those failed students become parents, employees, legislators, voting citizens, etc.
Sure, but perhaps they will be happy and fulfilled citizens as plumbers or electricians rather than teachers and doctors. Decades ago I had a friend who worded in the Admission office at UTDallas and they had minority applicants who were admitted with low SAT scores. The thought process was that they would find their footing and thrive. The opposite would happen. They would be unable to complete the coursework, they felt stupid and dropped out. Who knows what the ramifications of “not making it” had on their lives? My friend concluded that giving people a leg up when undeserved by merit was not charitable. There is nothing wrong with going into the trades and in fact it should be encouraged
Emanuela: Maybe you missed the point of the article. It is NOT about students who are not suitable for college. There your points are valid.
However, this article is about about the reality that 95% of US students graduating from K-12 are not only indoctrinated with progressive/ socialist/ Marxist ideology, but they have been trained to be unthinking lemmings.
Failing that from college is NOT addressing this disastrous situation.
But wait, isn’t the entire enterprise of public education based on a collectivistic or socialistic theory of the “public good?” Suppose, for example, that the state did not provide or even require education. Suppose that it was up to each individual parent (representing the interests of their children) or each individual adult (pursuing higher educational achievement) to choose what to study and how much to pay from their own pocket. Under such an arrangement, it’s not hard to imagine that there would be very few students who would be careless with their investment. All manner of public education, including subsidized higher education, has made it too easy for millions to squander a resource because the resource that they’re squandering is ultimately OPM. Moreover, the numbers and types of degrees available has gotten completely out of balance with the natural demands of the market. This is a classic consequence of socialistic central planning that we see over and over and over again. Electric car, anyone?
Not every parent is equipped to teach their own kids, not every parent has the time or the resources. Public education is a great and good thing. The idea is to improve on it. Lowering the standards at any stage is not a good thing IMO. I made sure my child could read and write early on but I sent her to public school. When the teacher told students that spelling was not important I complained. I complained again when the teacher decided that kids didn’t need to know multiplication tables. Both times the teacher agreed with my requests. And I didn’t do it so much for my own child but for everyone else’s because I realize that these are my child’s peers and one day she will hopefully marry and young man who has been properly educated. Then I put my child in private school and I still feel the need to make sure public school kids get a good education because of the same principle I wrote above. I think lowering standards and watering down curriculum is a great disservice and a fraud to our children
Emanuela: Agreed on all points. Very important to closely monitor what you child is being taught...
Stephen: A good education is beneficial to both eht individual and society... There is no way that most parents could educate their own children. They do not have the time or capability to do that.
Oh no. I think we agree. The left has succeeded in leveling the masses downwards. And yes, we can point to iPhones and TikTok but the lack of standards and the watering down of curriculum is the issue. When I was growing up I loved reading comics and books. I loved sketching and painting. I still clocked in every day to do my brave Latin and Greek translations and math and biology chemistry and physics and philosophy and literature history etc etc.
If I may; 80 years ago when I started school because my mother taught and I was a rotten little kid that disagreed with the hired girl, the interesting students were the grade 8s who were getting their completion certificates. They were ready to be productive adults, mentally competent to reason from evidence and become full citizens because they were provably rational.
Mental health was less a problem when everyone knew the parameters.
There was much less belief in magic and miracles when sanity was a prerequisite for graduating high school.
And as the American experiment showed, a rational outlook was infinitely superior to any ideological belief.
Canada is trapped into believing in elite competence instead of rational governance…..please keep the US sane
I recently listened to a podcast by a Gen Xer. Their world seemed pretty grim. The world of college students today is worse. I went to a private grade school and high school in New York State in the 1950s. Despite problems typical at that time, I remain impressed with the quality and dedication of the religious teachers. However, the Catholic "system" could have done better in teaching world religions, history, and literature. John Droz and Hilarius Bookbinder have done us a service in posting this article.
John, who hosted the podcast? Inquiring minds…would love to give it a listen.
Sorry, I don't have the podcast from the Gen xer. My son in Europe has it. We listened to it in his car as we drove from Switzerland to Germany.
Here are the two links to the original posting by Hilarius Bookbinder and John Droz
Read the source document here.
https://hilariusbookbinder.substack.com/
Read a repost by John Droz here.
https://criticallythinking.substack.com/p/the-average-college-student-today
This process all starts with the parents. Are parents reading to their little ones at bedtime anymore? Are books a part of a child's life, or is it all electronics? Are there any lively discussions around the supper table? Do families even eat together anymore? Most kids aren't physically fit, and if they had to take the Presidential Fitness Test today, the one that we used to have to take every year, they'd flunk. Most of these kids graduate not knowing, or caring to know, how to read or write and most have never held a job. They live in "smart homes" that turn on the room lights or media when commanded. AI is their new brain. Soon humans won't even know how to turn on lights or open doors. Will they be able to compete for jobs against kids from other nations that take education seriously? Of course not. Teachers can't teach anything if education isn't taken seriously, as that college professor so painfully conveyed in his post. A classical education should be the corner post of every child's learning years, but how do we get the parents to wake up and start parenting again? The seeds of critical thinking are sown long before first grade. Parents have to step up to the plate and participate in their child's education. It's entirely possible that AI, and "smartphone scrolling" addiction, will be the end of humanity as we know it.
Nadia: Indeed parents are an integrsal part of putting a child on the right path — and then being there with help and encouragement when they inevitably drift off it...
John,
Please do your diligence and spell basic words correctly. Spell checker not working? Really..., "Propfessor"?
Fred: TY for pointing out that egregious error. It was spell checked but that was not part of the body of text.
It’s so disturbing on so many levels. Thank goodness for classical education. At least we’ll have some leaders that are attached to reality, can think deeply and lead effectively.
MTOW: Yes, but Classical education in K-12 and college is less than 5%. That means that 95% of citizens will be deficient... unless we do something about this NOW.
Agreed. The situation is dire…abolishing the Department of Education and eradicating Teachers’ Unions would be a good start. Removing all things non-academic related from schools is another. Raising the bar for academic excellence and expectations beginning in kindergarten is another. Back to basics. All of this will require the re-education of the k-12 workforce…so why not abolish teacher certification while we’re at it and hire people committed to teaching, who actually LIKE kids, and are subject matter experts? So many solutions, so little time…
MTOW: PLease read my prior commentaries about the DOEd. They are a TINY factor in this disaster — but could be a MAJOR asset.