Opinion: America's Kids are Dumb

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:52 am

April 22, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist

Clueless in America

By BOB HERBERT

We don’t hear a great deal about education in the presidential campaign. It’s much too serious a topic to compete with such fun stuff as Hillary tossing back a shot of whiskey, or Barack rolling a gutter ball.

The nation’s future may depend on how well we educate the current and future generations, but (like the renovation of the nation’s infrastructure, or a serious search for better sources of energy) that can wait. At the moment, no one seems to have the will to engage any of the most serious challenges facing the U.S.

An American kid drops out of high school every 26 seconds. That’s more than a million every year, a sign of big trouble for these largely clueless youngsters in an era in which a college education is crucial to maintaining a middle-class quality of life — and for the country as a whole in a world that is becoming more hotly competitive every day.

Ignorance in the United States is not just bliss, it’s widespread. A recent survey of teenagers by the education advocacy group Common Core found that a quarter could not identify Adolf Hitler, a third did not know that the Bill of Rights guaranteed freedom of speech and religion, and fewer than half knew that the Civil War took place between 1850 and 1900.

“We have one of the highest dropout rates in the industrialized world, said Allan Golston, the president of U.S. programs for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In a discussion over lunch recently he described the situation as “actually pretty scary, alarming.

Roughly a third of all American high school students drop out. Another third graduate but are not prepared for the next stage of life — either productive work or some form of post-secondary education.

When two-thirds of all teenagers old enough to graduate from high school are incapable of mastering college-level work, the nation is doing something awfully wrong.

Mr. Golston noted that the performance of American students, when compared with their peers in other countries, tends to grow increasingly dismal as they move through the higher grades:

“In math and science, for example, our fourth graders are among the top students globally. By roughly eighth grade, they’re in the middle of the pack. And by the 12th grade, U.S. students are scoring generally near the bottom of all industrialized countries.

Many students get a first-rate education in the public schools, but they represent too small a fraction of the whole.

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, offered a brutal critique of the nation’s high schools a few years ago, describing them as “obsolete and saying, “When I compare our high schools with what I see when I’m traveling abroad, I am terrified for our work force of tomorrow.

Said Mr. Gates: “By obsolete, I don’t just mean that they are broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean our high schools — even when they’re working as designed — cannot teach all our students what they need to know today.

The Educational Testing Service, in a report titled “America’s Perfect Storm, cited three powerful forces that are affecting the quality of life for millions of Americans and already shaping the nation’s future. They are:

• The wide disparity in the literacy and math skills of both the school-age and adult populations. These skills, which play such a tremendous role in the lives of individuals and families, vary widely across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups.

• The “seismic changes in the U.S. economy that have resulted from globalization, technological advances, shifts in the relationship of labor and capital, and other developments.

• Sweeping demographic changes. By 2030, the U.S. population is expected to reach 360 million. That population will be older and substantially more diverse, with immigration having a big impact on both the population as a whole and the work force.

These and so many other issues of crucial national importance require an educated populace if they are to be dealt with effectively. At the moment we are not even coming close to equipping the population with the intellectual tools that are needed.

While we’re effectively standing in place, other nations are catching up and passing us when it comes to educational achievement. You have to be pretty dopey not to see the implications of that.

But, then, some of us are pretty dopey. In the Common Core survey, nearly 20 percent of respondents did not know who the U.S. fought in World War II. Eleven percent thought that Dwight Eisenhower was the president forced from office by the Watergate scandal. Another 11 percent thought it was Harry Truman.

We’ve got work to do.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:09 am

Centralized one-size-fits-all big government mandates are not the answer. The LAST thing I want to hear from my president is how the federal government is going to "fix" the education system. We're in enough of a "fix" as it is. Let each state handle things and benchmark off each other.

RedGlitter · Post by **RedGlitter** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:10 am

I agree with that Accountable. Highly.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:20 am

I remember the first time I heard that undergrad college is mainly to teach people how to think. It made me ask what the first 12 years was for?? Kids are empty vessels. We need to take care what we fill them with.

Facts and ettiquette might be enough for the average elementary or middle school student, but we need to have the typical high school grads be competent critical thinkers. They'll take us into the future successfully.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:21 am

rjwould;843654 wrote: Government isn't the problem, its the people. People make up government, and they are of the same mindset as those who are our elected officials. But I'm sure making them state run can't make it any worse. Anything that constitutes change, no matter how small at this point is worth a shot.
Change for change's sake is what keeps getting us in these messes.

mikeinie · Post by **mikeinie** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:37 am

I keep using this guy, but he is brutal at speaking the truth

hoppy · Post by **hoppy** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:46 am

Accountable;843666 wrote: Change for change's sake is what keeps getting us in these messes.

Right on. I remember school from the mid 1940's to the late 1950's. It sure has changed. For example, I had to know where all the states were, on a blank map, plus all the states capitols, before I got to highschool. Today, highschool kids can't name the states bordering their own or often, find their state on a map.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 6:47 am

rjwould;843716 wrote: Couldn't agree more. My point is that giving the states the reins is merely shifting the responsibility. What needs to occur is fundamental change.Responsibility has always lied with the state governments. As I understand it, the fed has relatively recently become involved by making the Dept of Ed. Wasn't that Carter?

rjwould;843716 wrote: I saw a worthwhile piece on tv the other day about High Tech High School.

Its a charter school but can easily be government run.

It doesn't really matter much to me at this point as I don't have a dog in this fight because all 5 of mine are done with the schooling process. However, I may have grandkids some day, so I stay interested. Besides, the dynamics of the American schooling system is very interesting to me.
I've also heard of corporations coming into needy communities and partnering with the schools so that the grads would have the education & training the company needs for a new employee. Sounds like win/win to me.

hoppy · Post by **hoppy** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:06 am

rjwould;843769 wrote: So what! How has that helped you become a better person, a more loving father or community participant? How often does it serve you to know what state sits next to yours.

Don't get me wrong, its good to teach, but the value some place on such a trivial matter is ridicules. Judging our children's intellect based on how well they know the US map is bad judgment.

You overlooked the "for example". That would imply that I had many more examples but only gave one. I can make change correctly, do math with a pencil and paper and even walk and chew gum at the same time.

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:09 am

rjwould;843769 wrote: So what! How has that helped you become a better person, a more loving father or community participant? How often does it serve you to know what state sits next to yours.

Don't get me wrong, its good to teach, but the value some place on such a trivial matter is ridicules. Judging our children's intellect based on how well they know the US map is bad judgment.
Exactly what do you propose to teach them RJ? I see you have crossed geography off the list.

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:19 am

rjwould;843811 wrote: Perhaps you missed the part of my post that states that it is good to teach it. I taught it to my kids, but whether or not they can now repeat it back to me makes not one bit of difference in my life or thiers.

You're smarter than to take my words for more or less than I've stated, YZGI

[quote=rjwould;843769]So what! How has that helped you become a better person, a more loving father or community participant? How often does it serve you to know what state sits next to yours.

Don't get me wrong, its good to teach, but the value some place on such a trivial matter is ridicules. Judging our children's intellect based on how well they know the US map is bad judgment.[/quote]

The way I read it is that you say it is good to teach, I don't see where it says it is good to teach geography. Then you go on and trivialize geography. Where in the original post does it say it is good to teach it? This is my version of repeating back to you, fair enough?

YZGI · Post by **YZGI** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:22 am

rjwould;843830 wrote: [quote=YZGI;843827]My error..
Fair enough..

mikeinie · Post by **mikeinie** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 8:17 am

The curriculum may need to change, but most of all the idea of teaching to the lowest level of capability in this soft, can’t be held responsible, society that has been created needs to change.

Schools get sued for failing pupils?

Wasn’t there another post recently about students beating up a teacher?

It is out of control and there is no discipline in the system, the teachers haven no authority.

People have forgotten that to learn is a privilege not a right. Every time people think that they have ‘a right’ to something, they begin to abuse it. There are countries that would kill to have the access to education that we have in the west, which we squander and take for granted.

The schools need to get tougher, not easier.