The Dumbing Down of America : One Man's Opinion

Did you know that New Mexico is not part of Mexico?

If you are probably over 50, I’m sure you do. However, I know a very intelligent young lady who graduated high school in Hillsborough County with honors, and thanks to our one-size-fits no one education system, she never learned that.

Why? Apparently geography isn’t that important anymore. Any kid can “Google” the question on his android and will instantaneously find the correct answer; not that he will understand the “why” or the “how” but, in our abbreviated information era, what do the details matter? As long as we can keep the cost down … but at what price?

I recently read that “cursive” is now passé and will be done away with as part of the teaching curriculum. Who needs to be able to sign documents when we can scan them in a fraction of a second? What ever happened to the three R’s - reading, writing and arithmetic?  I believe they have joined the whale bone corset and the Dodo bird on the road to extinction.

Our education system is becoming a series of shortcuts and flash without substance. Isn’t it true that the more senses employed in a learning process,
the more effective it becomes? It used to be. Our assembly line, web-based,
programmed education has forgotten the importance of the human touch and
spontaneous interaction that challenges the mind and encourages the thought
process.

In one of the southern states, a teacher and student recently engaged in a lively debate. The student took offense to a comparison of President Obama to President Bush when he was told that he wasn’t allowed to say anything
against President Obama. As their “lively debate” escalated into a shouting
match, the screaming teacher warned the student that he could be jailed for
speaking out against the President. Correct me if I am wrong but didn’t the
Constitution guarantee certain rights of free speech as long as it wasn’t blatantly
slanderous? First Amendment anyone? How many reporters would have been jailed during any one of the Bush administrations?

If this is any indication of the misinformed, biased and opinionated brand of education future generations will have to look forward to, this is a serious case of the inmates running the asylum. It is a travesty. How can teachers be allowed to teach when they don’t even know what they are talking about? The youth subsequently transferred to another school and the teacher was put on administrative leave with pay. How fitting!

We are currently up in arms about the abysmal FCAT scores this year but, never fear, a solution has already been found; instead of correcting the problem, we will be lowering the requirements. If at first you don’t succeed, give up while we find you an easier way.  What is this reinforcing in the minds of our youth? I understand that the governor’s office is investigating how someone dared
to challenge our kids without telling them that there would be more stringent
requirements. Shame on them! It might actually make them have to think and not tweet for a change.

This is not an indictment of the entire education system,just a wakeup call to parents and those with the authority to effect change. For every teacher like the “empty headed southern belle,” there are many more who labor under difficult conditions to bring the spark that lights the imagination of our youth. These are the true unsung heroes who work long hours and often spend as much time babysitting as teaching their classes.

Teaching is not a job, it is a passion. Who would work for those wages?  Ask any true teacher how much of their own funds they spend on behalf of their students for supplies the school administration apparently considers unnecessary. Where are our priorities? It is so ironic that we pay our football players obscene amounts of money to perform “controlled chaos” on the field and a mere pittance, by
comparison, to those who are tasked with shaping our children’s minds. “The
mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

It is not that these children will see the future, they will be the future! We will someday reap what we have sowed. It is not too late! Get involved with your schools. Don’t accept less than the best for your kids. Reject the arrogance that implies that your kids are not good enough so standards will have to be relaxed. This is nothing more that some of administrative hacks wanting to improve their own report cards.

That’s what I think and I could be wrong, but then again, that’s just one man’s opinion. What do you think?