It’s not about readen en riten, it about RACE.
As the author further quipped cynically, “American children came top at thinking they were good at math, but bottom at math.”
Yes, self-esteem is the royal jelly upon which America’s children are raised. Our child-centered, non-hierarchical, collaborative, progressive schooling has produced kids who do not believe they can and should be corrected; and when corrected lash out in anger or bewilderment.
I saw that soon after I started teaching at Armpit College and that was more than 30 years ago.
The worst thing ever to happen to the educational system was the ideology of “student as customer”. Not only did that abolish any semblance of standards in favour of “meeting or exceeding ‘customer’ needs and expectations” but it allowed administrators to shift the responsibility onto those who taught. In a dispute, they always stood behind the student.
My cousin teaches primary children in Ontario. The new directives given to deal with aggressive children are to take the little shit disturber and “walk with them and let them talk it out”, so reward their behaviour with attention. Victim child gets no attention. Little victim now sees that their are rewards for being a shit disturber.
This is grooming kids to be bigger shit disturbers. We are going to have a little army of emboldened shit disturbers coming down the pipe. Any thinking adult can see it. Cousin can see it and pushes back as much as she can.
I laughed in my sister-in-law’s face when she complained about the hooligan children she deals with and asked her why her union isn’t doing something about all the bad behaviour they have to deal with. Well, ummm, ahhh was her reply. Teachers complain about the students, but aren’t too interested in any type of problem solving.
Little victim now sees that their are rewards for being a shit disturber.
I had a few of their older counterparts.
Sometimes they were the ones who were the most vocal in demanding that I be fired. My first department head (a WW II U-boat vet) ignored that. My second one, who was fearful that he would never be promoted to dean, nearly wet himself each time such a petition was received.
I was taught primary school in Catholic systems, one by nuns and priests. We were taught reading, writing, religion and math.
We were told to walk it off too, the cuff to the ear, ruler smack or coco bonk for shared transgressions. Short, painful and over.
You didn’t tell Mom or Dad even if you were offended, which we weren’t, effecting escape from discipline our only priority.
Besides you’d get it again and then some if you were that foolish. I believe that was the genesis of common sense for me.
I know some might disagree, but I haven’t heard of any waves of violent hateful RC racists incited by corporal punishment.
It was easier in my day, you knew right away when you stepped over the line. Short, painful, yes, but over too. Lessons learned.
Now girls show up at school with knives, Nobody passes or fails, they just pass through the system that perpetuates illiteracy and innumeracy. The present covid mess is a splendid example where miniscule risks are successfully spun as existential threats.
To the person who says this or that founding principle was how society was in the 1950s, I say good let’s bring it all back.
Where you could be black or white, this or that; whatever, it became irrelevant with the revelation of your content of character.
“student as customer”
At the post-secondary level that’s exactly how it should be. That’s exactly how it’s always been: post-secondary institutions exist to provide a good (a diploma) in exchange for money (tuition). The classes and exams are simply the hoops the institution requires you to jump through before they hand you the diploma.
There’s nothing wrong with that model as long as you understand that ultimately it’s the job market that will value that diploma, not the college. There’s a reason MacLean’s publishes the university rankings each year and why no one will hire a Comp Sci grad from Lakehead.
Your problem was that you worked at a college that didn’t care that it was selling overpriced, shoddy goods to customers who didn’t seem to care either. There’s nothing you could have done about that and I’m skeptical any kind of government accreditation scheme would make a difference. Ultimately employers would rather have someone with a welding diploma from Conestoga College than DeVry or ITT Tech and the students – who are adults – are 100% responsible for their choice of product. Caveat discipulus.
You have described the exact problem with treating students as customers. Universities are not there to sell goods. They are supposed to be there to train and educate individuals in particular areas of study. The classes and tests should not be ‘hoops you jump through to get the piece of paper’.
The idea that an accreditation scheme so fundamentally flawed is fine because the job market will sort it out is not only beside the point but also has the benefit of being false in practice.
The post-secondary system no longer provides education (which is more than the bestowing of knowledge) but, instead, sells credentials.
I’ve often had students who whined why they’re not getting the grades they expected because they “paid” their fees (and, presumably, my salary as well, though I never saw any of their signatures on my paycheques). What they paid for was a seat at the show, the opportunity to have access to the aforementioned knowledge and whatever bonus wisdom that may be dispensed.
What they failed to acknowledge is that they had to put in some effort themselves. It’s like a farmer buying seed and wondering why there isn’t a bumper crop at harvest time. That seed needs to be planted in fields that were prepared beforehand. Once that seed germinates, the resulting plants need to be maintained.
Fascinating, a school system that teaches kids how to be stupid.
It doesn’t just teach them to be stupid, it rewards them for it.
When I started my teaching position at Armpit College, the policy of “fail once” in school was already in place. Consequently, I dealt with recent graduates who knew next to nothing about trigonometry or algebra. I often had to spend some of my lecture time to teach them what they should have known when they began my course.
AC had a “pre-program” program, which was supposed to bring up to speed those students who either had been out of school for a long time or didn’t graduate. Unfortunately, it was next to useless as I often had students who went through it who were incapable.
But, they paid their fees, so they were expected to graduate. It’s a wonder that I never turned into an alcoholic…..
And one damned good reason I spoke to every wannabe School Board Trustee in Calgary’s upcoming election.
This is what I asked each candidate:
Do you support TEACHING Fundamentals & ONLY Teaching Fundamentals in School..?
Such as:
MATHAMATICS, ENGLISH comprehension, WRITING/Composition SKILLS, ACTUAL HISTORY with an Emphasis on the 20th Century, Geography and REAL SCIENCE, as opposed to Marxist style indoctrination in Gender bending, LGBT induction, Critical Race Theory, “Systemic Racism” and other Woke LEFTIST material.
Your thoughts on
:No ZERO’s.??
:No Failures.?
:Mask mandates for Students –
:Mandatory Vaccinations – Lockdowns
I will vote based on your answers..
Best Reply…???
“..By the language and tone of your email, I can assure you that I’m, unfortunately, NOT your candidate. Any time at all spent on my website will convey to you that we do NOT align in our philosophy of education…”
Snarky Bitch & Marxist Revisionist Kunt…of which there are far far too many in our Education systems….But maybe the Vid is actually a blessing in Disguise…..?
Not to mention how math was traditionally taught being shot to smithereens in the past 15 or so years. Sheesh, I took college calculus and when my eldest nephew was in 1st and 2nd grade I tried to help him with his math homework and was bewildered at what he was supposed to do.
He’s a teenager now and guess what? He hates math and struggles with it. Another victim of ivory tower academics and policymakers who think they know how to teach math “better” and instead make things worse.
I’d also place some blame on helicopter parents, ready to swoop in to defend their Johnny or Susie at the first hint of distress instead of letting them learn from the School of Hard Knocks.
It isn’t just that Johnny and Susie have problems with such material and that Mommy and Daddy quickly bail out their precious little darlings. The kiddies want to quit when the going gets tough and haven’t got the strength of character to see it through to the end.
When I was much younger, maybe even a university freshman, I remember seeing equations that were completely incomprehensible to me. When I heard that by the time I graduated I would understand what they meant, I thought, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Sure enough, I eventually did, but it was after a few years of concerted effort. But that effort came from me and a stubborn refusal to quit when the situation looked hopeless.
The MemSahib was a High School VP and took early retirement 10 years ago. Before becoming a VP, she taught Math (ended up as Dept Head).
She figures that she barely got out in time, there was no way she would follow the current trends in “Education”.
Thankfully all our kids are well away from high school, although my youngest (31) graduated relatively recently from UofT Law School and unlike the rest of the family, is a confirmed leftist. My eldest (41) by comparison is a paid up member of the PPC.
Problems with the younger generation will be huge, everyone St Greta’s age and <30 yrs old in general were educated to bite and spread all the BS related climate/eco-marxism, race/gender-Marxism and good ole' Marxism in general. Just look at the rabid AOCs in the States. Or all the Jagmeets here in Canada. All TV News + newspapers+academia serve this BS daily. And the results will be staggering, a disaster.
Look, a glimpse:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58930593
So most likely a Marxist Taliban, 25 yr old, educated by MSMedia to 'hate' opponents stabbed a Conservative MP in UK. It's not 'hate crime' since the victim was a Conservative. Of course, Media will say it was an unfortunate accident.
Yikes: When I was in my early teens, I lived in that area and I recognise the street name.
I believe that … overcoming adversity … is an essential learned skill. All humans MUST learn to overcome a myriad of problems that will confront them throughout their lives. However, our “helicopter society” has cushioned and protected little Jamal from facing ANY adversity.
The anti-bullying nonsense is a perfect example. The schools haven’t “ended” bullying … they’ve just forced it underground. They’ve just concentrated it outside the schoolyard. And the net result of the anti-bullying charade is they are empowering the bully and crippling the bullies targets from learning to deal with it.
Yep, my own son can testify to this, though now he’s mercifully graduated.
The same generation totally acclimatized to a culture of Participation Awards and other nonsensical rewards for mediocrity are now teaching your children.
Just a short note that Canada’s kids are much better than the USA’s. Canada is always in the top ten, usually in the top five (most frequently with Finland, South Korea, and Japan).
If you’d like to know more, search for World Education Rankings.
Eloi! Utterly unequipped to deal with the Morlocks. Deliberately unequipped.
Public education is a stunning success.
If you mean the polar opposite of “education”.
Who needs real skills or ability,when you can have delusions of competency?
The two most obvious proofs of Edumacation , well after national debt and government spending,are Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming and Dread Covid theatre.
We have a public so dumbed down,that they will believe most any narrative,even when it runs counter to the evidence of their own eyes and senses..
The only cure for such ignorance,will be pain.
The massive economic and social collapse coming,will provide plenty of pain.
Do not rush to help them.
100 yard stand off is all the contact you need with an enlightened liberal.
Fertilizer is important too.
The only skill these poor fools have is self deceit and lying to others.
Never let one behind you.
Go to school all you want, but you don’t start to really learn till you get out in real life. Too many of today’s students never get out in real life , because they live in a bubble created by ignorant parents, and a school system that fails them. I have a freind who has a basic Grade 12, and has done quite well in loife, he has 2 sisters, who were still paying off their student loans at age 60, or there about. Another freind who is a self made millionaire , has a grade 7 education, and the list goes on, these people learn as they work and interact with people in the real world. I also have some well educated friends who have done well, and they usually worked as they studied , so they learned real world skills and knowledge.
Wokeidiots think blacks can’t do math, not because blacks can’t do math, a preposterous proposition, but because the wokeidiots are the innumerate ignoramuses who can’t do math, and by extension science, most thinking logarithm is some new cool Cuomo woodwind.
Reading comprehension skills among youth adults are as easily as abysmal, so context and logic can’t get past the woke gatekeepers.
Amazing how these virtue signaling self-proclaimed geniuses have managed to do something the evil capitalist selfish greedy free market robber barons have failed to do the last 100 years – trap people in poverty, without the intergenerational poverty welfare cycle.
Amazing how voters haven’t figured out these wokeoafs are the authors of the problems they purport to solve, only them “qualified.”
Amazingly pathetic; an indictment of our march, now jog towards statist serfdom, oblivious to identical collectivist and statist tactics.