The Threat Of Bad Education
Oddly enough, my son and I were talking about the problems in American education earlier today. Then I saw this item from Neal Boortz pop up over at Real Clear Politics this afternoon. He's discussing the failure of American education and has a great CS Lewis quote.
"What I want to fix your attention on is the vast overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence — moral, cultural, social or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how 'democracy' (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient dictatorships, and by the same methods? The basic proposal of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be 'undemocratic.' Children who are fit to proceed may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval's [of the same age] attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT. We may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when 'I'm as good as you' has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish. The few who might want to learn will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows? And anyway, the teachers — or should I say nurses? — will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men." C. S. Lewis
Now don't you want to go back and read that again? I guess I read it 20 times over the weekend … just amazed at how well a man who has been dead for so long has perfectly nailed our current system of government education and what it is doing to our children. And referring to government school teachers as nurses? Brilliant! Absolutely effing brilliant! (Excuse me, I got carried away there for a bit.)
This country is in trouble. No, I'm not talking about the threat from outside – the biggest element of which would be Islamic radicalism. I'm talking about the threat from inside. The men who marched in bare feet wrapped in rags over frozen ground in 1776 – leaving a trail of blood for the British to follow – would scarcely recognize us. They put their lives on the line for independence, far too many of us strive for dependence. They embraced freedom. We embrace security. The men of 1776 were extraordinary. We reject the extraordinary for the mundane.
Our schools are turning out perfect little government subjects who have been taught that, somehow, it is bad to excel, but virtuous to simply fit in.
Do you think the men and women of just two generations ago could ever imagine a school system where children aren't allowed to play tag because it involves chasing and unwanted touching? Of course you don't want to be touched! That makes you "it!"
It is some pretty disturbing stuff. It also matches rather closely what my son and I were talking about. There really is a problem in the schools. Colleges routinely have to put incoming freshmen into remedial classes to even get them to a basic college level as Boortz points out. That should be a warning sign that something is very wrong indeed. There is too much emphasis what is little more than indoctrination and less and less teaching of kids how to think. It is somewhat driven by a misplaced egalitarianism that tries to force equal outcomes - which should never be the goal of schools. It is invariably brought to the least common denominator that way, hold back the best so that the less gifted students won't feel bad. Boortz blames the teacher's unions for this state of affairs. They are certainly part of the problem. As are politicians and parents who do not care enough about what their kids are being taught. Go read the whole thing.
Civilization | Gaius Monday, 8 October , 2007
By Chucky, Monday, 8 October , 2007 @ 6:36 pm
I think the quote hits the nail on the head.
By Andrew, Monday, 8 October , 2007 @ 7:32 pm
I am re-reading Mere Christianity now. This man’s
wisdom, talent and story telling ability as well as his life story beg for re-examination.
ezgoer
By Bonnie, Monday, 8 October , 2007 @ 10:06 pm
It’s not just going on today. I’m 36 and remember being in second grade, reading almost at a high school level and only being allowed to work at a fourth grade level because that was the highest grade in the school. Same thing in fifth, when I was tested at almost genius IQ and reading at college level. I read the Odyssey and the Iliad in middle school, while others were reading Peanuts cartoons and Judy Bloom. By ninth, I was in ’screw it’ mode. I was so bored and underworked, even in gifted classes, that it wasn’t funny.
I often wonder what I could have accomplished, had my school administrators done the right thing by me and given me the real opportunity I deserved instead of holding me back so the other kids wouldn’t feel inferior.
By Gaius, Monday, 8 October , 2007 @ 10:46 pm
I’m older than you, Bonnie, and it was happening even back then.