What’s wrong with Public Education
"For this reason society requires that the education of youth should be watched with the most scrupulous attention. Education, in a great measure, forms the moral characters of men, and morals are the basis of government."(1) Noah Webster
Public education in America was highly regarded as little as 40 years ago. At that time, illiteracy was virtually non-existent. Nearly everyone could do basic math. But then Democratic President Carter formed the Department of Education and everything became politicized. The political left ruined public education. Despite spending billions of additional dollars, illiteracy has gone up. The percentage of people that can’t do basic math or spelling has gone up.
Because of the pressures of political correctness, history and social studies books have been rewritten and are inaccurate. America’s past has been condemned and ridiculed. These biased textbooks brainwash our kids - rather than educate them. Liberal politicians and bureaucrats have done great harm to a once great American Public Educational System.
A person of normal intelligence would conclude that the way we are currently teaching our children is not working and we should try what worked in the past instead of continuing to spend billions trying to make an unworkable system work. We do NOT need to spend more money on education, we need to change how and what we teach our children. Actually, most of the billions spent on education has mostly gone to give teachers fat salaries, benefits and big pensions. Spending more money on public eduction has not given us better results.
How to fix Public Education
More money does NOT equal better education
1) Abolish the federal Dept. of Education. Public education worked a lot better before the DOE was created by Carter.
2) The cost of public education and college education continues to skyrocket. The cost of college is insane. We need to cut back on pay and especially pensions for teachers. This is not an attack on teachers - it simply means that taxpayer are people too and need to survive. Teachers are not above everyone else.
The salaries and pensions paid at the college level is obscene. For instance, Penn State's President Rodney Erickson, who stepped down from his position in 2014, earned nearly $1.5 million in total compensation for fiscal year 2013-2014.[2] These costs must be reduced so college becomes more affordable. Students and/or parents shouldn’t have to bear this ridiculous financial burden for decades to come.
3) Teach children to read using Phonics. This method worked in the past and more recent studies prove it works. [3][4][5] England is also returning to teaching all elementary school children reading through Phonics. Whole Word is useful AFTER children learn phonics.
4) Most US history books in the US should be thrown out.[6] These politically correct history books are filled with lies, half truths and propaganda. Two evil people, Noam Chomsky and especially Howard Zinn are largely responsible for destroying accurate US history from being taught in most colleges and public high schools. These biased textbooks teach our kids to hate America, our ancestors, the Founding Fathers and white people. History books need to be balanced. In addition, we need to teach students the principles of our nation along with the morals and ethics needed to maintain a civilized society.[7]
5) Public schools need to teach the foundational principles of what America was founded on and what made America so unique in the world. The Founders had to solve two age old dilemmas: 1) set up the government and laws to govern a free society and 2) how to maintain social order and morality in a free society.(8)
6) The modern methods of teaching math is a disaster. We need to go back to the traditional method which is understandable to children - and parents who are trying to help their children.
7) Taking Christian morality out of the school, resulting in a Pagan atmosphere in schools. Ever since Christianity was expelled from public schools, discipline and crime issues never imagined have become a reality. This generation of Americans are the first generation of students to be taught in an atmosphere of political correctness and amorality. The Government has mandated that homosexuality is now normal and morality is what feels right to you. We teach evolution as if it is a fact which it is not. Actually, the theory of Evolution is the most idiotic idea taught as fact in public education. The evidence against evolution is overwhelming.[9]
8) Schools teach too much irrelevant material. The average child can only absorb so much information before overload, and useless information is taking up too much room.
9) Some children seldom do manual labor. Schools should give credit for manual labor jobs. For instance, a great program would be to do farm work over the summer. This would teach kids a lot about work and give them something constructive to do.
10) Courses in Capitalism - how to start a business, etc.
Sources:
1. American Educational Thought: Essays from 1640-1940 by Andrew J. Milson (2009) p86
2. http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/07/pf/college/highest-paid-public-university-presidents/
3. “National Reading Panel (NRP) - Publications and Materials - Summary Report". National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. 2000.
4. Snow, Catherine E., Susan Burns, Peg Griffin, eds. Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children, National Research Council, 1998 ISBN 0-309-06418-X
5. Adams, Marilyn Jager (1994). Beginning to read: thinking and learning about print. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262510769.
6. http://americanaction.us/index.php/the-nation/textbook-evaluations/
7. http://americanaction.us/index.php/the-nation/foundations-of-america-index/what-made-america-unique/
8. http://americanaction.us/index.php/the-nation/foundations-of-america-index/what-made-america-unique/
9. http://americanaction.us/index.php/spirituality-life/creation-evolution/
"The classroom must and will become the arena of conflict between the old and the new - the rotting corpse of Christianity . . . and the new faith of Humanism." The January-February 1983 issue of The Humanist in an article entitied: "A Religion for a New Age."
“The philosophy in the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.” (This quote is usually attributed to Abraham Lincoln, but there is no evidence he said it. Regardless of who said it, it is certainly a FACT.)