A generation of dunces

A generation of dunces

I was teaching a class in Financial Markets at UT last year and gave a problem where the answer depended on being able to tell me what was 5 percent of 10,000. Only a handful of a class of 53 knew the answer. Many actually said that it was unfair to give them a problem and not allow them to use the calculator app on their phones. But it is not just UT. Harvard has instituted a class to teach remedial math to their incoming freshmen. The University of California at San Diego, one of that state’s top universities has a freshman class in which one in eight has math skills below high school level and one in 12 can’t do middle school math. The average grade in their high school math courses was an A-. What does that say about California “education”? These students were admitted to the university in part because California eliminated the SAT some years back in the name of “equity.” Applicants can no longer be screened through testing thus eroding admission standards. And what do you expect when California dropped algebra as a requirement for eight graders? Education through stupidity is just not confined to California, it is a nationwide epidemic in our public schools. Only schools that maintain some semblance of standards such as private schools and charter schools keep us from being a complete nation of illiterates.

It is somewhat ironic that the elimination of test scores was intended to make the student body more diverse but the result was to produce a generation of dunces. White kids can’t do math either. In my class, there was only one black student and she got the problem right (and made an A in the course). The bigotry of lower expectations for minority students has led to the lowering of standards for all students. I took Latin in my segregated all-black high school in Atlanta. How many schools require Latin today?

This is not an issue of race. It is a condemnation of our “education” system that fails to teach everyone – not just minority kids. We have transitioned from “no child left behind” to “all children left behind.” When I went to Georgia, I had to take calculus my freshman year. I had made A’s in high school math and did well on the SAT. Yet college level math was different from that in high school. I struggled and could not solve trigonometric identities until my brother (the math genius at Purdue) tutored me. I made a B that first quarter but A’s the next two.

What we need to do is to throw out today’s high school curriculum. We need to reinstitute the basics and teach our kids how to read, write (none of them know cursive) and do arithmetic. Today’s students can’t do any of this. I recall one of my students complaining having to memorize concepts and formulae in my class and said “why do we have to know anything? We have Google (and now AI).” I told him that without knowledge he would not even know what questions to ask. We are seeing the product of our pitiful “education” system. Employers are having to train new hires in basic skills. No wonder hiring is down – and it is not just AI. Is it any wonder that a college degree is becoming so devalued.

We are a quasi-capitalist country. Yet we throw our children into the arms of government schools. Instead of rewarding excellence we get the mind numbing sameness of socialism. It is a shame we will not force the free market onto our education system. If it were a business it would have filed for bankruptcy years ago. I have tutored reading in an inner city school. My so-called  “hard to learn” second grade pupil was bright and intelligent. By the end of the school year she could read anything you put in front of her. Maybe it was the individual attention. Maybe it was the different learning method (we used Funnix). But whatever the answer, she demonstrated that her evaluations were all wrong. We were so successful that we were not asked back. I remember when the head of the teachers’ union in Chicago said that the teachers could not be graded on the performance of their students because the students were dumb (she didn’t actually say “dumb”) as evidenced by precious few Chicago third graders being able to do math and read at grade level. Pardon me but the kids aren’t the ones that are dumb.

21 thoughts on “A generation of dunces”

  2. Education is a hard topic, for most of us will either think of discovery, or how they feel mean and bitter..
    GA : my school in Warner Robbins taught civics and Christianity; when Dr Hunter came fm PA to change to math/ science, the students ran him off. But Dr Hunter was right; later a teacher APOLOGIZED for not teaching us the things we need to know..

    Illinois: My high school sent a teacher and students to teach in South Side Chicago, and said it was a bad experience. They never said the kids were dumb- in the 70’s the parents knew an invasion of white people would bring da Fuzz..

    You didn’t even discuss FOOTBALL. Are all the players at UT academically eligible- even tho they are the ones that matter?…

    So what do we need? I would have no problem with Black, Hindu, Hasidic Jews- building TN schools, financed by student vouchers. Do you think that – essentially -Christian vouchers are free of prejudice?
    Does academically prepared mean vanilla ice cream on a white plate?

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    1. Larry, This is enough for many more posts. If religious schools want to teach children their religion along with the A B C’s that’s okay by me. Notre Dame has been criticized for deemphasizing Catholicism. Is it still a Catholic university? My primary concern is with the government schools not the private ones.

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      1. I understand that you are concerned about public schools. I would remind you that Bill Lee believes the answer to public schools is vouchers- and this state supports him in that endeavor.
        His supporters care little about competition, to raise education levels..
        If we are just talking about educational corporations, then Government is deciding which corporations succeed or fail..

        I resent the idea that public money, my money, is taken fm me- and given to corporations.
        I would welcome an essay on Friedman’s belief that education vouchers are a necessity.

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      3. In a state like TN, where people rejoiced in the deaths of Popes- and believe the Pope is the Anti- Christ- I might wonder if Notre Dame gets state funding. And if Notre Dame would get it in TN.

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  3. Will School vouchers provide the needed competition to help raise the standards of education?

    Let parents vote with their feet/vouchers.

    Those who are/were the proponents of eliminating standardize testing. Need to be identified and encouraged to find a new line of work.

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    1. Agreed but I am no fan of vouchers if all they do is move kids within a failed system with all schools using the same failed curriculum. A change in curriculum obviates the need for vouchers.

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      1. Why would vouchers prevent kids from leaving the current public system?

        Anyone with superior educational ideas, is now free to open a school and get at least 7k per student from the State.

        The public schools will either have to adopt the new educational methods, or lose most of their students to those higher performing schools.

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      2. If kids are allowed to use vouchers for private schools and schools with different curricula as well then I am all for that. But some states allow only for use within the public schools.

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      3. Our state senator Briggs was the one who said vouchers would attract out of state corporations, who would come here simply for the free money.

        Voucher supporters are not looking to competition; they are looking for schools that utilize family money , but also succeed by being financed by non- invested taxpayers.

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  4. Briggs is wrong.

    And the vast majority who want to take the time and apply for a voucher. Are looking for a better opportunity for their child because the government system is failing them, and they want a better option.

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    1. The voucher program was passed as Bill Lee collected out of state money to defeat true conservatives, who didn’t believe in the redistribution of wealth to private institutions. And build a legislature that would meet Lee’s GOVERNMENT mandates.

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  5. This is a succinct and sad synopsis of this nation’s socialist educational system. Reading it reminded me of my article from almost 20 years ago, “Guvernment Edukashun,” Appalachian Irishman (published 6-11-2006).

    Three decades ago, when my wife and I were Christian missionaries in Russia (1994-1999), we interacted with and were impressed by numerous well-educated and highly intelligent Russian university students. By God’s grace, we led several to Christ. During summers, American students from Christian universities worked with us as mission interns. Their educational and intellectual levels were generally on par with their Russian counterparts. Overall, however, the Russian students had a deeper and broader understanding in several academic areas than the American students did.

    In the 1960s and 1970s, the county school education that I received taught me well in the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Further, students were properly instructed in history, literature, and science. Thankfully, I graduated from high school the year before the federal Department of Education, under President Carter, was created (1979).

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      2. Bless you for your good works in Russia. And thank you for the Appalachian Irishman reference. Why is it that education in socialist countries is superior to ours? Don’t they believe in equity?

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  6. I appreciate your credit to public education. The fact remains if you still have that appreciation, you must admit you were present and alive and breathing- when the public school system stopped representing your values..
    In fact all those who neglected responsibility , do not recognize the many Republican senators, representatives, governors, and Presidents who were front and center, and watched the deteriorating ideals all talk about.

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  7. HB,

    This article is on target with respect to substandard performance of today’s public education systems. I really like your recommendation to a return to the basics, teaching: reading, writing and arithmetic. However, I respectfully suggest supplementing to these three fundamental subjects the notion of critical thinking. The ability of students to analyze and critically think about contemporary issues and topics is sorely missing in today’s educational environment. I recall assigning a small group of high school seniors (8 males) in March to research the topic of Artificial Intelligence over the weekend and be prepared to offer suggestion the next class meeting on how the advent and growth of AI could impact their lives, careers and incomes in future years. At the next class meeting and after spending more than 10 minutes of prompting, encouraging and expecting the students to offer reasoned, thoughtful recommendations on how AI might impact their lives, I became frustrated and surprised because all the students researched the topic, but did not, nor could not offer any suggestions on how this revolutionary innovation could impact their futures. Consequently, I became frustrated and sarcastically asked a rhetorical question recalled from my Junior High School experience

    : “Can you guys tell me who is buried in Grant’s tomb?” Following more than one minute of silence one student braved, what he thought was the right answer: “Abraham Lincoln!” This response confirmed to me that public education is in critical condition in the United States of America. Finally, I offer the absence of consistent parental involvement in their children’s education as one of factors creating “dunces in America.” I remember many Saturday mornings taking my daughters to the public library to select books on subjects/stories that appealed to them. Several houses was a neighbor who had two sons, but he spent most Saturday and Sunday mornings washing, waxing and detailing his prized cherry red Mustang. I was amazed that this neighbor spent countless hours on weekends cleaning an inanimate object whose sole function was transportation, while his greatest assets (and his legacy) played in the streets and playgrounds (my daughters told me both brothers turned out to be mediocre students). My parenting days are several years in the rear view mirror and two of my three daughters performed well academically and have excellent professional careers. However, I often wonder how my neighbors two sons would have become if their father had invested more time during the week and weekends on their educational growth rather than cleaning and polishing a cherry red Mustang.

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    1. Excellent observations all and funny too. I love the suggestion about critical thinking and the story about Grant’s tomb. You are also correct that the main responsibility lies with the parents who in many cases just ignore the education of their children.

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