Comments on: Are American Kids Getting Dumber?

By: m

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 13:38:24 +0000

A different perspective is that we are just seeing the shift from free to fee. "Free" public schools essentially babysit until graduation. Those students that can, continue with college, and those that want to distinguish themselves from the "college-educated" pack continue on to grad school. I would hazard a guess that a high school diploma from 80 or even fifty years ago was probably the equivalent of most four-year college diplomas today.
I agree that we need to stop pretending that all students are capable of college level work. Many, if not most, students would be better served by a vocational track. Of course, there are quite a few colleges and professors that would not like that reduction in college-bound students.

By: A. Zarkov

A. Zarkov — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 21:29:18 +0000

I really donâ��t think American kids are getting dumber. Remember in WWII the US army had to contend with a vast pool of functionally illiterate inductees. Today we push everyone to finish high school, so naturally with an expanded pool of students, the average competence will fall. In the early 1960â��s, when the Vietnam War was ramping up, we offered college students draft deferments. So guess what happened? Young men went to college in droves, and the colleges loved the extra tuition money. Today virtually anyone who isnâ��t feeble minded can find some college, somewhere that will admit him-- and pass him through to graduation. Then we have government loans and grants to support this system. Education is big business. We did have better teachers in the 1940s and 1950s for a good reason: The Great Depression. A lot of very competent people lost their jobs, went into teaching, and stayed in teaching after the depression ended. Today those people are gone. Unions are another problem. So donâ��t look at the average student. Look at the average of the upper quartile of students and youâ��ll find much better looking statistics.

By: Kent

Kent — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 19:17:50 +0000

â��Call me a reactionary (hell, a few of you do, anyway), but Iâ��d like to see a curriculum that consists exclusively of reading/writing (literature, history/geography, philosophy); math; and science."

Since such a curriculum has never been standard, I don't know if [em]reactionary[/em] is the right word. But it sounds like a pretty fair curriculum to me.

I worry about funding inequities, but I don't see a way to decouple local wealth from schools without also decoupling local control from schools, which I think is the last thing we need.

By: floyd

floyd — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 03:27:06 +0000

it's expectations, no matter where you enter the circle.

By: RJN

RJN — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 20:45:07 +0000

We have appalling Teachers Colleges. The semi-competent faculty spends too much of its time on things of a propagandist nature and not enough time on basics.

The teachers unions finish the job of ruining our schools.

Vouchers, vouchers.

By: TJIT

TJIT — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 17:20:59 +0000

James,

Many non-college degree jobs require more technical knowledge, math, finance and verbal skills then many four year degrees do. So I think the education system has a greater responsibility to provide basic math and English skills to students who decide not to go to college.

Colleges provide remedial classes to students who have graduated from high school with a skills deficit. Outside of the college environment these remedial classes don't really exist. So not having the basic math and English skills has a greater negative impact on those who do not go to college because there is no mechanism in place to discover and correct these deficits.

By: Kenny

Kenny — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 16:59:47 +0000

not sure who is to blame (teachers, parents, students, politicians)for this decline in education in America, but it sure is alarming.

Give a 14 year old from poland and a 16 year old from america the same math test, and i can assure you that the polish student blows the american student out of the water. In India, they are required to learn 3 languages!, one of which must include english. In egypt you start med school out of High school, not getting drunk at colleges for 4 years, while you decide.."what should i do??" And lets not forget that all of europe has a better understanding of our history...than we do.

craziness....

By: Herb

Herb — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 15:37:08 +0000

There are so many problems with our educational system today, they are to numerous to mention, however it boils down to one basic thing,

Kids are dumber today because the teachers and education system, are dumber today.

Look around you, we have a teacher in a Colorado High School comapiring Bush to Hitler, We have teachers that are teaching every liberal view imaginable to the kids, We have lost all sense of our past history and that our country has made many sacrifices for the freedom. we enjoy today. We educate foreign enemies at Yale University with a 4th grade education (for free). We think a teacher having sex with a student is almost acceptable. We have teacher Unions that fight for more money and think very little about education. The list goes on and on.

The Colleges and Universities have done a great job of sales and marketing their products (teachers) at the expense of many generations of kids

By: Chris Short

Chris Short — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 15:20:15 +0000

Read a comment I received from a Jay Bennish supporter and you'll clearly see that American kids are dumber these days.

By: just me

just me — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 14:38:24 +0000

I think part of the problem is so many kids don't get a good foundation in reading skills-and ability to read well and comprehend what you are reading is key to success in other disciplines.

I do think our history/social studies/civics curriculums have gone to pot.

By: DL

DL — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 13:58:28 +0000

"Test Scores Rise in State Schools, but Racial, Economic Gaps Widen" A better headline might well be George Bushs education programs, a hugh success for minorities and whites.