7 posts tagged “education”

System_failure

I am certainly not a fan of the state of education in our country.  It is an underfunded, under-resourced, under-staffed mess.  The state of teachers fares no better.  The nation is filled with incompetent imbeciles who are allowed to keep their jobs due to the backing of one of the most (and one of the last) powerful unions in the country.  The “No Child Left Behind” policies didn’t help the matter either.  It reeked of political half-assery—you know, where they make promises to get votes, without any clear implementation plan—and has eroded science education significantly.  Parents can’t be let off the hook either.  In the busy lives of the average American, the vast majority don’t spend any quality time with their children, if they spend any time at all.  Take a look around, and I bet you will notice that many parents spend much more energy placating their children than they do anything else with them. 

I was floored recently by a study conducted in Oklahoma by Strategic Visions that was aimed at determining the level of basic civics knowledge of Oklahoma High School students.  They took 10 random question from the test that is administered to applicants for U.S. citizenship.  Are you ready to be awestruck by the results:

While one could argue that high school students may not know how many justices are on the Supreme Court, I find it hard to believe…and stomach…that less than 1:4 knew who our first President was.  Many of these results are sickening to me.  Only 2.8% of students that took the test passed the 60% mark required for citizenship.  Before you place blame with Oklahoma however, it should be mentioned that the same results came from Arizona where just 3.5% of students passed the test.  Something needs to be done in this country regarding education and I think it starts with a complete reboot of the entire system.

Rudy Ruiz recently wrote a very thoughtful and accurate opinion article last week that asked the question:

Why has it become so difficult to even consider changing our minds about important issues?

The current debate over healthcare reform has really pushed this notion in front of the public.  There has been a shift, especially recently, wherein politicians refuse to budge from their stance (almost always partisan) as the notion of changing your mind has been deemed to mark you as a “flip-flopper.”  This negative connotation, rather than potentially marking you as a rational individual, carries with it the wrath of an overzealous public.  Once again, Washington isn’t about doing what is right for its constituents, but rather staying in power so that they can do what is right for themselves and their friends.

This close-mindedness is being driven into the public consciousness by our leaders.  Consider this recent example of U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann rallying conservatives to block the healthcare reform bill and any other Democratic initiatives:

[she warned] the proposals “have the strength to destroy this country forever.”

“This cannot pass,” the Minnesota Republican told a crowd at a Denver gathering sponsored by the Independence Institute. “What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t pass…”

Bachmann:  "Slit our wrists; be blood brothers"

I believe that the absolute best example of close-mindedness and outright absurdity comes from Republican Senator Charles Grassley.  This is absolute proof that our leaders aren’t our leaders, but instead are interested in only themselves and partisan politics:

In an interview today on MSNBC's "Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan," Senate Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R) said he'd vote against any health-care reform bill coming out of the committee unless it has wide support from Republicans -- even if the legislation contains EVERYTHING Grassley wants.

"I am negotiating for Republicans," he said. "If I can't negotiate something that gets more than four Republicans, I'm not a good negotiator."

When NBC's Chuck Todd, in a follow-up question on the show, asked the Iowa Republican if he'd vote against what Grassley might consider to be a "good deal" -- i.e., gets everything he asks for from Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D) -- Grassley replied, "It isn't a good deal if I can't sell my product to more Republicans."

In short, Grassley says he's willing to walk away from legislation in which he gets everything he wants.

GOP Support Most Important to Grassley

I don’t mean to pick on the Republicans, as I don’t like the Democrats particularly either.  It just so happens that they seem to have thrown a rod lately in their behavior regarding healthcare reform.  Let’s get back to Rudy Ruiz’s article and extrapolate it a bit more towards the general populace.  He contends that three factors exacerbate this paralysis by lack of analysis: labels, lifestyles and listening.

First, the labels ascribed to many potential policy tools render sensible options taboo, loading what could be rational, economic or social measures with moral baggage. This narrows our choices, hemming in policy makers.

Second, our lifestyles favor knee-jerk reactions. The way we think, work and live in the Digital Age demands we quickly categorize information without investing time into rich interaction, research and understanding.

We're hesitant to ask questions because we don't have time to listen to the long, complicated answers that might follow. And we lack the time to fact-check competing claims. In our haste, it's easier to echo our party's position than drill down, questioning whether party leaders are motivated by our best interests or the best interests of their biggest contributors.

Third, we tend to listen only to like-minded opinions as media fragmentation encourages us to filter out varying perspectives

Rudy Ruiz: Open Your Minds America

We live in a hectic world where our time is being stretched increasingly slim.  New advances enable us to do more, but at the expense of free time.  It is important for people to realize that the key to any intelligent, important decision is to gather as much information from BOTH sides, analyze it, and then form your opinion.  Given the lack of time in our lives, people take the easy way out, and merely puppet the ideas of the people whose ideology it is they follow.  If we are ever to succeed as a nation, then this practice must end. 

And as an aside- I frequently debate people who are uninformed on issues and merely spout rhetoric, and to those of you I kindly ask:

If you are going to defend a position, defend it relative to your knowledge on the subject.  Thank you.

The Josephson Institute's Center for Youth Ethics released a survey saying that today's kids are becoming completely unethical in every way. Fully 40 percent thought that you cannot succeed in the U.S.A. without lying, cheating, or stealing. I think this number is a little high, but I can see how many kids could feel that way, when they look around and see so many successful people who are found out to be dishonest.

The problem stems in part from the lack of controls in an increasingly laissez-faire business environment, where monopolistic and anti-consumer methodologies are encouraged. But it may be more complicated than that.

Here are some highlights from the press release announcing the results.

"STEALING. In bad news for business, more than one in three boys (35 percent) and one-fourth of the girls (26 percent) — a total of 30 percent overall — admitted stealing from a store within the past year. In 2006 the overall theft rate was 28 percent (32 percent males, 23 percent females)."

"Students who attend private secular and religious schools were less likely to steal, but still the theft rate among non-religious independent school students was more than one in five (21 percent) while 19 percent who attend religious schools also admitted stealing something from a store in the past year…."

"CHEATING. Cheating in school continues to be rampant, and it's getting worse. A substantial majority (64 percent) cheated on a test during the past year (38 percent did so two or more times), up from 60 percent and 35 percent in 2006. There were no gender differences on the issue of cheating on exams. Students attending non-religious independent schools reported the lowest cheating rate (47 percent) while 63 percent of students from religious schools cheated…"

"Responses about cheating show some geographic disparity: Seventy percent of the students residing in the southeastern U.S. admitted to cheating, compared to 64 percent in the west, 63 percent in the northeast, and 59 percent in the midwest. More than one in three (36 percent) said they used the Internet to plagiarize an assignment. In 2006 the figure was 33 percent."

"IT'S WORSE THAN IT APPEARS. As bad as these numbers are, it appears they understate the level of dishonesty exhibited by America's youth. More than one in four (26 percent) confessed they lied on at least one or two questions on the survey. Experts agree that dishonesty on surveys usually is an attempt to conceal misconduct. Despite these high levels of dishonesty, these same kids have a high self-image when it comes to ethics. A whopping 93 percent said they were satisfied with their personal ethics and character."

These are the kids that will be working for us in the years ahead—a charming group of reprobates already. And the fact that they think they are angels is the icing on the cake. I would personally like to thank the self-esteem movement for that little attitudinal gem.

Now, in defense of this next generation, perhaps ethics have changed. Should we redefine "cheating," for example? Stealing from a store is a bad sign of things to come, that's for sure. But when it comes to cheating on a test or lifting things from the Internet, I've never been convinced that this has been approached correctly.

For one thing, the days of the closed-book test should have ended years ago. In today's world you don't get anywhere by memorizing the birthdates of Abe Lincoln or Christopher Columbus. It proves nothing to know this information. And most of the information that kids have traditionally scribbled on their hands or now text message about is actually trivia.

For most subjects outside of math or physics, it would be hard to cheat if tests were properly designed and more thoughtful.

Now here's the kicker: I argue that given the way things are designed within the school systems today (and this has been the case for decades), cheating is encouraged. In fact, in some instances, cheating is demanded. Furthermore, what's the typical punishment? A slap on the wrist and the subtle message, "if you're going to cheat, don't get caught!"

In fact, children in school are trained to cheat better and better over time. Want to stop cheating in classroom testing? Put the kids in a supervised room of cubicles where they cannot see each other—and put a cell-phone jammer in the room. There would be no cheating. If there were any concern whatsoever about rampant cheating (as there should be), then every school in the country would have one of these rooms for testing.

Plagiarism is also being handled incorrectly. The Internet should be a tool for helping students write papers. Children should be encouraged to rip text from sources and put it into their papers. But it should all be accounted for with simple citations. Lift whatever you want and tell the teacher where it came from, then comment on it—just as a blog post would. I'd even encourage kids to buy term papers online and add them to their own papers, with a critique of the bought item. "In this paper, which is sold on the Internet to students for $2, the author claims that the war was planned in secret. This contradicts the account cited in Wikipedia…." Or whatever.

This type of thoughtful and detailed exercise of public documents would get an "F" in today's school system, when in fact the student will have learned more from the exercise than he would have from trying to synthesize a textbook and two lectures on the topic.

And let's take modern education to the next level. Why are today's students forced to perform with 19th-century methodologies? Why do they have to write essays at all? Why can't they produce a PowerPoint presentation? Or create a video? Or a podcast?

When some student actually produces a multimedia report, she ends up on the 6 o'clock news as some sort of interesting freak. The teachers never know what to make of the presentation, and it's back to writing thoughtful essays that are seldom thoughtful and rarely worth reading.

The result is cheating, and this in itself may be fostering the other behaviors.

The point I want to get back to is that this sort of survey, which indicates that increasingly devious legions of students are being unleashed on the business world, needs to be taken a step further. We need to find out exactly how kids who lie, cheat, and steal come to the conclusion that this is all good, and find out why they are happy with their ethical profile.

There's something wrong with this picture, and I for one would like to know what it is. 

John Dvorak hits the nail on the head.  The self-esteem movement is extremely detrimental to our kids.  And ultimately ourselves.

I just wrote a nice (long) blog about education and Vox lost it!!!!  GRRRRR!!!  The spellcheck feature freezes Internet Explorer.  I guess I will have to email them about it.  I normally wouldn't care, but like an idiot, I composed it straight into Vox and didn't save.  It was good, and that is why I am so angry!

http://www.livescience.com/technology/080725-sb-education-future.html

This is a terrific essay by a physics professor on the nations failing education system.  I firmly believe that parents are largely responsible for the rise in obesity among their children as well as the failure to properly educate them before they become an adult.  Don't worry, I am sure that they will keep electing people who throw money at the problem with no plan and no attempt to address the real issue.  Have you ever seen a politician blame their constituents?  Even when it is warranted?

This is a bit of an update to my previous rant about the education system in America.  It isn't very much but this is caught my attention.  True story:

Underachieving former St. Thomas Law school student Thomas Bentey filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the school in August, alleging that it knew when it accepted him that he couldn't muster the necessary 2.5 grade point average to stay in school and those defrauding him, and dozens of his classmates a similar talent.

I mean, can you believe that?  This kid wants to get off the hook for being lazy!  Jesus!  This tells me two things, the first is that there really is no hope for the youth of our nation.  The second is that there are way too many lawyers in this country!  It must be nearing a 50-50 ratio by now.  Even stranger, how could his parents sign off on such action?  I mean, they must be as messed up as he is.  Sometimes...  I don't know.

Single Sex Classrooms?

I am genuinely conflicted about this.  I don't necessarily agree with it, but in a way I can understand its rationale.  Males and females learn differently, and kids today are more interested in social networking and bumping their crotches together than they are in learning.  So I can see how it would be successful in practice.

However, I believe it is wrong in theory.  Public education is severely lacking in this country and kids are graduating at education levels that are about 3 years behind.  However, the schools do do a good job of preparing kids for other aspects of adult life, and the coexisting of the sexes in one of those areas.  If you look at private schools where the sexes are seperate you will notice that both sexes develop differently as people.  Everyone knows the old saying about the catholic schoolgirls...I know first hand that it is true.  Its simply human nature, and I believe that this goes against human nature. 

With that said, I also believe that the students would learn better and that is ultimately the important thing isn't it?  Which would I/you rather have?  A nation of intelligent degenerates...or well-adjusted idiots?