The relatively poor performance of government school students in Jacksonville is distressing, but also an indicator of a much larger problem.
American schools spend more than those in other countries while achieving less.
Anecdotal but still revealing are the dozens of videos on YouTube where college students – largely graduates of government schools – are asked to answer questions.
Far too many are unable to answer questions like:
· What does Y-E-S spell?
· How many eggs in a dozen?
· Who fought in the Civil War?
· Name a continent?
· What two countries border the U.S.?
· When was America founded?
· If a car is traveling 60 mph how far will it go in an hour?
· What century are we in?
· How much is 6 times 7?
· How many minutes in a quarter of an hour?
· What is 9 + 9 + 9?
· When was the War of 1812?
One of my favorites was: How many wheels are on an 18-wheeler? (One student answered “12,” another “10”).
Compare such results to this: https://newrepublic.com/article/79470/1895-8th-grade-final-exam-i-couldnt-pass-it-could-you
Fake fact-checker Snopes tried to denigrate the significance of this 19th century test by saying today’s students don’t need to know such trivial things.
Really? Is it more important that they are taught racism and sex practices rather than practical things they will face daily in life?
American education has been trending downward since atheist and secular humanist John Dewey began to “modernize” it a century ago. Dewey was a great admirer of the Soviet Union under the dictator Josef Stalin, a butcher who caused millions of deaths.
Dewey thought teachers should be agents of social change and that education and schooling are instrumental in creating social change and reform.
Inevitably, that means politicizing education and today education is firmly linked to the Democrat Party and its increasingly socialist ideas.
Parents today are outraged about this trend and are fighting Big Education and the supportive Democrat media for normalcy. They should be applauded for their efforts.
