Why Have Schools Failed?
January 26, 2006
I am going to take a different approach on this issue. Although it is tempting to put the blame on the uber-liberal idealistic classroom teacher, it simply is short-sighted. Wisconsin teachers, despite the uncomfortably high number of left-leaning educators, are among the most qualified in the nation. The new teacher licensing prerequisites are more than most states and require a considerable amount of coursework and practical classroom experience well before he or she takes on his or her class. However, teachers are not the only ones responsible for education in school. Whereas teachers are supposed to be the content experts whose specialized training in the science of teaching others is arguable, students are expected to engage themselves in the classroom and lessons. We mustn't overlook the responsibility of the individual student.
Student apathy has become increasingly alarming. University of Wisconsin - Parkside History Professor, Thomas Reeves's article, "My Experience Teaching Apathetic Students at a School with Open Admissions" tragically illustrates the anti-intellectual climate that persist in many American schools. He presentsnts an image of intellectual bankruptcy that is a continuation from the high school experience - college students who downright refuse to read the prescribed readings (reduced from 100, to 40, to 20 per week with students still refusing to do the work!) The continual audio-visual fantasyland perpetuated by popular culture - that Red Bull-induced high-octane 100 mile an hour ride on the front bumper of hip-hop, rap, Nu metal, and Hollywood serves to distract the American youth from their responsibility to acquire knowledge.
Schools are failing in part due to the lack of parental involvement in their son or daughter's academic lives. Bill Cosby's May 20, 2004 speech at Constitution Hall "In the presence of NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and other African-American leaders, comedian Bill Cosby took aim at blacks who don't take responsibility for their economic status, blame police for incarcerations and teach their kids poor speaking habits." Cosby's message was clear.Parents whose interests venture no farther than the latest television program model the intellectual disinterest that educators witness in the classroom. Such disinterest manifests in classrooms filled with students whom haven't read their texts, written very little, refuse to participate, and oftentimes do the minimum work necessary in order to "pass." Despite attempts to engage parental support, such situations seldom see a full reversal in behavioral trends. The result, as in the case of Professor Reeves, classes where a C- is the highest grade. How can we expect education to improve if the parents and students themselves, regardless of how much funding is added, refuse to participate? Student-disconnect from intellectual exercise (thinking) in the clasroom is perpetuated by many things. Young people are continuously bombarded with an immense amount of media where they are encouraged to make decisions with 30-60 second advertisements or print ads. Students seem to expect all informational contexts to produce a similar type of all-or-nothing experience. Refusing to be bogged-down with superfluous information, the "just tell me what I need to know for the test" attitutde oftentimes shuts out foundational knowledge. The end-result - declining knowledge and skills - declining test scores - functionally illiterate. It was Thomas Jefferson who once stated "Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government."
God help us.
Intellectual Erosion is Not New
University of Virginia professor E.D. Hirsch has received a considerably amount of criticism over the years regarding his evaluation on the American public education system and the erosion of intellectualism in his 1987 book entitled Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs To Know. Throughout the book, Hirsch asserts that the body of common knowledge is "narrowly confined" to one's generational context, void of any substantial transcendent or cultural knowledge. Hirsh claimed
"…cultural literacy [is] namely, the network of information that all competent readers possess. It is the background information, stored on their minds, that enables them to take up a newspaper and read it with an adequate level of comprehension, getting the point, grasping the implications, relating what they read to the unstated context which alone give meaning to what the read."
Truly literate people do much more with text than decode letters and words - they reflect, contemplate, and connect meaning to an overall body of cultural knowledge. Traditionally, we have looked toward the American public education system to help achieve and maintain this sense of cultural literacy. Examples from Hirsch's list should illustrate his intent (see Appendix A).
Critics of Hirsch commonly label his ideas elitist; giving little to no emphasis on issues of the classic "race, class, or gender struggles" throughout human existence and American history in particular. Moreover, Hirsch's "provisional list" of literary elements consists of names, dates, and events which perpetuate the classic "top-down" narrative of a white society in which students whom may have little genuine need for such hoity-toity gobbledy-gook would have no real practical use thereof. Such inflammatory commentaries are common among academic circles, especially in the K-12 system where one may be quick to point out the socioeconomic and racial disparity among the elites and the masses. Rather than helping students learn (in some cases, memorize) information, constructivist educators promote student reflection, finding his or her own personal connection or meaning to curriculum, or disregard content that does not present any significant relevancy to the student's personal experience. Despite the positive results of Hirsch's CORE Knowledge schools across the country (effective, but by no means the "magic bullet"), students are losing out on obtaining an appropriate education. Such is the modern public school in America.
Stick it to the Man
There is a great irony among Hirsch's critics, for they seem to have failed to realize that they have created their own "list" of concepts, names, and dates for a new liberal post-modern sense of cultural literacy (see Appendix B). This "new and improved" cultural literacy is designed to "stick it to the man," a.k.a. the Corporate White Anglo-Saxon Christian Man and his Female lackey. Rather than teaching students about the grand political experiment where Enlightenment ideals were applied to a government of laws rather than men; instead of learning about the rich history that all Americans should rightfully take ownership and pride, students are made to feel guilty about being Americans. Guilt by association - guilt by the sins of the Founding Father, whose greed and elitist ambition established a legacy that continues to marginalize women, black, latino, Asian, and Native Americans by a "few men." The reality is that one list is being replaced by another. Hirsh's pointed and scholarly observation and analysis of the decline of American literacy has received a full salvo from those who maintain that (despite the decline in academic proficiency and literacy) public education works. Rather than addressing the true nature of the problem (intellectual apathy), the liberal response seems to be more money - more money - more money with a strong dose of revisionism.
There is no "magic bullet" to fix the public education system. However grim a picture the status quo, it can become worse. People such as E.D. Hirsch whose ideas do not toe-the-line with the liberal educational intelligentsia are bound to the shackles of criticism and, as in the case of Hirsch, made into a pariah while the real culprits skate away as victims of the broken system.
Appendix A
Entries for History
The Assumption: Literate Americans should know the following…
Appendix B
The Liberal's New and Improved List of Cultural Literacy
The Assumption: This is what Americans should really know…
| oppressed | Marginalized | Victim |
| You're okay | I'm okay | The Man (not okay) |
| Group | Race | Class |
| ACLU | Choice | gender |
| Glass Ceiling | Racism | Redistribute Wealth |
| Top 1% | Equity | O.J. |
| That Woman | The government ought to… | Right-Wing Conspiracy |
| Self-esteem | I-statements | Multicultural |
| relativism | gender | Herstory |
| Partner | spiritual | Church corruption |
| Definition of "is" | Multiple perspectives | Not my president |
| Ray Nagin | Rodney King | Women's History |
| "W" | It's about oil | WMD |
| Founding Fathers | elitist | Slave owners |
| Freemasons | Rush | Feminist |
| Right to Choose | Hollywood | Rich Liberals |
| Gay marriage | Michael Moore | Harry Belafonte |
Why Have Schools Failed? is contributed by PAI's Senior Editor on Education. © PAI 2006.