THIS IS UTTERLY DEPRESSING
THIS IS UTTERLY DEPRESSING Marianne Jennings at JWR has a column up today that has to be the bleakest indictment of our public schools I have ever read. Sadly, I think she’s probably right and many public school teachers are likely to agree with her assessment.
Schools languish in an untenable position. Forced to solve societal and family problems, they feed their charges breakfast and lunch, foist studying upon them, and spend untold paper and hours checking for books and pencils. Content is a pipe dream. Arizona test scores show that there is little discernible improvement after eighth grade.
Nothing short of military academy discipline can halt public education’s decline. Teachers and administrators are babysitters for slackers and delinquents who need home support. To cope, they dumb down the curriculum. Parents who are actively engaged with their children will teach them at home or seek private schools as public schools continually lower the bar, catering to dregs they cannot motivate. If further stratification of society was the goal of public education, I pronounce it an unqualified success.