Guest Post by Walter E. Williams
The Department of Education just released results of the quadrennial National Assessment of Educational Progress tests in U.S. history, civics and geography given in 2018 to thousands of American eighth-graders: “Grade 8 Students’ NAEP Scores Decline in Geography and U.S. History; Results in Civics Unchanged Since 2014.”
The tests were administered from January to March 2018 to a nationally representative sample of 42,700 eighth-graders from about 780 schools. The news is not very good. Only 24% of students performed at or above the “proficient” level in civics. Worse yet, only 15% scored proficient or above in American history and 25% were proficient in geography. At least 25% of America’s eighth-graders are what NAEP defines as “below basic” in U.S. history, civics and geography. That means they have no understanding of historical and civic issues and cannot point out basic locations on a map.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos referred to the recent national report card as “stark and inexcusable.” She blamed “antiquated” education methods for low test scores among the nation’s eighth-graders. That’s nonsense. I’d bet the rent money that eighth-grade students of earlier periods, say during the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s who were burdened with “antiquated” education methods such as having to learn algebra and geometry, identifying parts of speech and memorizing poems like “Old Ironsides” could run circles around today’s eighth-graders, high school graduates and perhaps some college graduates. I think we need to bring back these authentically antiquated education methods.
Part of the solution to our education problem is given by Dr. Jeffrey Sikkenga, professor of political science and executive director of the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University. He said: “Students need to go back to America’s past and ask it questions, starting with our Founding. They need to study great documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Abraham Lincoln’s ‘Gettysburg Address,’ and Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. Not just read about them in boring textbooks, but read the documents themselves, for themselves. Have great conversations with those great minds — discover for themselves the story of America in the words of those who lived it.”
The school climate, seldom discussed, plays a very important role in education. During the 2017-18 school year, there were an estimated 962,300 violent incidents and 476,100 nonviolent incidents U.S. public schools nationwide. Seventy-one percent of schools reported having at least one violent incident, and 65% reported having at least one nonviolent incident. Schools with 1,000 or more students had at least one sworn law enforcement officer. About 90% of those law enforcement officers carry firearms.
I bet that decades ago, one would be hard put to find either armed or unarmed police officers patrolling the building. For example, between 1950 and 1954, I attended Benjamin Franklin High School in Philadelphia. The only time we saw a police officer in the building was during an assembly where we had to listen to a boring lecture on safety. Today, police patrol the hallways. Another school in north Philadelphia, Strawberry Mansion High School, once had 94 security cameras, six school police officers and two metal detectors. Students had to walk through the metal detectors to enter the building and were often searched by police officers. It was on the list of those most persistently dangerous schools in Pennsylvania.
Aside from violence, there are many instances of outright disrespect for teachers. First- and second-graders telling teachers to “Shut the f— up.” To note the attitude of some school administrators, a New Jersey teacher was seriously assaulted by a student. When she asked her principal to permanently remove the student from her classroom, the principal told her to “put on her big girl panties and deal with it.”
Years ago, the behavior of young people that we see today would have never been tolerated. There was the vice principal’s office where corporal punishment would be administered for gross infractions. If the kid was unwise enough to tell his parents what happened, he might get more punishment at home. Today, unfortunately, we’ve replaced practices that work with practices that sound good and caring, and we’re witnessing the results.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
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The hardest change to make is ‘cultural change’. (Think I’m wrong, when was the last time you made a substantive personal change?)
I can only assume that children of all ages enter the school system with their parent(s) mind set and behaviors. Teachers and administrators have less than 8 hours a day to overcome various ‘home ‘cultures.
The challenge is not new teaching methods, the challenge is overcoming parents’ lack of respect for education – nothing new, new social norms with some cultures (such as using the ‘F’ word or ‘N’ word), and with some social groups, disrespect for roles as police, teachers, or other ethnic groups.
Its the same reason why the US is in Afghanistan for 19 years, our military and Govt bureaucrats can’t change a culture that does not want to change.
Yes it starts with the parents ( one reason black children cannot spell cat even if you give them the c and the a), but also it does not help that a lot of teachers are dumber than a sack of nails, and are brainwashed lefties to boot.
The ‘Common Core’ results made me think of this quote by Blaise Pascal, Pensées
“People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.”
Williams has repeated cited studies that show that education majors score among the lowest of all majors (political science generally score even worse). So THAT is what the government is stealing our money to pay so they can carry out their propaganda efforts for them.
When you make “education” “free,” people put exactly that much value on it (white and black alike). I bet these same parents give a damn about furniture, clothes, etc. that they have paid their own money for. End the entire entitlement welfare state and watch miracles happen. And if charity is to continue (which it should), let it be 100% voluntarily paid for and 100% accountable to these voluntary donors.
Take a top notch public school system copied and studied nationwide (Baltimore City System) and replace all or the majority of administration and student body from white to black and poof instant shithole while pissing more money per student than any other system of similar size !
I don’t know what happened but it’s gone now and there is nothing you can do about it !
You are actually describing 99% of the South’s now Black public school systems. They cannot reform themselves so please support Vouchers and School Choice so that no White and Asian Child is Left Behind anymore.
Vouchers and School Choice maintain the immoral, socialist, violence-based funding mechanism and so are not any better. Additionally, any string that continues to tie any school to the government (and the horrible voters), will eventually be destroyed by mandates, curricula requirements, etc. that will be tied to the money. ONLY the complete abolition of the funding mechanism, and all government-run schools, will truly solve the problem. A diverse, fully competitive marketplace, of private, home, online, charity, co-op, neighborhood, etc. schools is the only thing that will ever deliver the kind of accountable quality education that will meet the needs of all. Government should have ZERO involvement in education. Their 100 years of abject failure make that requirement a no-brainer.
It’s culture alright–black culture…
It was just as bad in the 1960s. In fact, Detroit’s Northeastern High School had a “black students union” that was successful in getting the American flag removed from the front of the school and replacing it with a “black nationalist” flag.
The ordeal that us white students had to go through was harrowing, to say the least. White students did not use the restrooms, as a “beatdown” by multiple blacks was usually the result.
Blacks never fought one-on-one, the “pack mentality” was evident then as is today.
Any attempts by whites to defend themselves was met with indifference, and even outright hostility from school officials. You see, even then, blacks were not “responsible” for their behavior.
Blacks did not want to learn, the same situation that still exists today. Even then, blacks were disruptive. Most of the teachers just shrugged their shoulders, let the disruptions go on until the next class period.
Most of the teachers were deferential to blacks, although there were a few teachers who tried to carefully shield their white and asian students from predatory blacks, giving them additional attention and coursework, knowing that they could excel in spite of the, violent, raucous atmosphere.
Anywhere blacks go, they destroy…
This report card is an indictment of Common Core.
Reading- what a concept. I’m sure many people here recall book reports. Book reports are in the dustbin.
Arithmetic – another subject in the dustbin.
Writing- who needs that when we have tablets and computers. Kids can’t even read cursive and forget about actually using it.
This progress has achieved a nation with no basic skills. No wonder they act like members of the herd.
To the music of “Green Acres”:
Home schooling is the place to be
“Credentialed” teachers can go climb a tree
Self-sufficient is the life for me
Kids learn what’s reality
And that’ll keep them free
Two years to tabulate the results. Any more questions as to why the government should NEVER be allowed to “educate” anyone??
Look at the bright side. The kids are much more proficient in homosexual techniques. They have much better understanding of psychotic individuals who are gender confused. They are really into saving polar bears and other virtue signalling shit.
“They need to study great documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Abraham Lincoln’s ‘Gettysburg Address,’ and Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.”
This statment marks Professor Williams as yet another shill for the like-long plagiarist Michael King Jr. The key passages from his “I Have a Dream” speech were lifted from a 1952 speech by another black preacher Archibald Carey. Most of his doctoral thesis at Boston U. was stolen verbatim from a previous grad student Jack Boozer. In his Graduate Record Exam he scored in the bottom quartile for English and vocabulary and in the lowest ten percent for quantitative analysis. Throughout his career and activist campaigns, King was managed by the communist jew lawyer Stanley Levison.
The nearly universal sanctification of King and the coordinated coverup of his intellectual theft and addiction to White prostitutes is a disgusting testament to the susceptibility of Whites to jew-scripted propaganda and guilt tripping.
There’s always the hidden ((hand)) behind whatever subversive activity is ongoing.