The recent forays into public a course in miracles reform from the No Child Left Behind Act, the Core Curriculum mandate, and standardize tests have all placed public education on notice that once again our policy decision makers have continued their assault on education. All they have done has resulted in a educational system that continues to fail our youth. From the mainstream Republican stance of what they have done in issuing these mandates they literally shoved down the public’s throats misguided attempts at education reform. This is nothing more than political expediency. What has been occurring with all these mandates is a continuation of glossing over the real underlying problems facing education in this country. If education was run like a business there would be far more accountability and structure in our public schools today. But, like everything else our most stupendous governmental officials have done is thrown tax dollars down the toilet. Meanwhile our youth are far worse off today in educational standards compared to the rest of the world.
Someone once said just recently that teachers alone cannot change conditions in our schools. The only way to gain back the supremacy we had in educational standards that prevailed in the 1950’s and early 1960’s will take nothing short of a revolution. When we take a good hard look at the landscape of America today we find that the US is indeed fractured. In one hand we have the wealthiest few who control the all too powerful politicians, Those self serving bureaucrats continue to overlook the obvious distress that the majority of Americas are wallowing in. Then there is the majority of the population, those multitudes wallowing in desperation hoping that somehow someday soon things will get better. Meanwhile our youth, the future generations of Americans continue to suffer the consequences of failed educational mandates and initiatives by a political system that by its own nature fails to grasp what really is needed to reverse the effects of years of meddling in educational policies that worked for decades prior to the late 1960’s.
The one key component in education reform where students in all grade levels are able to succeed is always overlooked by our illustrious bureaucrats. When we really take a close look into America today we find their are so many children just like Bob and Jane Smith. Brother and sister both are sixth graders at Roosevelt Elementary. Typical children, but what their teachers didn’t know until latter their parents lost their home when Mr. Smith got laid off and the bank foreclosed. For over a year the Smiths have had to live in a two bedroom apartment in a not so nice area. And, with only one income, a minimum wage job at Walmart many a night Bob and Jane don’t get enough to eat let alone the proper vitamins and nutrition they both need during the day. When we really stop to think what is actually occurring all across the country today it is unconscionable to think that over one third of the countries school age children are literally starving. The fact of the matter is nutrition really does play the most vital role in a child’s growth and development. But, what is so disconcerting is the fact that those policy makers fail to take into account that food, nutrition, vitamins and minerals are essential for not only physical development and health but are necessary for mental growth and mental health in every human being.
When schools today are judged solely on test scores the prevailing contention is that poverty should never be an excuse for poor academic achievement still remains the stance of policy makers. And, as long as test scores are at par our policy makers continue to be unconcerned if the pantries are bare, the parents jobless or worse yet in jail and the gap between the rich and poor is more appalling than it’s been since 1929. We now have a whole society of mounting inequality, where the wealthiest few totally ignore, are too blind to see and just plain oblivious to the harsh reality facing countless millions of children each and every day.
Food insecurity of our nations youth continues to undermine this nations ability to compete in an ever increasing global economy. But, it is not the only factor the has diminished this nations education prominence. When the Common Core Curriculum was implemented in so many states it dismantled many of the founding building blocks in elementary and secondary education that stood as the standard for over 100 years. This, regardless of all the new technology integrated into school systems still will have an adverse effect on generations of our youth. Take for example cursive writing. It is now obsolete in the minds of so many school boards. Their rational is why spend time learning penmanship where today all you need is a computer keyboard. The time spent on penmanship now can be used for more useful subjects that are more relevant to today. As many of us remember it was a right of passage for generations learning how to write. Signing your name is just one of the most useful tools we use today as adults.
This is only the tip of the iceberg in education reform that is already taking it’s toll on our nations youth. When one walks into any public school in Anytown USA many a baby boomer is quite shocked to see what is actually going on in our schools. All one has to do is read the latest paper to find that another school age student was bullied actually to death. Never before has this country been inundated with so many social crisis that allows public schools to be a haven for so much bulling. A moral crisis has taken over in so many parts of the country. It really does underscore that our public education reforms for the past twenty years and counting has only systematically rendered our public school system at the bottom of the heap in regards to other developed countries around the world.
