Who Do We Have To Blame?

Consider the following quote:

"In Maryland, the April 1999 Business Climate
Survey reported that half of the 250
businesses surveyed said workers with only a
high school education lacked basic
education skills and did not behave
responsibly in the workplace."

Anyone who goes through a check out line
knows that!

We have no one to blame but ourselves for
allowing progressive education ideology to
take over our schools. The "child centered"
or "student centered" school advocates have
relentlessly attacked basic skills and school
environments that encourage student
responsibility.

Homework is derided as busy work and useless.
The assignments that are given are routinely
accepted late by teachers. Many teachers
have given up having any real consequences
for not turning in homework. Teachers are
warned that consequences are not compatible
with "child centered" learning.

Parents do not escape blame either, for they
will routinely undermine the teacher, and
even call or write a note to the teacher to
give excuses why their child didn't have his
work done (as if this adds credibility),
further eroding any chance that that their
child will develop a work ethic. Teachers
know that if they try to uphold a standard
that parents do not support, their
administrator will never back them up, and
the teachers will be ordered to give in.

Progressive child centered educrats unleash
most of their venom on the teaching of basic
skills. They decry the teaching of History,
Mathematics, English, and Science as "mere
facts", "rote learning" and "not relevant",
when nothing could be further from the truth.

Instead, child centered schools teach "fuzzy"
math, "invented spelling", how to be "life-
long learners" (yet learn little in school),
"life skills", non-specific process skills,
how to share your feelings with strangers,
and how to have high self-esteem when you are
unable to read, write, or add.

So who do we have to blame?

Beacon
7/11/00

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