In this op-ed from the New York Times Jessica Grose makes some interesting points but I don’t think she’s pointing in quite the right direction. Here’s the kernel of her piece:
In an overview of issues from the 2018 midterms, Pew Research didn’t include education when surveying voters about what they considered “very big†problems; the closest one mentioned was “affordability of a college education.†In Pew’s 2022 midterm overview, however, education ranked sixth, with 58 percent of registered voters saying it’s a matter that’s “very important†to them. This election year, according to Pew, voters care more about education than abortion, immigration and climate change. (Notably, this poll was conducted during the first two weeks of August, after Roe v. Wade was overturned.)
All of this dovetails with what the longtime pollster and communications analyst Frank Luntz, known for his work with Republican candidates and campaigns, has been hearing in focus groups over the past couple of years: Many children are still reeling from the challenges of the pandemic, and not all parents have faith that the public school system can help their kids recover. “I’ve done work with so many education reform efforts, and parents just felt forgotten,†he said.
Luntz added that some parents say: “It’s my number one issue, my major source of frustration. I’m furious at the Democrats for turning it into an ideological issue and at the Republicans for dropping it, and for turning to other things.†Even if they don’t change their votes, they are moving with their feet: A recent survey cited by The 74 found: “Between spring 2021 and spring 2022, there was a 9 percent drop in families saying their children are enrolled in traditional public schools.â€
and
While I think the leaching of trust in public education may not be so dire that it determines something like control of Congress, Luntz isn’t so sure. “It’s not slow. It’s fast,†he said. “That is the difference between you writing the story three years ago and you writing the story today. They were losing faith in 2020, 2019; they lost faith in 2022. That is a very important distinction.â€
So, has the public school system lost the faith of the American people? I have long believed (and written) that the schools have a split personality. Are they a method of educating children or are they a strategy for employing adults? I certainly don’t believe that you can shutter the schools for months at a time and accomplish the first objective which leaves the second one.
Furthermore, as the percentage of adults with children declines, how long do you expect support for public schools to be as high as it traditionally has been?
Add all of these factors together and I think we may be nearing a tipping point.
For 60 years, our colleges of education have imposed one lunatic idea after another on our children. They stopped teaching phonics, then cursive writing, then arithmetic, then geography, then social studies, then history…
I have sisters 8 years younger than me who cannot spell. I have nieces and nephews who cannot do long division. Nobody under 30 can write cursive or do arithmetic beyond simple addition.
Lost confidence???!!! JHC!! You can make a valid argument that each and every college of education should be forcibly suppressed. That no one with any kind of education degree should be licensed to teach.
The educational systems of our enemies, especially Russia and China, are infinitely superior to our own. Their populations are being prepared to rule the future. American children are being prepare to serve them. Does anyone remember that once upon a time it was illegal to teach black slaves to read? Does anyone remember why?
bob sykes: cursive writing
They don’t teach Greek anymore either. Mr. Chips would be appalled.
bob sykes: long division.
Lots of jobs in long division.
Arithmetic is done by computers nowadays. They do teach some arithmetic, but mostly they teach about abstraction and problem solving, because that’s actually useful in a computerized world.
bob sykes: then geography, then social studies, then history
Well, checking New York State’s K-12 curriculum, under social studies, they teach the history of the United States and New York, world history, geography, economics, civics, citizenship, and government. Under English language, they teach reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
“Are they a method of educating children or are they a strategy for employing adults?”
Think of all the staff that has been added to all levels of education and you have your answer. However, its no different in other government endeavors. Do we get dollars into the hands of the poor, or hire legions of people to administer programs?
I could write for an hour….
“Are they a method of educating children or are they a strategy for employing adults?”
Think of all the staff that has been added to all levels of education and you have your answer. However, its no different in other government endeavors. Do we get maximum dollars into the hands of the poor, or hire legions of people to administer programs?
I could write for an hour….
Two hours apparently.
Steve
The way people were complaining about kids being held out of school I am guessing that we are a long ways away from loss of confidence. People have always rated their own teachers highly while downgrading education as a whole. Bob’s sister cant spell but my son does higher level calculus in his head. Physics too, though having started grad school at MIT I notice he still uses a computer, like everyone else. Maybe its the genetics and not the schooling?
Steve
“Maybe its the genetics and not the schooling?”
So happy to hear you married a smart woman……….. 🙂
There has been some regulatory capture where the teacher unioins have backed candidates for elected/appointed school boards. Who refuse to listen to parents concerned about honor roll requirements, football season, and hide behind jargon, cant and at times word salad. So you wind up with what happened in Virginia, bilateral frustration and anger, an electoral issue, helped the Rs win one and lead in turn to the President calling the parents domestic terrorists.
In more bucolic settings the board does arrange the holiday season to fit in the start of deer season, and generally tries to follow the herd.
The quality of a child’s education still resides in the teaching skills and quality of the person instructing the child. However, as time goes on, the curriculum demanded by the government has gone far afield from ordinary “reading, writing, and arithmetic†requirements. Instead, greater time is spent on social justice constructs, gender orientation, racial topics, equity vs equally indoctrination etc. IOW, teaching appears to revolve more around indoctrination not education.
A greater number of teachers seem to be on board, too, with this educational shift, led by dogmatic teacher unions. Parents, once encouraged to involve themselves in their child’s education are now encouraged to stay out of it – leaving it up to government schools to determine what is best and appropriate for their children. Such a hands-off policy has gone so far, in some schools, as to eliminate a parent’s consent on the type of material taught/read, as well as consent for health protocols such as vaccines or birth control.
What blew the cover, though, off of education’s role in our children’s lives were the COVID stay-at-home lesson plans, illustrating how left of center schools had become. It was a chilling moment for many, one that re-awoke a desire to dissent at school board meetings and retake control over their kids education. Not only is there a public revolt at these school boards, but there is a greater demand for school choice, charter schools and homeschooling.
By diverting students away from government factory schools – one’s that literally churn out illiterate activists – less funding will be available to schools and teacher unions who are always asking for more money, while delivering less qualified students entering the adult world.
Don’t forget, most people absolutely need schools as babysitters, whatever they pretend to teach.
I think this is both right and wrong. The education system is not a national system, despite the desires of some and the existence of the DOE. Circumstances vary widely between states and within states.
There is a huge difference between my current school district, which has regular schools, charter schools, alternative schools, an online school, and a hybrid school, and what passes for public education in central Baltimore. Here there isn’t a huge demand for private schools, vouchers, and school choice because most of the options that people want are already built into the system.
I think the risk is that education is very much a creature of fads. Right now there are some fads being followed at schools all over the country which are not just undermining education but undermining the foundations of the country.
“So happy to hear you married a smart woman……….. 🙂”
That’s what the wife says!
Steve
Steve