The Dumbing Down Of America

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it." — Benjamin Franklin

How many times have we seen those “man-on-the street” interviews when the interviewer will select people at random and ask them questions about history, civics or current events? Each time we see them we get a good belly laugh at the ignorance expressed by some of those interviewed. They can’t answer simple questions about our government or history. These interviews are always good for a laugh or two. I have written about this issue in my blogs several times as it this same phenomenon applies to college entrance and graduating students. Click here and here for those blogs.

The main reason these students entering college have such a poor base of knowledge of our history and government is the dumbing down of our government education system. Before continuing reading this blog please watch the video shown below.

This video was made at a middle-class Seattle high school and is no doubt a comprehensive report on the status of or high school student’s knowledge of history and government. However, it does reflect the claim of the 2008 study by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

I am sure had the interviewer asked these students questions about the latest pop song or entertainment idol they would have done much better. But when it comes to history, math, geography, civics or our Constitution they fail miserably. I am also sure that students in private schools or home schooled would do much better.

The educational philosophy, curriculum and testing is dumbed down to a point of realizing our children, who are bright and eager to learn, are being "numbed-down" intellectually. Why? I believe for two reasons. First, educators are required to teach to the level of the least prepared and least capable student in the classroom and, second, the curriculum has been rewritten to satisfy those who seek control and despise the history of this nation and what it truly stands for, i.e., the only true bastion of freedom in the world.

There are school districts where 50% of the girls are pregnant and have 1 to 3 children before they graduate (if they do). These same students come from mostly, one parent households and look for the welfare money to support their children and their habits. Most of them have less than a 4th grade reading level, as verified by counselors in that district. They have been "Socialized" to the point that they no longer have any desire or thought of urgency to make something of themselves; contributors to society. Their main goal is to get the welfare check from a governmental society corrupt with socialism for the past 50 to 100 years.

These same students are now 4th and 5th generation welfare recipients. It doesn't take more than the sense of a soda cracker to know which political philosophy engenders dependency on the Federal, State and Local Governments.

Counselors have broken down and weep because they have little if anything to turn to, to change the system. They spend most of their days disciplining, where allowed to, the students for whom they have stewardship. Teachers Have left school systems in New York, Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and other metropolitan areas because they weren't allowed to discipline students and who feared for their lives.

Most of the teachers who remain are union dregs ridding out their tenure until their cushy retirement. They really don’t care about education or the future of the nation. They just care about their union protected job and their retirement. Oh yes, there are those few who try to swim upstream and do what they were trained to do – educate. But, they are thwarted at every turn by union rules, government regulations, non-supportive administrations and school boards, students and parents who cannot read, write or speak English and above all parents who don’t give a damn.

After all these government schools are free. The books are free, the breakfast and lunches are free and there is no accountability for results. Many of these students come from homes where they do not pay property taxes and therefor have no stake in the education system. I am sure if they had to pony up a few bucks their attitude would change when they realized they were getting ripped off.

I own a home and my children have grown and entered the workplace. When they did attend school they went to a private parochial school so I paid double. I paid for my children’s education and I also paid for the government schools, as did many other parents who chose the same course, because we were forced to. We were not even allowed to use the public school buses because of the ACLU, but we paid for them. We were really ripped off, but could do nothing about it.

Each morning I watch children in my neighborhood trundle off to middle and high school looking like street urchins. They dress like they are off to an Occupy Wall Street meeting or rock concert. Baggy pants hanging to the ground, girls in shorts and skirts that would embarrass a pole dancer. How can children learn if they do not have the discipline to be cognizant of their personal appearance and dignity? What are their parents thinking?

Study after study have found that students attending private schools (and some public schools) where there a strict dress codes do much better academically then their slovenly cousins in who come to school as they please.

Our schools are becoming a training ground for indolence, stupidity, and governmental dependency for daily sustenance and anti-intellectual breeding. I could write a book on what I've heard and experienced for the past 45 years while supporting government schools with tip of a government spear in my butt; but, most of it would be negative. My limited association with educators for the most part, has been positive. However, these same people feel absolutely helpless because they are not allowed to teach the truth about history, science, language arts or any other discipline.

They, to keep employed, teach the "numb-them-down" philosophy as dictated by the Feds and too many state and local governments and; above all the NEA and other such organizations. Teachers unions have had nothing but a corruptible almost contemptible affect both financially and morally upon those for whom they are supposed to serve. May God help us, but he won't unless we help ourselves first!