The Progressive Dumbing Down of Education

It really is amazing what people don't know anymore.

This statement is not generation-specific, however. I see this in the kids of today, my parents think that about my generation, my parents' parents believe that about them, and so on. I'm not going to be mean and say that it stands to reason that as time goes on, naturally, there will be more things to be known. And there will ultimately be noone able to know it all. That stands to reason, and I'm not going to beat that dead horse. It would be a non-issue of sorts.

What troubles me, really, is the quality of today's teachers (or lack thereof). I know in Georgia in particular that teachers are in especially short supply for the relative demand. To compensate for this, the standards on what it takes to be a teacher have been lowered, and only compounds the lack of quality teaching. No student should ever walk into a classroom and feel like "Man, I know more than the teacher." Even though these standards are being ratcheted back up, its still a long way back up.

Another thing that has shot the quality of education in the foot is our illustrious leader's "No Child Left Behind" nonsense that has become more of a hinderance than a help. Sounds like "par for the course" for our president. Out of the teachers that I have ever talked to, all it results in is yet more standardized testing that teachers have hve to worry about helping their pupils prepare for and detracts from genuine teaching and learning (for those instructors capable of doing such).

Much of my experience is limited strictly to Georgia, but there is evidence of such problems all over the country. No wonder Georgia is one of the states with the lowest collective SAT scores. No wonder America is producing less and less scientist and engineers thn other countries. We're getting worse and worse in the areas of math and science especially. I guess everyone in America is going to be a millionaire or pop-star and Japan is going to design our TVs and equipment.