‘Shame on us for allowing this to happen’

Read the The Anchoress, “Truthy” SAT’s And “Teaching To The Test,” for a look into the fantasy world and alternate universes that our schools have become.

In her post, The Anchoress discusses an excellent post by Betsy Newmark (link from The Anchoress), in which an MIT professor illustrates how the essay portion of the SAT’s can be gamed. She notes

Good writing skills go hand-in-hand with good reading skills, and with critical thinking. These skills are not really taught any more. Rather, students are being taught “to the test,” and for that, neither thinking nor information need be clear. Like so much of post-modernist bunk, students can meet the trick if they simply learn “the form” of a thing without learning its function or substance.

The Anchoress then goes on to recount an astonishing story told to her by a teacher ‘in the trenches.’

…a teacher pal of mine shared this story with me. While grading a regents exam for Global History she came across one student essay that had her both amused and horrified. “Because essays are subjective, we’re not supposed to consider content in the grading,” she said, “and that’s really correct because you don’t want some teacher grading down an essay simply because she disagrees with, for instance, the religious or political outlook of the student…but this essay! The student began with a standard opening paragraph: ‘throughout global history, da-dah-da-dah-yadda-yadda,’ and she ended with a proper concluding paragraph, ‘in consideration blah, blah, throughout global history, blah, blah…’ but the middle paragraph began: ‘the *** are a filthy, disgusting people and I don’t understand why we had to learn about them…’

The student’s middle was basically a run-down of all the ethnic and religious groups on whom she felt her attention wasted while studying Global History, but with appropriate words here and there tossed in, “indigenous,” “culturally advanced” etc…

Read the rest to see how the story plays out.

In Mamacita On The PC Of Dumbing Down And Why This May Be The Most Important Post You’ll Read All Year, the author of Weekly Scheiss, an accomplished educator, sheds light on reality.

Where did it begin, this ‘dumbing down’ of American education? Because, whether you want to admit it or not, our schools are set up to serve the lowest common denominator, and that is NOT a good thing…

Mamacita alludes to an article by William J Benneta and ends addresses the realities The Anchoress and Besty Newmark highlight. She goes on to pen some of the most extraordinary, frank and insightful words about schools, teachers, parents and students that we have ever read:

We’re heading down a really scary path, and we’re going of our own free will, and we’re being guided by people who want us to remain at the lowest common denominator. Doesn’t that frighten anyone? I think it should.

Our educational system is a national disgrace.

I was forced to dumb down the curriculum and pass failing students when I was in the public school systems, and now I am dealing with the results of that at the college level. And I still maintain that while it is of course, ultimately the lazy spoiled self esteem students’ fault, They were enabled along the way by their ferocious red-shirting parents, who demanded, and generally got, exceptions for any rule, all along the way.

Shame on us for allowing this to happen. Shame on us for catering to the demanding. Shame on us for permitting our kids to be whiny and empty-headed. Shame on us for putting NASCAR on a pedestal and basketball on a throne and letting academics fall by the wayside. Shame on us for sanctioning plagiarism, and hiring lawyers to make sure our kids get the grades we want them to get, whether it’s the grades they’ve earned or not. Shame on us for not making students EARN every single grade they get. EARN. It’s a concept many people don’t even understand. Shame on us for becoming an entitlement culture. Shame on every parent who ever went to school and demanded mercy instead of justice. Or, rather, ‘favors’ instead of justice. Shame on every kid who fudged an assignment and told his parents he was being picked on and THAT’S why his grades are low. And shame on every parent who believed it.

As long as Americans believe they are entitled to good grades and scholarships, and as long as foreigners EARN good grades and scholarships, we’re going to get our asses kicked in academic competition, and we will have EARNED that big bruise and that big “NO” on the admissions form. And once out in the business world, who wants to give their money to a company that can’t even spell the words right on their billboard? Not me, that’s for sure. Misspelling in business? Count your change very, very carefully. They probably can’t do that, either, unless they’ve hired a foreigner to do it right, for them. ‘m sick of it. I’m a loyal American, but I’m not deaf and blind, and we’re going down the tubes, and it all boils down to stupid parents, sissy administrations, ignorant government decisions, feelings of entitlement instead of requirements for hard work, the myth of unearned self esteem and excuses instead of expectations.

Nobody, but nobody, says it better than Mamacita. Read it all here and be sure to read her other guest posts on SC&A.

This marvelous post, was published on Weekly Scheiss is another must read.