Secondary Education
Leonard Magruder
05/16/2005
Hiding
it away on back pages, newspapers across the country tried to keep the
nation from the latest bad news about education, news that should have
been on front pages everywhere. Both local newpapers, such as The Lawrence Journal-World, and national newspapers, such as U.S.A.
Today, barely mentioned the results of the latest national reading
tests by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Based on the
testing of 270,000 students, the results showed that only one third of
students in the three grades tested, fourth, eighth and 12th,
were up to profiency standards in reading. Among high school seniors, 36%
were proficient, down from 40% in 1998. One third of the students in
fourth, eighth and 12th grades can not show even a basic understanding of
civics at their grade level. Three out of four fourth graders could not
name which part of government passes laws. Half of all 12th graders asked
to pick an ally in World War II picked Italy, Germany, or Japan.
In
the last international competition in science and math, American students
placed 19th. We are reminded of the famous “Nation at Risk” conclusion
of 1981, “If a foreign power had done anything to us like this we would
consider it an act of war.” No society can survive a failure of
education such as we are experiencing.
Said
Education Secretary Rod Paige of the poor results, “There are no
scientific answers.”
There
are definitely scientific answers as to why these results are so poor. It
can be found in a number of books. A good example is Dumbing Down our Kids by Charles Sykes of Wisconsin Research. Some
of the quotes in this article are from this book. But generally it is the
leftist philosphy of life embraced by the National Education Association,
a philosophy hostile towards the predominant democratic and
Judeo-Christian values of the West that is the primary culprit. This
philosophy is essentially the same one used to betray the sacrifices of
our soldiers in Vietnam in the 60’s. It is also the source of
totalitarian ideas being spread on today’s campuses by those in the
social sciences and humanities as found in multiculturalism, speech codes,
political correctness, and gender feminism.
Following
are some of the techniques being used in our schools that research show
have failed.
1)
“Grades pit students against one another,” complains Outward
Bound education expert William Grady, “implying that achievement and
success are inherently comparative and competitive.” (which, of course,
they are, as is life) He sees the issue of grades in terms of “class
struggle.” This reflects the continuing influence of Marxist thought on
American education, stemming from the radical movements of the 60’s.
2)
In reading and literature, as a result of “multiculturalism,”
selection of reading material continues to be based almost entirely on
gender, race, and class, rather than through literary merit.
3)
Textbooks become more simple each year, designed to ensure
“success” in reading and contributing to “self-esteem.” (In spite
of the fact that over 100 studies show no correlation between
“self-esteem” and achievement.) In these texts, multiculturalists,
primarily feminists, in their hostility to the democratic and religious
values of the West, are rewriting history. In one well known study at New
York University of 90 such texts, only five dealt with any patriotic
theme. In 30 pages on the Pilgrims there is no reference to their
religious concerns. Martin Luther King Jr. is mentioned in but one text
but without mentioning that he was a pastor or that black churches played
a key role in the civil rights struggle. There is no question but what the
leftist philosophy that gave us multiculturalism is racist. As the noted
liberal historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. once wrote of multiculturalism,
“The result can only be the fragmentation, resegregation, and
tribalization of America.”
4)
Students who misspell words are considered “independent
spellers” by their teachers and correcting them a stifling of their
“creativity” and damaging to their “self-esteem.” Spelling need
only be approximate to be accepted. Semi-literate, ungrammatical, run-on
sentences are also tolerated as multiculturalist philosophy seeks to free
students from the “restraints” of the English language.
5)
Although research has shown it to be a bad practice, pressures
throughout the nation to create “inclusive” classrooms force teachers
to teach honor students at the same pace as students who are deficient in
even the most simple academic tasks. Said one educator, Lloyd Hasting of
Texas, “The ability grouping of students in a democratic society is
ethically unacceptable. We need not justify this with research. It is a
statement of principle, not science.” Research doesn’t count, only
ideology.
6)
Dropping of class rankings—the movement to end distinctions,
honors, and valedictorians. Said one educator, “Excellence reflects an
outmoded white male culture of vertical (i.e. logical) thinking.” A Pol
Pot approach to education, making everyone equal by ensuring that nobody
knows anything. (is dead) “All have won and all must have prizes.”-
the Dodo Bird in Alice in Wonderland.
7)
“Authentic assessment,” substituting scrapbooks and the
collection of items for exams that require correct, and therefore
gradable, answers. Grading is viewed by multiculturalists as “unfair,
undemocratic, and racist,” reflecting “class struggle.”
8)
Massive grade inflation, designed to encourage “self-esteem.”
The juxtaposition of inflated grades with declining SAT scores clearly
exposes the deception being practiced on students and parents. Grade
inflation creates an illusory gap between where students think they stand
and what their actual achievements are. They drift towards failure, and
nobody will tell them the truth. Said Peggy McIntosh, professor of social
science at Wellesley and a leading multiculturalist, “The emphasis on
right/wrong answers is a culturally oppressive idea and unfair to minority
students.” This is racist to the core. Said Jamie Escalante, the
legendary math teach of Los Angeles, “Ideas like this are the kiss of
death for minority youth and will significantly stall the advancement of
minorities.” Again, the underlying racist thrust of multiculturalism is
obvious.
9)
Writing papers as a group rather than individually, unfair to the
better students who do all the work. The better students resent having to
explain everything to students who don’t listen, resent the time taken
from their own studies and feel used. Said one educator, reflecting his
leftist philosophy, “a student reading all alone is a bad example for
other students, if not anti-social, it is at least self-indulgent and
elitist.”
10)
Most students are already the victims of the “look-say”
approach to reading in spite of massive research that shows the clear
superiority of phonics. Rudolph Flesch warned that the abandonment of
phonics was a “time-bomb” primed to wreck educational havoc on the
nation’s schools. Four decades and the “Nation at Risk” report have
vindicated his warnings.
11)
Research shows that the psychological-conditioning courses in high
schools (sex education, values clarification, affective education, death
education, drug and alcohol education, etc.) stemming from the naive
humanistic psychology of Rogers, Maslow, and Kohlberg, etc., are resulting
in increased rates of drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancies, rape,
violence, racism, and suicide. (Univ. of Toledo, Stanford Univ., Allan
Guttmacher Institute, Harris Poll, etc.)
12)
For some decades now, schools have sought to undermine national
pride. Children do not know the Pledge
of Allegiance, nor the words to the National
Anthem. References to religion and its role in Western civilization
have been systematically deleted, with America consistently portrayed as
the spoiler of the planet, an international bully, and the source of all
famine, war, and pestilence.
This
is the direct product of the leftist and Marxist agenda that is
tyrannizing contemporary education. The fault is not with the teachers, it
is with the social scientists in our universities who design these
approaches to education, and the National Education Association that
promotes them. Following is a report from the battlefield of the left’s
war on black children. Note the reference to the Vietnam War as the excuse
the left used to impose this racist horror on minorities (from FrontPageMag):
“I
spent 30 years in the Philadelphia public schools teaching high school.
When I began in 1965 the school was integrated and the students in my
French class read Victor Hugo and Molière. When I escaped in 1995 there
wasn’t a shred of knowledge, decency or honesty left in anyone’s
heart, soul or brain, be it administrator, teacher or student. As you well
know, 1968 was the cut-off point, like B.C. and A.D. (Before
Counter-Culture and After Devastation). You went to bed one night with one
set of values in place and you woke up in a strange new world. It was
exactly like “The Invasion of the Body Snatcher.” Human beings had
mutated over night into apostles of socialized education—the concept
that education was a right, free from any attendant responsiblities. This
meant caving in to every demand, no matter how outrageous, emanating from
the most infantile and hate-filled kids one could possibly imagine. By
1972 the school was entirely Black and firmly entrenched in an
irreversible policy of passing the greatest number even if they had no
skills. This was presumably some sort of reparation for the past cruelties
to Blacks and some sort of redemption for “ racist America who was
waging a racist war in Vietnam.” In the classroom, we all began fighting
for our survival in the same way—by pandering to the kids, appeasing
them and diluting difficult subject matter on their behalf. The behavior
in the classroom was out of control. Many teachers knew this was wrong but
they put their heads in the sand and never came up for air. Many left the
system—there was a mass exodus out of teaching back in the seventies.
Sometimes a voice would be raised but the iron curtain of political
correctness stifled all attempts to establish honest discourse among
“professionals.” It was no longer a profession but a type of dull
ritual devoid of meaning. My school was typical of the many once excellent
city schools that fell into depravity over the 30 year period.
[Note:
for the full Comment
submitted by Agatha in regards to blog entry: The left's war on black
children, click on the link.]
As
for the anti-Americanism and lack of values that pervades contemporary
education, William Bennett, former Sec. of Education, in his recent book, Why
We Fight, wrote this:
For
forty years, leading educators and intellectuals have been saying and
writing and teaching that the United States was no better and might even
be worse than its enemies, that Western civilization was a mask under
which one crime after another has been visited upon the poorer nations of
the world, and that good and evil themselves are a matter of perspective,
if not mere opinion. Some of the noblest ideas ever framed by the mind of
man, including democracy, patriotism, honor, and freedom, have been
systematically drained of meaning.
The
attacks on patriotism, honor, and freedom began, of course, those forty
years ago with the effort by our academics to defeat our goals in Vietnam.
With those who served out of the country the university had an open field
to expand on, until now whole disciplines are dominated by leftist
thinking. As the former radical David Horowitz recently wrote, “The
American university is now nothing but a hugh patronage machine for the
Left.” But we see now that this has weakened our country to the point
where all of us are in danger. This corruption in education must be
challanged and reversed. The logical leaders in calling for such reform
should be our Vietnam vets, many of them now professors. It is they who
know about patriotism, honor, and freedom. As Thomas Sowell, the noted
Afro-American scholar at Stanford and national columnist wrote to me on
Sept. 19, 1998, “Academic reform is necessary, and no one has more moral
authority to demand that they clean up their act than those who put their
lives on the line for this country.” And anyone against racism must
obviously also be in the forefront of this struggle.
Be
sure to read our Manifesto
of Student Liberation from Leftist Tyranny.
***
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Leonard Magruder
Founder/President, V.V.A.R.
Phone: 785-312-9303
Magruder44@aol.com
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