Are Schools Being 'Dumbed Down'?

 

Q. Are critics just being mean-spirited, or is the curriculum in today's schools actually inferior to what past generations of Americans had?

 

            For the bottom half of the student body, it's probably a little better. But for the top half, it's definitely worse, and this has been well-documented by numerous studies and books. It gets a little scary, since the less literate and sharp-thinking a nation's citizens are, the more perilous and shaky their future is.

 

            You can see the dumbing-down, though, in the longitudinal (over time) charts of test scores, especially those of the top tiers of students. They are stagnant or in decline, despite enormous increases in funding, and this is especially perplexing since most standardized tests have removed a lot of the more rigorous sections in recent years. Naturally, public-school districts want to purchase the standardized tests that make their students look good, so naturally, they're inclined to choose the easiest tests, that are closely matched to their curriculum, making it easier to "teach to the test." If the textbooks are dumbed down because of lower academic abilities among students, the test scores wouldn't show it. That's why it's even more disturbing that test scores aren't a lot higher than they are.

 

            You can see it in the quality of the assigned books at the secondary level; the vast majority of even college-preparatory students can't handle the vocabulary and complexity of classic literature any more. If you don't read great books, you're a lot less likely to think great thoughts. But what is considered "grade level" in reading is several grade levels lower than it used to be.

 

            You can definitely see it in the poor to mediocre spelling skills of the vast majority of high-school graduates, and their inability to do even basic math without a calculator.

 

            How did this happen? Most analysts blame it on the fact that our nation has government monopoly schools, and we let them put in place Outcome-Based Education. In the 1980s and '90s, around the country, the philosophy that we need to set minimum standards for learning in our schools came into vogue. Educators set those standards - "outcomes" - and put them into state law coast to coast. Test companies prepared tests aligned to those standards. Teachers were trained to deliver the content that would allow students to meet those standards. All well and good - except they are MINIMUM standards. There's no incentive for exceeding them. So now we have a situation where no child shall be left behind . . . but no child shall be allowed to get ahead, either.

 

            Other dumbing-down influences include the removal of phonics-only reading instruction in favor of the sight reading techniques of Whole Language . . . the mandated inclusion of special-education students in the regular classroom who can't help making noise and disrupting concentration . . . the mandated enrollment of non-English speaking pupils, many of them illegal aliens, whose labor-intensive learning needs suck away educator attention from the rest of the school . . . misidentification of instructionally-caused reading difficulty as "attention deficit disorder" and mass prescription of Ritalin, which has been shown to reduce creativity . . . an anti-excellence, anti-competition philosophy imposed by educators, many of whom were not high achievers in school themselves, who have mostly eliminated valedictorians, spelling bees and meaningful Honor Rolls in most public schools. Today twice as many A's are given out as C's; a few decades ago, it was the other way around.

 

            Of course there are still many, many hard-working, dedicated professional teachers who strive to individualize curriculum so that bright kids are still challenged and engaged. But that's getting harder and harder. And of course there are many, many parents who fail to discipline their kids and send tough-to-teach, ill-behaved little monsters with bad attitudes to school - that is, if they make them show up at all.

 

            What's to be done?  A lot of people think we ought to give up on the public schools, let parents place their children in private schools with educators whose philosophies they agree with, homeschool them, or some combination, apart from government-run schools. They say the mandates are out of control and have ruined any real chance of productivity and improvement in public schools.

 

            That's the conclusion of John Taylor Gatto, a 26-year veteran of teaching in Manhattan's public schools, honored as the New York State Teacher of the Year, whose book, Dumbing Us Down, has sparked a revolution in the formation of alternative models of education, including his association with the multicultural Albany Free School (www.albanyfreeschool.com), and a vigorous speaking schedule around the country.

 

Homework: The book, Dumbing Down Our Schools by Charles Sykes documents the ravages of Outcome-Based Education. You can download The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, an eBook, for free on www.deliberatedumbingdown.com Also read this article: http://www.nysun.com/article/48342

By Susan Darst Williams • www.GoBigEd.com • In the Classroom 117 • © 2007