The Limits of Learning
“That speaks about who is going to be leading tomorrow.”
So said Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Every three years, the Paris-based OECD holds its Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests of the reading, math, and science skills of 15-year-olds in developing and developed countries. Gurria was talking of the results of the 2009 tests.
Sixty-five nations competed. The Chinese swept the board.
The schools of Shanghai-China finished first in math, reading and science. Hong Kong-China was third in math and science. Singapore, a city-state dominated by overseas Chinese, was second in math, fourth in science.
Only Korea, Japan, and Finland were in the hunt.
And the U.S.A.? America ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science, and 25th in math, producing the familiar quack-quack.
“This is an absolute wake-up call for America,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “We have to face the brutal truth. We have to get much more serious about investment in education.”
But the “brutal truth” is that we invest more per pupil than any other country save Luxembourg, and we are broke. And a closer look at the PISA scores reveals some unacknowledged truths.
True, East Asians — Chinese, Koreans, Japanese — are turning in the top scores in all three categories, followed by the Europeans, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders.
But looking down the New York Times list of the top 30 nations, one finds not a single Latin American nation, not a single African nation, not a single Muslim nation, not a single South or Southeast Asian nation (save Singapore), not a single nation of the old Soviet Union except Latvia and Estonia.
And in Europe as in Asia, the northern countries (Finland, Norway, Belgium, Iceland, Austria, Germany) outscore the southern (Greece, Italy, Portugal). Slovenia and Croatia, formerly of the Habsburg Empire, outperformed Albania and Serbia, which spent centuries under Turkish rule.
Among the OECD members, the most developed 34 nations on earth, Mexico, principal feeder nation for U.S. schools, came in dead last in reading.
Steve Sailer of VDARE.com got the full list of 65 nations, broke down U.S. reading scores by race, then measured Americans with the countries and continents whence their families originated. What he found was surprising.
Asian-Americans outperform all Asian students except for Shanghai-Chinese. White Americans outperform students from all 37 predominantly white nations except Finns, and U.S. Hispanics outperformed the students of all eight Latin American countries that participated in the tests.
African-American kids would have outscored the students of any sub-Saharan African country that took the test (none did) and did outperform the only black country to participate, Trinidad and Tobago, by 25 points.
America’s public schools, then, are not abject failures.
They are educating immigrants and their descendants to outperform the kinfolk their parents or ancestors left behind when they came to America. America’s schools are improving the academic performance of all Americans above what it would have been had they not come to America.
What American schools are failing at, despite the trillions poured into schools since the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, is closing the racial divide.
We do not know how to close the gap in reading, science, and math between Anglo and Asian students and black and Hispanic students.
And from the PISA tests, neither does any other country on earth.
The gap between the test scores of East Asian and European nations and those of Latin America and African nations mirrors the gap between Asian and white students in the U.S. and black and Hispanic students in the U.S.
Which brings us to Bad Students, Not Bad Schools, a new book in which Dr. Robert Weissberg contends that U.S. educational experts deliberately “refuse to confront the obvious truth.”
“America’s educational woes reflect our demographic mix of students. Today’s schools are filled with millions of youngsters, many of whom are Hispanic immigrants struggling with English plus millions of others of mediocre intellectual ability disdaining academic achievement.”
In the public and parochial schools of the 1940s and 1950s, kids were pushed to the limits of their ability, then pushed harder. And when they stopped learning, they were pushed out the door.
Writes Weissberg: “To be grossly politically incorrect, most of America’s educational woes vanish if these indifferent, troublesome students left when they had absorbed as much as they were going to learn and were replaced by learning-hungry students from Korea, Japan, India, Russia, Africa and the Caribbean.”
Weissberg contends that 80 percent of a school’s success depends on two factors: the cognitive ability of the child and the disposition he brings to class — not on texts, teachers or classroom size.
If the brains and the will to learn are absent, no amount of spending on schools, teacher salaries, educational consultants or new texts will matter.
A nation weary of wasting billions on unctuous educators who never deliver what they promise may be ready to hear some hard truths.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by izatrini.com and School Money, Carrie Schneider. Carrie Schneider said: The Limits of Learning: Every three years, the Paris-based OECD holds its Programme for International Student As… http://bit.ly/fKRjoB [...]
Certainly it is correct to say that White people have better outcomes than Blacks and Hispanics. Many Hispanics like earlier European immigrants make slower progress as they master a second language. The Black community has been devastated by decadent America’s great proletarian “sexual revolution,” with upwards of 80% of Blacks now born out of wedlock. One of our old socialist amigos once said, “the point of philosophy is to change not describe the world.” Having taught in the inner city of NY, Boston and Chicago, I can attest to the miserable learning environment, daily violence, and lack of real opportunity for the MILLIONS of minority students trapped in these urban dungeons. Instead of more posturing and bickering, a Christian nation should be figuring out what it would require to address and improve this situation.
david Peterson wrote:
“a Christian nation should be figuring out what it would require to address and improve this situation.”
Not that you are susceptible to this riposte, david, but when I see this argument coming from so many others—whether made expressly or just impliedly—I just have to laugh: “Christian” nation?
With the convenient exception of those initiatives in favor of giving away ever more of the taxpayers money, go and try to argue in favor of any other as being the “Christian” thing to do and you’ll be lucky to come away with your head.
E.g., oh absolutely, we are constantly told for instance, as the “Christian” thing to do we simply *must* throw open our borders and extend social benefits to illegal aliens, and etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum.
Come to things like, oh, abortion, or public funding of indecent art or etc. though, and my God the spittle that’s gonna be directed your way by openly mentioning “Christian” values.
As the saying goes … nice work if you can get it: Use Christianity for whatever ends you like that it might advance, but then of course sneer it under the table otherwise.
I also have to note another little discontinuity I see concerning where all the multiculturalists run to when this kind of subject turns up. Gee, that is, how come when it comes to just *some* behaviors we are supposed to turn our heads and ignore same because it’s a manifestation of “multiculturalism?” On the other hand though when it comes to the idea that maybe we ought not spend ever more money to try to rectify the situation because some cultures just don’t seem to place very much value on education … well gosh, one doesn’t hear the slightest peep about how *this* is just another facet of multiculturalism too and ought just be ignored.
Once again, nice work if you can get it.
The schools have to start disciplining, failing and expelling students again, and the use of schools for social engineering must be stopped. Hard achievement standards need to be reimposed.
No more “social promotion”, automatic diplomas or cakewalk degrees. It may take 15 or 20 years to get back to where we were, but we can do it.
I think John Taylor Gatto is right: The system produces what it was designed to produce.
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm
Pat Buchanan is right on this, and so is Dr. Robert Weissberg. I’m not sure, however, if they know why they’re right.
If we can–and, I know most liberals and conservatives can’t–let’s forget race, class and ethnicity for a second, and consider this: the decline in U.S. educational standards and results began in the 1950′s–the same time as America began its conversion from an industrial economy to a post-industrial one. Once children were raised to be producers in an industrial economy; after 1945, they were raised to be professional consumers. (The fact that the shopping mall has replaced the playground as the center of American teenage life says it all.)
The result was a new generation, and subsequent generations, had no reason to value education (beyond its prestige and resume-building factors) as their ancestors once did. Until 1950, a high school diploma virtually guaranteed a comfortable living; a college degree allowed an individual a profession in virtually any field. Today, both assumptions are laughable to the point of being tragic; college loan debt has reintroduced young American adults to a new form of Dickensian debtor’s prisons.
These catastrophic effects of deindustrialization were coupled by the demoralization (in every sense of the word) of American youth. Bullying has now become both edemic and epidemic in American schools, including the “nice” ones. Where once violent, uncontrollable bullies were readily expelled from public schools, now they are not only tolerated, but institutionalized within the system. (“Anti-bullying” rules and regulations in public schools are just a nice way of saying that anti-social thugs will be allowed to terrorize well-behaved children, with no chance of their being expelled.)
Why? Thank the marriage of the educationist and civil libertarian establishments. Schools don’t want to kick anyone out, lest they be seen as admitting failure (their own); the civil libertarians gave students the “right” to terrorize their classmates–another “right” to be “protected.”
So, this is a diatribe against the liberals, and all the damage they did to U.S. public education, right? Think again. Prior to 1965, bad kids–bullies–were allowed to drop out. Some became criminals, yes, but many straightened themselves out through military service, or through joining the blue collar workforce, where life as a punk and a bully didn’t last long; survival dictated otherwise.
LBJ’s point man on the federal anti-dropout jihad was neo-conservative cheerleader Ben Wattenberg. Like all good–which is to say, bad–neocons, Wattenberg loves to tell the world how people like him came to their world view due to the “excesses” and “failed experiments” of the 1960′s. Considering the impact he himself had on U.S. public education, I would suggest Wattenberg look for someone to blame on this issue in the nearest mirror.
As for the civil libertarians, my guess is that not one among them sent or sends his or her children to a public school. Their kids go to private schools, where such “rights” as the right to beat the excrement out of or stick a knife into a classmate who enters a Boys Room during a drug deal are notoriously unenforced. (Yes, that means YOU, Nat Hentoff, the latest liberal-turned-conservative.)
Then, there are the parents, or lack thereof. Most of today’s parents have no historical memory of an industrial economy; they therefore have no real motive to either motivate or discipline their children. “Study hard, and earn a good living”? Even the dumbest kids know what a crock THAT is. (Today’s parents, alas, with some rare and wonderful exceptions, validate all too well Gore Vidal’s dictum:”Parenthood is a gift. This is something most parents find out too late, and most children find out right away.”)
Here’s one more thing you conservatives won’t like to hear. After you succeed in recriminalizing abortion, what’s going to happen then? Millions of feral, neglected, abused, undisciplined, directionless teenagers will be let loose upon America, a good portion of whom will no doubt turn vicious and predatory. Needless to say, unless America undergoes some radical social and economic changes, what effect to you think that will have on American education? (I understand how you pro-lifers feel, and I respect it. But please take into account this very plausible possible reality.)
What it all comes down to is this: why bother educating children–indeed, why bother HAVING children–if they are destined to be financial burdens, instead of attributes? Because in the post-industral world, that’s exactly what they’ve become. The predictable result is that today’s public schools have become little more than an amalgam of day care centers and prisons–and poorly run ones, at that. They’ve become holding pens for the youngest victims of Globalization. But then, our education system is only a reflection of the rest of society: a society that values cheap foreign goods over well-paid American labor, a society that values consumption over production, a society that values the shopping mall over the shopkeeper. The children who are failing to perform well in our public schools are merely the pilot fish and coal mine canaries of an America in headlong decline.
Having been a teacher for many years now, I believe that Pat is dead on with his article. I wish I could show it to other teachers, but I am certain I would be attacked verbally and professionally. The difficulty of a PC world. I do not know the solution to our educational problems, but I suspect it is mostly the spillover from our total loss in the culture war, as Pat has written on many times.
The person who linked to Gatto is dead-on.School isn’t for everyone, and the compulsory nature of our system helps insure that it is almost universally stultifying. The cleverest kids could learn on their own, but they’re hamstrung by the presence of kids who lack the aptitude or interest required for learning in a class environment. Consequently, almost nobody learns as much as they otherwise would, and one of the most pleasurable things in the world (the acquisition of understanding) is made into a drudgery.
Maybe if this country treated the trades with respect and set up a system where tradesmen could make a decent living, there wouldn’t be such an absurd focus on organized learning and the sort of jobs that require it. Then, learning would be an object of pride and pleasure for everyone in their spare time.
Speaking as a parent of three daughters, I can say it really comes down to the parent. As a single income, middle class family, I can’t imagine how two income families (which are prevalent across America) have the time necessary to help their children with their homework and show them that, “Yes, this stuff is important.” And for single parents?! I can’t begin to imagine working 10-15 hours a day and then trying to make it to parent-teacher conferences. This is not an indictment of these folks, but an indictment of a society indifferent to throwaway marriages and latchkey kids.
Also, the lack of education often gets ‘inherited.’ For instance, the parent doesn’t know algebra, so when the child comes home with homework questions about algebra, they don’t have anyone at home to rely on for help. The parent decided long ago when they were in school, “Who needs algebra?”, and so that attitude is passed on. I’m not saying there’s a government program out there to solve this problem. But I am saying that the problem will have to be solved for us to succeed.
This issue effects us all: educated and uneducated. Companies view geographic regions the way that home buyers view neighborhoods. They, too, look at cost of living, climate, taxes…and the education of the residents. So, you might have an advanced degree in engineering from a great school. But if the company needs a dozen people with your skills and can’t find them where you live, they will probably move on to the next city, or state (or country) where they have a better chance of finding the talent and skills they need.
Perhaps local school districts could hire some of these under- and unemployed (but well educated) citizens to help tutor and encourage these kids who need help? This would help both the children, and the folks who need some extra money to get by.
Peace be with you.
The problem begins in the elementary school. This is the period in a child’s life when she is most susceptible to learning and to attitude shaping. When traditional teacher-centered teaching methodologies were replaced with constructivist theory starting in the 1950s, the problems began; e.g. “Why Johnny can’t read.”
To paraphrase Pat’s quote from Weissberg: students learn in spite of what the educational establishment has provided for them. This is especially true in high school.
Not everyone is a scholar. And even brilliant students sometimes lack the drive and temperament to follow through on a rigorous academic program. Mediocrity is not an option in today’s scheme of things. This hurts certain minority students, who are ill equipped either intellectually or culturally to pursue a professional career.
In our post industrial world where factories are routinely shut down and are moved lock stock and barrel to China for the sake of the bottom line, the jobs that once paid a decent wage to the average or below average Lance and Whitney (f/k/a “Joe and Jane”) have disappeared. And what solution is offered by the RepubliCrat duopoly: Throw money at the educational establishment. Right on!
If we do go the route of dumping all these inadequate students and pupils from the system, there remains the question of what they will then do, and what we will then do. No doubt as a consistent ideologue Mr. Buchanan and other conservatives will not want the government to do anything.
The invisible hand of the free market, though, would certainly provide a number of elegant solutions if we could just get liberals, dogooders and multicultural sentimentalists out of the way. Some form of indentured servitude… reviving the real Colosseum, no doubt under the WWE’s direction, with real animals… taking Jersey Shore and its reality ilk to the maximum, filming a real-time Lord of the Flies… and in the end, of course, some type of Soylent Green to be munched while enjoying it all.
Modest proposal… final solution… no, just unfettered capitalism in action.
POOF! POOF! POOF! …. I just dropped 100 new BA and Associate graduates in the town square. What are they going to do? Where are they going to work? How and what are they going to do to make my life and the standard of living of the community better? Afterall, isn’t that why they went off to University in the first place?
OK, I got a job, but my paycheck seems a little shy. What are FICA, FIT, SIT, CIT, HINS and MISC and then I face the economic reality that everything I purchase has the cost of businesses taxes added. Well, if I’m smart, maybe I should go into business for myself, then I can have other consumers pay my taxes.
I wonder if I can borrow 300k to 500k to start my small business, afterall I only owe 150k in student loans?
Or, I can contact my third cousin Quido, down at the social club two doors down from the County Office building and see if he can get me a job in Government Administration.
Greg,
With respect, I don’t think that is the suggestion that is being implied by Buchanan, or others. Yes, he does suggest that some kids without the aptitude (or attitude) for substantial academic pursuits be moved out of regular schools if necessary. However, they would then be offered the option of learning a trade to live on, in lieu of being forced to quote Plato, or learn advanced Algebra.
As a thought experiment, imagine our schools inverted, where athletics are the primary courses taught, and academics are optional ‘electives.’ Yes, the vast majority of ‘students’ would be able to play basketball up to some ‘grade.’ But then, at some level, they reach a ceiling, where they either lose interest, or they just don’t have the physical skill for further improvement. It wouldn’t be politically incorrect to suggest that they be moved to focus on a non-athletic curriculum which suits them better, would it? Not everyone can be a Michael Jordan, and not everyone can be an aerospace engineer.
Of course, later on in life, if they decide that it would be worthwhile to go to college (as some successful HS dropouts end up doing), then God bless them.
Peace be with you.
“I wonder if I can borrow 300k to 500k to start my small business, afterall I only owe 150k in student loans?”
I believe the premise is wrong. Kids should be working while in college to help avoid the $150k in loans. If it takes longer than four years to graduate, then so be it. It is the widespread availability of loans that have helped drive tuition increases anyway.
Peace be with you.
I expected the middle brow mainstream conservatives at ‘Townhall’ to not get the point of Buchanan’s essay — which is just barely hidden. That point is that the ongoing demographic transformation of the US –cheered on by the publisher of this journal — is working against us.
But I didn’t expect the astute readers of Amconmag to miss it.
“Many Hispanics like earlier European immigrants make slower progress as they master a second language.”
In fact UCLA sociologists have shown that Mexican Americans regress in the third and forth generations.
http://www.vdare.com/sailer/080601_barone.htm
Most of you speak as if you are getting your information only from TV. I have been to Africa many times, and even in small villages, children know more about our government and also European governments than an adv. European American adult. Also, the gifted programs in Europe and the US have large numbers of kids of color.
The highest educated immigrant group are Yorubas from ” Sub-Saharan African” , not Asians.
Universities, all over the world host African American and African students. African students are always at the top.
Repeated miss information, does not make it true. A new year is coming, and life is not that long , educate yourself, and let go of all of the bias.
The reason for lower test scores has nothing to do with “Limits” , and you should know this. Read also the Marshall Island papers.
When one faces an uphill battle and has to deal with racism and inequalities and horrible misconceptions (such as in this blog) you can imagine what impact it might have on ones confidence.
So you can continue to wright drivel and pat your self on the back and feel that you are so great, just remember the world is watching.
Forgetting and not knowing math is commonplace everywhere in the USA and among all age groups. Teachers aren’t any good because they grew up watching television. Today’s books aren’t any good because the authors grew up watching television. America is the vaste wasteland of Newton Minow.
What I don’t understand is why we let so many from other countries attend our great universities.Our high schols have issues our universities are great.We are competing with these countries in many ways.Why give them access to our system of higher education.I don’t believe Cina’s universities are better than ours.Am I wrong in that belief?
A couple of fellows from Harvard predicted this social catastrophe would began to happen if we did not change our ways. Read: “The Bell Curve”. IQ matters. It matters a lot.
cfountain… in case I have been too indirect, the point is that, if we accept what Pat says is true… and in the abstract I would tend to agree, that formal education is not for everyone… then there does indeed need to be some ‘system’ to give viable life options to people who fall into this category for whatever reason. The problem would then be an ideological one… who would craft and administer such a system? There is no reason to assume the free market would do so. It would therefore have to be the government, which would create its own set of problems. It would imply a more managed economy, and industrial regulations at a scale more like the Great Depression and World War II. We’d have to have legal and economic structures that value domestic, handmade products in a way that defends them against manufactured foreign imports, etc. The greater point is that the invisible hand of the market, abetted by technology, is taking our society in directions that no one wants or can control using traditional means. At present there are not enough jobs to provide a living wage to those who are formally undereducated… if we increase the ranks of same, then what?
@Amalie
We are all grateful for the contributions of scientists, engineers and mathematicians who were born in sub-Sahara Africa.
One of the best known is the Nigerian super computer scientist and self-described “father of the internet,” Philip Emeagwali, who was cited in a speech by President Bill Clinton as an example of what Africans can achieve if they were just given the opportunity. Yes, indeed.
Patrick J. Buchanan, you get an A+ on this one.
According to John Taylor Gatto literacy rates for Americans who were tested for military service during World War II was 96%. By the Korean War it had dropped to 81%. The military hired psychologist to find out if the service men were faking it but the psychologist concluded those Americans were really illiterate.
Here is the page where I got this information from:
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/3b.htm
Once again, and hopefully for the last time, Pat Buchanan raises his racist head: Surely he knows of the plethora of reports — even in the liberal, anti-Catholic, media (see links below) that depict how inner-city kids — mostly African and Hispanic Americans, outperform their even “white” peers in the public schools they are surrounded with. Indeed, instead of examining the unique success of these Christian schools vis a vis the nauseatingly unaccountable and corrupt public honeypots, Buchanan embarks on parading his skeletons-in-the-closet.
Further, even “africans” of “muslim” faith in Europe choose and excel in Chrsistian schools (see last link below), confirming the universal validity of this dynamic. And portraying Buchanan’s geo limitations.
Finally, even America’s most renowned liberal Education Researcher & historian has recently concluded that Catholic Schools are the ONLY hope for our nation’s minorities (see link).
Buchanan’s cheering respondents here — especially those claiming to be “teachers,” are confirming their characteristic ignorance. And drawing on their cauldron of simmering racism to rationalize their pedagogical incompetence.
http://articles.latimes.com/1998/aug/03/news/mn-9718
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/29/nyregion/soapbox-schools-that-work.html?scp=7&sq=%22african+american%22+catholic+schools&st=cse&pagewanted=print
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/us/01religion.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/world/europe/30schools.html?scp=1&sq=french%20muslims%20find%20haven%20in%20catholic%20schools&st=cse
Well yeah Pat but whats the answer. It’s the same where I am now in New Zealand and we’ve tried all sorts of things. If a culture does not value education… Thats a generalisation for sure but the stats mean something is amiss somewhere and it’s not always the state.
Untrue, of course. In WWII, they took everyone: it was said that you would be drafted as long as your seeing eye dog didn’t have arthritis. But the Army regretted taking those who scored low on standardized tests, because they weren’t very useful and disproportionately got into trouble. Therefore, Congress passed a law (on June 30, 1951) that set a minimum acceptable standard for entry into military service, excluding people in AFQT mental category V from service – the bottom 10%.
Educational achievement did not decrease during this period: the Army raised its admissions standards.
The real picture of educational achievement is this: all ethnic groups have had mild increases in test scores (more in the lowest-scoring groups), but the relative numbers of ethnic groups have changed. Those groups with low scores are a bigger fraction of the population today, particularly among young people.
On the other hand, I suppose that the eagerness with which people adopt and promulgate nonsense about educational decline is itself a kind of argument for educational decline.
The problem for the analysis is that separate comparison of the American ethnic groups with their ancestor countries ignores the fact of multi-ethnic groups in many of these countries. For example, roughly 70% Singapore population is Chinese. The remaining population is made up by Malay, Indian and several other ethnic groups. Many European countries have significant minority population (which may drag down the scores as Buchanan asserts) as well. The analysis is not apple to apple after all. It would be of interest to break down the ethnic groups in each country and to compare them across different countries in a matched fashion.
gcochran, thank you for taking the time to share that information with me.
I have been told that there has been an educational decline concerning rhetoric and writing by college professors. Of course this could be their perception and not reality.
“On the other hand, I suppose that the eagerness with which people adopt and promulgate nonsense about educational decline is itself a kind of argument for educational decline.”
Please forgive me for being human. They say a little learning is a dangerous thing. They told us to cite our sources in school. They never taught us how to determine how valid those sources were besides checking the tick box on “peer reviewed” in journal databases.
I did not automatically accept John Gatto’s statistics. I threw it out here because he is one of the people who tries to critique the entire structure of the modern educational system. It is related to this discussion on nature vs nurture. However, I do accept that there is a hidden curriculum of obedience, addiction, alienation, external validation, and intellectual dependency within the educational system. I do agree that the educational system takes some of the most enjoyable life pursuits and turns them into torture. The information in public schools is presented in such a way that it is useless, disconnected and will be forgotten. I agree with the premise that kids are supposed to spend hours on busy work at home and their relief from school is the idiot box and drugs along with products and attitudes that have been effectively marketed to their peer group.
Here is a study by Jean Anyon that is mentioned by Gatto:
http://www.jeananyon.com/Early_Articles_on_social_class.htm
It concerns how things are taught in public schools to different segments of the population. It argues that critical thinking and creativity are encouraged only for those destined for the upper classes. I found it interesting that the lower classes were not encouraged to think reflectively. Of course I do not know the validity of this study.
Why do we need to waste more time (and money) “breaking down” the different ethnic groups’ achievement – when inner-city charter schools successfully educate ALL groups? Of course, charter schools cost 20% more than their regular public peers, but catholic schools achieve an even greater (99%) success at just 33% of the public cost…Just ask Diane Ravitch — a non-catholic, and America’s most respected schools historian.
If you think the upper crust has been taught critical thinking, I can only suggest that you’ve never known any Harvard graduates.
I’m not even sure that critical thinking _can_ be taught: it takes an unusual personality. It’s certainly not a ticket to popularity.
Charter schools, given average students, do no better than public schools, given average students. Same for private schools. There is no royal road to geometry.
Let me be perfectly clear. Trying harder in education is like pushing a rope: outputs are only weakly affected by inputs. Money past a certain point doesn’t make much difference. Most people don’t retain much of what they learn in school, and they never have. The positive side of this is that it’s also hard to make things worse. The general public can’t define a molecule or the three branches of government – but they couldn’t in 1950, either.
The country is getting dumber, sure, but educational policy has nothing to do with it. It’s all genetics.
So you believe (implicitly, if not explicitly) that as many people were dumb in the 1950s as are today? The fact that you miss the FACT that not as many people (numerically and percentage wise) were even in school in the 1950s, as well as the fact that we were spending less per pupil then (after adjusting for inflation) — and graduating a greater perentage, not to mention our then space and nuclear pre-eminence, ironically confirms your own theory: we are surely dumber today. Oh, and christian schools conversely are graduating more today, at lesser differential costs than the public spigots.
Since you’re totally incoherent, It’s hard to answer you.
Not gonna answer your foolishness. Since you, among other follies, still believe that “genetics” is the most crucial factor in our dumbing down, and not our educational/media establishment, then one is only left to conclude with sympathy for your pedigree…
No more dignifying this vein of buffonery.