Education in America Ain’t What It Use To Be

Do they still teach the three R’s: reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmatic? According to George Will writing for Human Events,  three R’s  are the backbone of today’s education: racism, reproduction, and recycling; but mostly racism.

Will shares several examples some of the bizarre of what our education system of today thinks is important. One that caught my eye was the University of California in San Diego. In 2911, it was cutting back on their academic offerings, but it had money for some new positions:

it created a “vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion” to augment a diversity apparatus that included an assistant vice chancellor for diversity; faculty advisers, staff, graduate and undergraduate diversity coordinators and liaisons; a director of development for diversity initiatives; the Committee on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Issues; the Diversity Council; the Campus Council on Climate, Culture and Inclusion; and much more.

Considering the high cost of education today, Will went on to wonder how many millions could be saved by eliminating certain positions:

…by abolishing on every American campus every administrative position whose title contains the words “diversity,” “equity,” “race,” “ethnicity,” “sustainability,” “green,” “gender,” “inclusion,” “identity,” “interconnectivity,” “globalization,” “climate,” “campus climate,” “cross-cultural” or “multiculturalism.”

As a wrap up to his article, Will quotes Ronald Reagan paraphrasing his Secretary of Education, William Bennett:

“If you serve a child a rotten hamburger in America, federal, state and local agencies will investigate you, summon you, close you down, whatever. But if you provide a child with a rotten education, nothing happens, except that you’re liable to be given more money to do it with.”

That quote was from 25 years ago and things have only gotten worse since then.

By coincidence _ or maybe not _ Human Events also has an article by Walter Williams sounding off on the same subject. Dr, Williams; article is actually a review of the book, Meeting the Psychoeducational Needs of Minority Students, by Professor  Craig Frisby of the University of Missouri.

After relating Professor Frisby’s low opinion of all this multicultural and diversity nonsense, Williams shares the following:

Frisby turns his attention to school discipline and criminal behavior. He discusses the atmosphere at one New York school, which is by no means unique among schools. Teachers experience being pushed, shoved and spit upon by students. A male teacher transferred to another school after a student threatened to rape his wife. In this kind of atmosphere, should anyone be surprised that only 3 percent of the students were at grade level in English and only 9 percent in math?

The fundamental problem crippling low-income minority students is school behavioral disorder. Its visible manifestations are graffiti, broken and vandalized furniture, fights, sexual activity, drug use in the bathrooms and rowdy behavior. Frisby says we should tell students exactly how to behave and tolerate no disorder. That’s not rocket science, except for today’s liberal establishment who run our schools and colleges. (Bold added)

“Behavior” it seems to me is something seldom discussed anymore. Society has changed and not for the better, in my opinion. In the days of my childhood there were unwritten rules of acceptable behavior that were consistently enforced throughout society. By that I mean, behavior that was punished at home would be equally punished if I misbehaved at the home of a friend or at school. In other words, parents in the neighborhood and teachers and Principals all reenforced what was taught at home. We kids knew that there were consequences to be paid if caught misbehaving and we didn’t whine about it. Whining was an invitation for more pain. I think it was a better way t o raise kids. Or. am I wrong?

Well, that’s what I’m thinking. What are your thoughts?