Insanity In the Classroom: Government Schools Today

Written by  Alex Newman & Dr. Duke Pesta This article is republished with permission from our friends at The New American

Insanity In the Classroom: Government Schools Today

From the print edition of The New American:

American public schools continue to churn out graduates who are taught what to think, but not how to think. And this is happening according to the Common Core agenda. From confounding students with backward, immoral, and politically correct curriculum to vacuuming up every form of data conceivable about our children, to taking over parental responsibilities with “Full-Service Community Schools,” today’s government schools are a major threat to the well-being of our children.

Would you send your child into a building knowing that it was on fire? Of course not. But many parents are not aware that government schools are indeed on fire, figuratively speaking.

Government schools today are a massive failure — at least from the standpoint of providing a good education that enables children to learn and think. The government’s own data prove this conclusively. In 2018, for example, the U.S. Department of Education released the results of its National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) proving that the overwhelming majority of American children are not proficient in reading or math. In fact, about two-thirds of eighth-grade students in government schools were ranked below proficient in reading or math on the government’s Nation’s Report Card. In some districts, fewer than eight out of 100 students were proficient in either subject.

In English-Language Arts, the NAEP results showed that barely one-third of eighth-grade students could be classified as proficient or above in reading. In mathematics, the numbers were even worse. The 2017 results showed that more than two-thirds of eighth-grade students were ranked below “proficient” in math. By the time students hit 12th grade, the situation is even more alarming. According to the NAEP, just one in four American high-school seniors was proficient in math. The federal test is administered each year to a “nationally representative sample” of students. And it highlights glaring problems that threaten the future of America and its liberties.  

Other government data paint a similarly dire picture. In California’s government schools, for instance, the state government’s own testing revealed that more than half of students in every grade except 11th failed to meet literacy standards, which are lower than they were in decades past. Less than one-fourth of black boys met the standards, with more than half scoring in the lowest possible category, suggesting that they are functionally illiterate. “The Ku Klux Klan couldn’t sabotage chances for black academic excellence more effectively than the public school system in most cities,” wrote economist Walter E. Williams of George Mason University, who happens to be black.

In comparison with other jurisdictions though, Californians look brilliant. Consider government schools in Baltimore, where, despite some of the highest spending per pupil in America, 13 government high schools failed to produce even one single student proficient in mathematics for 2017. That number represents a third of the 39 government high schools in the city. Another six schools had just one percent of students scoring “proficient” in math. Out of those 19 government schools, more than 3,800 students took the federally mandated test — and just 14 students scored proficient. Six Baltimore schools did not produce one single student proficient in either English or math.

Obviously, illiterate children become illiterate adults. And the data show this clearly. In Washington, D.C., a stunning two-thirds of residents over the age of 15 are classified  as functionally illiterate, according to a report by the State Education Agency. Nationwide, the most recent National Assessment of Adult Literacy by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics revealed just 13 percent of adults rank as proficient in literacy.

The reason America has an illiteracy crisis is hardly a secret. After all, the method used in government schools today to teach reading under Common Core was exposed as quackery over 150 years ago when it was first tried in Boston under Horace Mann. It has been exposed many times since then, including by Rudolf Flesch in his 1955 book Why Johnny Can’t Read and by Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld in his 1973 book The New Illiterates. On October 26 of 2018, even the New York Times exposed this in a piece headlined “Why Are We Still Teaching Reading the Wrong Way?” And yet, under Common Core, children are still being forced to memorize “sight words” in kindergarten, producing life-long reading disabilities in tens of millions of American children

https://www.thenewamerican.com/print-magazine/item/31227-insanity-in-the-classroom-government-schools-today