Hereís my plan to improve nationís education ranking
We all know that when it comes to education, the United States is lagging far behind other countries. One example is in science and math (K-12), where we rank a distant 48th worldwide. So much for American exceptionalism and being No. 1, I guess. So what happened?
I think itís pretty obvious. Hereís a clue: on page 1 of the Salisbury Post (Oct. 25) youíll read that yet another local school has received millions of dollars for ětechnology.î The article reported that ěthe campus is now fully wireless Ö each teacher has a Macbook;î thereís ěinteractive electronic screens, document cameras, and LCD projectors.î All students have computers.
Then, three days later, this headline appeared: ěClass size, technology on par with state,î but our ěschools lag others on student achievement.î Uh-oh. Schools lag? Lag behind what? Behind 48th place? So, our stated goal is to catch up to 48th place?
Thatís pretty sad. Now, first of all, smaller classrooms donít help (obviously). Also, itís your right to claim that properly disciplined students canít learn from a good teacher and a chalkboard, but itís my right to question your motives for making that claim. Todayís kids already know more about computers by the time theyíre in first grade than most of us. Besides, FaceBook and social networking arenít job skills.
Another reason that education is suffering is because more and more teachers (including college professors) are pushing this ěliberal artsî nonsense. Iíve known people who majored in liberal arts. If they did find a job, it was usually in one of three fields: education (where they teach liberalism), politics (where they promote liberalism), or journalism (where they spread liberalism).
So hereís my plan: Close all public schools. Buy every kid a computer. Weíll save billions of dollars, and whatís the worst that could happen? 49th place?
ó Steve Pender
Rockwell