"Kids Who Feel Good About Themselves
But Can't Read"
by Gregg Vanourek
[Note: This is the original manuscript version. An edited
version appeared in the Indianapolis Star on 12/16/95.]
Title: Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good
About Themselves but Can't Read, Write, or Add
Author: Charles J. Sykes
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Price: $23.95
Academics? Bleh! Back to basics? How passé. Today's educators have
something vastly different in mind for America's classrooms-namely, anything
but academics.
The dumbing down of our kids is the tragic and inescapable consequence of
the fact that American schools are asking too little of our students in
terms of English, math, history, geography, and science. Core subjects are
being crowded out of the curriculum as starry-eyed teachers attempt to turn
twelve year-olds into activists and "free spirits." This point
is hammered home by Charles Sykes as he meticulously documents the misguided
agenda of the education elite and their "attack on learning."
It would seem that no American classroom is immune to politically correct
infiltrations of racial sensitivity, environmentalism, multiculturalism,
AIDS awareness, child abuse, drug addiction, sex education, and nontraditional
families. In Sykes words, "public education has increasingly turned
away from the business of learning as it has embraced the feelings, attitudes,
and personality adjustment of America's children." Schools have greedily
assumed the role of substitute parents, and many parents have become passive
observers to their children's education.
The Religion of Self-Esteem
The dumbing down that Sykes details has much to do with the "religion
of self-esteem." In their zealous sensitivity to self-esteem, many
teachers are willing to overlook ignorance and laziness. Sykes reminds us,
"The square root of 99 is still 9.9498743 no matter how a child feels
about it." Self-esteem cannot be dispensed; it must be earned.
Despite the mounting evidence of educational mediocrity, the education elite,
with characteristic arrogance, abhors innovations such as charter schools
and vouchers. Such resistance to change, choice, and competition warrants
Sykes' thoughtful indictment of the education establishment. He traces current
fads such as outcomes-based education and "invented spelling"
back to John Dewey, Life Adjustment, the New Math, and Mastery Learning.
He also assails the bumbling education "blob," our Washington-knows-best
Department of Education, Goals 2000, and the history standards. All this
is told fairly, with an eye toward improving American education and not
just lambasting the system, and with success stories of innovative teachers
and admirable schools interspersed throughout.
Tomorrow's Schools
What Sykes fails to do is paint a compelling vision of how schools can move
from dumbing down to wising up. He speaks of "the coming educational
revolution" in bold and sweeping language but only mentions charter
schools, vouchers, and his list of policy recommendations at the very end,
almost as afterthoughts. What is missing is a vivid portrait of how tomorrow's
schools can differ from today's (which are based on a 19th century model),
including potential uses of new technologies. One would hope for less diagnosis
and more prescription from Mr. Sykes.
Still, Dumbing Down Our Kids offers compelling insight into the follies
of American education. If we were to insist that our schools become laboratories
of learning (involving rigorous intellectual training with high standards)
instead of laboratories of social engineering, the promise of the next century
would be brighter.
There is hope though. As Sykes reminds us, "Mediocrity, unfortunately,
is contagious. But so is excellence."
Gregg Vanourek is a research assistant at Hudson Institute's Washington,
D.C. office.
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