The Dumbing Down of American Education - What Effects of This Have You Encountered in Your Daily Life?

Question

I taught school for 14 years, and on average, 70% of my students entering middle school could not write a cogent sentence--much less a paragraph. This was in an upscale area of the country!

Another example: Twice my bank has either lost one of my deposited checks or lost me entirely in their system as I was attempting to move my funds from northern to southern CA. I was left without money for over a week and had to take out a cash advance on one of my credit cards.

Are we living in a country of semi-illiterates?

Answer 1

I was lucky enough to go to private school through 8th grade. My parents taught there. It was one of the benefits of teaching there. The school only went to 8th grade. I went to public high school. Other than learning about Hamlot, Romeo and Juliet, and a few other classical pieces the language department at the public school was embarrassing. Parts of speech, sentence structure, and diagraming that were taught in the public high school at 9th grade level were equal to about 5th from the private school.

Public schools have a lot to deal with that the typical private school does not. However; they could make it easier on themselves and better by picking a certain curriculum, following that curriculum and staying with that curriculum for ALL subjects from K-6th maybe even 8th grade. A good curriculum backs itself up throughout the different subjects. Example: Some of the spelling words will be key words from History, Science, Language or even Math that it being taught at the same time. Language will have sentences re-enforcing what is being learned in Science, History, ect.
The public school system picks and chooses to use one curriculum for math, another for Science, and are even ignorant enough to use diffent curriculums for language than they use for reading. In some cases the teachers get to choose between 2-3 different curriculums so if a child has a teacher who likes Houghton Mifflin for math in 4th grade but then thier 5th grade teacher likes Saxon they are constantly changing curriculums which can be confusing. Different curriculums use different terms and techniques. No wonder the children are having a hard time.

Answer 2

I would like to say otherwise, but I'd have to agree with you. To paraphrase George Carlin, the average person is an idiot, which means 50% of the population is dumber than that.

I was the first in my family to go to college 10 years ago. I went to a selective admissions private college thinking that if I spent the money and went to a small school, I'd get a better education. I couldn't believe that my freshman colloquim (equivalent of freshman English) was teaching how to write a paper. My professor wasn't teaching how to write a better paper, he was teaching what an intro paragraph meant, what a body was, and what the conclusion did. I would say at least half the class looked at him confused. Selective admissions? I'd think that meant a student would have the ability to write a paper.

I went to all my classes and worked reasonably hard. I graduated with a 3.8 GPA, have excelled at every job I've ever had, and have yet to break 26g a year. Other factors such as the areas of the country I've lived in and my physical appearance may factor into my lack of success, but I'm a firm believer that employers have seen first hand that just because you have a degree (even with high marks) doesn't mean that you're really educated or bright.

Mistakes will happen, but so many of our jobs now days are filled by non-Americans overseas, or by those of us who will accept poor wages here. I worked in underwriting at a major insurance company, where most of the people hired to do my job had no degree. That is not to say that a degree makes someone smart or a lack of one makes someone done, but they hired people off the streets with no insurance background to answer questions for agents who had been in insurance for 20 or 30 years.

It is becoming accepted to receive substandard customer service. Before, you would just take your business elsewhere, but now, you're likely to get as bad as service everywhere.

Answer 3

I recently was visited by relatives from Palestine. Among them was my little cousin, 6 years old and cute as a button. She spoke Arabic, English, French and Hebrew. She could READ the languages too. My jaw dropped when I realized that this little girl from Palestine, where they are often without clean drinking water or electricity, can get a better education than my own children here in America. After talking to others, I have learned that this is not only a rare occurrence, but most if not all of the kids are just as brilliant. I do not get it.

Answer 4

I spent three years at George Mason University School of Law and was taught NOTHING. I ended up with a license to practice law even though almost everything I knew about practicing law, I'd learned from watching TV. I got a job as a lifeguard.

Most of the semi-literate professors at that august institution had advanced Ivy League degrees. The building used to be a department store that had a big glass cage full of monkeys. I don't know what happened to the monkeys, but it's a shame they had to go. At least they were good at what they did.

Answer 5

I work for the school system here in Mississippi and we have a Superintendent who is making it mandatory that all test be given
as multiple choice. This clod thinks that by doing this our students will stand a better chance of doing well on the standardize tests we take in May. The dumbing down as you put it is because school districts are now being graded on how well
their students do on tests. Thanks to Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. Until lawmakers really take a realistic approach
to Education students will continue to be illiterate. Parents have to be involved as well as holding students accountable for their
choices. Too many parents view schools as free baby sitting
services. Communities/ parents/ students/ government must all
be involved in order for education to work.

Answer 6

I would like to inform you that our education system has actually stepped up to the plate on this one. Our standards and procedures in education have taken a turn for the better, teaching at our second grade level what used to be taught in 6th or 7th grade (fractions for example). By the way, as a past educator, I'm surprised that you haven't already come to the conclusion that if you have a gripe, like the one you have mentioned, you should do something instead of whining...if you don't like what you see change it!

Answer 7

I'm a retired teacher and I totally agree with you. One just has to look at some of the questions and answers on this forum to see how miserably our ed. system has failed. However, there is hope. My grandson's elementary school has high expectations for their students. He does projects that would have been considered "too hard" by some of the HS students I taught.

Answer 8

Yes, sorry to say but the U.S. is far behind other countries, even Third World countries like India and China, when it comes to educating it's citizenry. Just look at all the terrible spelling and grammar on this very site!

Answer 9

You were the teacher you should know this better than anyone.
You know that schools are dumbing down the curiculum so students can pass the NCLB tests so they can get more money,
to hell with how this affects the students and the world later on...

Answer 10

Just look at the grammar used in many of the questions on this forum, And you will see a direct result of the dumbing down of America.