Much has been said about the declining test scores and lack of knowledge of students over the last decade and a half. What is the cause of this decline? The public rhetoric has been focused on the decline of standards in schools. Defensive profesional educators have conducted extremely widespread and well published reports detailing efforts in curricular reform, shifts in educational philosophies and the need for more tax dollars to support research into such worthwhile activivities.
The United States has pumped more money and technology into public schools than any other nation. Despite the wealth of U.S. schools, relative to other nations our schools are failing. Educators will site the need for curricular reform yet this will not explain away the fact that graduates of 30 years ago were more knowledgeable than their counterparts of today. Where are the discussions concerning the true origins of this crisis and why are they not debated in a public forum? It is true our schools need reform, however, the school reforms being discussed are similar to a physician prescribing antacid to a patient complaining of abdominal pains when a rapidly spreading cancer is taking over his body.
The cancer then is the widespread erosion of students' regard for authority and willingness to learn. The cause of this erosion stems from parents not socializing their children to adult behaviour and responsibility. Because of lack of parenting, the work ethic that made America great is no longer being instilled in our children. As a result, students who once felt fortunate for a chance at an education, now feel as though they are entitled to diplomas without any effort on their part.
Lest educators feel absolved of all responsibility, the liberal mind set of many in education has been a breeding ground for this cancer. Politically motivated special interest groups (especially those involved with the women's movement) have redefined American education. They have done this not by raising the standards and expectations of the groups they claim to represent but by lessening the requirements and expectations of successful students. Equality at any cost! The exhaustive search for inequity has been relentless, and in higher education the anointed topic of GENDER EQUITY has been given the status of most holy of dissertation topics. With the call of major professors, "look for inequity and ye shall find!"
I believe that part of the solution lies in the much maligned "voucher system" in which parents would have the choice of sending their children to private schools with strict codes of conduct, moral standards, and religious affiliation. Parents of a more liberal mind set could choose schools that are ideologically and "politically correct." In such a system, parents of all socioeconomic classes would have a choice in the type education their children received. The voucher system is feared by liberals because they would loose their monopoly on our nation's children. In a competitive school system, equity would be acheived by expecting and requiring everyone to perform.
Are there legitimate concerns about this system? Yes but I, for one, think it is worth the risk.