Anyone who tells you that having our children get a good education is all about how much money is spent on schools is lying to you.  At one time in our recent past history this may have been true, but not today.

Why have American student test scores been dropping for the last 50 years or more?   I believe the teachers union will say that the scores are dropping because the teachers they are not getting paid enough money to attract good teachers.  That simply is not true.  In my book, I discuss more reasons that our education system is failing us and offer some possible solutions.

In schools during the 1950s and 1960s, children were sent to school to learn so that they could be educated well enough to find a job to support themselves after they became adults.  During my grade school and high school years (1940s and 1950s), I attended two school districts so small that all of the students in that district were taught in one building.  These were not rich school districts and some may say that they were poor.  Several years later, both of these school districts were dissolved and incorporated into a larger school district.  Despite what some people might think, I received an education.  Why was this possible?  It was because these school districts were staffed with teachers who wanted to teach because that was what they were educated to do and these districts were controlled locally with funding from state and local taxes.  It was during that time that federal money would soon become available.  I expand on this in my book.

If you watch any interviews with young people on TV, it quickly becomes evident that these young people know almost nothing about American History and current events.  Why?  To me, it looks like current practice in schools is indoctrination–not teaching students about current events and American history.  When the news reports that students are taught that the founding fathers were terrorists and that the United States has been the cause for bad things on the world stage, this is not teaching—it is propaganda and indoctrination.  Sadly the students believe this propaganda.  How long will it be until the state wants total control over the students—not the parents?  Students cannot be taught to think for themselves because they might reject the propaganda.  I have a real problem believing the rank and file teachers actually believe the tripe they spout.  It is all about federal government programs and control which instead of promoting diversity dictates that everyone must conform to the same standard cookie cutter.

Even in those small public schools that I attended, we were taught about current events weekly and American government and history.  Why is this no longer taught?  If it is being taught in schools, why is there no retention?  Could it be that the teachers have not been properly educated in college?  What are they being taught?  When you teach that the state is all knowing and the parents are not too bright, isn’t this indoctrination?  Based on the test results, the teachers and their unions have succeeded in indoctrinating the students to the point that the students are totally ignorant of the correct American history.

In those public schools at which I was educated, the school classrooms were always orderly.  The teacher was in charge and the students were there to learn.  Once again news reports show that this may no longer true in some schools.  It would seem impossible to learn in a classroom in which some young fool is making an ass out of himself or herself.  As soon as this happens, the disruptive student must be removed so that the rest of the class can learn.  Expulsion from school may be the only way, but I suspect that entitlement and political correctness would contradict that response.  At some time in everyone’s life, you must learn to be responsible.

In the 1960s, the teacher’s union membership was not very large despite the fact that teachers unions had been existence since before the Civil War.  It was during the 1960s that the membership started to increase from less than 100,000 to the millions of members today.  It is interesting to note that it was during this same time period that the student test scores began to fall.  During this time, the federal government started to help fund school districts and along with the money came demands and new requirements.  Do we believe that the drop in student test scores along with an increase in teacher union membership and federal government intervention is a coincidence or is there a correlation?  I do not believe that it is a coincidence.

From what I can see, the subject of math in schools is a mess.  Mathematics is absolute in that two plus two will always equal four.  If the teachers are not having the youngsters memorize the multiplication tables through number twelve and showing them the traditional way to add and subtract numbers, they are not teaching math.  Math and science are building block subjects on which yesterday’s lesson must be understood in order to understand today’s lesson.  When they try to teach logic on how to solve a two plus two problem, the only thing they are doing is confusing the students and making them feel dumb—which may be the intent.  In reality it may be the school system and the teacher who are dumb for trying to confuse the kids.  If the current opinion is that this new math is a better way, I don’t know what the proponents are smoking.  Teachers are not supposed to confuse their students.

On science, once again we are dealing with absolutes and if it is not taught properly, confusion reigns.  It is a given that any ball tossed up into the air will return to the earth due to gravity.  Simple science replicates and happens time after time in the same manner although sometimes it may replicate in different repetitive cycles.  So it must be taught on these terms.  If the science curriculum is taught like the new math, no wonder why our students do so poorly.

In my 40 years as an engineer, I constantly used math and science.  I could not have done my work without them.  I suspect that the main reason that American students do not do well in math and science is that they are not properly taught.  Good math and science teachers stimulate their students to the point that the students really like these subjects.  While I was getting my education, I was fortunate enough to have had good science and math teachers.

This nation was built by immigrants.  Many of them came here not speaking the language.  No problem.  The older people moved to a section of the city where their native language was frequently spoken and slowly learned English.  Their school age children started the real English learning and helped in some cases to teach their parents English.  Remember, children soak up learning like a sponge and learn languages very easily.  For hundreds of years, this way of assimilation was not a problem.  Why then must we now have to have bilingual education?  Horse hockey!!  There is an old saying “If it is not broken, don’t fix it”.  The system worked for hundreds of years only to have to be reformed now.  No way!!!  Since we probably have at least a hundred different foreign languages spoken by immigrants, then to avoid discrimination, we must have a hundred different bilingual teachers.  If they don’t get bilingual education, they must sue the school district and the federal government for discrimination against them.  When enough school districts get sued and the courts get tied up with thousands of lawsuits on bilingual education, maybe that bilingual requirement will be rescinded and we will go back to what has worked for the last two hundred years.