Former Marysville Joint Unified School Superintendent Fal Asrani once claimed on radio that her more than 10,000 students were “brilliant.” Brilliant means extremely intelligent and creative. How could she say this when some “graduates” could not read? And the majority were sorely below grade level comprehension in all disciplines.
Asrani’s philosophy emphasized wellness, communication, and celebration as key priorities for restoring respect for education and educators. That makes sense. Mastering intellectual discipline wasn’t noted.
Have you noticed how many high school aged students in colonial times (1600-1700s) were already in colleges studying law, philosophy and foreign languages? Could this primitive culture really offer intellectually rigorous courses?
In the years before the revolution the rate of male literacy was 95% in the colonies. By 1776, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense sold 100,000 copies almost overnight. The most popular reading topic was – how best to protect individual rights.
The colonists understood the social, cultural, and economic impact of British and local laws upon them. They could intellectually compete with Britain and could proclaim their own viewpoint as to how they would be governed, to what laws they would adhere, and to the ideals they would adopt collectively.
John Taylor Gatto, a New York City senior teacher and educational researcher wrote, “Pick-up a fifth-grade math or rhetoric textbook from 1850 and you’ll see that the texts were pitched then on what today would be considered college level.”
The A Nation at Risk report drafted in 1983-84 to diagnose our educational woes quotes analyst Paul Copperman, “For the first time in the history of our country, the educational skills of one generation will not surpass, will not equal, will not even approach, those of their parents.”
The crisis is not just a decline in literacy. Due to a basic lack of knowledge, students cannot think critically. American scholar Thomas Sowell observed, “It is not merely that Johnny can’t read, or even Johnny can’t think. Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is, because thinking is so often confused with feeling in many public schools.”
“Many 17-year-olds do not possess the “high order” intellectual skills we should expect of them. Nearly 40% cannot draw inferences from written material; only one-fifth can write a persuasive essay; only one-third can solve a mathematics problem requiring several steps.” A Nation at Risk.
In addition to US students’ grades ranking near the bottom compared with other nations, 23 million American adults are functionally illiterate – they only possess the most basic reading, writing and comprehensive skills.
The rate of functional illiteracy also ranged from 13% - 40% of 17-year-olds depending on the demographic group. Emory University Professor Mark Bauerlein gathered data on knowledge gaps of American students in history, civics, math, science, technology, fine arts and more. On a 2001 National Assessment History Exam, 57% of students scored below basic and only 1% achieved an advanced score.
On a multiple-choice question – which country was a US ally in WWII, 52% chose Germany, Japan, or Italy rather than the Soviet Union. Other testing was equally disappointing. The phrase “dumbing-down” was adopted in the 1990s to aptly address the American schools’ collapse and to ensure that Johnny is euphoric in intellectual LaLa Land.
In Colonial America, along with the Bible and the Bay Psalm Book, the first textbook was The New England Primer. It was the second-best selling book (Bible being number one) in the country. The Primer taught the ABCs by students memorizing basic Biblical truths and lessons about life: A – In Adam’s fall, we sinned all. B –Heaven to find, the Bible Mind, and so on. The Primer included the names of Old and New Testament books, the Lord’s Prayer, The Apostle’s Creed, the Ten Commandments and John Cotton’s “Spiritual Milk for American Babes,” and more.
In 1836, Noah Webster was considered the “Father of American Education.” He believed that faith in Christ must be the foundation of any free government. Sadly, 100 years later, socialist atheist John Dewey was proclaimed “The Architect of Modern Education.” Dewey said, “There is no God, and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion.”
Webster or Dewey – The proof is in the pudding.
(Lou Binninger can be heard on No Hostages Radio podcast, live on KMYC 1410AM 10-1 Saturdays, read at Live with Lou on Facebook and at Nohostagesradio.com)