Idiocracy incarnate. Which, I suspect, we’re supposed to see as the “democratization” of education rather than what it truly is, the corruption of intellectualism and the intentional formation of a benighted and propagandized civic base easily won over by arguments appealing to emotionalism, identity politics, and bumper-sticker bromides. From The Federalist Papers blog:
There’s a delightful and true saying, often attributed to Joseph Sobran, that in a hundred years, we’ve gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to teaching remedial English in college.
Now comes even more evidence of the steady decline of American educational standards. […]
[…]
[…] American students are not being taught about America.
University students who major in social studies education are not being taught about America.
I’ve talked to several of these types of students who want to teach American history at the middle school or high school level. So, these are our future teachers. And I always ask the same question: When was the American Revolution?
Usually, I am met with dumb stares. Hardly any of them answer correctly: 1775-1783. This is because, for the most part, students who will eventually be teaching American history are not required to take a class on the American Founding. Again, these are our future teachers.
Mediocrity and ignorance passed on as the height of intellectualism produces a species of academics that are filled with self-esteem, often undeservedly so, and who — because they lack general knowledge and have been taught that facts and truth are subjective — rely on sophistry, hive-minded bullying, phony consensus (of the ignorant), and identity entitlement to create “arguments” that they believe support their decidedly self-righteous and mostly illiberal positions.
This is by design. All of it.
I won’t bore you with any talk of language and understanding how it works as it pertains to this condition. Suffice to say, I’ve been telling you so. Over and over and over again.
As I result, I couldn’t be less surprised.
(thanks to RI Red, via Insty)
What kind of atavistic troglodyte would argue that students are better served learning classical literature, arithmetic, and history, instead of trendy pomo social justice and grievance studies?
That’s just crazy talk!
Two free years of college for all the peops!
Plus, free pie!
And this is why my two sons who have matriculated through high school – one who graduated with honors, high test scores, and was accepted into a pretty good college – are not attending college. I’m done playing along.
We need to stop trying to educate people who don’t want to be educated.
There’s a delightful and true saying, often attributed to Joseph Sobran, that in a hundred years, we’ve gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to teaching remedial English in college.
Absolutely true. My father. an engineer by trade, who graduated from a rural high school in the Ozarks in 1935 could recite Latin poetry until the day he died. He and my (European educated) spouse would converse in Latin just to piss the rest of us off. As for my spouse, a Ph.D. in linguistics, she taught reading to people at a local community college.
It’s all a part of the progressive plan. Keep people stupid and dependent on free stuff paid for by some faceless rich person.
As a high school History teacher, there is a silver lining to this dark cloud. The kids really do appreciate it when they do get a teacher that does know their subject, and how to explain it to them. That is really all teaching should be about, but in the present system is perhaps the least valued.
We need to stop trying to educate people who don’t want to be educated.
I am very sympathitic to this idea. Truly the biggest problem in education today is the intentional non-learner.
However…what then do you do with the uneducated masses? Do you still allow them to vote? How do you pay to feed, clothe and house them? How do you stop more from coming here to mtake advantage?
There is a growing underclass problem in the U.S. already, one that I see no easy solutions for.
Standardized literacy tests — in civics especially — as the last hurdle for eligibility to register to vote.
“Standardized” to avoid the possibility of repeat of the (I suspect exaggerated) stories of the at-the-polls literacy tests of the Democrats’ Jim Crow era.
Because you know the trick questions would be aimed at dissident millennials whose age peers may think presidents pass laws while Congress governs.
The solution, according to the educrat establishment, is clear: MOAR MONEY!!!!
Yeah, after we’ve seen how well you’ve been spending what you’re already getting?
About that “teaching” business, it ain’t just the dumbing down but the outright bullshit that passes for substance nowadays. Well, and has for a few decades now.
Well, in fairness, it used to be that a high school teacher had to know a genuine subject. I’m not sure what it is that edjucation majors these days actually know. I think it’s something like “Intro to Methods in Horse Leading,” or maybe “Theory of Horse Leading Methodology.” but the “How to Find Water: A Practical Introduction” is purely elective.