"School Days, School Days, Dear Old Golden Rule Days..."

William D. Bailey

"Readin' and ‘ritin' and ‘rithmetic; Taught to the tune of a hick'ry stick . . . "

Remember those words ? A song from the past. But, more than just a song, it stated what was going on in public education . . . "readin' and ‘ritin' and ‘rithmetic". There was a point in time in this country where the role of education (at all levels) was to TEACH students reading, writing, arithmetic and how to, both, communicate and HOW to think. Unfortunately, those days seem to have vanished from the scene.

Every time you turn around these days, you read or hear about how deplorable the state of public education is in the United States. Yet, we continue to seem to have a singular answer . . . "throw more money at it". We've been doing that for years now and the results just aren't there. Our young people are exiting the educational system without being able to perform basic tasks. And, we just keep throwing more money at the problem.

Based on the latest numbers, the Federal Government is allocating somewhere in the range of 5-6% of the total dollars spent on education in this country, but in return for that, they want (and in some cases mandate) control over what happens at the local school district level. And, like a bunch of lemmings, it's allowed to happen.

Have you ever stopped to think that technology is, perhaps, a "mixed blessing" when it comes to education ? Sure, it's great for young people to have, at their disposal, the references and resources of all of the major universities and libraries. However, there is a potential "downside". If it takes away from students learning how to, effectively, do their own research . . . if it promotes "copying" (which is extremely easy to do with computers) in order to complete an assigned paper, then (in my opinion) technology has worked against the desired end result.

How effectively can students be taught the simple, basic functions of addition and subtraction when technology has provided hand-held calculators and cash registers that don't even require knowledge about how to make change ? I am not opposed to the use of calculators, computers, etc., at the proper time. And, I believe the proper time comes when the student has, at least, mastered the basics.

When you have a minute, check the number of TV commercials advertising various products (highly technologically developed) that actually do the work for the student. How can you learn when something else does the work for you ? Oh sure, you can memorize the answer. But, is that long-range learning ? I don't think so.

In an article from The Washington Post, the National Geographic Society recently released the results of a world-wide survey of young people. Young people in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden and Great Britain were included.

Here are some of the interesting results:

" **** When more than 300 young Americans in the survey were shown a blank world map and asked to indicate the location of the United States, only 89% could do so.

**** Only 25% could select the correct population figures for the United States from a multiple choice list.

**** 34% of the young Americans knew that the island used on last season's "Survivor" show was located in the South Pacific, but only 30 percent could locate the state of New Jersey on a map. The "Survivor" show's location was the Marquesas Islands in the eastern South Pacific.

**** When asked to find 10 specific states on a map of the United States, only California and Texas could be located by a large majority of those surveyed. Both states were correctly located by 89 percent of the participants. Only 51 percent could find New York, the third most populous state.

**** On a world map, Americans could find on average only seven of 16 countries in the quiz. Swedes could find an average of 13 of the 16 countries.

**** Only 71 percent of the surveyed Americans could locate the Pacific Ocean, the world's largest body of water. Worldwide, three in 10 of those surveyed could not correctly locate the Pacific Ocean.

**** Although 81 percent of the surveyed Americans knew that the Middle East is the Earth's largest oil exporter, only 24 percent could find Saudi Arabia on the map."

Just a couple more:

" **** More than half—56 percent—were unable to locate India, home to 17 percent of people on Earth; and

**** Only 19 percent could name four countries that officially acknowledge having nuclear weapons."

It would appear that simply throwing dollars at the problem isn't solving the problem. Further, it would seem that, when LOCAL schools controlled what was happening in LOCAL schools, the results were far more positive. And, this must be said . . . when parents shouldered their responsibilities relative to the education of their children, the results were far more favorable.

We had better seriously consider what's going on in the "State of Public Education". We had better get to the point of being adamant that students know how to read, write, calculate and communicate . . . HOW to think . . . not WHAT to think or we will find ourselves "swatting at fleas while being charged by a herd of elephants".

Lest any wonder where I "get off' jumping into this subject . . . I am a product of the public education system back when it taught, "readin', ‘ritin' and ‘rithmetic"; both my children are products of the public education system; and, for three years of my life, I taught in the public education system.

It's not getting any better folks . . . the only way for positive and productive change to take place is for those who are concerned to do something about it . . . other than just talk about it.

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William D. Bailey
WBailey822@aol.com