Are kids being "Dumbed Down" In our public school system?

Question

Are kids being "Dumbed Down" In our public school system?

Answer 1

In some, not all, school systems yes.

This is based on the 20/20 report which went to foreign countries who were give our tests and the same grade students their found those tests to be horrible infantile!

Answer 2

No.   They just are being taught that all are equal and there is no superior.

Answer 3

Yes.  Let me tell you how I come to this conclusion.  My neice is in 4th grade.  Her parochial school has not taught her multiplication yet.  They haven't even started learning the tables.  My son is in 4th grade and homeschooled.  We started that 2 years ago, as recommended by his workbooks.  I remember doing the multiplication tables in second grade (early 80's).  Also, I use a PS math text book for a supplement, and the way it teaches division...OMG!

Answer 4

No, not the schools. Parents are taking a "we are all winners" attitude that is making the cream not rise to the top. First place wins everyone else needs to try harder.

Lets reverse this trend.

Answer 5

Yes, the class can only go as fast as the slowest student.  My 7th grade public school student was being taught the same math my 5th grade home school student was.  How many years ago was it that teens graduated and were in college at the age of 16?  Other countries children are testing at much higher academics than our children in the U.S.  They are not expected to excell to the best of their abilities.

Answer 6

Read, "In Schools We Trust", by an inner-city educator. She knows her stuff and can tell you whats REALLY wrong with schools. It's not funding, it's the fact that they are designed to create factory workers, and our society doesn't need that anymore, our factories are full of computerized robots or shipped overseas.

Answer 7

Sadly, the public school system has one goal, to turn our children into sheep.  They teach our kids to follow without question, to do as they are told.  when they find kids who refuse to submit, they are labeled, drugged, and many times forced out of the system.

Answer 8

I have the uneasy suspicion they ARE... And I'll be darned if I can figure out WHERE this trend is originating from. Maybe it's a societal problem...-One has only to look at the "eloquence" of our current President and wonder as to what the "value" of the "best education that money can buy is..." -

Answer 9

Yes.

Answer 10

Yes, and this has been going on a few decades, slow but steady.

Since most parents, and teachers are themselves graduates of these, it is very hard to get them to take a critical look at it, because they are fine with that status quo; it was good for them, why not for their children.

Before there was mandatory schooling, the US had one of the highest literacy rates, now it is dismal at best.

We have more children/young people who can read, but barely understand what they are reading, and let us not even touch on their ability to write, or communicate both in writing, or speech.

We have created an illusion of "feel good", it does not matter how well they do, as long as they feel good about it, and if they cannot, lower the expectation.

Self esteem, give me a break, a person feels good about real accomplishments, the ones you have to work hard for; it boosts their confidence in their own abilities.

And yes there will be some who fail, that is a lesson too; it lets you know that you have to try again, and again, or go in a different direction; learn a trade; college is not for every one.

Each and every person can, and will be successful when allowed to develop their natural skills, but all need a basic solid education in reading, writing, and math.

Lowering the bar looks great on paper; grades, and high GPA's.

Being 2 to 3 years below where they should be is however not doing them any favors.

It will make them feel good for a little while, until they have to go out into the "real world", and find out they have a lot yet to learn, and wonder why that is since they graduated.

How come my employer, or college instructor expects so much of me, why are they so hard on me?

Book suggestions:

John Taylor Gatto (any).

The harsh truth about the public schools by Bruce N. Shortt.

Answer 11

Yes.  The idea that all children should be treated as educationally equal has resulted in lowering expectations to the lowest level of ability in the class.  All students must succeed and the only way to do that is to make sure that even the least academically able can pass.  Of course, administrators would deny this.  They claim that a teacher can "differentiate" instruction to meet the individual needs of all 30 + students in the class. Yeah, sure they can.  

Teachers are expected to cope with the children  'mainstreamed' from special education, with the disruptive students, with Down Syndrome students, English as a second language students, super bright students, drug using students, and even violent students--all in the same class!  Honestly, do you think those demands are realistic?  How high can standards be when dealing with that kind of diversity?  

Yes, schools have dumbed down the work.  So have some states.  In California the high school exit exam is a joke.  8th grade math and 10th grade English (10th grade--it's more like 6th grade) are all it takes, and even at that, many HS grads fail it.

If you want to educate your child properly, you have 2 choices: private school or home school.

My source? I teach in a public high school; it's a nightmare.

Answer 12

Well I do think that with the advent of the obsession with standardized testing and money, if not the very existence of a school depending on the results, there has been a disturbing trend to "teach to the test".  This by its very nature, is to stress teaching at the average if not minimally acceptable level just to assure the majority pass "the test!!!!!"

Good teachers have little or no opportunity to meet their students where they are at.  They cannot innovate unless it can affect the test scores positively.  It is so very frustrating.  

And I thank God each day that we can legally pursue our homeschooling lifestyle.

Answer 13

Yes - unquestionably and intentionally!

The National Adult Literacy Survey represents 190 million U.S. adults over age sixteen with an average school attendance of 12.4 years. The survey is conducted by the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, New Jersey.

   1. Forty-two million Americans over the age of sixteen can’t read. Some of this group can write their names on Social Security cards and fill in height, weight, and birth spaces on application forms.

   2. Fifty million can recognize printed words on a fourth- and fifth-grade level. They cannot write simple messages or letters.

   3. Fifty-five to sixty million are limited to sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade reading. A majority of this group could not figure out the price per ounce of peanut butter in a 20-ounce jar costing $1.99 when told they could round the answer off to a whole number.

   4. Thirty million have ninth- and tenth-grade reading proficiency. This group (and all preceding) cannot understand a simplified written explanation of the procedures used by attorneys and judges in selecting juries.

   5. About 3.5 percent of the 26,000-member sample demonstrated literacy skills adequate to do traditional college study, a level 30 percent of all U.S. high school students reached in 1940, and which 30 percent of secondary students in other developed countries can reach today.

   6. Ninety-six and a half percent of the American population is mediocre to illiterate where deciphering print is concerned. This is no commentary on their intelligence, but without ability to take in primary information from print and to interpret it they are at the mercy of commentators who tell them what things mean. A working definition of immaturity might include an excessive need for other people to interpret information for us.

Additional data...

More than 2/3s of high school graduates require remedial courses in college.

U.S. 12th graders consistently score below a very long list of other nations in math and science.

Textbooks are focused more on political correctness than accuracy and usability.

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Here is a quote from John Dewey (widely seen as the "father" of the modern public education system):  in his thesis "The Primary Education Fetish" that "the plea for the predominance of learning to read in early school life because of the great importance attaching to literature seems to be a perversion."

I just have to pull this following statement out from above and repeat it!

*** A working definition of immaturity might include an excessive need for other people to interpret information for us.  ***

**** UPDATE

From Harvard University...

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.

Answer 14

I think some schools are dumbing them down.  With the push toward standardization and having everyone succeed, the only way to handle the challenge logistically is to lower the expectations.

Other schools are rising to the challenge and offering a true education...and kids have to work their tails off to get into those schools.  On one hand, I think this is good - kids should be responsible for achieving an education.  On the other hand, it teaches mediocrity for those who don't make it into the really great schools.

I think some things about the system are fundamentally flawed, and I really don't see a solution to those flaws without parents rising up and taking more responsibility for their kids.  It's not the government's job to parent our children...that's our job.  Maybe if more parents took that responsibility seriously, teachers could teach their subject rather than social niceties and s*x ed.

Just a thought...

Answer 15

uh where i am its the complete opposite, my old schools have more and more graduation requirements every year. & my old schools were in MICHIGAN.