[Vision2020] Some of What's Wrong With American Schools...

[Fiat Lux]

In my opinion, there is not enough emphasis on
academic excellence in our public schools today.  
Each student in school should be expected to reach his
or her full potential, and it should be the expressed
objective of the teachers to discern each students
ability and instruct and challenge them accordingly.  
I fear the quality of the American educational system
has been infiltrated and degraded by certain political
agendas as evidenced by revisionist history, gender
neutral textbooks (how important is this, really?),
and the disappearance of classic literature form the
curriculum (we don't want to offend any minority
groups), and that's just for starters.     

Could it also be, that athletic achievement is valued
over academics in some communities?  If schools took
the money they poured into sports programs and used it
instead to fund an in depth, well rounded classical
education that was able to meet the educational needs
of every student based on their academic ability,
America would surely benefit.  

All students are not equally-able and there is no
single educational experience that can uniformly
address the needs of all children.  The planners must
not delude themselves.  Yes, all children deserve a
chance at an education.  But it must be accepted that
each student has different skills, abilities,
attitudes and interests, not to mention differing
levels of family support and/or involvement.
  
There are students with learning disabilities or
cognitive impairments that struggle in the average
school setting.  There are children of exceptional
intelligence and ability that also struggle in the
average school setting.  There is a disparity in the
treatment of each of these groups.  Much more aid,
attention and one-on-one assistance is available for
the less-able student.  Special effort is made to
accommodate and get those kids up at least to a
certain standard, though it may still be comparably
low.  

But, what about the child who happens to be in the
97th percentile of students his age--the student who
can process and assimilate new information at a rate
and depth that far  surpasses his peers?  In too many
of our schools, there is no effort to make sure that
child's academic ability is accommodated.  There is no
possible way the rural public schools in this area can
serve the educational needs of a student like this. 
Right now, schools place a higher priority on helping
the kid that has fallen behind, rather than
encouraging, to even higher achievement, the kid that
leaves the rest in his intellectual dust.   Imagine
the frustration of the parents of such a child at
having to pay taxes for an educational system that
does not meet their child's educational needs.  The
best hope for their child is to pay again for a
private school education that will not hold him back
from reaching his potential.   

Wishing Bill Gates luck in finding the solution and
hoping it doesn't involve higher taxes,
Fiat Lux

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