Saturday, October 27, 2007

The Teachers Know

American kids, dumber than dirt
Warning: The next generation might just be the biggest pile of idiots in U.S. history


By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

It is not merely a sad slide. It is not just a general dumbing down. It is far uglier than that.

We are, as far as urban public education is concerned, essentially at rock bottom. We are now at a point where we are essentially churning out ignorant teens who are becoming ignorant adults and society as a whole will pay dearly, very soon... more>>

1 comment:

holly wynne said...

Yes, yes, YES!!! And I say this as I am sitting in my classroom on a Saturday morning, having just handed out the ACT booklets to 25 teenagers.

As I stood dumbfounded at their inability to fill in the little ovals to even begin the test, the concept of "dumber than dirt" was definitely in my head, though my actual way of mentally articulating said concept was somewhat less kind. One giggly blond couldn't even break the seal on the booklet--I had to do it for her.

And yet...I had them read their own poetry in class the other day, and was nearly brought to tears by the depth and earnestness of some of it. It's true--it's not their fault for the most part, or at least it wasn't when they were younger; we as a nation have done them a disservice (and this is where I part ways with the article writer--I don't think it's just the right-wing fundamentalists).

Sorry--this is long enough to be its own post. This is on my mind constantly, though, and it's one of the frustrations of my life that I can't just fix it somehow.