Can America Survive As A Self-Governing People?
By Carole Hornsby Haynes June 24, 2023 First Published At American Thinker
A series of tests by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), better known as the Nation’s Report Card, show that fifty years of student academic progress have been wiped out. Unless this is reversed, America as a free nation faces a very grim future.
Test scores released this week for a sample of 8,700 13-year-olds showed math scores had the largest drop ever since 1990 with reading scores about the same as those in the initial test in 1971. In a survey on the exam, fewer students said they read for pleasure, an activity that correlates with stronger academic performance. Absenteeism has doubled since 2020 and mental health issues were noted.
NAEP test results in 2022 for 9-year-olds also showed steep declines with a first time drop in math since the initial 1973 test and the lowest reading scores since 1990.
NAEP results for eighth graders released in May reported that only 13 percent were proficient in U.S. history, a decline which began in 2014. Civicsscores saw the first ever drop with only 22 percent of students proficient.
The pandemic is blamed for these academic losses but the elephant in the room is why schools were shut down in the first place since student infection rates were not found to be a significant problem. Union members held sickout strikes to prevent school reopenings in some cities with the Chicago Teachers Union claiming the reopening of schools was "rooted in sexism, racism, and misogyny." Union members worked with the CDC to keep schools closed. Key union officials backed Democrats in the 2020 elections.
A downward spiral of student achievement began well before school shutdowns.
Math and reading scores began declining in 2012 with the implementation of left leaning Common Core Curriculum Standards. Traditional math has been replaced by Common Core math which requires a series of mind-boggling processes to do even simple calculations. Memorizing basic math facts is discouraged now. The impact of Common math was evident in the 2015 NAEP results. For the first time since the test was administered in the early 1990s, math scores of fourth and eighth graders dropped.
It is not surprising that fewer students are reading for fun. Common Core threw out great classical books that teach children morals and patriotism. They were replaced with books such as The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, which depicts the “oppression of women” and the “tyranny and violation brought upon them by the men in their lives.”
With Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, students read the text without any preliminary information about the purpose for the occasion. With this type of learning, students will have only a shallow knowledge of history that is limited intellectually.
The effects of Common Core on reading were evidenced by the 2015 NAEP drop in scores for eighth graders while fourth grade performance was stagnant compared with 2013. Only 36 percent of grade four and 34 percent of grade eight were proficient in reading.
Fewer students, as compared with 2012, are taking Algebra I and the course may even be delayed until the 9th grade. With math now deemed racist and connected with white supremacy, what else can we expect? This delay runs counter to China where students are required to study Algebra and Geometry in elementary school. Low math scores, or even less math, means students will be unprepared for high-paying computer and engineering jobs, which often go to foreign workers.
Public schools no longer are purposed for an academic foundation but as centers for Marxist indoctrination.Using the framework of culturally responsive teaching, political lessons are fused into core subjects.
Social and Emotional Learning, disguised as support for mental health and codified in federal legislation, is widely used to embed Critical Race Theory and radical sex in lessons throughout the school day. Opting out is impossible.
In Buffalo, New York, teachers asked white students to atone for their “white privilege” and to “use their voices” for the cause of antiracism. Kindergarteners were told to watch a video that warned them about being killed by “racist police and state-sanctioned violence.” Students are taught that America has created a “school-to-grave pipeline” for black children and that, as adults, “one million Black people are locked in cages.”
Students report that striving for perfection, good work ethics, and meritocracy are deemed bad because these are white supremacy culture. Rigor has disappeared with grades being inflated or eliminated altogether, acceptance of late assignments, and multiple retakes of exams allowed.
Some schools are teaching “Action Civics,” disguised as American civics, that uses the public classroom for community organizing and recruiting a Marxist student army. Students learn little about our founding principles, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and how our government works. Many have no idea about the identity or party affiliation of the current president.
Student mental health is a “national emergency” with “youth suicides closely tied with in-person school attendance.”
With billions of dollars wasted on government schools, we have severely dumbed down, mentally destabililzed political activists who hate America and the Christian faith.
Illiteracy brings a heavy price. Not only is it devastating to personal lives but to our society as a whole. The U.S. has gone from being the world’s best educated workforce to the least well educated in the industrial world. Illiteracy is costing our national economy $2.2 trillion each and every year – that's 10% of our gross domestic product.
Our founding fathers understood that self government could survive only with an educated and a moral people who understood the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship.
The solution is to throw the bums out of government schools and return to ideology-free classical education. Since that is decidely unlikely to happen in the near future or even never, parents should remove their children from harm’s way and opt for one or more of the free market education choices.