Our Failing School System

While exchanging e-mail with my niece, I noticed that she is a 7th Grade Science Teacher. I told her that I not sure I like her anymore because I remember that it was my 7th Grade Science Teacher that beat my butt until it was smoking, more than 50 years ago. She asked why I was punished, and I told her it was for not having my homework finished. She asked, "Why Not", and I responded that 50 years ago, SCHOOLWORK WAS DONE AT SCHOOL, because hardworking rural people expected children to help with the work at home after school hours.

In today's world, the ACLU, along with what the bible alludes to as "The scum of the earth", Lawyers (One of the two professions it criticizes), have our educators so "tied up" that they can no longer teach our children. They cannot maintain discipline during school hours so they do little academic teaching, but instead they keep some degree of calm by offering a myriad of play activities; Band, ballet, football, basketball, drama, and the list goes on forever. So most of the academic studies must be done at home in the form of homework. If I were to do a search on the internet, I'm sure I could find, just over the past 10 years, at least 2000 "BREAKTHROUGHS" in better ways to teach...YET OUR CHILDREN KEEP GETTING DUMBER AND DUMBER!

A few years ago, my wife and I had just returned from an assignment to our Embassy in China and after a couple of years on such assignment we needed some dental work taken care of. My visit was finished before hers, so I told her that I would wait next door at McDonalds. Upon entering McDonalds, I noted that their computer was down. I ordered a "Big Mac" meal which came to less than five dollars. I handed the young lady a five dollar bill. She scribbled on a pad for more than two minutes. I concluded that she was clowning. The manager spoke to her and she threw the pad at him and said "You do it". SHE WAS UNABLE, EVEN WITH PAD AND PENCIL, TO MAKE CHANGE FOR FIVE DOLLARS! This particular young lady would have been maybe 20 years old, and this Particular McDonalds was right across the street from the High School! Incredible...NO, it's common today! We have millionaire sports stars who can't read! They majored in football.

When I was in China, we had a number of Local Chinese people working at our Embassy. Most held menial jobs, such as cleaning, filing, typing etc, and I remember that every one of them had a college degree...some had PHD's. You may be thinking...OH WELL, A DEGREE IN CHINA DON'T MEAN MUCH! Well, my primary hobby now is investment, and I'm quite good at it. Investment, if you are to succeed, requires lots of research. I can promise you that the U.S. is falling here also and that China will be the next Financial Capital of the world! They are far more educated that we. How do they do it? From our balcony, in the apartment where we lived for two years, we could watch an "Elementary Schoolyard" just below us. Every morning it was entertaining just to watch the children follow a rigid procedure. Lined up like troops, reciting in unison, various themes with every single child participating with considerable enthusiasm! No nonsense. No disciplinary problems...EVER! When they attend school, it is for a singular purpose...TO LEARN! And they are learning circles around us.

All this should not be news to you because even our own media reports on it regularly. You see comparisons of schools around the world...most common report concerns math, and the USA ranks at near the bottom...below many third world countries.

I am not an educator so I don't know what the answer is. I do know however that the major problem is a lack of control/discipline. 25 years ago, when my youngest son was in Junior High School in Va. Beach, Va...He would get off his bus in the afternoon, and march straight to the bathroom at home. When asked why...he replied, "MOST EVERYONE IS AFRAID TO GO TO THE RESTROOM AT SCHOOL...NOT EVEN TEACHERS WILL VENTURE IN THERE..BECAUSE IT IS FULL OF DRUGS AND DANGER, BOTH USING AND DEALING, SO I WAIT UNTIL I GET HOME TO USE THE BATHROOM! Fortunately since my assignments were to Embassies all over the world, it permitted him to get a good education. He graduated high school in Montevideo Uruguay!

I am completely satisfied that neither of my sons, both in their forties, have children. I am glad that I have no Grandchildren because I would not like to think about them having to attend our "out-of-control school system.

One final note to punctuate my Blog. My next-door neighbor here in Florida is a Middle School Bus driver. Just last month he told me of seeing two school girls, sitting on the front seat of his bus, engaging in sex. Unable to do anything about it (Legally), he reported it to the school officials. They asked him to point out the two girls and he did so. He was told that there was nothing they could do, except see to it that they did not do such things again on school property. He told me that later that same afternoon on the way home, the same two girls, sat in the same seat, and engaged in the same sexual activity. Wake up America!