The answer to this question comes down to a few basic answers for us. They are as follows: Federal Dept. of Education, Wisconsin Dept. of Public Instruction, West Bend Curriculum Director, and the Principal of our daughter’s Kindergarten school. All four have taken a stance of trying to dictate to the parents versus realizing they are Public Servants whom answer to the parents.

The Federal Department of Education starts off the list as it controls the choices of the remaining three. First, the DoE should not even exist if we were to follow the Constitution of the United States. Second, the DoE is subject to the whims of select special interest groups that do not have the best interests of the children at mind regarding true education. Instead, it is all about control of what the masses are instructed to believe not proven facts.

The Wis. Department of Public Instruction or DPI takes its guidance and sets further detailed standards for the local school districts to follow. Whereas you can count on them a little for resolving some issues, little research is done on sources chosen to listen to for guidance on the curriculum structure. This lack of vigilance in the defense of educating children on proven facts versus what some special interests want taught is the core reason we found this governmental unit wanting. Also, I was licensed under them so I know their operations fairly well.

Next up is the Curriculum Director who thought it was a good idea to give all Kindergarten children regardless of parental consent instruction on the location and name of all of their private parts. After all, they had a study that showed….you know the line. That ended up failing as it outraged many parents. Add in numerous other off-base concepts of what is good to teach children and we had to pull our daughter for the sake of her education. Left to the devices of this crackpot going on the other crackpots’ ideas, my daughter would be a victim of their incompetence.

Lastly, the Principal of the school was fresh out of getting her degree. Somehow she felt she could dictate to all the teachers what they had to teach despite it being very poorly researched. Two incidents showed us what this lady had in mind. The first was a school wide education on the holidays in December. In Kindergarten and the rest of the grades, they dove into the details of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, glossed over Christmas as a day belonging to Santa Claus and materialism as opposed its true origins, and heavily indoctrinated the children into Kwanzaa. My question when I saw this on the future curriculum for the month was – What is Kwanzaa? You can read my post on that.

We pulled her out of the Kwanzaa garbage and the teacher and the Principal tried their utmost to use guilt tactics to change our minds. Teaching the religious holidays of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa but not the true meaning of Christmas is a double standard. There is no using the “separation of church and state” argument on that. Somehow the principal thought it was a good idea to teach the concepts of an ex-convict found guilty of committing rape and torture. In most other countries, that would be banned and the guy would have been executed for the cruel nature of his conduct. Here, the principal wanted to celebrate it.

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The greatest threat to education in the USA is quite possibly political correctness. How so?

To keep it simple and to the point, many teachers, the current push in the public schools, at the federal level with No Child Left Behind, and numerous other ways focus on trying to treat students as if they are all the same. I’ve heard comments from other teachers I’ve worked with who believed there was no such thing as an advanced student or a gifted and talented population. The NCLB requires all students no matter their ability to take standardized tests to use to judge a school. Add in the common push to treat all kids the same and you have a recipe for a problem.

What is the problem? All kids are different. Some are gifted and advance while some will always be cognitively disabled. Now while some schools are trying to tell the parents the rationale for not challenging the advanced students is because of not wanting to hurt the feelings of the slower kids, the children know differently. I asked my daughter, who is now in first grade, about the kids in her Kindergarten public school class. She and all of the other kids knew who was smarter, who was a better athlete, who was a better talker, etc. I remember that all through school as well. I haven’t forgotten my childhood. Kids are people too with thoughts and observations just like the adults. The knowledge and experience bases are different but everything else is the same.

Basically, the adults are fooling themselves into thinking all the kids can be treated the same. Kids are not just some programmable robot. Some will go on to be the foundation of our country. The future of our economy is founded in those children in the areas of chemistry, engineering, computers and other science and technology. But some students / children are wired for other things such as being a mechanic or a janitor. That is where the politically correct drive of treating all the same does the most damage. Everyone is different. All the students are different. Not all are destined for college. While we struggle with this, the Asian education counterparts have long understood and embraced it.

As found here, there appears to be a high drop-out rate in the Asian countries of India and China as compared to the USA. But this is where one has to pause and understand you can’t look at how another country works from how we define things here. China, India, Philippines and many more Asian countries such as Japan require you to test INTO high school. Dropping out would indicate a choice. That would be mostly false. You have to prove you are worthy to get IN high school. Many are delegated to manual labor or other positions.

China has 24 million students who tested into high school. India has 35 million who tested into high school. The USA has 16 million who are required to be in high school. With fewer numbers of students on our side, that means there is far less room for error in our educational system while still keeping a hope of being a competitor in the global economy alive. With political correctness, we have handicapped the effectiveness of our educational systems, our present and future economy, and put the fiscal standing of the USA in the global community at serious risk.

It is said that powerful nations of 200+ yrs in age die from cancers created within. Will our arrogance and political pandering with the future of our children be our undoing?

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There is a 54 minute documentary sponsored by a business man who compared 2 American, 2 Chinese, and 2 Indian high school students who were as equal as possible in all potential ways. The end result was a well put together piece to engage in the topic of how we run our schools and the various differences in priorities foisted on the respective children. The business owner is Bob Compton, a venture capitalist, who has worked with numerous individuals from all three cultures. The name of the documentary is “Two Million Minutes.”

The ABC article written on it tries to be fair with the video of the interview found here. The documentary itself did not attack any set group but set up a comparison for the purpose of generating discussion. The basic premise is we are in a global economy with many players going for a piece of the action. The high school students of today will be the business and industry leaders of tomorrow. In order to remain competitive, the USA needs to step it up.

Generally, I would agree with that premise. We do not have time to experiment with the latest curriculum concept because someone had to create research to justify their grants and a new idea to justify getting a doctorate. Also, we can focus on self-esteem and feelings all some want but the greater part of the world knows you need to suck it up and perform or go home and die. In many countries, there is no time for anxiety issues, depression, therapy sessions with counselors and shrinks. The only thing you have time for is to get to work, generate the money you need to survive or you starve to death.

The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) ended up responding to the documentary. The rebuttal to that is found here. However, anytime a group representing public education comes out making a statement, great care must be taken lest it serves to shoot them in the foot. Unfortunately, NASSP thought Two Million Minutes targeted their schools and took offense and was off base on a number of their statements. If an education based group is off base on their comments, it does not reflect well on the education they are providing. It was a neutral documentary.

When you read the comments section on the ABC article, you have a full range of opinions. Parents should be more involved in the education of their kids. The parents should be less involved in the education of their kids. Sports are necessary for leadership skills. Sports are not necessary. Socialization skills are more important. Hard science and math skills are more important. Treat all the kids fairly. Accelerate the best as they will be your future leaders. The schools are great and should be left to the “experts.” The schools are broken. The opinions vary extensively.

It all boils down to we need to have a dynamic enough education system to meet the demands of our students’ needs of functioning in a dynamic global economy. Top down structures are notoriously cumbersome and slow to change and rife with politics. The times are changing and our old system has to change with them. The time for politics is over. The time for performance is here. If the education system is broken, then the parents must step up for their children. It is past time to suck it up and perform or go home and wet your diaper.

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