SchoolHouse Crock: Fifty Years of Blaming America's Educational system for Our Stupidity

Is there something wrong with American schools? As Peter Schrag says, is there some reason why our schools are unable to outduel the Chinese and Indians in the training of scientists and engineers; educate millions of children from Southern and Eastern Europe, and also from a hundred Third World cultures;make every child "proficient" in English and math; educate the blind, the mentally handicapped, and the emotionally disturbed to the same levels as all others; and teach the evils of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and premarital sex; prepare all for college; teach immigrants in their native languages; teach driver's ed; feed lunch to poor children; entertain the community with Friday-night football and midwinter basketball; sponsor dances and fairs for the kids; and serve as the prime (and often only) social welfare agency for both children and parents? Nearly all of the teachers that I know who do not have serious problems with NCLB are those who teach in schools that are not bound by its provisions. Schrag says that, "The military-style reading and math drills promptedy by President Bush's No Child Left Behind program have pushed out history, music, art, and phys ed, and may in fact be destroying American schools". It also seems to me to discourage innovation in the teaching of science and mathematics.

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Peter Schrag

Publication Date: 
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Price: 
$6.95
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