Editor's note: This is the first of a multi-part series on the role of DEI in the decline of public education

Education has been on the decline in the U.S. for some decades now. School districts and teachers unions demand ever more cash even while academic scores continue to decline.

There are two main causes. The smaller of the two is simple economics; government waste compounded by the schools being a monopoly. It’s simply human nature to be less careful with someone else’s money than with your own, so there will naturally be inefficiency in schools as there is throughout government because it runs on OPM – other peoples’ money. There will also be fraud when public treasury funds are available to plunderers and those lacking a moral compass will take advantage whenever they can. Moreover, the fact that the neighborhood public school is a monopoly -- the only choice for many families, allows it to slack off on performance while retaining the guarantee of continued funding.

If this were the only cause, the correction would not be so daunting. External forces made up of the community of taxpayers and parents naturally applies pressure for performance, and within the schools are teachers who knew they were going into a line of work that would not make them rich and they did so anyway because they love kids and love to teach. These pressures can to a degree counteract the greed and carelessness of some administration and union leaders.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

The larger cause is much harder to correct as it has been carefully planned and placed and isn’t made up of just a few people whose actions are more easily discovered, but is rather an ideology that has infected the minds of millions, including members of both the community and the school apparatus -- unions, administrators and even some teachers. The discussion of this ideology is for another time and place. Here we will focus only on its effect on schools.

In addition to the inefficiency and the carelessness, this ideology creates an additional pressure to directly lower performance. Further, this pressure comes from all sides. Thankfully from a minority of those on all sides but it is very difficult to counteract because it is constructed to appear benevolent. Those opposing it are made to feel guilt, a powerful human emotion. So it has continued to spread.

Throughout human history, educators have been keenly aware that students come to them with a spectrum of abilities and desires. Some are voracious learners who excel while demanding ever more challenge. Most are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, doing what is assigned but lacking focus as they try to find and define where their strengths and interests lie. Then there are those who want to learn but struggle with various barriers from cognitive issues such as dyslexia to emotional factors, and finally there are those with more serious issues who cannot be convinced to care about their own future or well-being and are not able to put forth any effort.

Educators have developed systems to meet each type of learner with a program designed to address their particular place and learning style, with the goal of providing the greatest overall benefit to all students. The fast learners are challenged, keeping them focused and on a path toward being the inventors and leaders of tomorrow. The average are assisted with identifying their strengths and encouraged to find their focus and passion. Those with disabilities are provided the specialized assistance to help them overcome their barriers and to feel the beauty of the satisfaction of achievement.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Those who do not wish to learn are helped as much as possible, but correcting their mental-emotional state, which took years to form in dysfunctional and even sometimes abusive households, is a truly monumental task and requires a skill set quite outside the realm of what educators do. It moves into the realm of the psychologist. Schools do in fact employ psychologists, but correcting issues which took years to form would similarly take years to resolve, is so time consuming that it would require a 1x1 ratio of psychologists to students with issues, and doing so while the pressures of the home continue to exacerbate the issue is simply not possible.

As nice as the thought is that we can “fix” these kids, it’s simply not possible. The best a school psychologist can do is to help the child feel some self-worth and somehow convince the child to focus on the long-term. But as the area of the brain responsible for this type of thinking does not fully form until sometime in the 20’s, the psychologist faces a truly daunting task.

So, inherent in the system is the understanding that there will always be some A students, some C students and some F students. This is the nature of the human race and cannot be altered with anything less than a massive investment of resources that no one is willing or able to make.


--Bill Dewey

Post Date: 2024-05-19 20:33:55

Last Update: 2024-05-19 13:21:43