Idiocy, taken for granted

'No child left behind' is the mantra of the Bush education program - an emphasis on simple tests (with the inevitability of teachers being evaluated thereby 'teaching to the test') and a simplification of the learning process, taking both the joy and the rigor out of it.

That tendency is bad enough, but the real problem is the way in which standards and expectations are being dumbed down to give an appearance of success - while failing to challenge the above-average students. In the desire to make sure that 'no child is left behind', we have made school too easy for the talented kids, and ignored the overwhelming power of peer pressure on learning. Our 20th century economical prowess was based only partially on widespread literacy - many other countries have it as well. The prime mover was our intellectual elite - American universities and their students as the best in the world. Between increasingly onerous immigration policies and the dumbing down of American primary and secondary schools, our intellectual leadership may soon be a thing of the past, with horrible consequences for us all.

Don't believe me? To quote from Newsweek:

"... why did the federal government quietly decide last year to drop out of an international study that would compare U.S. high-school students who take advanced science and math courses with their international counterparts?

The study, called TIMSS (Trends in Mathematics and Science Study) Advanced 2008, measures how high-school seniors are doing in algebra, geometry, calculus and physics with students taking similar subjects around the globe. In the past, the American results have been shockingly poor. In the last survey, taken in 1995, students from only two countries—Cyprus and South Africa—scored lower than U.S. school kids."

The short answer: we pulled out because we are likely to do even worse in the next round. We lag our developed countries in math and science because excellence therein is not rewarded, and having kids who kick ass in math and science is no longer a priority - at least, not as much as making sure many have a mediocre grasp of the subject, soon to be forgotten.

To become a world leader in educational attainment, we must get the incentives right, for both teachers and students. When our educational establishment/ government (and teacher's unions) reward those teachers with subject mastery who demand a great deal of their students, and when we as a culture decide our educational institutions should lionize those students who have high academic achievement (as opposed to, say, athletic achievement), then our schools will become great again. Otherwise, look forward to a world in which intellectual and physical capital - and hence power - moves increasingly to Asia, and the US becomes one more faded empire of history.