June 3, 2004 - Graduation time is upon us. As usual, many kids graduating will be doing so with the reading and math skills of what a 12 year-old should have. Many of these kids will go on to college and pursue degrees in things like (insert group name here) Studies*, Diversified Liberal Arts, and so on. I am sure this has nothing to do with why many U.S. companies send work abroad. Why pay an educated Indian $3.75 an hour when you can pay an uneducated American $21 an hour?

I am often critical of the the kind of education students receive in American schools. However, I should be fair because I know many people don't want our kids to be educated. Political Correctness seems to trump truth, challenging the mind, and analytical thinking. Testing is now considered discriminatory. Of course, by definition, tests have to discriminate. They separate the dum-dums from those who have learned. Some kids fail but still move up. Socially promoting someone gives the message that 1) it's alright to be dumb, 2) it's OK that you don't want to learn, 3) someone will always catch you if you fall. Apply that line of thinking to a business and see what happens. Then, after these kids have given the taxpayer no return on an investment, some people want government-sponsored job training programs. So, after 12 years of sitting in a classroom like a grapefruit, these same grapefruits will suddenly be injected with some magic potion that gives them the urge to learn something so they can take care of themselves for the next 45 years?

One solution is to do what the Japanese and other Asian nations do; whatever that is. Whatever it is, it works. My guess is that it is based on assigning a higher value to education than to style and television; concepts that are foreign to many kids. The Asian nations probably don't tolerate laziness, stupidity, and indifference. Here, we have to tolerate everyone, even the malcontents. Their system probably also stresses concepts like if you fail, it's your fault and you'll spend your life in disgrace; disgrace being relying on others (like the government) to provide for you. Another taboo concept over here - suggesting that if someone fails it's his/her fault. Another idea is to cut the dead weight early. Kick them out if need be. Send them to prisons where prisoners are working on their GED's; put them in the same program. If the kid doesn't want to learn and the parents show no initiative or interest in the child's education then get them out. No more of this blaming the school because my kid can't read crap.

The next thing we do is scrap all those stupid ".... studies" majors in college. Again, look at what the Asian countries do and follow that example. Of course, many Asians come here to pursue the math and science degrees. You can bet they don't come here for courses in Family Studies.

Define standards and expect students to meet them. If it takes "being mean" and telling a student that they could fail if they don't improve, so be it. A generation or two ago, people weren't as educated (as in fewer adults with high school diplomas and college degrees) but today it seems like quantity has trumped quality. More are "educated" but more are learning less. A generation or two ago, those who stayed in school were those who wanted to learn and those who dropped out wanted to, or had to, work. Today, we have neither; the drop-outs don't want to work and those kept in school who don't want to learn, get pushed through, regardless of results.

* For example, UCLA has programs in Woman's, American Indian, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, African, Urban, South Asian, European, Latin American, and several more, Studies. A quick search of some other Universities gave me the impression that Woman's, African-American, and Latin-American Studies programs are common. I also came across Family Studies too. Fifty years ago, when there were more families (less divorce, less out-of-wedlock births) we didn't need complete academic programs on the subject.