TEACHER UNION LEGACY
In my view, American education (K-12) has been in a state of general decline since the 1960s. There has been a great failure to adequately teach math, science, reading and writing skills since the 1960s.
My wife, who was taught "new math" in the Colorado schools, did not know her multiplication tables and had to teach those tables to herself after we were married. Worse, she was not even aware that her basic math skills were deficient until we happened to discuss that subject, by mere happenstance.
That general decline in educational performance since the 60s is well documented in the SAT scores, the rival ACT exams, and on the Iowa Test of Educational Development. [Ernest L. Boyer, High School: A report on Secondary Education in America] (1983 pgs. 23, 25, 32)
In 1991, only 11% of 8th grade students in the California public schools were capable of solving 7th grade math problems. [Faith Keenan, "8th-Grade Students No Math Whizzes" - San Francisco Examiner] (June 6, 1991, p. A22)
During this period of declining student performance, grades for those students were rising ("Grade inflation"). High schools gave out twice as many C's as A's in 1966, but by 1978 the A's exceeded the C's. [Cooperative Institutional Research Program, The American Freshman: National Norms for Fall 1989] (Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institution, University of California at Los Angles, 1989, p. 6)
From 1966 to 1988, the percentage of college students obtaining higher grades by cheating rose by 78%. [Chris Gilleland, "Academic Dishonesty," The Critic] (North Carolina State University, p. 14)
An international study of students, age-13, found that Koreans ranked first in math and Americans last. The Korean students were asked if they thought they were "good at mathematics." Only 23% replied "yes." But, when the age-13 American students were asked the same question, 68% replied in the affirmative. Apparently, the rather unique American idea that students should "feel good about themselves" was successfully taught - even if math wasn't. ["Educational Openers," Wall Street Journal, Supplement] (Feb. 9th, 1990, p. R5)
Another international study discovered that more 12th graders in Japan disliked math, than American counterparts, yet the Japanese students performed much better on math tests. [Curtis C. McKnight, et al., The underachieving Curriculum: Assessing U.S. School Mathematics from an International Perspective] (1987, pgs. 18, 20, 22, 24, 40)
One-third of American students, age 17, didn't know Abraham Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation, while ½ did not know who Joseph Stalin was. Thirty % could not find Britain on a European map. [Diane Ravitch & Chester E. Finn Jr., What do our 17-Year-Olds Know?] (1987, pgs. 53, 62)
Professor Ravitch said "professors complain about students who arrive at college with strong convictions but not enough knowledge to argue persuasively for their beliefs." She then concludes: "Having opinions without knowledge is not of much value; not knowing the difference between them is a positive indicator of ignorance." (emphasis supplied by Bob39 -- doing another Everbev here....) [Diane Ravitch, The Schools We Deserve: Reflections on the Educational Crises of Our Time] (1985, pg. 8,)
"…it is not merely that Johnny can't read, or even that Johnny can't think. Johnny doesn't know what thinking is, because thinking is so often confused with feeling in many public schools….The phrase 'I feel' is often used by American students to introduce a conclusion, rather than say 'I think,' or 'I know,' much less 'I conclude.' Unfortunately, 'I feel' is often the most accurate term-and is regarded as sufficient by many teachers, as well as students. The net result, as in mathematics, is that many students are confident incompetents, whether discussing social issues, world events, or other subjects. The emphasis is on having students express opinions on issues, and on having those opinions taken seriously (enhancing self-esteem), regardless of whether there is anything behind them. When a reporter who spent months in a Los Angeles high school asked graduating seniors what they had learned, he received this reply from a boy described as 'the smartest student in the class':
'I learned that in the Vietnam War, North and South Korea fought against each other, and then there was a truce at the 38th parallel, and that Eisenhower had something to do with it.'
The reporter asked:
'Would it bother you to know that the things you learned were wrong?'
The answer was:
'Not really. Because what we really learned from Miss Silver was that we were worth listening to, that we could express ourselves and that an adult would listen, even if we were wrong. That's why Miss Silver will always be our favorite teacher. She made us feel like we mattered, like we were important.'"
[Thomas Sowell, Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas] (1993, pgs. 4, 5. Emphasis is Sowell's) (The reporter quotes are from Ben Stein's High School Diary, 1986, pg. 178)
Such is the legacy of teaching that emotions are a valid tool of cognition.
In his June 2, 1991 column, George Will related the following statistics:
a) Sixty-three % of those ages 18 to 24 cannot find France on an unlabeled map.
b) Fewer than half could find New York.
c) Sixty % of 11th graders do not know why the Federalist papers were written.
d) Ninety-four % of 11th graders cannot compute simple interest.
e) In tests comparing their math and science skills with those of 5 foreign countries and 4 Canadian provinces, American 13-year-olds finished last.
f) New York Telephone found that 115,000 of the 117,000 applicants flunked its employment exam.
g) Eighty % of applicants flunk Motorola's exam, which seeks levels of 7th grade English and 5th grade math.
And then he said:
"Every American employer knows it is possible-indeed, common-for high school graduates to be functionally illiterate. It is no coincidence that the philosophy and interest of the education establishment coincide exactly. Testing is 'judgmental' and hence jars the educators' warm, 'caring, empathetic, child-centered' therapeutic ethic that nurtures 'self-esteem.' This produces today's toxic mixture of low expectations and grade inflation."
A strong index of the failure of govt. schools is the fact that colleges and businesses
have to give remedial courses for students that should have learned such basics in the public schools.
By the late 1980s, 25% of American college freshman were taking remedial math, 21% remedial writing, and 16% remedial
reading. [U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1988.] (Washington: GPO, 1988,
p. 142)
SAT test scores of high school seniors for college admissions, started "a gradual but steady" declining in the early 60s. Those SAT scores did not begin to rise again until the early 80s. "…from a composite verbal-and-quantitative score of 980 in 1963 to 890 in 1980 and 1981."
A survey of 200 major corporations revealed that 22% of those corps. teach employees reading, 41% teach writing, and 31% teach math. The American Society for Training and Development forecast 93% of the biggest corps. would be teaching basic skill by 1993. ["C Stands for Company, Turned into Classroom," Wall Street Journal] (March 1, 1990)
In 1945, the national average per pupil spending in the public schools (K-12) was $974 (1992 dollars). In 1992, that figure had risen to $5,216 (1992 dollars).
In 1945, the average teacher salary was $14,770 (1992 dollars). In 1992, that figure had increased to $35,334 (1992 dollars).
In 1950, the average SAT math score was 493. It increased somewhat above that level until about 1962, and then the decline began. The SAT math bottomed out in 1981 and then rose a bit to 476 in 1992.
In 1950, the SAT verbal score was 470. It increased somewhat above that level until about 1962, and then the decline began. The SAT verbal bottomed out in 1981, then rose somewhat until 1986 and then started down again. It was at 423 in 1992.
In 1959, the first public sector collective bargaining law passed in Wisconsin. In 1961 President Kennedy approved public sector unions and the American Federation of Teachers won collective bargaining rights in New York State. Teacher unionization was almost zero at that time. In 1992, that figure had changed to 80% of teachers in collective bargaining units.
When all the above is graphed on a chart, as Forbes Magazine did in its June 7th issue, 1993, it becomes very clear that the peak high in SAT scores occurred at approximately the same time as the first unionization of teachers. The SAT scores have been declining ever since (1992 figures -- Math SAT was a bit higher than its lowest point, but still well below its pre-union peak, while the verbal SAT was almost at its lowest point, since unionization began).
While this, in itself, does not prove cause and effect, it nevertheless does make it clear there seems to have been an overall correlation with the beginning of teacher unionization and the decline in education performance in the public schools. As the percentage of unionized teachers grew, the performance scores declined, in public schools. But, if one compares such a history to the performance of private schools, while simultaneously noting that teachers unions have consistently opposed such reform measures as teacher merit pay, teacher competence testing, making it easier to fire incompetent teachers, among other reforms, then one is driven closer to concluding that the type of teaching and administration which has spread throughout the public schools, concurrent with the rise in the percentage of teacher unionization, has had a deleterious effect upon education performance.
My wife was forced to drop her college psychology class, because her instructor (with MA degree) was semi-illiterate. I counted 22 spelling/grammar/syntax errors in her two-page course handout.
That instructor couldn't understand why all her students failed a test (my wife was able to get a "C" grade - which she regarded as the equivalent of failure -- having maintained a consistent 4.0 gpa since returning to college). When my wife suggested it was because she (the instructor) had downloaded the questions from a psychology text companion CD disk, that was totally unrelated to the required text or the course "lectures" (a charitable euphemism for what my wife described to me about went on in those classes), that instructor launched into a psychoanalysis of why my wife thought the teacher was at fault. When my wife pressed for an answer to the question: "How can we know what material to study, so that we can pass your exams?" the instructor replied continually with statements that were nonsense and unrelated to the question posed. She seemed to be totally devoid of any ability to think in a rational manner, yet she was hired by that college to teach introductory psychology. But, that instructor was minority female, so at least she helped to satisfy the "diversity" goal of California educators.
This is just a bit of the kind of information I have in my files on the decline of American education.
A general state education is a mere contrivance for molding people to be exactly like one another; and as the mold in which it casts them is that which pleases the predominant power in the government…it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by natural tendency to one over the body. [John Stuart Mill, On Liberty] (AHM Publishing, 1947, p. 108)
“When school children start paying union dues, that 's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.”
Albert Shanker, President of the Teachers Union (United Federation of Teachers) from 1964 to 1984 as well as President of the Teachers Union (American Federation of Teachers) from 1974 to 1997.

