Viewpoint Brief Bible Study #92 |
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JESUS calls US to be |
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The Christian religion is the worship and service of Jesus Christ. It’s not Mary we worship, but her Son. We worship neither saints, angels, a law code, nor even God’s Spirit. It’s JESUS who is to be honored. The Bible is our guide. |
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Are Public Schools Teaching Well?
with responsive comments by Tom Woody, Carolyn Barlow,
and Leonard Clark.
And Steven Clark Goad's comments from his
book GULLIBLE'S TRAVELS.
The article by Marianne M. Jennings was printed in the Wall Street Journal, according to the Reader's Digest which condensed it in their November 1997 issue. She reported that when their daughter went to public school, she came home spouting about Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain "Persons."
Did the history books YOU studied mention that Ethan Allen's men had their women along? Or what's the purpose for teaching kids that the soldiers who accompanied Ethan Allen (who is a man rather than a person) were all of the masculine gender? Should a school teacher be confused about gender? Does that confuse the students? Surely it does confuse the students. And their parents if they later hear about it.
No, the teacher should be aware of sex and not try to deny that there are men and women who are attracted to each other for purposes which produce children like the ones now in school. "Persons" is a clue that some in the educational system are terribly mixed up about the purpose and possibilities of education. As are many in the fields of publishing and entertainment.
But that's not all the young lady learned at public school. She taught her parents (what she had been taught) that Christopher Columbus was even more evil than researchers who use bunnies to test eyeliner. U. S. taxpayers should throw more billions of dollars into teaching such valuable lessons to the youth of our land. Or should they?
Mrs. Jennings reported that she and her husband learned to live with her daughter's gimmicky curriculum. But then, one evening when she was in eighth grade, the mother saw her using a calculator to compute ten percent of 470. Later the mother had to explain to her daughter that one-fourth is the same as 25 percent. The mother wondered exactly what was being taught in this math class. When asked if the other students knew no more about math than the daughter who was earning straight A's in her classes obviously knew, the daughter cheerfully admitted that the others knew less than she did, she was sure.
The mother then researched the math being taught in public schools today. She reported, "Given what I learned, it didn't surprise me that the U.S. ranked only 28th among 41 nations surveyed in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study released in November 1996. Using newfangled and untested notions, today's U.S. math educators have all but eliminated numbers [which used to be the TOOL of old-fashioned mathematics]. They are creating a generation of mathematical nitwits." And the only reason this isn't entirely true is that many parents wisely have withdrawn their children from the public schools.
I see some very well taught youngsters growing up. They're being home schooled or taught in Christian private schools. Unfortunately, many of today's public school teachers didn't learn anything when THEY were in school either. And the good teachers are told exactly what they can and CANNOT teach in the classroom.
Mrs. Jennings points out, "The first problem is the textbooks. I thought my daughter's algebra book (that's what it said on the outside!) was her social-science text. The Addison-Wesley Focus on ALGEBRA has color photos, essays on Africa's Dogon tribe and questions such as What role should zoos play in today's society? There's Maya Angelou poetry, pictures of Bill Clinton, and insights about cultural differences and the environment." But no numbers, and surely no focus on any subject which deals with numbers.
"By contrast, the Japanese, who ranked third in the international survey, have texts all about -- get this -- math."
So some think, "Let's hurry and get computers in our schools and keep on teaching nonsense in place of solid facts." Or perhaps we should instead get the national government out of our schools, if that might seem to make better sense to people who care about what children in public schools are being taught. When schools were controlled by the local school boards, those who went to school had a better chance at learning something (if they wanted to learn) than those who are now being taught nonsense in the name of algebra and all other sciences which deal with hard facts.
"My daughter's textbook and others like it were created in response to standards developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Proponents of the standards are among the authors and consultants of these new textbooks." And some people think we should ADMIRE anyone who has earned a degree in our present institutions of higher "learning."
This admiration for those with advanced degrees may explain some of the peculiar things now being taught in some of our Sunday Schools and sermons. It was once thought that Paul's much "learning" had driven him crazy, which of course wasn't true. But the more studies our young people have with nonsense as the subject, the less true facts they're apt to know. And the same is true of those who go to college, and those who listen to preachers who have accepted what is being taught in many colleges and universities.
It's possible to have earned an advanced degree in religion and still be a Christian. A few do so. The best Christian scholars today are ones with the fewest degrees, according to my observation.
"The idea behind the (new math) standards is that a 'conceptual understanding' of math, not problems and practice, is what matters. It's like saying you can learn to play a piano concerto with passion and power by studying how it was written -- and forget about learning musical notation, or even what a piano is. These standards fail to recognize that the memorization of basic math facts is an important skill, and a usually-accurate predictor of future success in working with numbers, which is what mathematics is all about."
The mother of a daughter who had been taught nonsense in the name of algebra continues, "Today's math education (in public schools) goes further astray into the jungle of unproven teaching techniques. Under 'cooperative learning,' for example, students are placed in groups where it is hoped that (by osmosis perhaps) they will somehow teach each other a concept none has ever seen." In the days when mathematics involved numbers, teachers and textbooks explained concepts of relationships of those numbers and workable methods of deriving true results from particular processes. And students learned the concepts and how to put them into practice on the problems they faced.
Today in public schools, "grades are sometimes determined not solely by the number of correct answers, but according to an evaluation (by the 'teacher') of the thinking behind the answers. Former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities Lynne V. Cheney notes that some in the math community (those teaching 'new math' without numbers) have proposed a scoring system for a national math exam under which students could get full credit for wrong answers if those answers were accompanied by 'appropriate strategies.'"
Unless parents have time to teach their children at home to make up the deficit of good teaching in "public schools," perhaps they shouldn't send those innocent children to a school that's really no school at all. What do YOU think?
Subject: Re: Schooling for Christian Children
From: tomwoody@juno.com (Thomas W Woody)Date sent: Sat, 17 Jan 1998
Ray, Excellent thoughts on our public schools. I have thought a lot about the subject and having four of my children in the system at present; it is a real concern.
We have an assistant superintendent who is especially enamored with the new wave in education, which is basically a dumbing-down of the higher standards which used to prevail. It is especially ironic to me since this man has no children of his own; not that I hold that against him personally, but I wonder how he could be so educated and supposedly qualified in an area where he has really not had that much personal experience. He not only wants to get rid of what little programs we have for the academically gifted, he has also got the idea that hiring a homosexual counselor might be the next progressive thing to do. So far he hasn't succeeded in the latter pursuit.
The source for much of this new "social-consciousness" curriculum (instead of the three "R's") is from school systems where the students are very hard to teach due to their dismal situations at home. Teachers in these schools often feel pressure to lower the standards in order to pass the students on to the next grade (besides, it damages "self-esteem" if you flunk a child, and so some teachers never consider it). These new techniques are then brought to other schools through government agencies (if your school doesn't comply, you don't get your federal money) which apparently have an agenda, or at least must do new things to justify their existence.
Why keep the children in public school, you might wonder? I appreciate and respect those who do not want their children exposed to the public schools, and I know some have it worse than we do in our fairly rural community. But the main reason we have (so far) kept our children in the public schools is for them to be a light to the world.
It is the same reason we cannot get out of the world (I Cor. 5), and one of the reasons God keeps us here on earth for a while even after we are born again. We have always tried to give the children what they need at home and tried to help them keep school in perspective.
I believe that children of believers act as salt in the schools and our prayer for them (even as we try to keep abreast of what is going on at school) should be along the same lines as what the Savior prayed for His little ones before He left them (John 17). He prayed not that the Father would take them out of the world, but that He would keep them from evil. We keep them from evil like we keep them from the cold with a warm coat; insulate them with love, prayer, and the truth -- the Word of God.
A teacher once complimented my wife and me by saying we should write a book on how to raise children. I suggested to her that "the Book" had already been written. May the Lord help us all to get our education from that blessed book and pass on to our children the heritage He has given us. -- Tom
From: JCCBarlow <JCCBarlow@aol.com> Carolyn Barlow
Date sent: Sat, 17 Jan 1998
Dear Ray, As a public school teacher, I think you have judged the whole country on your experience and the experience of one woman in one school. Your condemnation of all public schools offends me. I am a senior English teacher in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system. Just yesterday we spent the day studying John Milton and talking about God's will in our lives. I don't believe just anyone, without a great deal of preparation, could have taught their child those works of Milton.
I'm amazed at your hasty generalization. Should all schools be condemned on the example of one school? Since when have local school boards given up their authority? This certainly hasn't happened in Winston-Salem. Our school board continues to stay actively involved in the educational process and is very responsive to the opinions of parents. Also, our math books look nothing like the math books that you have described.
What is the key difference between the school system that you described and the system that I am familiar with? I believe the difference is the school board. Our school board is made up of many Christians who instead of home-schooling their children sought to actively make a difference in the lives of all children by running for the positions available on the school board. The local school board should reflect the standards of the community. If we don't like our schools, we should seek legitimate ways to change them for the benefit of all children.
I won't go into a defense of cooperative learning today except to say that many problems in life have to be solved when we have no facts. What do we as adults do in that situation? We gather facts and think through possible solutions. After choosing the best possibility, we then test the solution.
What is wrong with giving our students the practice, ahead of time, of things they will have to do in real life? Students today have been given so much that if they don't have the facts, they give up. They don't know how to think. I believe my thinking ability is what I use today not the "facts" that I learned in school. Also, what is wrong with teaching cooperation? I certainly think our world would be a better place if we taught cooperation rather than competition.
I think it is very important that you do not perform the logical fallacy of judging everyone by your own experience, especially when you are publishing your views to many. I appreciate the opportunity to express my views.
Sincerely, Carolyn Barlow
From: Leonard Clark <LClark4672@aol.com>
Date sent: Sat, 17 Jan 1998About the article regarding what is being
taught in our public schools:Ray, this is exactly why there are times when I just feel like giving up. Rational thought has eluded these advocates of such things, being overwhelmed by an egotistical desire to have their names "go down in history" as the "founders of a new and glorious way to shape our children's minds."
I say -- teach my child the facts, just the facts, and please let me shape my child's mind. Where will the education system be whenever my child needs a job?????
We have not assembled our children en masse for the convenience of the psychologist. Children are there for a purpose: to learn critical skills that will provide them with the tools they need to support themselves in our society. The very important social benefits of school will be experienced sometime in life. It is not up to a "system" to teach them. These skills will be learned by life's experiences. How and what our children learn in school will (make no mistake will) determine the direction of our society, our nation and, in the U.S., the entire world.
The educators know this and are, in fact, determining the destiny of our youth. Is it the destiny you have in mind for your child??
I live in Tennessee. We are about 2 or 3 years behind all of the "trend setting" areas of the nation (thank God). When this arrives in our school system (I know, I know it's already here) those of us who read our children's textbooks and attend meetings at school and "bother" the principal and teachers because they are watching videos instead of receiving instruction we will know before it's too late for our children. -- Leonard Clark
What do YOU think?