CANCELING OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE
What Can “Dumbed Down” and Politicized Graduates Do in an Evolving Economy That Demands Knowledge and Skill?
David Barnhizer
[Sorry about the length]
If the quality of America’s educational system was on a downward slide during the last thirty years or so of the 20th century, over the past two decades it has become horrific. It has been made worse due to the consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the divisive “new racist” rhetoric spouted by Critical Race Theory “scholars” and their aggressive efforts to divide our previously evolving and healing society through their attacks on “Whiteness”—which in itself is the creation of a “Neo-Racism” that has opened gaping tears in our social fabric.
After decades of progress on overcoming intolerable and immoral discrimination, we are suffering from cynical and deliberate invention of qualities and characteristics that are supposed to be the foundations of what is labeled “White supremacy”, “White privilege”, “systemic racism”, and “Whiteness” itself. The strategy is one of the use of guilt and “shaming” to divide, conquer, and gain power and political control.
The problem is that the intensive effort to “cancel” and atone for the dark chapter of slavery in the nation’s earlier years by severely retrofitting its educational curricula and modes of learning is severely undermining the entire educational process at all levels. Seeking “forgiveness” for things not done by anyone now in existence, by rewriting our cultural and intellectual histories, and by condemning anything that allegedly had its roots in an invented idea of “Whiteness” not only borders on insanity but travels far inside the boundaries of societal lunacy.
I am not going to belabor the point, but the reality of slavery in history is that it is a matter of power, not skin color. Throughout history the nations and controlling power groups that practiced and/or profited from enslaving others include China, Russia, India, the nations of Islam, the dominant tribes on Africa’s East and West coasts that captured members of other tribes to trade with Europe and with Islamic nations.
The Muslim trade in eastern Africa in fact began 700 years before the European enterprise, and the North African nations conducted raiding expeditions as far north as Ireland to capture thousands of people that were taken home and enslaved. Some native American tribes had slaves they captured. The Aztecs practiced slavery. There is a great deal of guilt if we bother to look at the actual history of slavery in the world. It is not a “White” thing. It is unfortunately a “thing” of superior power, so can we stop with the false allegations made to grab power?
What we are experiencing is another “power play”. The competition for power among increasingly hostile Identity groups is causing our educational system, and therefore our social system, to disintegrate rapidly to the point it is decaying before our eyes. The ideals that we were taught were foundational, shared, and vital are being abandoned. Goals, concepts, ideals, methods, and other critical elements are being radically transformed into a heavily politicized, kaleidoscopic, dangerous and unsustainable political admixture without substance.
If what was going on were being done within a self-contained American educational, social and economic system, it would still impose great stresses on our society. But the consequences of our educational “dumbing down” are spreading through the accelerating combination of AI/robotic job destruction and tragically ignorant “Neo-Racism”. The effects of the anti-intellectual inundation in our schools has spread throughout all our core institutions to the extent we can’t even have reasoned communications of the kind essential for a democratic society to remain healthy and effective. [On this, see David Barnhizer & Daniel Barnhizer, The Artificial Intelligence Contagion: Can Democracy Withstand the Imminent Transformation of Work, Wealth and the Social Order? Clarity Press, 2019].
The consequences of our progressive civil strife are not limited to damaging effects on our internal conditions. They are magnified because America does not exist in a vacuum. Other countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Brazil, the nations of the European Union, the UK and Russia, are our competitors. China and Russia particularly are now fully authoritarian states fully dedicated to a strategy of weakening America and creating a “New World Order” they plan to dominate after assisting America’s decline. The UK, of course, as with Canada, is suffering from the same kind of challenges we are experiencing—increasing costs, rampant immigration, slumping economies, inflation, a silenced population due to aggressive language and communications controls even to the point of the use of criminal laws to enforce sanctions over disfavored speech.
The “Dumbest Generation” Is Getting Dumber Thanks to the “Crits”
There is something tragic that those working hard to “racialize” our schools and general society are missing. A prescient 2008 analysis by Mark Bauerlein provides a detailed and clear analysis of what has been occurring as the “Digital Age” takes hold. Bauerlein’s The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupifies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Penguin 2008) is well worth reading. Years of being coddled in “schools without failure” and provided unearned rewards and medals for mediocre performance so their feelings wouldn’t be hurt or egos threatened has not prepared the youth of America and other Western nations to compete against counterparts from other cultures.
The added tragedy is that what Bauerlein predicted based on the effects of addiction to digital devices is now being multiplied in terms of “dumbing down” the newly emerging generation of American students. This added “dumbing” has been aided by an educational process that is “politically correct” to an extreme. That education is biased, propagandized, emotionally sensitive in one direction while being completely insensitive in another. It is increasingly bereft of substance on critical levels, and is failing to educate a significant number of students in basic knowledge understanding and skills to the point that many students, including Black and Latino minority students, leave the public schools of America’s major urban areas lacking essential knowledge and skills.
This nation requires a major effort to fix our educational systems—with a very targeted focus on large cities and Black and Latino students. Rather than addressing that challenge directly with a massive effort, we have fallen victim to race-baiting zealots who are feeding us a steady diet of anti-intellectual garbage. In doing so, they are “canceling” the future of the very people they loudly profess to be helping.
Unless we figure out how to overcome the educational limitations and race-based and gender-identity discrimination undermining the quality of learning for many of our young people we must count on to contribute and compete in the future, the US will become a fading economic and political power subordinate to our enemies such as China and Russia and to nations whose educational systems are still effectively educating their graduates in essential knowledge and skills.
Even if we are successful in fixing what exists, it is almost impossible to fully remedy the problems that have already been created. Inadequate education, and serious family and cultural issues make the educational challenge America faces close to insurmountable unless there is a commitment to the radical redevelopment of family structures. As if that were not enough of a challenge, we must still try to deal with the lingering after-effects of historic racism, discrimination, and counterproductive governmental policies that disproportionately disrupted many urban families and sabotaged elementary and high school educational systems.
“I Wish the Lessons of My Parents’ Generation Were Being Taught Today”
Congressman for Utah’s 4th District and former NFL football player, Burgess Owens states the challenge with great clarity.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/i-wish-the-lessons-of-my-parents-generation-were-being-taught-today-rep-burgess-owens-on-ending-systemic-racism_3714342.html. “‘I Wish the Lessons of My Parents’ Generation Were Being Taught Today’: Rep. Burgess Owens on Ending Systemic Racism”, Melanie Sun, 2/28/21.
Owens reflected on the values of meritocracy and education that his parents’ generation embraced in his youth, which he said exposes the flaws in the narrative being told to younger generations of blacks in America today. “I would ask Americans, first of all, we need to learn our history. Don’t buy into the leftist mantra of systemic racism,” Owens said. “Everybody has tough, tough times, no one is gonna be liked by everybody. The key is what do you do to command respect for yourself, for who you believe you are, and for your family, for your name.” Owens said that children in black families in the 60s grew up learning about “how to respect God, country, family, respect for women, and respect for authority.” “That all happens within a family, is where a young man know[s] what it looks like to protect and provide for women, and to have such respect for womanhood itself that you’re willing to do anything, to sacrifice anything, for that. And that’s what we’ve been missing out in the last few decades.” He said under current cultural and policy trends, young men in black communities are “not understanding their responsibilities to commit to their families, and be the provider, to be a partner, to be a friend, and to be a good example. Those things are missing. So we have to get that back. And once we do, then we will be okay.” “Don’t look at yourself as a victim,” he urged the black community.
Owens said his parent’s generation did not trust or rely on the government to fix their problems. Teachers, professionals, business owners supported their community to “grow and prosper.” “We need to do the same thing today. We need to look at ourselves, look at ourselves as being the solution to our problems,” Owens said. “Success is what you see, is what you believe, is how you’re taught. We need to get back to that. And at the end of the day, there’s no excuse today, when you have a black president, a black vice president, and a young man like myself who grew up in Tallahassee is now Congressman, there’s no excuse for anyone not to be able to do the same thing.” Owens also warned that extreme leftist ideology being spread in society is teaching people to hate God, capitalism, and the family unit. “That’s what we see in Black Lives Matter dot Inc. That’s on their mission statement,” Owens [said].
The Future of Children “Educated” in Major Urban Public Schools
Is Being “Canceled”
The message voiced by Eli Steele is stunning in its sadness and implications, not only for the young man with whom he had a discussion about the education provided by Chicago’s schools but for the nation itself. The individual admitted that even after years spent being “educated” in Chicago’s schools “I can’t read!”Steele writes:
In 2019, only 37% of third-graders in Illinois demonstrated grade-level proficiency in English-language arts, and when it came to math only 41% could demonstrate grade-level proficiency. Why would the state of Illinois consider new standards when it failed to uphold the most basic and universal of education standards? The disconnect between the progressive ideology driving these new standards and the realities on the ground could not be starker. After I filmed the shot that the young man recommended, I asked him how he felt about the education system wanting to encourage students to become activists. He laughed and said that was easy. "Anyone can march but not everyone can get a job." “Reporter's Notebook: Chicago schools face nightmare as Illinois pushes progressive politics: Only 37% of Illinois' third-graders demonstrated grade-level proficiency in English-language arts in 2019”, Eli Steele, 2/18/21.
Black students in LA are only 20% proficient in math and 32% in English. There are many people teaching in the lowest performing LA schools doing so on Emergency Certificates and they have significant turnover rates. In the districts with lowest scores, many of the concerns can be attributed to students whose families are homeless, the students are in foster care, or suffering from asthma due to poor living conditions. Chicago’s 2018 student scores showed a slight decline. The effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic closing of the schools in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere are going to be cataclysmic on numerous levels—educational and otherwise. Another effect is the dramatic increase in student absenteeism. The point is that even ion the schools were doing their job in the classroom, they can’t teach students who don’t bother attending school on a regular basis.
In 2018, 94 of the Chicago schools had low performance rantings on the state’s reporting system. For Illinois overall, 37% of students in grades 3-8 were proficient or higher in reading and 31.5% were proficient in math. For Chicago, 27% in reading and 22% in math. White and Asian students in Chicago were well above the proficiency level or at that level. For Black students, however, the proficiency level was at 17% and Latino at 30%. Nearly 50% of the Chicago public schools received the lowest rating by the State of Illinois.
Much the same situation is found in Baltimore, New York, Los Angeles, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis and elsewhere. What this means is that as a general rule two-thirds and more of Black and Latino students are completing their early education not being able to read, write or do basic mathematics in a qualitatively acceptable way. And even when they meet the proficiency levels, this does not mean they are skilled at the tasks as opposed to simply meeting low level criteria.
But the almost unbelievable tragedy is that at least two-thirds of urban students simply can’t “cut it” on basic educational tasks, ones that their school systems spent years pretending to provide. This is an obscene crime. Given the “social pass” approach schools have adopted, even if the students stay in the system long enough to receive a High School degree, their educational skills are simply not up to the requirements by many of the work categories they might want to fulfill.
Canceling “White Supremacy” Values, Including “Acronyms”, a “Sense of Urgency”, “Individualism”, “Objectivity”, and “Reading & Writing”
In understanding why the San Francisco School leadership would go back through a century-and-a-half of history to cancel Abraham Lincoln as it recently decided to do and then backed off due to virulent public reaction, it is helpful to consider a subsequent action by that so-called “leadership” that suggests we are dealing with a faction that has no connection to America’s reality. The craziness has reached the point where the SF School District decided to cancel the use of “Acronyms” because they were, to them, a tool of “White Supremacy”.
Analytically, the logic on which they relied is hard to believe, but look below. If it weren’t so pathetic it would be even harder to keep from laughing because they replaced the VAPA acronym with the SFUSD—another acronym. By the way, isn’t BLM an acronym?
https://reason.com/2021/02/02/san-francisco-schools-acronyms-white-supremacy/. “San Francisco Schools Renamed the Arts Department Because Acronyms Are a Symptom of White Supremacy: "We are prioritizing antiracist arts instruction in our work.””, Robby Soave, 2/2/21.
The San Francisco United School District isn't quite finished with its renaming binge: The district's arts department, previously titled VAPA (Visual and Performing Arts), will now be known as the SFUSD Arts Department. This change has been made in accordance with "antiracist arts instruction," according to ABC-7 News. "It is a very simple step we can take to just be referred to as the SFUSD Arts Department for families to better understand who we are," Sam Bass, director of the SFUSD Arts Department, explained in a memo obtained by the local news network. … ABC-7 reported that the decision was made to eliminate VAPA because the department realized acronyms are a symptom of "white supremacy culture.” The New York Post reported that the memo cites a 1999 paper by Tema Okun. That paper does not specifically say that acronyms are racist, though it does label "worship of the written word" as an aspect of white supremacy. Other purported characteristics of white supremacy are "perfectionism," a "sense of urgency," "individualism," and "objectivity."
Just as a Matter of Intellectual Curiosity,
What Values Would Replace the “Systemically Racist” “White” Ones?
There are several critical matters that those seeking to “reverse racialize” American society are conveniently ignoring in their thirst for power. The easiest missing fact to understand is that, rather than seeking to create a healthy unity and healing between different ethnic groups, the efforts will tear the nation apart. The ripping asunder is already visible. That fact is so obvious that regardless of elevated rhetoric about justice and equality, the only rational conclusion is that the “tearing apart” is a deliberate strategy. One would need to be incredibly ignorant or dishonest to assert anything else.
Think about what the mantras of “White guilt”, “systemic racism”, and “White privilege” actually do. Consider for just a moment what it means to say that “individualism”, “being goal oriented”, “insisting on reason and rational thought”, being “self-confident”, “seeking answers”, “believing in objectivity”, having a “sense of urgency”, “prizing reading and writing”, “worshipping the written word”, believing America is a “land of opportunity”, that capability and merit are relevant factors in who gets the available jobs, not being “humble” enough, and similar characteristics now being labeled as “White” have on the overall society.
Arguments are being made that merit, a “sense of urgency”, belief in individualism and objectivity, respect for the written word and reading and writing, or that math is racist, neutrality bad, that the best qualified people earn the jobs and opportunities, arguments that mathematics upholds Capitalism and supports imperialist and racist views, are all devices of White racism and privilege in a systemically racist society. In this twisted logic, so is any emphasis on finding the right answer.
An important fact is that if the alleged “White values” such as those are listed above are keys to “White supremacy” and “White privilege” and we believe that to be bad and oppressive, then the obvious solution is that we should abandon them. In their place we then must adopt other values. But what are those other values? Are we to be “a collective or hive”? Should we avoid planning for our future well-being, operate according to fully emotional factors rather than logic, not worry about having evidence for our conclusions, give up on reason, logic and objectivity, or be hesitant or insecure in what we do and say because self-confidence is a “White value”? We should also never be proud of what we have accomplished because we need to be much more humble.
This strikes me as something much less than a formula for achieving equality. It seems more like a strategy for reversing racial dominance. Some of that reversal would at least temporarily shift some power to the politically invented identity groupings of Latin American and Native American as part of the People of Color coalition. But virtually all of the power shift seems to be going to a cluster of African American Identity Groups and will likely continue to do so.
Asians may technically be listed as a People of Color class, because it would be too obvious to exclude them from that rhetorical “umbrella”. But Asians are not really part of that POC political force because, from the perspective of credentials and education, they would be entitled to a share of the benefits of power considerably beyond other political groupings. Advantages are not simply ones of financial status. There is no question that having an intact and supportive family structure as well as members who value education have significant impacts on educational and work performances.
The dilemma is captured in a report relating to Asian families.
The continuing arguments by Marxist Critical Race theorists and BLM activists about the importance of weakening the traditional family structure, and even eliminating it and substituting the POC “proletariat” in the place of the nuclear family, simply will not make a great deal of headway among the majority of Asians and Latinos in the US. Another part of the reality with which we are dealing is that there is an extreme array of diversity among Latin Americans and Asians. Many parts of those diverse elements do not have particularly positive views of or relationships with those with whom they are lumped under the POC heading. Plus, as a rule, Asians and Latinos tend considerably more than American Blacks to have intact traditional family structures which gives them a competitive “leg up”. There is simply no question that family is vital and the lack of a coherent and supportive family is harmful.
Even if they come from poorer, less educated families, Asian Americans significantly outperform white students by fifth grade, authors wrote. "What accounts for Asians' greater academic effort than whites?" asked study authors Amy Hsin of Queens College in New York and Yu Xie of the University of Michigan. "Asian and Asian American youth are harder working because of cultural beliefs that emphasize the strong connection between effort and achievement," the authors wrote. "Studies show that Asian and Asian American students tend to view cognitive abilities as qualities that can be developed through effort, whereas white Americans tend to view cognitive abilities as qualities that are inborn." See also: http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/u-s-students-compare/. “Students in the United States performed near the middle of the pack. On average 16 other industrialized countries scored above the United States in science, and 23 scored above us in math. … Experts noted that the Monte Morin, United States’ scores remained about the same in math between 2003 and 2006, the two most recent years the test — the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) — was given. Meanwhile, many other nations, Estonia and Poland being two, improved their scores and moved past the U.S. Monte Morin, LA Times, “Study examines achievement gap between Asian American, white students” 5/5/14. http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-why-do-asian-american-students-perform-better-than-whites-20140505-story.html.
Canceling the “Racist” Discipline of Mathematics
The approach that “racism is in everything in America” reaches some incredibly strange positions. One is that mathematics is racist. This is described below.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/oregon-education-math-white-supremacy. “Oregon promotes teacher program that seeks to undo 'racism in mathematics’: A toolkit includes a list of ways 'white supremacy culture' allegedly 'infiltrates math classrooms’”, Sam Dorman, 2/12/21.
The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) recently encouraged teachers to register for training that encourages "ethnomathematics" and argues, among other things, that White supremacy manifests itself in the focus on finding the right answer. An ODE newsletter sent last week advertises a Feb. 21 "Pathway to Math Equity Micro-Course," which is designed for middle school teachers to make use of a toolkit for "dismantling racism in mathematics.” … Part of the toolkit includes a list of ways "white supremacy culture" allegedly "infiltrates math classrooms." Those include "the focus is on getting the 'right' answer," students being "required to 'show their work,'" and other alleged manifestations. "The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so," the document for the "Equitable Math" toolkit reads. "Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity as well as fear of open conflict.” An associated "Dismantling Racism" workbook, linked within the toolkit, similarly identifies "objectivity" -- described as "the belief that there is such a thing as being objective or ‘neutral'" -- as a characteristic of White supremacy. … One of [the guidelines] instructs educators to "identify and challenge the ways that math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views."
Doesn’t Merit Mean the Ability to Do the Job?
Eli Steele, in writing about his experience in Chicago, wondered why there was no mention of the importance of merit in the new educational standards the Chicago school system was adopting. He stated:
I set up the camera and thought of how far this man’s world was from the new standards that the education leaders in Illinois believed would uplift Blacks and shrink the performance gaps between Whites and Blacks. While most people certainly would have no issues with teachers being "culturally competent" and "responsive" to students, what struck me when I first read the new standards was there was no mention of the word "merit." These new standards would require teachers to subscribe to "progressive values" and "hold high expectations in which all students can participate and lead as student advocates or activists." (The rule-writers recently changed "progressive" to "inclusive" but every aspect of the new standards reflects progressive politics.) How would these "high expectations" help this young Black man out looking for work? https://www.foxnews.com/us/chicago-schools-illinois-progressive-politics-teaching-standards-inclusive. “Reporter's Notebook: Chicago schools face nightmare as Illinois pushes progressive politics: Only 37% of Illinois' third-graders demonstrated grade-level proficiency in English-language arts in 2019”, Eli Steele, 2/18/21.
How Was the Horrific Baltimore Schools Situation Allowed to Happen? Weren’t the “Good Guys” in Charge?
An example from the Baltimore public schools presents insight into the depth of failure that we are experiencing. From the perspective of how so many young minority students are being failed in urban public school systems and condemned to lives of ignorance and hopelessness is impossible to understand for people who do not live in those communities. The fact that so little attention is paid to such issues, ones that are close to impossible to rectify without an intensive national plan and strategy that talks honestly about the failures, the causes, and realistic solutions, exposes the hypocrisy of the Critical Race Theory crowd and BLM, Inc.
They only “go for the flash” because seeking to honestly cope with what is needed to fix the reality of what exists is beyond their skills and attention spans and would require far too much hard work. Think about the implications of what is happening in public schools in Baltimore, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and consider the difficulty of fixing or even mitigating this incredible challenge.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/baltimore-student-fails-classes-top-half. “Baltimore HS student fails all but 3 classes over 4 years, ranks near top half of class: Tiffany France's son still ranked at No. 62 in his class of 120 total students”, Audrey Conklin, 3/4/21.
A Baltimore high school student failed all but three classes over four years and almost graduated near the top half of his class with a 0.13 GPA, according to a local report. [T]he mother of the failing student, thought her son would be receiving his diploma from Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts in June. However, she was surprised to discover that he is being sent back to the ninth grade to start over. "He's stressed, and I am, too. I told him I'm probably going to start crying," [she] told FOX 45 Baltimore.
[The Mother] expressed frustration with the school, asking why her son would have to complete three more years of high school after "the school failed him." [Her] son failed 22 classes and was late or absent 272 days over his first three years of high school. Only one teacher requested a parent-teacher conference, but France said that didn't happen. Despite this, her son still ranked 62nd in his class out of 120 total students. "The school failed at their job. They failed. They failed, that's the problem here. They failed. They failed. He didn't deserve that," she said. FOX 45 found that hundreds of students are flunking classes at the Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts in west Baltimore.
An administrator for Baltimore City Public Schools who spoke on the condition on anonymity told FOX 45's investigative team that the high school did fail France's son. "I get angry. There's nothing but frustration. We see on the news the crime that occurs, the murders, the shootings, we know that there are high levels of poverty in Baltimore," the administrator said. "Things like this are adding to that. His transcript is not unusual to me. I've seen many transcripts, many report cards, like this particular student.”
There has been a response, although it is primarily the typical “blame game” of politicians and administrators seeking to avoid accountability. Some blame it on underfunding of the Baltimore schools and on “systemic racism” even though of the top 100 large school districts in the US the Baltimore schools rank fifth, suggesting the problem is not a lack of resources. One obvious issue is that when a student misses 270 days of school in three years, there is not much learning going on, at least in terms of academics, discipline and good work habits.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/maryland-hogan-investigation-baltimore-augusta-fells. “Maryland Gov. Hogan calls for investigation into Baltimore HS failing students, others call for shutdown: Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts senior failed all but 3 classes over 4 years”, Audrey Conklin, 3/6/21.
The total budget for Baltimore City Schools is $1.2 billion, 70% of which comes from taxpayer funds, according to Fox 45. Of the top 100 largest school districts in the U.S., Baltimore City gets the fifth most funding per pupil, a 2020 U.S. Census report shows. Augusta Fells gets $5.3 million from taxpayers each year, Fox 45 reported. "The investigation...is ongoing," Mitchell said. "What? That's summer of 2019. They're still investigating this? ... You couldn't have discovered between summer of 2019 and the beginning of school 2020 what the heck happened and deal with it?” The two radio hosts questioned how the money going to Baltimore public schools is being spent. Some concerned residents on the "Baltimore City Votes" Facebook discussion group blamed the fact that scores of students are failing at a number of Baltimore public schools are failing is due to systemic racism, saying Baltimore has been set up for failure since the outset of the 20th century and now needs more funding than other large cities to succeed.
Dr. Kaye Wise-Whitehead, associate professor at Loyola University Maryland, recently explained how systemic racism and White supremacy in Maryland and Baltimore is impacting schools and students today in an interview Friday with Fox 45. "When the system itself starts you behind, it takes a lot more money to get you up and moving," she said. "When you look at the state of Baltimore City schools -- how they have been systematically underfunded -- you can pump money in, [but] it's going to take a while to get HVACs up, to get air going, to get quality going, to get the schools themselves in a place where they can sustain brightness, the energy and the brilliance of our children that are coming in.”
So, what lessons do we take from the debacle in Baltimore? When parents claim to have no idea that their children aren’t attending class close to fifty percent of the time, and do not check to see real progress reports, that is not a good sign for the quality of education and strongly indicates the parents and school administrators and teachers have abdicated their responsibility. When teachers see frequent absences of large numbers of students, continual failure on assignments, and then still have the failing students promoted to what are even more advanced courses, the excuses ring hollow for school administrators, teachers, students and parents.
Given that the Baltimore school district ranked fifth nationally in funding, repetition of the mantra of “systemic racism” should be seen as an attempt to avoid accountability and dodge the hard questions about how to fix a system that is “canceling” very large numbers of students in our largest school systems by denying them critical education and fundamental skills.
Fix It. Don’t Quit It—Boston’s Advanced Learning Program
https://www.theepochtimes.com/boston-halts-advanced-learning-program-because-too-many-asian-white-students_3713990.html. “Boston Halts Advanced Learning Program Because Too Many Asian, White Students”, Gq Pan, 2/27/21.
Boston Public Schools (BPS) are halting a selective program for high-performing kids in grades four through six because of a lack of racial equality in the makeup of the student population, local media have reported. … The decision to pause the AWC is based on a district analysis of the program, which found that more than 70 percent of the students enrolled were Asian or white. By contrast, a Massachusetts state analysis of the BPS suggests that out of the district’s 48,000 students in school year 2020-21, 42 percent are Hispanic, 29 percent are black, 15 percent are white, and only 9 percent are Asian.
According to the school district’s website (pdf), the AWC is a full-time program that provides an “accelerated academic curriculum for highly motivated and academically capable students.” Students who wish to participate need to take the popular Terra Nova 3 standardized test, and those who meet the score requirement will be put into a lottery conducted by the central administration office, and lottery winners receive letters inviting them to apply to the program. Last fall, 453 students received invitations, 143 students applied and 116 enrolled for this year, officials said, reported WGBH.
Can Young Americans Compete with Harder Working, More Aggressive,
and Innovative Counterparts?
There is no magic in supposed alternatives such as the “gig” economy in which individuals patch together multiple part time jobs and move from “gig” to “gig” as if they were musicians. It will work for some, but it is a dead end for many who will find the situation stressful, extremely competitive, lacking sufficient opportunities and critical benefits. The “romance” of the nomadic worker is far more a looming nightmare than a solution for what is emerging. Consider the following report on the “gig” economy in the United Kingdom.
The modern working day has begun. Thousands of couriers have arrived at their local sub-depots, and spent the first hour sorting through mountains of parcels containing goods of all shapes and sizes, all bought online from some of Britain’s best-known brands. Every last one needs to be delivered by the end of the day. …. One Uber driver commented to us with some exasperation: “If too many of us become private hire drivers, then there won’t be enough jobs for all of us.” https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/aug/24/inside-gig-economy-vulnerable-human-underbelly-of-uk-labour-market. “Inside the gig economy: the 'vulnerable human underbelly' of UK's labour market: Frank Field MP’s recent report into the UK’s delivery sector demanded ‘emergency government intervention’ to protect self-employed workers from exploitation. This is the story behind that investigation”, Frank Field and Andrew Forsey, 8/24/17.
There will not be enough “gig” jobs to meet worker demand. There are far fewer jobs to which to move, and there is no job security even if you find employment. Technology is making “work” far less labor-intensive, even services jobs. A variety of technologies will contribute to this, most visibly robotics (but also artificial intelligence, 3-D printing, and even virtual reality). Think just of all the jobs that will be lost to self-driving trucks and taxis. Estimates are that millions of driving and delivery jobs will be lost over the next 10-15 years in the US. Most human workers will become an interchangeable labor commodity with numerous substitutes available any time the managers decide to replace them.
We are already experiencing some social impacts of AI/robotics-driven loss of secure employment on humans and human behavior. A study by the Pew Research Center “found that in 203 of the 229 metropolitan areas in the US there was a fall in the share of adults living in “middle-income” households between 2000 and 2014. [Explaining] This is a remarkably consistent decline in the middle-income segment of the population, defined as earning somewhere between two-thirds and twice the national median income.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/07/middle-class-squeeze-money-household. “'The US? We're in bad shape': squeezed middle class tell tales of struggle--As Voices of America highlights issues that matter to voters, in North Carolina, talk of helping the middle class feels like an empty promise without a plan”, Dan Roberts, 7/7/16.
Another analysis reported that “Millennials” are having a hard time growing up or becoming adults and that the number of people aged 18-34 living with their parents rather than being married and independent has risen dramatically. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/most-millennials-are-finding-it-hard-transition-adulthood-report-n748676. “Most Millennials Are Finding It Hard to Transition Into Adulthood: Report”, Safia Samee Ali, 4/20/17. You actually can’t blame them because adulthood has become increasingly scary, expensive and uncertain.
The “dumbing down” Bauerlein describes becomes a vital concern when we realize that its primary victim appears to be America. In a globalized economy the fact is that any new employment of the kind left available to human workers is not guaranteed to be available to American workers. Many of the young among the American population may lack the basic work habits needed to compete with their counterparts, particularly in Asia. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/02/u-s-students-improving-slowly-in-math-and-science-but-still-lagging-internationally/.
In a new Pew Research Center report, only 29% of Americans rated their country’s K-12 education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (known as STEM) as above average or the best in the world. Scientists were even more critical: A companion survey of members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science found that just 16% called U.S. K-12 STEM education the best or above average; 46%, in contrast, said K-12 STEM in the U.S. was below average. This could mean that even if there are new jobs available in a globalized and highly competitive economy, Americans will not to be the ones who fill most of them.
Martha Stewart argues that US Millennials are spoiled, soft and lazy—not an ideal set of characteristics for people facing a tough future.
The millionaire lifestyle guru Martha Stewart has issued a stinging criticism of the millennial generation and claimed youngsters are too lazy to get ahead. Too many members of “Generation Snowflake” are still living with their parents rather than getting out into the world and making something of their lives, the celebrity businesswoman raged. She is the latest person to rail against a mollycoddled generation who have turned universities into “safe spaces” to avoid testing their ideas in the crucible of debate…. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1436480/millennials-are-lazy-self-indulgent-and-lack-the-initiative-to-be-successful-warns-lifestyle-guru-martha-stewart/.
As offended as some might be by Stewart’s comment about younger Americans being spoiled, lazy and soft, that doesn’t mean she is all that far off the mark. Demands for such things as “Safe Spaces”, “Trigger” warnings, an insistence on “Ultra” political correctness, the willingness on the part of people who proclaim their commitment to “tolerance” but who engage in violent protest over slights and complaints, such as the argument that someone has “appropriated” a characteristic of some ethnic group seem bizarre.
From the perspective of AI/robotics, such attitudes will stimulate employers to make as rapid a shift as possible to the non-human workforce because having to deal with human employees who are never satisfied and demand continual accommodations for their “needs” is a very unattractive condition. If the alternative is that you can manage robotic systems of production and service that do what they are told, don’t get sick or have personal problems and don’t sue if someone says a harsh word or gives them a poor evaluation review the decision pretty much makes itself.
We Are Canceling Our Children By Robbing Them
of the Skills Needed to Compete
We are losing our competitive drive while others are intensifying theirs. In the US we commonly hear that jobs involving STEM-educated workers (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics disciplines) represent the safest employment future for university study. Yet in many instances students undertaking such university majors have shown an unsettling tendency to drop out of the STEM programs, allegedly because the subject matter is too hard or demanding. http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2010/04/tougher-grading-one-reason-high-stem-dropout-rate. George Lowery, 4/2,2010, “Tougher grading is one reason for high STEM dropout rate”. “Some 50 percent of American college students who major in a STEM -- science, technology, engineering and mathematics -- field drop out, and the persistence rates for women and people of color are lower than those of their white male classmates, reported researchers at a Cornell conference March 25-26.”
US businesses have been using a special visa program, H-1B to bring what are supposed to be advanced skill foreign technical workers into the US due to a claimed shortage of Americans with the required skills. Some have concluded that US businesses are using the H-1B program by claiming that their “young Americans just can’t cut it” rhetoric by arguing that US high tech businesses are gaming the system. One reason given is that the companies are using the H-1B visa program to hire less expensive short-term foreign science and technology workers instead of US employees who are fully capable of doing the work.
That analysis suggests that there are enough STEM-educated graduates in the US but that high-tech companies in this country conveniently tend to find them lacking in essential skills, arguably so they can justify bringing in foreign workers. In this way they avoid higher salary expectations from US workers than the companies want to pay, and therefore use the H-1B special visa program to recruit more talented (or less expensive) tech savvy workers from other countries. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/us/large-companies-game-h-1b-visa-program-leaving-smaller-ones-in-the-cold.html?_r=0. “Large Companies Game H-1B Visa Program, Costing the U.S. Jobs”, Julia Preston, Nov. 10, 2015.