School Daze

We went to our high school’s 65th reunion last week. My, how things have changed! The school is now in a campus-like setting – a far cry from, relatively speaking, the “little red school house” we attended.

In those bygone years, if we dared show up in something other than a suit coat, shirt and tie we were not allowed in class. Today’s students dress like ragamuffins – because they’re permitted to do so.

Today’s students also have “study periods”, field trips and freebie lunches. We had six hours of classes every day with a 30-minute lunch period squeezed in. And as so many of you will remember, the lunch period was a home-grown, brown-bag affair.

And as so many of you will remember, we studied. We studied hard. That was the main reason for schooling in those days.

One of our number at the reunion, during our walk-around tour and no doubt greatly impressed by the grandeur of our modernized school, commented on how much farther advanced today’s students are compared with the students of, let’s say, 65 years ago. Rather than contradict and embarrass that observer publicly, the rest of us bit our tongues. Most of us were well aware of the shortcomings that had developed in U.S. schools since we last matriculated, but we disagreed with our fellow alumnus’ inaccurate observation in later private conversations with faculty members.

In an article he wrote in January of 2009, J. Edward Ketz, who has been teaching full time for over thirty years, compared “Students Then and Now”. We saved that article because Professor Ketz made some noteworthy observations. Here are some of them:

– Compared with the students in the 1970s, today’s students are uneducated and unfit for a college education.

– Today’s average accounting major cannot perform what used to be Algebra I and II in high school.

– Today’s exams have multiple choice questions, so students guess their way through school.

– Today’s students don’t remember what they learn, and whatever they learn is mechanical and superficial.

– Today’s students cannot read at what used to be a tenth-grade level.

– Over a decade ago I observed that the average student had no idea what I was talking about. What was worse, they didn’t care.

– Today’s students cannot read critically. If I really want them to perceive anything, I have to tell them.

– Many students do not buy textbooks. They try to get by on the class notes or copies of past exams.

– Worst of all is attitude. Yesterday’s student was willing to work; today’s student is not.

– Yesterday’s students thought of education as a privilege; today’s students look upon it as an entitlement.

– Yesterday’s students accepted responsibility for their mistakes; today’s students phone mom and dad, who in turn call their attorneys.

– There is one area in which today’s students excel – their self-esteem – something K-12 teachers apparently think is more important than teaching them the three Rs

– The decline in the family also explains a lot. When parents don’t require their children to learn school material, and when they fail to support teachers and principals, children don’t form good study habits and learn to disrespect teachers.

– Major contributors to the failings of today’s students are lack of adequate supervision, increased use of drugs, increased television viewing, and the introduction of electronic games and cell phones.

– Years ago we used to think of education as a learning process that liberated the individual and created mature adults. Today’s society tends to view education as a commodity to be purchased and listed on a resume, whether or not any learning occurred.

– By accepting students who should not be admitted, universities are mostly responsible for the cultural shift in how today’s students view education.

– Because “teaching evaluations” are widely employed, students can punish demanding faculty who tend to become – less demanding.

– Intimidated by lawyers, administrators kowtow to donors and potential donors, and tell teachers that the grades they administer are too low.

“In the meantime,” Professor Ketz writes, “I have a predicament. How do I teach my university classes when so many students come to college with inadequate backgrounds?”

You might just as well try to hold back the tide, Professor Ketz. It’s a done deed. The powers-that-be decided a long time ago that in order to accomplish all their goals a “dumbed-down” society was needed. This society cannot “read at a tenth-grade level … they had no idea what I was talking about … and they didn’t care”. Those are your words, Professor, so forget about it. It’s too late.