January/February 2003

What's Wrong with Education Today?

by Michael Peterson

What has happened over the past 20 years to the public school system? What is behind the decreasing performance, increasing student violence, behavior problems and failing schools?

Tolerance and Political Correctness

Many teachers and school officials are afraid to offend, discipline, set standards or espouse values for fear it may create a backlash in litigation or public defamation. This has led to a lack of discipline and unreasonable student rights that have compromised teachers' ability to manage their classrooms. The message is clear, either you tolerate and accept a child's behavior, unique status or expression, or you could lose your job and end up in court. Political Correctness (PC) asserts that nobody is responsible for his or her own behavior.

The doctrine of tolerance, by its very nature, leads to total relativism and a blurring of right and wrong. It preaches a message of no absolutes. It is one reason why value-based education is despised. Values lead to judgements about good and bad, and in the PC world no such thing exists. All people, ideas, thoughts and lifestyles are equal and need to be tolerated.

Although Christianity believes in equality -- that is equality under the law -- the fact that these laws are based on prescribed standards is a threat to political correctness.

Standards suggest that there is right and wrong and lead to the devaluation of another person's behavior, which could offend them. Offense is the greatest sin in the politically correct world. For a teacher to discipline a student, or devalue their behavior may offend the student. Therefore, in the PC world, teachers (and by extension classmates) should tolerate their fellow students' expressions. The "rights" of the individual have taken precedence over the rights of the whole.

Political correctness has also turned its guns on the very nation from which it was created. In school history lessons, American and Christian values that this country was based on often become objects of ridicule. Students are taught that these values are responsible for much of what is wrong with the world today. History, for example, is being rewritten so as not to offend any ethnic group. The result has been less fact and more "feel good" lessons. Is it any wonder that the U.S. Department of Education reported this year that over half of all high school seniors could not perform at even the basic level in History.

PC seeks to avoid offense at all costs, and most notably among underachieving students. Self-esteem is the mantra of the PC movement. In the PC world a child's self-esteem must be nurtured so that they don't feel inadequate or bad about themselves. This has led to a greater tendency to reward mediocrity. What makes this so sad is that real achievement is the foundation of self-esteem. Students know whether they are doing well or not. Lowering the bar to make underachieving students feel good about themselves only serves to rob both achievers and underachievers of the very self-esteem the PC world seeks.

Greater Emphasis on Ideology Rather than Skill Sets

Outside of the family, school has always been a societal cornerstone because it serves to educate and pass on the values and beliefs of the culture to the next generation. As families have become weaker in establishing values and standards, schools have taken on more prominence. As a result, today's schools have become a battleground for special interest groups and ideological extremists whose goal is to impose their values on young impressionable minds in the hope of changing the culture.

Traditional Christian values, and American civic and national pride have been degraded by many educators and politicians as an imposition of personal beliefs on others, while extremist thought has been sold as enriching and mind expanding. For example, Christianity has been blamed for everything from slavery and oppression to lack of scientific progress and superstition. The facts do not support this claim.

Middle Ages were hotbeds of scientific discovery and technological advancement because it has long been a Christian belief that to understand the Creator one must study the creation.

One travesty with the influx of more ideologies into the schools is that it takes time away from learning the skills that actually prepare students for the job market and making a living -- like reading, writing, science and math. Behind this influx is the belief that social problems must be solved in the classroom. This assumption is a fallacy. They did not start there, and they will not be solved there. One only needs to look objectively at the increase in social problems over the past 20 years as ideologies have been added to the curriculum. If schools focused on developing learning and marketable skills, it would better serve our youth and society.

As our education system has strayed away from traditional values, there has been an overall decrease in student performance, and an increase in behavioral problems. More money won't solve the problem because the problem is cultural, not material. The Washington D.C. school system is a case in point. With one of the highest school budgets per student ($10,200/student) it has the second lowest performance in the country.

We have seen a greater influx of ideological extremism creep into the school curriculum under the guise of diversity and tolerance. Homosexuality, environmentalism, religious ideologies (except Christianity) and socialist and Feminist thought have become directly or indirectly part of the curriculum.

The problem with ideological indoctrination is that it prevents critical thinking and analysis.

Students are taught to accept, rather than to question. For example, homosexuality and evolution have become standard ideologies in many school districts. Yet, homosexuality in a species prevents reproduction and leads to a gradual decline in that species -- in evolutionary terms the species would die out if homosexuality were the norm.

Anti-Education Sub-Cultures

The pop and Hip-Hop cultures are partly to blame for a lack of interest in educational advancement among children. Images and messages broadcast on MTV support the idea that hard work and diligence are not essential for success. Success is defined as having fun, being entertained or entertaining, flaunting one's sexuality, and of course, being rich. Why try hard? Why go to school? One only need look at today's cultural role models for our youth to see education was not part of their success stories. Those of us who teach in universities have heard many students lament the fact that they had to overcome an anti-education culture and ridicule to make it to college.

The disdain for education also promotes and reinforces the idea that society is unjust and unfair -- so why try? If youth valued education and saw it as the vehicle that could help them rise in the world, we would see better behavior, effort and performance.

Conclusion

The problem with education today is cultural and ideological, not lack of resources, money or poor teaching skills. As our educational system has turned away from traditional values, the level of performance has declined, and special interest groups have made the classroom a cultural battlefield. The outcome has been an erosion of teacher authority, growth of relativism, less time to develop real academic skills and acceptance of substandard performance. Without a clear sense of right and wrong, educators grope at dealing with the real issues that face our schools. We make allowances for underachievement, try hard not to offend unruly students, and fail to reward students for real achievement in an effort to be politically correct. One school official from California responded to such criticisms of our schools by saying, "If you don't like it, tough." So much for tolerance. 

Dr. Michael Peterson is an associate professor at the University of Delaware.

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