By JOHN RICHARD SCHROCK
America has declined for the past 40 years on all objective measures except military spending. The 1900s were America’s century despite the worldwide Great Depression. Our added troops ended a stalemated First World War and certainly our troops and technology were decisive in the Second World War. But we had to gear up our military for both efforts. Education was the key to our former greatness.
We had pushed for grade school graduation in the late 1800s. High school was the goal by the mid-1900s. The GI Bill then dramatically expanded our education of the post-War generation. But the trend of our children having a better life than their parents ended in the 1970s. Our decline has been rooted in our declining education and lack of respect for expertise. More and more we relied on foreign-educated specialists. But as their home countries’ living conditions improved and now may surpass us, there is less incentive to come here. Other first-world countries rose up by investing in education, and that is our only way back up. What must we do?
-Other countries recognize that different students have different talents. Our “anti-tracking” and standard curriculum policies stifle talented students who need to move ahead with their ability group.
-Most other countries train secondary teachers in their content field, not in Schools of Education where we require less content knowledge. Public universities with content departments that are research-focused and do not want to produce teachers should not produce any teachers at all.
-Only eleven states require high school teachers to specialize in biology or chemistry or physics or earth sciences. Washington DC and 39 states train secondary teachers in shallow broadfield science that is barely adequate for middle school science teaching. You can’t teach what you don’t know in depth. Those states and DC should move to science discipline requirements for secondary science teachers.
-In a large number of states, the rural population is shrinking and their schools are now too small to provide qualified teachers in high school and even at elementary levels. The resulting lack of teachers and resources results in a 1930s education. Immediate consolidation is needed, preserving local elementary schools but hubbing to consolidated middle and high schools. This will allow some reduction in teaching staff and loss of unqualified alternate route teachers. Savings must be shunted to a substantial increase in teacher pay.
-The science curriculum in the U.S. is barely one-third that in advanced European and Asian countries. We must triple the amount of science we teach. There are not enough teachers to teach our current anemic science curriculum. This may require importing science teachers and long term gearing up of a larger science teacher supply.
-Every student must take a full year course in human anatomy and physiology with microbiology. Not everyone will become a doctor but everyone will be a patient. Only real hands-on labwork can teach the understanding each of us needs to stay healthy and reduce the immense science stupidity tax only Americans pay for ignorance of our “owner’s manual.”
-Every student knows that computers to not care about them. Real teachers do care. America has been damaging our students with digital devices that reduce reading comprehension, shorten attention span, and ignore good teacher skills. Research is more than adequate to justify removing computers from classrooms except for vocational training about specialized uses of computers. Yet America more than any other country is sucker to the techno-industrial complex that continues to divert huge amounts of education money, asserting that “you can’t teach tomorrow’s students with today’s technology.” Administrators also love the appearance of technology as a sign of educational modernity despite failing students. Instead, technology deprives students of real interactions that make words and life meaningful.
-The American education system suffers from administrative glut, with far too many highly-paid chiefs generating needless paperwork. An administrator’s job is to serve teachers. Period.
-Conversion to the metric system should occur immediately. It is time for old fogies to give up the barleycorn system. Our students must know metric by heart to join the modern world.
America has been in decline for 40 years. If real education reforms were implemented today, it would take 40 years to climb back up.
John Richard Schrock has trained biology teachers for more than 30 years in Kansas. He also has lectured at 27 universities in 20 trips to China. He holds the distinction of “Faculty Emeritus” at Emporia State University.