OUR AMERICAN CLASSROOMS -- INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING OR LOCALIZED DICTATORSHIPS?

Almost everyone these days seems to be aware that our educational system has reached a near-chaotic state. In this writer's usual ultra-critical opinion, this certainly isn't a situation of recent origin. As far as we're concerned, it dates back at least to when this fellow was a rosy-cheeked lad seated in the normal succession of schoolrooms, not so dutifully, not so obediently, and not so impressed with the teaching and disciplinary methods employed.

A browse of the internet will turn up several latter-day essays discussing how and why the process has fallen on its face. Most of them tend to dance around the issue, offering analytical comment from a politically-oriented angle. However, a particular piece by a man named Charles Sullivan entitled The Failure of Mass Education, published in February 2003, hits quite a few nails on their proverbial heads. Our readers are urged to call this one up and go over it closely.

For purposes of emphasis, we've chosen to reproduce Mr. Sullivan's opening paragraph, which sums up the mess quite nicely.

"What are our public schools but an instrument of the state? Our students are not taught the
skills of critical thinking that would serve them well as citizens in a free society for the
entirety of their lives. Mass education focuses upon memorization and scoring well on exams.
Our schools do not promote independent thought or independent actions -- they teach
conformity and control of the masses. Every student is taught virtually the same thing in
essentially the same way -- much of it untrue; especially history and economics. Our
students are not educated to become useful and creative members of society; they are
programmed to be unquestioning conformists and mindless consumers of goods and
propaganda. Thus we are creating a society of automatons who will never challenge
authority, who will behave predictably and will be staunch defenders of the status quo. In
other words, they will become the passive core of American society."

Being strongly in accord with this article's content, we promptly shot off a lengthy email to Charles Sullivan, congratulating him profusely and adding a few relative opinions of our own. For some unfortunate reason, though, the address shown at the piece's end is no longer valid, in light of the failure notice received. Nevertheless, we feel compelled to pass on the above digest of his thoughts, along with a few more observations from our personal "dear old golden rule days" experience.

In thirteen years, from kindergarten to high school graduation, we cannot recall a single instance where any Miss Pruneface up front ever made a statement to the effect that school was an institution where her sworn duty as a teacher involved making sure we students adequately educated ourselves. Oh no, the attitude conveyed never deviated a centimeter from "You'll either behave properly, read your textbooks carefully, and get high examination grades, or suffer the slings and arrows of lifelong damnation".

As a result of living and working in several foreign countries for more than four decades, we've dealt with people from quite a few other nationalities. In many cases, mutual understanding could be difficult, due to variations in the respective teaching practices to which we'd been exposed. However, we never had the slightest communication problems with fellow American expatriates. The main reason is that we all had had identical history, geography, literary, and other classroom dogma crammed down our throats while progressing from one grade to the next. Our common educational backgrounds were predicated on stereotyped methodology.

By way of partial redemption, we are pleased to add that we didn't find such ongoing conditions to be as catastrophic at the university level. Students reaching that stage have attained reasonable maturity and have pretty good ideas about what they're shooting for. Unhappily, a countless number of youthful minds have already become somewhat warped, thanks to their schoolroom training to date.

One of the most severe flaws in our education process is the supposedly vital importance attached to passing examinations with the highest possible marks. Consequently, cheating
by all sorts of means has prevailed for centuries, even in university classrooms. This malady will undoubtedly continue so long as today's teaching doctrines remain unchanged.

Once again, no instructor ever told us the unvarnished truth about periodic tests being intended to show the student how fully he or she has grasped the essential subject matter, thus conveying the need for increased diligence where warranted. Instead, the whole affair has evolved into a rat race, where a person must strive in every possible way to outdo the young ladies and gents seated alongside.

For several years, this writer has been carrying on disappointing one-way correspondence with numerous former classmates. Many have resorted to non-replies, even via quickie email messages, because of a few caustic remarks about the old days. Perhaps equating our high school administration with the Gestapo has had something to do with this ex-communication. Additionally, occasional reference to the institution's revered female Dean of Girls as the Iron Bitch has most likely been another factor. Still, such rather exaggerated opinions stand firm, with no thought of retraction ever being considered.

On the slightly favorable side, we do admit to having grown to respect just three individual high school teachers for their competence and conscientiousness, despite the systematic rigidity foisted on them. The rest were merely punching time clocks and dishing out what the dogma called for. Like Adolph Eichmann, they were only following orders.

Subsequent to our own learning days, we went on to suffer the discomfort of observing the educational process applied to three growing children under North American policies. Not a single improvment was ever noted over our earlier student era.

How long will it be before our teaching monarchy finally realizes and accepts the fact that this perennially-sagging atmosphere simply has to be rectified?