Condoleezza Rice on Education: American Dream on Verge of Collapse

I wish the universities would value foreign language aptitude with the same reverence that athletic ability is rewarded. My daughter is a high school senior who has a gift for learning foreign languages. She already has has fluency in two languages, Hebrew and Spanish, (English is our home language) and is planning to double major in Arabic and International Studies at college. Her hope is to work at the State Department. Although she has a high A average and a SAT score in the 93rd percentile, none of the private universities she was accepted to would offer any scholarships. If this report is to be taken seriously, then universities must be willing to offer scholarships to students who demonstrate natural proficiency in subject areas identified as critical to national security.

Alison Weiss of TX 8:45AM April 11, 2012

The vast majority of teachers work themselves weary, expending every last ounce of physical and emotional energy in pushing students to achieve. The problem is not the schools, it is American culture itself. The current generation of parents are quick to complain regarding expectations being too high. Parents do not want their children challenged, they want them coddled. When children misbehave, their parents blame someone else rather than teaching their children to take responsibility for themselves. When a child cheats and deserves a zero, parents threaten to sue the teacher, principal, school, and district. A huge percentage of students come from homes rampant with violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and divorce. The children themselves become despondent or rebellious. Most teachers work an average of 20 extra unpaid hours per week, sacrificing time with their own families for the sake of their students, many of whom are spoiled rotten and concerned only with their own instant gratification.

The scores of all students are calculated into the U.S. average. Other nations do not test all students, only the college bound. International comparisons show all American students versus only the elites of other nations. If we posted only our college bound vs. theirs, the results would be starkly different.

We now have schools that serve three meals per day and child care services in the afternoon, because there is no adult at home capable of doing that. In many cases, the only person the child goes home to at night is either an over-stressed and over-worked single parent or someone who is totally disfunctional and drug addicted.

Ms. Rice has spent her educational career in an elite environment. Stanford is an ivory tower, and Condi has not ventured into the trenches for a first hand view of the reality that Americans have raised a generation of slothful and ego-centric children, children who have adopted the values of their own parents.

Of course the party that demands teachers solve all these problems for the children and turn them into bright, academically achieving, and emotionally healthy adults is the same party that wants to do absolutely nothing to change the circumstances in which those children live. Were it not for the great teachers of this nation, millions of children who do make it would have no chance at all. So many who do succeed do so because of the quiet sacrifices made by teachers every day. If Ms. Rice's party wants to improve education, they need to stop bashing teachers and start demanding that parents be responsible, teach responsibility to their children, and provide the resources to change an American culture that has become complacent and uncivil. They could begin by bringing a degree of civility back to their own political process and demanding civility and respectfulness from those like Rush Limbaugh who are the public face of their party.

Polymath of CA 6:03PM March 20, 2012

Ditto everything that Professor Stephen Krashen said. Lifting all our children out of poverty will also lift our PISA rankings. Now that military strategists are beginning to recognize the connection between an educated populace and a secure nation, maybe more policy makers will be willing to try alternatives to the neoliberalization of educational policy. For example, let's try honoring the human rights of children.

Margaret Fitzpatrick of IL 3:56PM March 20, 2012