This would be amusing if it weren't for the sad fact that there are people who will tell you that public schools really say things like that and that a significant number of morons will believe them.
Issues in Education
- Thread starter Huckleberry
- Start date
Checked with most precious daughter who is teaching in Charlotte, and she stated they do and say no such things are her school.
One big reason we've got an issue in education now is technology. My kids all used IPad's for everything. Absolutely everything. And now everyone uses AI for everything, which is ruining critical thinking.
I'm glad that schools are not teaching that America is structurally racist, that socialism is favorable to capitalism, that racist "anti racist" garbage is not part of a lot of curricula, that boys should be allowed to take trophies from girls, that Tampon Tim was not a governor, etc. I'm glad that there are no anti-white and (especially) anti-Asian policies in education and the workplace. That (especially) my wife and I have not really experienced applied racism. And It is interesting that the same people on this board who championed "woke" causes, then denied the existence of "woke" are now back to claiming that "woke" is justice. I guess the retardation that we have witnessed the last several years didn't really happen. Good to know. 
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Education might be the thorniest issue around. There are so many intertwined problems, each with separate (and sometimes competing) solutions.
-- Helicopter parents demanding grade inflation.
-- Other parents not caring whether the kids go to school or what they might or might not learn, so long as they're somebody else's problem for 7 hours a day.
-- Teaching to the exam, not to learning.
-- Political dogma entering into teaching methods (phonics in reading is a great example).
-- Political dogma entering into subject matter.
-- Watering down rigorous subjects because the little darlins can't handle rigor.
-- Low teacher salaries mean more talented subject matter experts go elsewhere to make more money
-- Waste in administration -- NYC spends $46K per year per student and still turns out poor results. Other cities big and small are similar.
-- Lack of discipline in the home leading to behavior problems at school, up to and including physical violence against both other students and teachers / staff.
-- Legally-mandated individualized treatment -- time to take tests, instruction in a native language, learning plans, etc., etc., ad infinitum.
-- Teachers' unions controlling politicians and making it virtually impossible to terminate under-performing teachers.
This could go on for pages, but those with kids in public schools and/or who are teachers could do it better than I can.
I wish I had a solution to champion. But I don't. The only thing that comes to mind applies not only to schools, but to life in general: All involved parties (students, parents, teachers, administrators, politicians) need to use some common sense -- which is decidedly uncommon and getting rarer every day.
I'm at a loss to formulate a more specific recommendation. Does anybody have more specific suggestions?
-- Helicopter parents demanding grade inflation.
-- Other parents not caring whether the kids go to school or what they might or might not learn, so long as they're somebody else's problem for 7 hours a day.
-- Teaching to the exam, not to learning.
-- Political dogma entering into teaching methods (phonics in reading is a great example).
-- Political dogma entering into subject matter.
-- Watering down rigorous subjects because the little darlins can't handle rigor.
-- Low teacher salaries mean more talented subject matter experts go elsewhere to make more money
-- Waste in administration -- NYC spends $46K per year per student and still turns out poor results. Other cities big and small are similar.
-- Lack of discipline in the home leading to behavior problems at school, up to and including physical violence against both other students and teachers / staff.
-- Legally-mandated individualized treatment -- time to take tests, instruction in a native language, learning plans, etc., etc., ad infinitum.
-- Teachers' unions controlling politicians and making it virtually impossible to terminate under-performing teachers.
This could go on for pages, but those with kids in public schools and/or who are teachers could do it better than I can.
I wish I had a solution to champion. But I don't. The only thing that comes to mind applies not only to schools, but to life in general: All involved parties (students, parents, teachers, administrators, politicians) need to use some common sense -- which is decidedly uncommon and getting rarer every day.
I'm at a loss to formulate a more specific recommendation. Does anybody have more specific suggestions?
Here's a summary:
The leftist policy that phonics is "colonizing" is absurd. I guess "social justice" means keeping everyone illiterate. I despise educators with political/social agendas. Do your damn job - educate the kids - or go do something else.
My wife and I started Lily on phonics lessons when she was a toddler. She was reading on her own in no time and developed a follow-on passion for books. She finishes books nearly at the same pace I do. As with anyone who enjoys reading, it greatly expands your knowledge base far beyond what it learned in the classroom. "Educators" who would discourage this should never darken a classroom or a government agency that sets education policy.
I know about balanced literacy and such but wasn't fully aware of some of the political aspects apparently. It's actually kind of odd given many of those leading the charge on the "science of reading" are liberal leaning or at least come from more liberal institutions (though definitely not all). Louisa Moats is the main name that comes to mind.
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In addition to the stupidity around phonics (which actually works, regardless of your skin color) , there’s an even greater absurdity in math.
There’s a not insubstantial school of thought that math is culturally discriminatory because it requires precisely right answers.
Apparently, since a lot of kids grow up in a culture where kinda-sorta close is good enough, they should be able to take that imprecision into their math class. And if you mark a wrong answer wrong, you’re a white colonialist.
I wish I were kidding.
Seattle Schools Propose To Teach That Math Education Is Racist—Will California Be Far Behind?
California’s latest K–12 test scores were released earlier this month. Despite spending 26 percent more per pupil after inflation since 2011, test scores remain low, and improvement is proceeding at a glacial pace. Just 40 percent of California schoolchildren are proficient at math. What should...
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Florida ranks last in reading, warns nationwide education report
The latest findings by researchers at Harvard and Stanford are based on 2024-25 state test results, combined with national assessment data, to pinpoint trends in learning.
www.wusf.org
How much are you seeing Ai used by your students? I know some college kids are relying on it heavily, even to the point they’re not really learning the subject matter in some cases.
My youngest daughter (gradumatated from HS last week!) said she felt many to a majority of her classmates were at least using AI as an assist in their papers. She was mad a few weeks ago because she felt a paper was clearly AI, but her English teacher refused to countenance any debate on the subjest.
I have found the Open Evidence to be a great gofer and tool, although I mainly use that and Gemini for sources over anything else.
One of my chirruns graduated college last week (aerospace engineer) and this child felt that most of the classmates relied far too heavily on Ai for help, to the point that even those with the highest GPAs came to my child for help in solving problems that Ai couldn't help. To be fair, my child was no slouch academically (cum laude), but was likely the most well-learned of the entire class due to the lack of reliance on Ai.
This experience (and that of my other children) made it plainly obvious that many college kids are over-relying on this technology (to their own long-term detriment, most likely).
IIRC, @Huckleberry teaches middle school science - I'm assuming Ai use is rampant even at that age at this point, but am curious what his experience has been to date.
Congratulations Brad - that's a heck of an achievement for you, your child, and your family...well done all around!
Google the Mississippi turn around in reading scores. They went from the bottom to being ranked in the low 30s nationally with it continuing to rise. They went back to teaching phonics in elementary schools.
AI is awesome if used properly, but you have nailed the problem. If you use it as your brain instead of actually learning the material and developing real thinking skills yourself you are now crippled without it.
I've set up a triple threat AI for investing. I'm using Perplexity, Chat GPT, and Grok as a group. I run questions and investing ideas through all three to see how they each respond, and when they respond differently I ask each why they answered differently than another model. I'm finding it to be very effective. Perplexity will analyze your entire portfolio using Plaid to link your accounts. It helps find holes in your positions and strategies. I can then ask the other two what they think. This is all useless without the underlying knowledge of how the market functions and what I'm looking for in the market. The AI is like having three financial advisers aggregating huge amounts of information for next to nothing. If you understand the information it is putting together for you it's a great tool, but without the base knowledge and ability to take the information it's giving you and make a decision you are missing a key skill.
My fear is that students are using it as their "brain" instead of developing skills for themselves. I'm so glad I went to high school before the internet and finished my bachelor"s and master's degreelong before AI was a thing. It makes AI very helpful, but it's not my brain.
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