Never before has American education been in such a precarious situation as it appears to be today. For more than ten years we have seen many governor’s summits and a series of commissions, committees, panels, unions, boards, and company executives trying to warn citizens that America’s schools have become dysfunctional and are in dire need of repair.
And for more than ten years, student achievement results have worsened despite the billions that have been spent to stem the downward trend. Perhaps the time has come to stop and try to examine the problem rationally. It is not the first time that American education has reached a threshold where only radical solutions seem to be required.
This time, however, the reformers are calling for systemic reform, a complete rethinking of the very concept of education. As politicians, educators, academics, psychologists, sociologists, and CEOs entered the fray, the well-intentioned movement turned murky and increasingly chaotic. It soon became clear that the reformers really intended to make a clear sweep of what education had meant to Americans.
The acquisition of knowledge for themselves, the study and appreciation of great works of minds and outstanding artists, the acquisition of communication and mathematical skills, the objective search for scientific knowledge, the analysis and assimilation of ideas and ideals that allowed civilization
To serve as a beacon for the rest of the world, all of this was suddenly declared superficial, politically motivated, artificial and unnecessary. The new education was going to go from such academic trivia to preparing the new person for the 21st century, a person aware of the leading role that new technology was going to play that will somehow take care of all the other academic frills that there was. marked the progress of ancient education, the education of the past.
