Dr. Sowell, Another excellent column, as usual! Thank you. Another travesty in education is the Common Core standards push done through "Race to the Top" grants. I'm a retired teacher of English, grades 11 & 12. I'm thankful I retired when I did because of the changes I've seen in the short time since then. The latest which I read at FoxNews.com in December has to do with what forms of novels, poems, and non-fiction will define English instruction. "English teachers are being told that 50% of their course material must be derived from 'informational texts.' (Actually, the informational text requirement starts at a 'mere' 25% for kindergarteners. It rises to 70% for high school students."
Many years ago, as a young man, I read a very interesting book about the rise of the Communists to power in China. In the last chapter, the author tried to explain why and how this had happened.
Among the factors he cited were the country's educators. That struck me as odd, and not very plausible, at the time. But the passing years have made that seem less and less odd, and more and more plausible. Today, I see our own educators playing a similar role in creating a mindset that undermines American society.
Schools were once thought of as places where a...
Good stuff, worth reading, positive reinforcement for the ones who read them!