Billy Can't Read OR Figure

In reponse to Susan Jacoby's article about the creationism debate, one of the letters-to-the-editor said that:

My guess is that our high schools and colleges spend altogether too much time and effort on the social sciences to the great detriment of students who leave their classes with barely a smattering of science instruction.

I really don't know what this person is talking about. The freshmen I get in my classes don't know anything about the social sciences either. They have no background knowledge in any subject, be it anthropology, history, math, literature, whatever. They don't know how to think in abstractions or analyze a problem critically. They don't know how to take notes or determine what is important. They don't know how to absorb anything they have read (on the rare occasions when they do read). The majority of them (there are always exceptions for good or ill) are well-meaning, earnest, and utterly ignorant.

And I get the college bound. I can only imagine what it's like in high school.

The U.S. educational system is a disgrace. Anyone who has even a passing familarity with the problem knows that we need longer school days (to end the latch key kid syndrome and put back arts and tutoring), an end to summer vacations (since students lose half of the information over the dead time), better trained and paid teachers, greater teacher authority over the classroom, more parental involvement and support for educators, and a tighter curriculum that actually challenges children. In case you didn't know, in Britain they learn in middle school what we learn in high school, and in high school what we do in college. Come on, are you saying that Americans are just dumber?

If so, it is because we have chosen to be. The efforts of the religious right certainly don't help (as I referenced yesterday), but for the most part it is simply that we don't make education a priority. Whether it's the money required, or time, or political and emotional support, we would much rather just pretend it's the fault of the "system" rather than our own.

Shame on us.