WHAT LIMITS SCHOOLS OF THE FUTURE?

 

Sixteen years ago an editorial in the New York Times promised that in the schools of the future:

• "students will use free internet applications to complete their classroom assignments on school-issued laptops that also substitute for text books"
• "educators will track students' academic growth with sophisticated software that allows them to better tailor lessons and assignments to each youngster's achievement level"
• "parents will use instant messaging to chat with teachers about their child's progress"

In a few schools all of this has been realized and more besides. But in many others a fundamental limitation is nullifying it all. What is this limitation? It's the kids, their parents, and the world they're growing up in. 

Youngsters still have to buy into schooling before technology can even begin to transform their schooling. And kids with all sorts of education-stultifying problems weren't buying into schooling before the advent of digital technology, aren't buying into it now despite the promise, and won't buy into it in the future. Similarly their parents have to be capable of at least mediocre parental performance. Many aren't. And, lastly, the neighborhood surrounding every school seeps in and greatly influences the educational process. regardless of the technology employed. 

This is especially true of schools that most urgently require transformation. Schools in our inner cities. Technology hasn't and won't transform these schools. They haven't become more successful delivering instruction. They aren't doing better communicating with parents or fostering their interest. And, with rare exceptions, they remain the same educational wastelands they were before the advent of the digital age.

Here is a brief tale that illustrates the point. A teacher I know well was trying to teach in a Philadelphia inner city middle school that was, indeed, technologically impoverished. Through some miracle one solitary classroom was equipped with brand new computers at every desk. One morning while classes were changing, two adolescent boys began chasing one another around the computer rich classroom. Soon they were leaping from one desktop to another, trampling keyboards and kicking over computers. Perhaps the boys had that intent before they even started chasing. We'll never know. In any event they wrecked utter havoc. There was no money to replace or repair the damage. The computerized classroom was defunct before its promise was even beginning to be realized. Why? Non technological problems triumphed. 

The two vandals were never positively identified, much less dealt with. Disorder was so rife in this school that this particular destruction just blended into the chaos. Whatever promise the new computers offered was lost to all. Students could not, as the Times article promised, "use free internet applications to complete their classroom assignments" had they even wanted to. Worse still, kids who actually wanted to complete their assignments were in relatively short supply. On nice days as many as a third of the youngsters were either hours late reporting for class, or failed to show up at all. And if a youngster did complete assignments they often attracted unwelcome attention from their worst classmate.

So far as teachers being able to "track student's academic growth with sophisticated software that allows them to better tailor lessons and assignments to each youngster's achievement level," that's not just impossible now, it will be in the future — at least at the secondary level. Teachers there are trying to teach upwards of 150 kids spread over five different periods, each with 30 or so kids. Keeping track of all 150 is impossible now and will be in the future. In fact, it will remain impossible so long as we organize public education on a factory-like, mass production basis in order to make it affordable. And we're not about to stop that economizing because tax payers, particularly those without school-age children, are already fed up with school taxes.

When it comes to "parents using instant messaging to chat with teachers about their child's progress," that pipe dream requires their parents to have the necessary technology, interest, sobriety, time and freedom from the thousand and one problems that poverty, broken homes, drug addiction, alcoholism and imprisonment brings. Good luck with that!

What is one to make of all this? That schools and school kids do NOT exist in a vacuum. The world surrounding the school intrudes into each classroom, mirroring the situations in which the school is submerged. IF those situations are dysfunctional so far as schooling is concerned, no amount of technological innovation is going to save that school from the consequences. If the school is submerged in a neighborhood of affluence, safety and functional families technological innovations only widen the gap.  

 

For more detailed realistic considerations of educational issues such as this, visit newfoundations.com AND/OR newfoundations.net

THE LIMITS OF INDOCTRINATION: nuns and woke professors

"I just tuned them out."

A worried Israeli émigré once told me her daughter’s Modern Middle East History professor — Jewish, but very woke — consistently condemned Israel. The mother worried that her daughter, born and raised in Israel, would come to despise the land of her birth. 

I opined that most students of college age long ago learned to discount disagreeable instruction. For instance, I knew a woman who experienced 8 years of Catholic schooling conducted by 1950's era take-no-prisoners nuns. Nevertheless, she remained largely ignorant and disregardful of Catholic doctrine." I asked how she preserved her ignorance, given years of Roman Catholic indoctrination. She explained that when she questioned what was being taught, she was either ignored or reproached. Ultimately, she just quit listening. "I tuned them out!" she said. Hence her triumphant ignorance of the "one true faith."

 Pressed for details, the woman specifically recalled being taught that it was a grave sin to save the life of the mother if it required sacrificing the life of her unborn child. Disturbed, she asked what if the mother had other children and a husband who loved and needed her? Her query was met with a reproach. She also remembered being taught that babies are born infected with original sin. She thought it terrible to condemn newborns who are obviously innocent. By this time, though, she had learned not to object. 

This is one way indoctrination falls flat. Done ham-handedly, it can even provoke obdurate opposition. For instance, when I was ten or eleven I asked my Sunday school teacher what happens when people die without ever hearing of Jesus? (I was thinking of very remote areas, like New Guinea.) She replied matter-of-factly, "They go to hell." I said that this didn’t seem fair. She responded by quoting John 14:6 in which Jesus reportedly says: “No man cometh unto the father but by me.” I blurted out that this still seemed unfair. She replied coldly that fairness had nothing to do with it. Adding crossly: “This is not a debating society. If you are unhappy with God's answer, perhaps you shouldn't be here.” I decided she was right.

My usual Sunday school offering, 50 cents, bought 10 pinball games, not counting the free games I won, at a near-bye corner store. I played Sabbath pinball for several weeks. Then my mother found out. I thought I was in serious trouble. But when she heard what. happened, she granted absolution. Evidently she too thought it unfair for anyone to burn for eternity in hell on an ignorance rap. Eventually we both quit going to that church. Indoctrination can backfire. 

Professors, teachers, parents and the general public all tend to overestimate the durability and effectiveness of instruction. In my 46 years as a professor I taught thousands of undergraduates; and I was repeatedly astonished by how little of what they had previously “learned” they actually remembered. Many of them, for instance, found it impossible to simply convert their raw test score, say, 39 correct out of 50, to a percentage. Yet they'd ""learned" that in middle school. Similarly, most could not identify the combatants in World Wars I or II. Only a handful knew the decade of the Great Depression. Many could not find China on an outline map. One thought that France was our northern neighbor because, “people speak French up there.” Another opined that Heinrich Himmler must be the chap who invented that life saving maneuver for people choking on food. 

That famed lifesaver, Heinrich Himmler

These kids were college sophomores who easily mastered complex social media applications and identified every single Kardashian. Yet most of them manifested little applicable knowledge of what  is typically taught in school. 

Worse still, transforming these "students" instrumental interest in merely passing tests into an intrinsic interest in knowledge itself was very difficult. It was like trying to make a dog happy by manually wagging its tail. 

Such undergraduates are certainly not easily influenced by a biased lecturer. In fact, they are seldom influenced long-term by any instruction.

I doubt my 46-years of experience with academic amnesia and disinterest is unusual. In fact I’ll wager student ignorance of past instruction is quite commonplace. This is precisely why university administrators would rather fight rabid pit bulls barehanded than require undergraduates to pass a core subjects knowledge test as a condition for a degree. Merely mentioning such a procedure puts most of these educational "leaders" at risk of a myocardial infarction.

How is any of this pertinent to our émigré mother’s worries? Well, given the perishable nature of most school taught knowledge, it is unlikely that this politically correct pedagogue is going to convert her Israeli-born daughter to an anti-Israel stance. To be sure, his impassioned denunciations of Israel will probably motivate at least some students to admire Hamas, , when in a mob, eagerly shout "From the river to the sea!" But, even then, they are unlikely to be able to identify either body of water or to hold on to that view when it's no longer a popular way to look righteous. 

Yasser Arafat

Is it proper for professors to conduct class in a one-sided manner? Not when the issue is multi-faceted. But it’s not like these students are living in regimes where only one point of view prevails. And it is only in societies where just one point of view is permitted and all others silenced under penalty of death or imprisonment that indoctrination is likely to succeed in the long term.

Yes, it has become true that one-sidedness does prevail in some college departments where Woke has become the official religion. In fact in some colleges the administration actually tolerates, even endorses, this new dogma. Whenever this prevails, our Israeli expatriate should start worrying. So should the rest of us.

 

PROGRAMMATIC DEFINITIONS ARE TRECHEROUS: here's why

 

Here is a classic programmatic definition: "Abortion is murder." Why? Because if you accept the definition, you necessarily accept the program of action that goes with it. What program of action? Redefining induced abortion as an act of murder. It is NOT murder anywhere in America. Not even in states where abortion is outlawed after a certain term of pregnancy. 

"Abortion is murder" does not mirror ordinary usage. As evidence let's look at the two key words, "abortion" and "murder." The Medical Dictionary explicitly defines abortion as: termination of pregnancy before the fetus is viable. In the medical sense, this term and the term miscarriage both refer to the termination of pregnancy before the fetus is capable of survival outside the uterus. The term abortion is more commonly used as a synonym for induced abortion, the deliberate interruption of pregnancy as opposed to miscarriage, which connotes a spontaneous or natural loss of the fetus. 

The Oxford Dictionary of English defines "murder" as: the unlawful premeditated killing of a human being by another. Of course, then, for abortion to be murder a fetus has to be thought of as a human being. But among theologians there is substantial disagreement on that matter.  Even the early church fathers thought that it was more wrong to abort a fully formed fetus than one that wasn't.  

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Pope Francis declared abortion to be a "crime" even though in the United States, and in other Western nations, it isn't. So the Pope's definition is programmatic. If we accept the Pope's definition, we embrace the Roman Catholic program of action that is embedded in it. Redefining abortion as the capital crime of murder. 

Clearly the Pope's definition violates ordinary usage. Abortion is not a crime, at least not until a certain duration of pregnancy has passed. Nor do polls evidence a majority of Americans agree with the Pope that it is an "absolute evil." The Pope's violation of ordinary usage - and popular consensus - is what makes his definition programmatic. And that istroublesome because this linguistic maneuver delegitimizes debate and stifles discussion. 

Accept the Pope's definition and we need not wonder if a girl who has been raped by her father should have the option of abortion. If she and/or her mother choose that course of action, no matter how desperately they choose it, she/they are, by the Pope's definition are murderers who have chosen an "absolute evil." And, according to the Pope, this would be true even if the abortion were performed before the embryo was still and embryo - much less capable of independent survival outside the womb.

The practical force of programmatic definitions is that their acceptance has consequences far exceeding mere linguistic preference. Accept Pope Francis's definition, for example, and there is no room for argument or contrary evidence. The choice has been made for us. 

A handy, though by no means infallible, method of identifying programmatic definitions is the presence of adjectives such as “true “ or “real.” For example, "A true conservative is one who ...". You can fill in the rest. But those who offer programmatic definitions do not necessarily intend to deceive or slip us a linguistic Mickey. They might well believe that the meaning they propose is the only “true” or “right” one. 

Sincerity and good intentions, however, are not enough. To avoid being programmatic, definitions must mirror ordinary usage, stand against contrary evidence and surmount informed disagreement. Mere assertion will not do.

NEUTERING PROFESSORS AND THE ENROLLMENT CRISES

 

I've worked as a day laborer, janitor, night watchman, store clerk, barber’s apprentice, Army officer, seventh-grade teacher and, for forty-six years, a professor. and author. I was married for over half a century until my loving wife was torn from my side by Parkinson's Disease.We raised two children to happy, productive adulthood. But despite this lifetime of experiences, despite years of advanced study, and a full professorship, I was required to submit to anonymous "course" evaluations by callow, inexperienced, sometimes astonishingly ignorant, undergraduates each and every semester. 

Had I been told to evaluate my professors when I was an undergraduate — admittedly in neolithic times — I would have thought the authorities had taken leave of their senses. It was starkly obvious to me that we were green kids under the tutelage of full-scale adults who had accomplished far more, and knew far more, than we did. It was their job to do the evaluating.

In youth I knew my place better than most because of apprenticing in my Dad’s barbershop. It was chiefly populated by no-nonsense railroaders —many of whom were also war veterans. In that atmosphere I soon learned to keep my opinions to myself. I remember voicing my perception during an adult discussion, only to have a  case-hardened customer remark I reminded him of the barber's cat. I asked what that meant and he said, "It means full of piss and wind." Everyone found that terribly funny. Dad even suppressed a smile. Subsequently, I kept my mouth shut. 

Now let's consider these so-called "course" evaluations. Our provost claimed they were needed to more accurately appraise the quality of instruction. They stressed that previous administrations (dating back well over a hundred years) had relied, unsatisfactorily, on word of mouth. Now they could get an accurate picture. We faculty were also assured that "course" evaluation would support fairer tenure and promotion decisions. This, even though these were to be course, not professor, evaluations. 

Frankly, I think these "course" evaluations had far more to do with finance than the quality of instruction. When a school suffers a shortage of applicants and tuition cash, which ours was at the time, management focuses on cash flow and keeping the customers satisfied. And, of course, what keeps student "customers" satisfied is a good grade for minimal effort. 

Across the hundreds and hundreds of years of higher education, I doubt school administrators ever invited, much less required, students to take the measure of their betters.  After all, at the student's incomplete stage of  development, many, perhaps most were incapable of exercising mature, dispassionate judgement — especially if they had earned a bad grade. That's still true today.

Worse, our "course" evaluations were anonymous. Students were told not to sign their name. This shield of anonymity increased the probability they would use the evaluation for retributive denunciation. This, in turn, undermined essential professorially imposed rigor and indirectly encouraged down-grading professors who required hard work and a willingness to experience the emotional discomfort of serious thought. 

Of course, these students had no doubt who was grading them. Professors could only guess. They might have learned something useful if they could identify respondents. But given student anonymity, they could never know if a bad rating was fair, or mere retribution from some class-cutting dullard who truly merited that "F." 

I scored well on these ratings evidence my promotion to full professor. But I still found the process degrading. My colleagues bore this humiliation, and disempowerment, in silence.  I suspect most did so because they didn't want to displease the authorities.

A degrading finale topped off this evaluative procedure. Professors were instructed to make no comment about the process, have a student distribute the evaluations, then leave the classroom.  Completed evaluations were to be deposited on the front desk, collected by the last student finishing, sealed in the provided envelope, and delivered to the department secretary. —only she had the necessary security clearance. Professors were not trusted to even touch them once they were complete.

The collected evaluations were perused by an assortment of administrators, then returned to the investigatee. He or she were to supposed to examine them, benefit from the feedback, bind them for future reference, and record all summative statistics on a spreadsheet. These proved critical in any future tenure and/or promotion hearing. They were, in effect, the academic equivalent of major league earned run averages. Except, in this game, there was no umpire calling balls and strikes. Only the batters.

The "Tenure and Promotion Committee" put these statistics to work. Chaired by the provost, the committee was staffed by highly domesticated faculty deigned fit to serve by a Committee on Committees. If a candidate for tenure or promotion had weak statistics, or if the Provost cleverly hinted disapproval, positive prospects vanished. 

I once asked why I was never selected to serve on this important committee. That would have helped with my promotion. But the Committee on Committee chair explained that I was "insufficiently attentive to administrative intent." By the way, she was exquisitely sensitive to it and soon became dean of arts and sciences.  

Remember, this entire process was accomplished under the pretense that these were "course" evaluations. Hopefully that fooled no one. If it did, those fooled weren't smart enough to be professors to begin with.  

In times of applicant plenty most administrators will not suck up to students. At least not at a real college. Instead they enforced meaningful standards. At my undergraduate college, for instance, we students were subjected to a summative "Junior Standing" test. It measured our knowledge of the required core subjects taken during the first two years. Fail the test and you failed to gain junior standing. But at my college, there were three applicants for every opening. And that made all the difference. Imagine a junior standing test being instituted today. One with real teeth. More likely we'll have snow in August. Contemporary graduation standards are closer to "the customer is always right."

An abundant supply of applicants encourages collegiate rigor. But when students become scarce, rigor dissolves. And exploiting this decline are a breed of so-called professors who actually decry rigor itself. They claim it's a form of oppression. And that's only one of the many assertions that support their effort to sell their black v. white opinions. 

Evangelization is not their proper job. Their job is to pose intelligent questions, the Socratic method, not sell true beliefs. Of course, Socrates was just another white, male oppressor and the culture of the Golden Age of Athens was no better than that of Nazi Germany. After all, no culture is better than any other, right?

Making matters worse, many administrators now encourage such laxity and dereliction of duty. For instance, they urge professors to engage in "whole life," not just academic counseling. They are told to ask students: "Are you sleeping well?" "Have digestive issues?" "Anxious about anything?" "Is there trauma in your life?" Of course,  normal stressors are now "traumatic;" and unintended slights are "micro aggressions." So student traumas are many. Some might even be made up. After all, intense whining might gain them a better grade. 

What, pray tell, entitles professors to pry into student's personal lives? They aren't trained mental health professionals. Besides, what is the professor supposed to do about anything that is revealed — beyond sending them to the counseling center of course? It couldn't possibly be to ease up on grading the complainant, could it? Besides, emphasizing these personal considerations has the effect of undermining the subject's resilience. Don't suck it up! Don't consider that shit just happens. Feel sorry for yourself. Look for excuses. 

As an Army officer if I failed to get something done, I very quickly learned to offer no excuses, but say, "No excuse sir." That's what gets the job done. And, with respect to rigor, it's what makes higher education "higher." Students absolutely must be rigorously required to acquire knowledge and think. Although research reveals gender bias in how student's react to rigor. Female professors are much more likely to be penalized for exercising it. Male professors are "supposed" to be tougher. Women are expected to be more solicitous, more motherly.  So when women professors actually do their job, they are more likely to suffer for it.

Sorting and grading students is an unappealing, but absolutely vital, aspect of teaching. But "woke"suck-up professors craving student favor and determined to evangelize with assertions rather than encourage questions evade this key responsibility. This dereliction of duty should cost them their jobs. Instead, it improves their "course" evaluations. And that, in turn, wins them promotion and tenure. Why? Because  administrators are preoccupied with reversing declining enrollment and rectifying imbalanced balance sheets. 

Of course professors are typically denied any opportunity to evaluate their chairs, deans, provost, or, God forbid, president. I once asked our dean, a lady who demonstrated a remarkable sensitivity to administrative intent, when we faculty would be afforded the opportunity to grade her and her superiors? I stressed that professors were obviously better qualified to evaluate administrators than immature. inexperienced, sometimes appallingly ignorant, youngsters were their professors. Looking shocked and shifty, she muttered something about this being decided at some future date. That, of course, turned out to be never. 

 College administrators know perfectly well that granting professors the power to evaluate them would result in their disempowerment, just as "course" evaluations disempower faculty. So, what's sauce for the goose is indeed gall for the gander. And at our college we professors were also expressly forbidden from initiating any communications with members of the board of trustees. In short, we were expressly forbidden any opportunity to evaluate their performance with their bosses. You know, the ones who may be ignoramuses, but big givers.

"Course" evaluations are a part of the general disempowerment of teachers at all levels that is rendering them more and more impotent and less and less satisfied. Learning used to be primarily a student responsibility. Nowadays  it's chiefly the teacher's.  Teachers sometimes are even held accountable for learning that fails to take place when a student doesn't even attend class, If a chronically truant student fails to perform on standardized tests, for instance, the teacher is blamed. After all, it's his or her job to "leave no child behind." Remember that humbug?

Political correctness is the all-purpose vitamin/mineral supplement that nourishes this malignant silliness. And too many academics, usually concentrated in the softer disciplines, have become self-righteous converts to this new religion. And the length to which the most extreme are imposing this faith is truly astonishing.Reason and logic are "white." So are objectivity and rationality," Even getting the right answer or being able to express oneself in comprehendible writing is merely another racist aspect of "white identity culture,"  It's time, they yowl, to "decolonize the curriculum!" No, it's time to put the enlightenment back into the curriculum and laugh at the unenlightened who are trying to eradicate it. 

In their politically correct world there's no individual responsibility nor agency. Everything, except disagreeing with them, is permissible. For instance,  child molesters are no longer pederasts, but "minor attracted persons." Worse,  the zeal characteristic of these academic evangelicals motivates them to preach their dogmatic ideology to naive adolescents. And since many students long for simple answers to the complex questions of late adolescence, they win souls to this silliness. 

This quasi-religious indoctrination even emboldens some students to self-righteously investigate their professors for signs of heresy. Even mentioning, say, David Hume brands the offending professor as someone to be purged. Emboldened by evangelical true belief, these converts denounce any professor they deem an apostate. Meanwhile administrators forget all about academic freedom, much less intellectual rigor. After all, there's plummeting enrollment statistics and their own job security to consider. A few are even believers in the new faith themselves. They become half-baked Torquemada's advising professors they should be more careful concerning which facts they choose to present. This kind of coercion should be anathema in academe. Instead it is commonplace wherever and whenever political correctness rules. 

Also there now is a supply of puritanical "students" scouring the collegiate world looking for things to be offended by. These are the youngsters who let some true believing professors define them, instead of using collegiate opportunity to create themselves. They even find inconvenient knowledge offensive, emotionally troubling, heretical. It violates their conviction that the world was in the clutches of an all-powerful white male hegemony. It isn't that they're lazy and don't put forth the requisite effort. They're victims! It's not hard to figure out how they come to believe that. Nor is it hard to imagine how destructive such beliefs will be to their future. 

"Woke" culture is just a tamer version of Mao's "cultural revolution."  Professors aren't being beaten, imprisoned, or murdered as they were in Mao's China. But they are being subjected to name-calling, public ridicule, administrative muzzling, censorship and job loss. Making things still worse, politically correct zealotry has provoked a right-wing backlash threatening academic freedom from the opposite direction.  Guess who's caught in the middle?

Wokeness and identity politics is weakening, at least for now, in the broader culture. The election of Donald Trump has been especially significant. Under his leadership DEI is being expunged from the federal government. Corporate giants are also backing away. But woeness and identity politics remain firmly in charge in the academy. Believers in DEI and its "woke" ideology, still successfully denounce heretical colleagues as out of date, homophobic, white racist, reactionaries. They can also block most professional publications they deem heretical. And that, alone, is fatal for tenure or promotion.

Professors willing to risk being labeled heretics are becoming in just as short supply as collegiate applicants. Sadly, the new religion is firmly in place and its converts remain zealous. In consequence, the intellectual and practical value of higher education, especially in non-STEM areas, continues to plummet. In fact wokeness has the same devitalizing quality that Marxism-Leninism had on academic life in the Soviet Union. And because it is coupled with the collegiate enrollment crises, it is especially virulent. So this politico-religious zealotry, and intellectual vacuity, can be expected to have Toyota-like durability.

So far as "course" evaluations of professors are concerned, the possibility of their disappearance is as dead as road kill. They will remain unless and until there again is an abundance of collegiate applicants. And probably for some time after that. The only alternative I can envision is that some new, pseudo-religion will emerge and attract those faculty who have come to desire another faith to substitute for reason.

 To further examine these and similar issues, visit www.newfoundations.com

ARE MOST AMERICANS EDUCABLE or merely trainable?

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity: and I'm not sure about the universe." 

Albert Einstein

“Essential questions” are intended to guide instruction and help students discover the big ideas that constitute the core of a topic of study. Let's apply this methodology to education itself. What is the most essential question we can ask about it? How about this: how many Americans are truly educable?

What’s the difference between being “educable” and “trainable?” Let’s stipulate that for a person to be “educable” they must be “capable of being improved in ways that depend on accurate information, logical reason and deep understanding.” A trainable person, in contrast, is incapable of being improved in these ways.

Have you ever wondered if many Americans are educable in any deep and abiding sense? A great deal of human misery is preventable if people could be taught to think effectively, listen closely, weigh facts accurately, and carefully consider alternative points of view. But failure to achieve these skills is commonplace — as is the misery and folly such failures. Why? Perhaps because most Americans, like most humans everywhere, are just not capable. 

Lack of Capacity and/or Interest 

 For education to be a cure, much less a cure-all, the majority must be capable of, and sufficiently interested in, gaining the requisite hard-won reason and understanding. Are most Americans up to that? Maybe not. 

Consider the long-standing popularity of P.T. Barnum’s observation that “There’s a sucker born every minute.”  Ponder the durability of H.L. Mencken’s dictum that “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” Perhaps such observations are so durable because they reflect fundamental reality? After all, half of the American people really are dumber than the other half - at least as measured by IQ tests. And, as Martin Luther King Jr., observed, "While you can fix a lot of things, you cannot fix stupidity."

Such an opinion is heretical to Americans bought up on our culture's nearly obligatory optimism regarding schooling's possibilities. Such a consideration is not even acknowledged by educational "leaders" be they principal, superintendent of schools, or Secretary of Education. Nevertheless, there is a large amount of evidence that supports this pessimistic view. Consider, as one of many examples, that many Americans continue to either deny or ignore that we humans are heating the globe to a catastrophic level. And they persist in this folly despite overwhelming objective evidence that climate change is real and growing ever more serious. 

Also consider how many humans trot off to slaughter every time someone decides America should give a war. Instead of learning from repeated previous slaughters, we humans continue to enthusiastically divide ourselves into pseudo-species, carefully nurture distrust and hatred toward one another, adopt beliefs that render others inferior to ourselves and then, sooner or later, join in still another horrific mutual slaughter of our fellow beings that is utterly foreign to any “lesser species.” For instance, fully fifteen million people were killed and twenty two million wounded in World War I. Yet just nineteen years later homo sapiens (man the thinker?) got himself into a far worse slaughter: WW II, This second ghastly tribute to human folly cost, maybe, 60 million people their lives and loosed hellish suffering on many more. Does any of this sound like the behavior of a species that is educable, i.e. “capable of being improved in ways that depend on reason and understanding?”

How come years of compulsory schooling has failed to cure this blindness?  Is it that their education was inadequate? Is it because a substantial number are unable to grasp the depth and urgency of the problem because they lack the brain power? Or, is it because of the many other educational impediments we'll soon mention?

Denying Readily Apparent Facts

The fact is many homo sapiens displays a peculiar reluctance, or inability, to employ reason and understanding even when the truth is readily apparent. The Harris Poll reported, for instance, that despite repeated official reports that no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, the belief that Iraq possessed such weapons increased substantially after the war was over and evidence to the contrary was in.

That’s right, despite massive and widely publicized evidence to the contrary, the number of Americans who thought that Iraq possessed such weapons prior to Operation “Enduring Freedom” actually went up as evidence to the contrary became widely known. As a matter of fact, in February of 2005 only 36% thought Iraq was so armed; but in July of 2006 fully 50% believed they were. Does that sound like a conviction that grew out of widespread capacity for reason and understanding?

To be fair, those who changed their mind about those weapons of mass destruction might have done so out of an unconscious desire to rationalize their own original enthusiasm for the war and/or to justify the tremendous costs it has generated. In short, what seems to be evidence of public credulity might just be people being human, all to human. But that still leaves us wondering why the species is so very eager to cling to the mindless tribalism, hatred and the organized murder we call warfare? Is that evidence of Homo sapiens' educability?

Campaign Ads

One can also profitably consider the success of political campaign strategies based on the principle that most of us are fools. In the recent presidential election, for instance, swing state Pennsylvania's citizens were bombarded by an unprecedented and unrelenting multi-million dollar TV ad blitz that offered little but unsophisticated attack ads. Why so many of that kind? Because ads like that work and work well. Does their success suggest there is a great deal of deep thought going on out there?

Of course, political propagandists know how to play on emotions such as fear of the unknown, the alien and the complex. Moreover, the simplicity they offer is beguilingly attractive to a public that has to reach conclusions based on imperfect information and deliberate disinformation. Maybe that, rather than widespread intellectual ineffectiveness, is why the general public remains so exploitable and so oblivious to many urgently important issues. Let’s hope so. But don't put any money on it.

The Media

Evidence of a widespread ineducability is not confined to the repetitive insanity of war, assaults on the environment, or crass political chicanery. Consider, the quality of the media. More specifically, let’s consider infomercials or “paid programming.” 

Multiplied millions of dollars are spent buying TV time to peddle bogus nostrums, physical and spiritual, and many, many more millions are realized in consequence. Psychic hotlines generate fortunes for their bogus operators even though they have absolutely nothing but hot air to sell. Omega 3 fish oil is successfully huckstered as a cure for an impossible range of maladies and tens of thousands have been convinced that purging their bowels will have the same beneficial effects on their body that emptying a full sweeper bag can effect for s clogged up Electrolux. Ka-ching$!

Also consider how dozens of televangelists of dubious background and motive, repeatedly and successfully conning the public on TV by means of such obvious scams as packets of “miracle spring water,” or dollar green colored “prosperity prayer cloths” allegedly conveying magical pecuniary powers. “Pastor, right after I got your prayer cloth a thousand dollars mysteriously appeared in my bank account. Praise God!”

The fact is there is a small army of prosperity “pastors” on TV convincing tens of thousands of financially desperate people that giving generously — to the pastor, of course— will not only eliminate some benighted fools financial troubles but prompt a ten-fold return on their “offering.” One oily, but particularly persuasive, televangelists lives in a multi-million dollar California beach front mansion and flies to world-renown resorts in his business jet. Years back I even saw one of them wheedling still more money out of the faithful so he could buy an even bigger business jet —the price tag was nine million dollars! Let’s pump this sacerdotal bunko artist full of truth serum then ask him about the educability of the average American. Can you guess what he would say?

Media Programming

Ponder also the generally appalling quality of media programming both cable and broadcast. Broadcast TV, for instance, is still the same cultural wilderness it was in 1961 when FCC Chairman Newton Minnow invited us to:

“…sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit and-loss sheet or rating book to distract you--and keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland. You will see a procession of game shows, violence, audience-participation shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western badmen, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence and cartoons. And, endlessly, commercials--many screaming, cajoling and offending. And most of all, boredom.”

Newton was right on target until he got to that very last sentence. Since TV bored him, he concluded that the broad masses must also be bored. But Minnow failed to consider that shows remain on the air by virtue of their ratings. TV content is a function of the public tuning in or tuning out. Hence the generally mindless quality of TV programming is an indirect index of widespread public preference for drivel. Network executives long ago learned that they pan the most gold by designing a preponderance of their shows for people of limited capacity and less sophistication — i.e. the general public.

Radio programming is similarly selected via public popularity. So what do the masses tune to? Well here in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, home to almost 6 million people, it is unlikely to be classical music because the one commercial station that played it switched to soft rock. Philadelphians can listen to hip-hop, dance, country, soft rock, hard rock, pop/rock, stupidly one-sided right wing “talk” shows and endless gassing about sports, but the likes of Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn are out so far as commercial radio is concerned. Why? The broad masses weren’t tuning in. Evidently the broad masses prefer Rap to the Ode to Joy. And keep in mind that even greater desolation exists in the hinterlands where semi-literate pastors read God’s mind for the masses while country music grinds on endlessly in cacophonous concert. That is nearly all there is in the media heartland.

Do the happenings on social media give the lie to this argument? No, it reinforces it several orders of magnitude. The truly dumb entries on X, for example, offer overwhelming evidence of massive, breathtaking, shitheadedness that dominates much of social media.

Too Dumb, Too Scared, Or What?

To be fair, no one knows for sure how many people are deeply disgusted with this media garbage. And many people might have far better discernment if they had more knowledge to work with. American schooling helps little here. It is woefully inadequate when it comes to the arts and the discernment they can develop and it shies completely away from anything that might help kids see through bogus divines. As a matter of fact, by the time budget cuts slash “frills” from the curriculum, high stakes testing takes its share and the self-appointed censors finish off anything that might trigger thought, the curriculum is a cultural wasteland par excellence. Perhaps, then, we should beware of blaming the victim for the wasteland’s results.

All of these oblivious folks are not lacking in native intelligence. Sure, many are too dumb to know better. But many others are smart enough but lack their lack of intellectual training and knowledge prohibits their putting their intelligence to skillful use. This variety of blindness COULD be cured by a well-designed and implemented education provided if other things aren't weighing their intelligence down. But these "other things" often do. 

People are rendered uneducable for a wide variety of reasons other than stupidity. They may be too scared, too slothful, too unloved, too mentally or physically ill, too preoccupied with meeting primal needs, too angry, too substance dependent, too distracted, too bent down in soul wasting misery, too little in awe of the power of nature, to be educable. Any one of these causes, plus a number of similar factors, can block, or seriously impede, critical thinking even when it's vitally necessary.

What Proportion?

What proportion of the American population is rendered uneducable by one or more of these various causes? Is it, say 10%? According to the US Department of Education, that is the approximate population of Americans who qualify for special education. How about 76%? That's the percent of people who try to get into the U.S. military but fail to qualify. Is it somewhere in between and if so where on the continuum? You decide. 

But one thing is certain. Education, however well conducted, has strict limits. Schiller was right when he observed: "With stupidity the Gods themselves struggle in vain." When we add a host of alternative obstructions such as those just listed, it's enough to have a seriously negative impact on our species future on this tiny planet that is our only home.

 To further examine these and similar issues, visit www.newfoundations.com 

TESTING THE CANDIDATES: spotlighting the unqualified

 

Here we shortly after the presidential election and a lot of us could still use more actual information about the candidates. We could easily add more vital information in future elections. Offer each candidate the opportunity to take a battery of standardized tests on subjects such as the U.S. Constitution, Federal law, American history, basic economics and climate science, then publish each and every one of their scores. Should they refuse to take the test, make their refusal VERY public.

Donald Trump would have had to take such a test battery and have his scores made public knowledge OR publicly turn down the opportunity. Kamala Harris also would have the same opportunity to take them, have her scores reported or publicly decline. My guess is well-qualified candidates would take the opportunity while ignorant blowhards and clever bullshitters would not. Voters could still choose those who decline, to be sure, but their refusal would provide voters with useful information.

Why not require such tests? Because the Constitution sets the criteria for candidates and such an additional requirement would necessitate a Constitutional amendment. But we certainly could offer each candidate the opportunity and make the offer very public. It would function much like the debates. Except that bullshit doesn't fly on an objective test.

A professional testing corporation such as the Educational Testing Service to devise these tests. It's fun to imagine possible questions. I'm imagining serious questions involving knowledge relevant to future duties. But I can't resist adding a few that I would like to ask:

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. Given an enormous federal budget deficit, which of the following would be best?

a. borrow still more money 

b. cut taxes for the middle class 

c. cut taxes for the super rich 

d. spend only what is taken in 

2. If an attractive female intern offers oral sex, a male public official should: 

a. quickly agree before she changes her mind 

b. make sure she doesn't keep the dress afterwards

c. politely decline 

d. ask her what she means by "sex." 

3. Should our schools decide to emphasize “good character,” the best person to exemplify such character would be: 

a. J. Edgar Hoover 

b. Richard Nixon 

c. Bill Clinton 

d. none of the above 

4. If a terrorist attack on the U.S. originates in country A, the best U.S. course of action would be to: 

a. turn the other cheek 

b. invade country C 

c. invade country B 

d. none of the above

5. The Second Amendment is predicated on the necessity of :

a. self-defense

b. maintaining a well-regulated militia

c. preserving a viable small arms industry

d. none of the above 

TRUE FALSE:

6. With the exception of James Buchanan, every U. S. President played par golf

7.  Mexico is actually paying for "the wall," but in small, discreet installments

8.   James Madison, the man behind the US Constitution, barred any and all Christian elements from that document.

9.  During the Trump administration, Denmark really did have Greenland up for sale

 

10. The Bill of Rights contains a total of 12 rights

Alright, enough of this whimsy. We might also want to test all potential appointees to key administrative offices. These could be required by law. Attorney General or Secretary of Defense, for example. The tests would be keyed to the anticipated areas of responsibility. For instance, every aspiring state Secretary of Education would have to pass the same battery of tests required of aspiring teachers. If we use Pennsylvania as a model, for example, the candidate would have to pass separate NTE tests in Reading, Writing, Listening Skills, Mathematics and Principles of Teaching and Learning. We might also want to add a content specialty test in their college major -- aspiring secondary educators have to take one of these. We could even also require standardized tests in Elementary Education Content and Curriculum. After all, officials in the Department of Education tell teachers at every level what to do. 

 

Of course, in any test of aspiring politicians or potential office holders, cheating will be an especially significant problem. Safeguards are absolutely required. At a minimum we must have different forms of the test in order to eliminate would-be candidates from copying each other's work. We also must put the tests under the tightest possible pre-use security.  Remember we're usually dealing with would-be politicians and their minions!

That, in broad outline, is the plan. But it needs filling in. That’s where you can help. Tell us what you think. Should aspirants for and holders of public office take standardized content area tests? If so should we also measure wisdom, rectitude, practical knowledge, sexual predilictions, or what? Additionally, should we test just once, or test longitudinally every year that the person is in office? (Longitudinal testing has the obvious advantage of measuring whether or not the subject is learning while “serving” and/or declining mentally) 

 You might like to suggest specific test items. They need not be multiple choice or true/false as exemplified in this commentary. Any type of questions typically found on standardized tests are welcome. Short answer, etc, Rush your comments and suggestions to the Worm Turns Foundation. org, or post them here. 

P.S. I also suggest asking them to publish their college transcripts. These folks are asking to be hired by us. So it certainly is appropriate to look into their academic record. (Donald Trump threatens Penn with legal action if they ever release his.)

 To examine like issues, see articles at www.newfoundations.com 

2ND RATE TEACHERS: a national necessity

 

During the Obama administration Arnie Duncan, the Education Secretary, repeatedly charged that the nation's teacher preparation programs were second-rate. He said they attract inferior students and weak faculty. He added that colleges and universities use teacher prep programs as "cash cows," bleeding off the revenues they generate instead of investing in their improvement.

There's some truth in all of that. But at the same time Secretary Duncan was making these charges, he was praising alternative quickie routes into teaching. He had a novel "let's make it tougher by making it easier"strategy. Logic demands that if teacher education lacks rigor, it should be made more rigorous. Yet Duncan's favored quickie routes did the exact opposite. And he cheered on his boss for doing even worse. Obama, had the cahonnes to officially classify untrained interns as "highly qualified teachers." Why on earth did he do that? To make employing them as teachers (something California was doing a lot of) compliant with the No Child Left Behind Act. 

Had Duncan really been concerned about strengthening teacher preparation he would have declared war on weak state certification requirements, publicly denounced quickie routes into teaching, and shamed colleges and universities that exploit teacher education as cash cows. Moreover, had he really cared, he would have demanded the abolition of undergraduate teacher certification programs in favor of  professional graduate schooling modeled on the training that has been so successful in dramatically boosting Finland's educational ranking. He did the opposite.

Since Duncan things have deteriorated still further in teacher education. Given lousy teacher working conditions and whale feces low morale, it's little wonder that the pool of would-be teachers has shrunk dramatically. No one but a saint, and they are very scarce, is going to put a lot of effort into becoming a teacher when they'll likely end up underpaid, under-appreciated, scapegoated by conscience-free politicians, attacked from both the political left and right, "led" by weathervane administrators, and pilloried by ungrateful parents anxious to blame others for their own incompetence? No, unless these conditions change, it will be necessary to further reduce the requirements for entry into teaching. The nation's schools urgently need replacement cannon fodder because of the present short supply. 

Will this situation change during either a Trump or Harris presidency? Not likely. Trump, the founder of that film flam "Trump University," daily evidences life-long immunity to schooling. (Penn still owes us a an apology for gifting him that M.B.A.) And Harris evidences no concern whatsoever for improving teacher preparation, much less teaching itself. So let's just settle down and expect the worst. 

For more on Duncan go to: http://www.newfoundations.com/Clabaugh/CuttingEdge/Tinkering.html

MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION? it's humbug and here's why

Teachers are urged to practice "multicultural education." They're told their classroom should be a rainbow where kids from multiple cultures each add a complimentary color. Advocates such as Professor Sonia Nieto, author of the popular Affirming Diversity, claim that "cultural, ... differences can and should be honored, respected, and used as a basis for learning and teaching." This prescription is based on two false assumptions. The first: all cultures are compatible. They aren't.  The second: all cultures incorporate the tolerance that a cultural rainbow requires. They don't. 

For instance, members of cultures little influenced by the enlightenment are likely to view multiculturalism itself with anger, fear and repulsion. Consider the Wahhabi branch of Sunni Islam. (The retrograde dogmatic religious sect dominating Saudi Arabia and promoting that intolerance with vast amounts of oil money throughout the Muslim world.) Wahhabi true believers divide the world between good guys who subscribe to their version of Islam and Godless heretics. So how do the Wahhabi deal with unbelievers? They silence them. And if they must be flogged, jailed, even liquidated, to achieve that silence, so be it. How could you ever insert this intolerance into multicultural education without putting the whole enterprise in jeapordy?

Is this an exaggeration? In 2004 a Saudi royal study group found that the kingdom's religious studies curriculum "encourages violence toward others, and misguides the pupils into believing that in order to safeguard their own religion, they must violently repress and even physically eliminate the 'other.'  Embarrassed by this finding by their own study group, high ranking Saudi officials promised to eliminate the cited intolerant dogmatism from their curriculum. But years later, when the Washington Post analyzed "reformed" Saudi religion texts, they found the self-same, intolerant preachments.  

Let's imagine someone like Professor Nieto teaching in Saudi Arabia while trying to follow her own multicultural prescription. Let's say she openly affirms the value of all religious views. What do you think her fate would be? And before you decide, consider that in 2005, a Saudi teacher cautiously suggesting that Jews and the New Testament could be viewed positively, was not only fired, but sentenced to 750 lashes and sent to prison. (He was eventually pardoned, but only following intense international protests.) 

If Professor Nieto actually "affirmed diversity" in a Saudi classroom  she would doubtless suffer for it. And since this cultural backwater is misogynistic and Professor Nieto is a woman, a severe outcome would be especially likely.  

Is Saudi Arabia unique? Is it an island of intolerance in a tolerant world? Of course not. Religious and related cultural intolerance is so common that tolerance is often a novelty. And this is especially true when believers subscribe to a religion that asserts that it, and only it, commands THE truth. 

Also, let's not forget that cultures sometimes define themselves, at least in part, by their rejection of, hatred for, and even aggression toward, other cultures. Palestinians rarely love the Jews. Armenians have serious reservations about the Turks. The Irish have a less than cordial attitudes toward the English. And let's not expect Native Americans to be grateful to the "white man" for ethnically cleansing them from most of the continent. As Simon and Garfunkel once sang: "The whole world is festering with unhappy souls. The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles. Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch. And I don't like anybody very much!"

Should a teacher actually set out to affirm diversity how should he or she deal with another culture's practice of, say, hating and persecuting homosexuals? (Some cultures even put them to death!) That murderous intolerance sure doesn't blend well in any imaginary cultural rainbow. What about pre-marital sex. That's a pretty common practice. But an Iranian couple accused of enjoying each other were sentenced to be buried up to their necks in sand, and stoned to death. Should any American teacher affirm that kind of diversity? 

There are cultures and subcultures that condone selling one's own daughter into prostitution, throwing battery acid in the face of girls who merely want to go to school, killing one's sister for "dishonoring" the family, hiring amateurs to carve out the clitoris of little girls with razor blades, forbidding female inclusion in a last will and testament, assigning women second rate legal standing, ad naseum. Should these differences be accepted, respected, and used as a basis for learning and teaching? Of course not. But advocates of multiculturalism either pretend such practices don't exist, or are too ignorant to be aware of it. At bottom, their prescription is simply more of the simple-minded happy talk that badly hampers serious educational discourse.

America is more of a salad bowl then a melting pot and, more of less, always has been. But that doesn't change the fact that there are some ingredients that will ruin the salad and render it uneatable.

 

WHY NOT CHEAT? it can pay off

 It often pays to cheat, so why not do it? There are two sorts of reasons. The first involves looking out for number one. The second, honor and character. Let’s examine both.

Looking Out for Number One
One reason not to cheat is that the potential costs too often outweigh the likely benefits. This is not a moral argument. The point here isn’t that cheating is wrong, though it generally is for reasons we will soon examine. It’s that cheating isn’t wise. It too often lacks serious forethought, an accurate estimation of the chances of getting caught and an accurate estimate of the consequences of detection.

Few things enrage actual, as opposed to pretend educators, more than cheating. Taking their professional obligations seriously, they take weighty counter-measures against cheaters. These include such things as:

• Double weighted zeros on the test or assignment
• An informative phone call to parents
• A letter of reprimand in the student’s permanent record
• Compulsory community service

• Course failure
• Expulsion from a program
• Expulsion from school

Another prudential reason for not cheating is that it stifles the development of the cheater’s own potential. Cheaters cheat themselves out of their own possibilities. As Oscar Lavant once observed: " It's not what you are, it's what you don't become." He's dead right. But cheating also involves what you are. Or, put another way, it defines what you really are. As Emerson noted; "As a man chooses, so is he." 

Another reason not to cheat is that it's particularly dumb to do so in subjects that are learned sequentially. Here cheating only postpones inevitable failure. Let’s say someone cheats his way through an introductory math or foreign language course. His or her lack of actual accomplishment typically catches up with them in the very next course. The same applies to many other subjects of that nature. The odds that cheaters can keep cheating their way through school get slimmer and slimmer as the cheater "advances." 

We see, then, that there are solid practical reasons not to cheat.

Honor and Character
The Ten Commandments offer one argument against cheating. The applicable commandment is: “Thou shalt not steal.” Since a cheater gets a grade they didn't earn, cheating is stealing. But Judeo-Christian values aside, deciding whether or not to cheat is a measure of character. And that's especially true if there is little to no chance of getting caught. That's the point of the U.S. military academies utilizing honor codes. So all would-be cheaters would be wise to remember that their character is their very essence. It's who they really are.

Cheating also produces unjust consequences. Justice requires that each person gets what he or she deserves. Deciding what people deserve isn’t easy. But that's not the case with cheaters. The cheater didn’t actually do the work. Their honest classmates did. Therefore, cheaters cheat every honest member of the class — including their friends. And it's particularly dishonorable to cheat one's friends.

Here is still another consideration. Ethical persons only choose an action if it would be okay for everyone in similar circumstances to do the same. Apply that to cheating. Imagine everyone cheating everyone. That would be disastrous. So, using the above standard, cheating is not okay. Imagine a physician who cheated their way through medical school now faced with saving someone from a potentially deadly disease they knew nothing about. How about architects who cheated their way through the instruction regarding how to build structures that won't collapse? Each of us repeatedly benefit from others who did not and do not cheat. We might even depend upon that with our very lives. 

Cheating also requires using others to get what we want. We behave without regard for their rights. The rights of the teacher and the other test takers, for instance. People aren't mere objects and should not be treated as if they are. Cheating requires doing just that. Therefore, it is wrong.

We also need to consider the total good and the total harm that will result from our action. With cheating the total harm typically outweighs the total good. Honest effort provides greater benefits to a greater number. Does that matter? If you're a decent human being it does.

Remember, though, cheating is only usually wrong. "Usually" because it matters why you are cheating and in what context you cheat. For instance, if you are an inmate in a concentration camp and cheating the guards would save your life of the life of another. In circumstances similar to this cheating is morally obligatory. 

Summary
We’ve seen there are two general kinds of reasons not to cheat. The first involves looking out for number one. In other words, being prudent.The second involves simply doing the right thing. The combined force of both these kinds of reasons suggests cheating is a bad idea. 

Trouble is, cheating can and does pay off. In fact, it often pays off handsomely, Consider the corrupt grifter politicians who frequently win public office. But such payoffs are only payoffs when they don't get caught and place no value on their own honor and integrity.  Psychological research reveals that when people have a chance to reflect on a moral issue, they are much more likely to behave in accord with their consciences. Give yourself that opportunity.

(This is an edited version of something originally written in 2009.)

SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: untrained, unqualified bullshitter?

The position of Secretary of Education is frequently filled with the secular equivalent of flim-flam artist televangelists. These individuals lack the training, experience, common sense or moral virtue to do the job. They do, however, possess a crucial skill. They are accomplished bullshitters. Tub thumping humbugs of the first magnitude.  

The Reagan administration provides a sterling example. Ronald Reagan promised he would eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, but dropped that when education unexpectedly gained national attention. He still slashed education spending in half. But Reagan staffers knew his administration had to look like they supported public education. They were in luck. Reagan had already appointed a know-nothing blowhard as Secretary of Education. William F. Bennett was a carnival barker in both style and substance. This gas-bag's unrestrained exaggerations and gross simplifications repeatedly made the news. And as they did, gullible Americans came to believe that: A. much was wrong with America's schools and B. the Reagan administration was working hard to fix them.

This is not the place to detail Bennett's demagoguery.  Let's just recount an incident that captures the noxious essence of his humbug. Reagan's Secretary of Education wrote an article that appeared in the November 1988 Readers Digest. In it he praised a school principal's extraordinarily simple method of "reforming a troubled inner-city Washington, D. C. school." "On the very first day," wrote Bennett, this remarkable "educational leader," this "no-nonsense principal, assembled the student body and ... with practiced eye, chose 20 potential troublemakers" to enforce order and put an end to chaos." And, according to Bennett, putting the school's most likely miscreants in charge of the rest of the student body worked magic! Order was restored and education proceeded!

Can you imagine? The school is chaoticl and the principal's solution is to put the potential trouble-makers in charge! Even a Secretary of Education should recognize such a policy is just plain nuts. Of course Bennett was not interested in the multifaceted and highly complex nature of actual reform. He was shoveling bullshit for political purposes.  Simple solutions for the simple minded. This is  how he politicized his position with carnival-barker effectiveness. For example, he repeatedly beat up on the National Education Association  — a relatively innocuous organization at the time. Charging that it was a major cause of what he alleged to be national school decline, he repeatedly pointed to it as the chief villain.  But why did Bennett really attack the NEA? It was a union that favored the Democrats and, rather ineffectually, opposed the Reagan administration's education policies.  Never mind facts! Bennett's job was to confirm the biases of Reagan voters and he did that well. What he failed to do was offer genuine leadership.

Enough about Bennett. Let's turn to Arnie Duncan, President Obama's Secretary of Education. Unlike Reagan, Obama increased Federal education funding by an extra $100 billion. But his selection of Mr. Duncan was similar to Reagan's choice of Bennett in that Arnie's chief skill was bullshitting. He actually lacked any knowledge of education policy, curriculum design, research on learning, human growth and development etc.. He had never even taught. Yet despite his utter lack of qualifications,, he had served as CEO of the Chicago public school system from 2001 - 2008. How come? Can you spell P O L I T I C S? 

Yes, Arnie was utterly unqualified to be secretary of anything. But he did have that one qualification as Secretary of Education. He really could dish out the shit. He was skilled at looking like he knew what he was talking about.  (He also provided the President with an excellent basketball buddy. An ex-professional hoopster, Arnie played a mean game of one on one.)  

During the Bush administration "No Child Left Behind" had been signed into law. It stipulated that in the future only "highly qualified" teachers would be permitted to teach." In fact it specifically ordained that "to teach math, science, social studies, the arts, reading or languages, candidates must have obtained a long-term teaching certificate, and demonstrate subject matter knowledge by either obtaining a college major in the subject, by passing a test in the subject taught." 

That's got real teeth, right?  Ah, but wait! The lawmakers also inserted the following at the very end: "...or by some other means established by the state." This was nothing less than a last second castration! It allowed states to dodge all of the supposed rigor. States could substitute whatever feeble faldarall suited their situation. And, of course, that's exactly what happened in state after state. Were legislators surprised that this happened? Hardly! They wanted to look tough, while simultaneously allowing the same laxity that has characterized teacher education since its inception. Tougher entry standards means paying more to entering teachers. Otherwise no one will want to meet these stringent standards. But that means you have to pay more to attract the best. And raising taxes to pay teachers more is politically unpalatable

California initially failed to take advantage of the No Child Left Behind escape clause. Consequently, the state faced an immediate shortage of highly qualified teachers. But President Obama came to the rescue. He waived his executive order wand and declared that wanna-be teachers still in training were, in fact, "highly qualified?" At that time many such people were filling in as full-time teachers in California. Now, thanks to Obama, these rank amateurs were instantly transformed into masters of the art. California's shortage of "highly qualified" teachers was over. 

Did Secretary Duncan complain when Obama transformed apprentices to master craftsmen with the stroke of a pen! Not a whimper came from Arnie. Apparently he had changed his mind. 

Eventually a federal judge ruled that Obama's evasion violated the No Child Left Behind "highly qualified" requirement, Congress corrected that. They piously legislated that the classification "highly qualified" included those who weren't. Arnie went along with that too. By then his expressed concern about inadequate teacher preparation had evaporated.

Last, there is Betsy DeVoss, Secretary of Education under Donald Trump. How much training in education did she have? Zero. How much teaching experience? Zero. How much personal experience in public school where 90% of American send their children? Zero. How much has she and the rest of her family donated to Republican causes? Forbes reports about $200 million dollars in 2017.  

That's 200 million reasons why, having always attended private conservative Christian schools, having long demanded deep cuts in federal education spending, having enthusiastically championed privatizing public schools through vouchers, and after boldly boosting the for-profit college industry despite their student loan default rate being 6 times higher, she still ended up U.S. Secretary of Education. 

Was Ms. DeVoss a bullshitter similar to the two cited above? To be fair, that's not clear. Perhaps she was just a true believer trained in the fundamentalist tradition that renders one incapable of reasoning. A sort of free market fanatic who falsely linked materialistic capitalism with the decidedly anti-materialist teaching of Jesus Christ. In any case, she was clearly in over her head as Secretary of Education. In fact, to even get the job Vice President Pence had to cast the deciding vote, given the 50-50 tie in the Senate vote on DeWees.

There are competent, qualified people who have served, and now serve, as secretaries of education at the state and national level. But there are too many counter-examples. Should our political "leaders" want to get serious, not just solemn, about improving America's schooling it is way past time for them to appoint highly qualified experts. In the meantime, though there still will be lots of openings for untrained, unqualified, conscience-free bull shitters.