Mary Anne will counter that before schools were made compulsory - kids were often left illiterate slobs.

The sad truth of the matter is that it has almost come full circle - kids educated through the public schools in many areas are almost guaranteed to be at levels only slightly above total illiteracy.

Some of the BEST elementary school texts were made around 1923-27. I have a number in my collection. They use complex vocabulary (i.e. capricious, anathema, etc.) and expect the students to learn and use these words. As a amateur historian, I can state with confidence that the children educated through the system in the 1920-1940 period were FAR better educated and literate individuals than are the baby boomers and everyone educated after the second World War.

Have you read a political piece from a magazine from 1920 - 1940? If you have, you will see that it likely uses vocabulary most readers today would find hard to follow because of the high-falutin' vocabulary.

Yes, it is no wonder these folks could invent the atom bomb and stereo and washers and dryers, refrigerators, air-conditioners and all of the major appliances and tools we use still to this day.

Sometimes I feel gypped. While we were singing "old man tucker" in Kindergarten - something kids are still singing today. 40 years earlier they had the alphabet memorized and were exposed to words, grammar and punctuation.

What happened? Well, I'll tell you what happened. After WWII their was a baby boom. The school houses and educators were not in sufficient number by 1946-1950 to deal with the increase in class size. These kids parents, often had no education above the grade school level. Many enlisted at 17 or 18 and many forgot most of their schooling. These parents often were not as keen about education as their parents were, often because they were not too well educated.

This led to a collective group that felt the old texts were too complex and too tough to teach to so many students in overcrowded classrooms.

So the first new texts were dumbed down after WWII. Vocabulary was made less complex - lots of one syllable words took their places. This is evident to anyone who compares a 1925 early reader to a 1950 early reader.

So the post-war period was rolling back the standards of education. Juvenile delinquency became a household word. Kids rambled around, joined gangs, beat up folks and generally were examples of lax schooling, parents who were less dedicated and inferior school districts.

Comic books, something that had developed in the early war years, were put on trial. Perhaps they were responsible for the delinquency. Yet by and large comic books were doing something many teachers were not - teaching kids to read and like reading.

Then something happened.

Sputnik.

Suddenly a rush to revise texts, push science material and educate the US students who were obviously being massively outpaced by their Soviet counterparts.

Some of the best science texts come from the 1960-65 era. The vocabulary complexity was increased a bit and science was already being taught to elementary school level children.

I daresay most folks on these boards who love space were brought up on science books that celebrated man's space exploration and tried to foster scientific children who would lead America to new and untold heights.

I have about seventy-five children's space books from this era - all have one wondrous thing in common:

They are wildly optimistic about the future and the readers part in this future.

Today space is covered the same way we covered the War of 1812 - that is to say very dryly, unemotionally and as if it is simply an era whose time has come and gone.

Now the teachers are the ones who hardly can define capricious or anathema. How can they be expected to teach what they themselves don't know?

This is the big problem and they avoid accountability by talking about pay, funding, etc.

The bottom line is the teachers of today are not HALF the teachers of yesterday. This may seem like an unfair generalization - but it is all too true!

They are given materials which are inferior. Today's emphasis is on political correctness - and not education. The operating principle is "Are we churning out compassionate, tolerant souls who will vote democratic and lean socialist?"
Yeah go ahead and deny it! But it's true! True compassion and understanding comes from proper and complete education. Folks say that the left are more educated. Poppycock! They are more educated than some but I find that the most well read historians or scientists lean conservative - because they know that conservative behavior and thinking is the wellspring upon which decent civilizations flourish and prosper and which make scientific progress possible.

The generations which rebelled and drugged out - they are living testament to the way liberalism retards growth and stifles intellectual development! The Jane Fondas, Tom Hayden's and Clintons of the world are still mentally like children! They still are self-focused and see the world through exploitive eyes.

Morally bankrupt and hypocritical, they espouse tolerance and brotherhood only in as far as it will further their own careers.

At least Carter is sincere in his concerns - but that is because he comes from another generation which did not "gel" or join communes and was at least somewhat educated.

Schools today are only as good as the teachers - and in my opinion perhaps even more importantly - the books which define the curriculum for the year.

The PC books are near worthless. History summarized to a paragraph for every decade is preposterous. Yes books must get bigger as time passes - or simply separate history into TWO big history books or more, issuing the second later in the year.

Yes, Mary Anne has an incredible job - as she is in a position to help influence many young and impressionable minds.

I remember with fondness the librarians who suggested certain books and took the time to find other titles by the same author.

School needs to be more competitive - internet sources need to be beefed up and made more prevalent. A great and challenging public elementary curriculum should be entirely available online at the DOE.

Teachers should be held accountable for the collective scores of their students. Teachers should be more vigorously tested and should be PAID in direct RELATIONSHIP to WHAT THEY KNOW!!!!

This way the teachers who are the most educated earn higher when they impart this education level to their charges.

I am not opposed to having $85,000 a year teachers - provided they are EXCELLENT teachers who churn out students who are literate, optimistic and excited about reading, math, science, history and the progress of civilization!

It would be a GREAT investment. The progress of the mid-twentieth century came about because of the intense educational standards and curriculum of the 1920-1940 period. Who knows what a surge in education now could bring to the mid-twenty first century!

Laziness, unions, teachers organizations will all collectively protest such standards and improvements. Unless perhaps the promise of higher pay (and subsequently higher dues might sway them.) Though this is unlikely. The status quo is the answer to the question: "What is the most unmovabole object in the world?"

Well, I have rambled on long enough...

SDAI-Tech1