Episode 158 Show Notes- 8 Ways America’s Education System Failed And How To Rebuild
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Episode Description
The failures of the American public education system are well-documented. However, there are many who refuse to acknowledge the deepening crisis within the public education system, and how we are setting up our children up, and our nation, for failure. Our public education system has deviated far from its original intent. In this episode, Professor Giordano explains the original goals of a public education system, and how those goals have been abandoned to our detriment. Most importantly, he provides a call to action to all parents. They have the power. They just need to realize it and do something about it.
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Show Transcript- 8 Ways America’s Education System Failed And How To Rebuild
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Intro
Welcome everyone to another episode of The PAS Report Podcast.
So on Monday, I said I was going to talk about the public education system because the problems have become so dire and it’s a complete failure. It’s embarrassing. We are the sole superpower of the world, yet our public education system is a laughingstock.
We need to be honest and recognize that our children are not being properly educated. In fact, the system has morphed in such a way that it basically sets our children up for failure.
We all need to pay attention to this crisis because that’s exactly what it is. And some of you may be thinking, “well, my child goes to a great school. This isn’t all districts.”
Understand that while not all schools are failing, there are way too many that are, and I hate to break it to you, if this trend continues, it won’t matter if your kid went to a good district or not. We as a country will fail. That’s why it doesn’t matter what your politics are. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Liberal, Libertarian, or any other political ideology you can think of.
Everyone needs to listen to this episode. Every parent, every student, every teacher, and anyone who cares about the future direction of this country and our communities. Education is essential to every successful nation, and without a robust public education system, nations fail. Our country is no different.
We have deviated far from the original intent of our public education system, and in this episode, I’m going to explain why our public education system was created, why it has collapsed, but most importantly, I’m going to explain what we can and must do to rebuild our public educations system in a way that fosters success. So, make sure to take the advice I’m giving. We have the power here, we just need to realize it and do something about it.
Before I jump in, go to The P.A.S. Report website. Sign up for The P.A.S. Report Newsletter and make sure to follow the podcast so you never miss an episode.
Original Intent of the Public Education System
Let’s begin by explaining why the American public education system was created because there are many out there who do not understand. In America today, we try to oversimplify everything. We try to make everything literal.
To prove my point, take a second and think why was our public education system created?
The most obvious answer that came to your mind is probably that the education system exists to educate our children. But is that all it’s really about, and what does educate our children actually mean? We have to start thinking deeper because if I ask people to explain what educating our children really means, many actually have a difficult time explaining it.
Sure, they may say educate means to teach students how to read and write or do math, but is that really why the public education system was created?
While the modern-day public-school system really took form in the late 1800s and the early 1900s, there were public schools in the United States prior to that time. However, the founding fathers understood the importance of education, and its necessity to create a strong America.
James Madison stated, “A diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.”
John Adams said, “Children should be educated and instructed on the principles of freedom.”
Benjamin Rush said, “Let our common people be compelled by law to give their children a good English education. This plan of general education alone will render the American Revolution a blessing to mankind.’
Noah Webster said, “Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.”
When you begin to do some research, you will find that while reading, writing, and math were part of early curriculums, they were not the central focus. In fact, virtues of family, religion, manners, discipline, and sense of community were the central focus.
And as the immigrant class in the United States began to swell, so to the need for a robust education system.
Think about it this way. The United States is a whole bunch of people with little that binds us together. We don’t have thousands of years of shared history. We don’t have one unifying shared culture. We don’t have a shared religion. We’re like a hodgepodge of different people.
How can you take all these different peoples, with their different beliefs, and create a sense of nationhood?
That’s where the public education system played an integral part in creating the sense of nationhood between all these different peoples. It’s our education system that gives us our national identity and holds our country together. Think of our motto on the Great Seal- E Pluribus Unum- One from Many. That among these many different peoples, we create one nation. This is the first goal of a public education system.
The second goal dovetails the first. In order to be part of the nation-state, we need to know our role within the system, and what our responsibilities are. Through civic education, we get good citizenry where there is a greater sense than self. Civics helps us understand that while we have obligations to our family and faith, we also have obligations to our community and our country. Now when you ask someone today, what role do we play in the system? What’s our responsibility as citizens to our communities and our country?
The standard answers you’ll hear are that we have to pay taxes, we should vote, and we have to serve on juries if called upon. Here’s the problem. First, we complain about all these things. But more importantly, good citizenry goes much deeper than that.
Here’s an excerpt from a speech given by Teddy Roosevelt. “success or failure will be conditioned upon the way in which the average man, the average woman, does his or her duty, first in the ordinary, every-day affairs of life, and next in those great occasional crises which call for the heroic virtues. The average citizen must be a good citizen if our republics are to succeed… the main source of national power and national greatness is found in the average citizenship of the nation.”
Eleanor Roosevelt really broke this down well. I have a link up at The P.A.S. Report to the entire excerpt. It’s long, but I want to read a section because I think she makes a great point.
“The practical side of good citizenship is developed most successfully in school because…the conditions and problems of the larger society are more easily reproduced and met and solved.
Learning to be a good citizen is learning to live to the maximum of one’s abilities and opportunities, and every subject should be taught every child with this in view.
As the great majority of our children are being educated in public schools, it is all-important that the standards of citizenship should be of the best. Whether we send our children to private school or public school we should take a constant interest in all educational institutions and remember that on the public school largely depends the success or the failure of our great experiment in government “by the people, for the people.” (George Washington University- Good Citizenship: The Purpose of Education)
So just to rehash because I know that excerpt was long. The first goal of a public education system is to create a sense of nationhood. The second is to create good citizens. The third goal of the public education system is to empower the students to think critically. The ability to think critically is essential to liberty, and it’s liberating. The ability to think critically leads to empowerment.
See these three goals go hand-in-hand with each other and are necessary to provide an education. Essentially, education is real freedom because, without these goals, we are essentially imprisoned within the system. When one or more of these goals is missing, the bond breaks and has detrimental to the entire public education system.
The Bonds Have Broken
And let’s face it, the bond has broken because all three of these goals have been lost for the last 20 years. Many of the far-left ideas from the indoctrination camps, known as our American universities, have trickled down to the K-12 system and have poisoned the core of the public education system.
Failure 1
Take the first goal, the sense of nationhood. According to many in academia, we should no longer be teaching about American exceptionalism. We should not be teaching that America is a better and more just country than most others out there. We shouldn’t be teaching about the idea of the melting pot, and that when immigrants come to the United States, they go through the process of assimilation where people shed some of their native cultures, accept the Tenets of the American Creed and adopt the American political philosophy.
In fact, they want to teach the exact opposite. They want to teach that when someone comes to the United States, it’s not the person coming that should assimilate to the American culture, rather it’s America that should assimilate and bow to other cultures. They want to teach that America is inherently evil and built on a system of oppression. This ignores the fact that millions of people try to flee their countries, many risking their lives by taking this dangerous journey and escape to the United States in the hopes of freedom, safety, and a better life.
But it’s even worse, many have begun to teach a false history. One that’s not steeped in reality. One that’s based on division. A history aimed at doing away with the American political philosophy.
Actual racism has been incorporated in curriculums throughout the country by critical race theory BS. It is designed to indoctrinate the youth with the idea that their skin color defines the very essence of a person. It defines the character of the person. That if you’re white, you are inherently born as an oppressor and a racist. If you’re any other color, you’re inherently born a victim. We’re actually moving backward in society and it’s a frightening thought.
This is toxic and it’s being taught to kids as young as 4 years old. This is not education. It’s poison and a direct assault on the public education system from within. It will tear the fabric of this country apart, and by destroying the sense of nationhood, how long do you think America can possibly stand? Remember, it was President Lincoln who said, “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Yet that’s exactly what’s happening.
By the time students get to college, most students don’t have any real knowledge of the American political philosophy as defined in the Declaration of Independence. They don’t know the Constitution, and why our government was created the way it is. They don’t understand core concepts like Liberty and Freedom. They don’t know federalism and the roles and responsibilities of the institutions of government. Essentially, they are strangers in this system, and when the majority of people don’t really understand the system and their role in it, they will be much more willing to change the system.
Failure 2
The second goal has also been done away with. We don’t teach children what it means to be a good citizen. Sure, they may read something about good citizenship in Kindergarten and First Grade, and it’s mostly superficial stuff, but outside of that, the newer generations have absolutely no sense of civic responsibility.
When we think back, President Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you- ask what you can do for your country.” That mindset has been killed. Now we encourage entitlement mentality throughout the school system and society. Instead of exploring the ways we can make our communities a better place, we now focus on the belief that government exists to make our lives better and serve our every need. No longer do we teach the concepts of self-reliance and personal responsibility to faith, family, community, and country. No longer do we teach the importance of merit.
Instead, it’s a garbage notion of equity that’s being instilled. The idea that the government is responsible for equal outcomes in life. We have dumbed down the standards so that students can simply pass through with the least amount of effort.
When standards are high, and you fail, you learn from those failures and keep trying until you succeed. That’s real accomplishment. That’s real success.
However, when your dropping standards to ensure everyone passes, that’s not an accomplishment. It’s not success. It’s an abject failure of the whole institution of education that has little faith in the abilities of the students. And yet, we keep dropping the standards. Many K-12 institutions teach students that there owed something, and if they fail, it’s not their fault. It’s society’s fault because society is racist or sexist or homophobic or some other -ism.
Civic responsibility and the concept of good citizenry have essentially been done away with. The students of today have little understanding of the American government, the roles, and responsibilities of the institutions of government, or why the government even exists.
We have become a nation of strangers living in the same communities unable to recognize that we all have a vital role in improving society, whether through participating in the system, and I’m not just talking about voting. I’m talking about going to civic meetings, going to local legislative hearings, organizing our neighbors when there’s a problem in our communities. Working hard to take care of yourself and your family.
This has become a failure of epic proportions.
Failure 3
The theory of equipping the students with the ability to think critically is also nonexistent. Our education system has morphed into one based on obedience and compliance, as opposed to creating free thinkers who are smart enough to come to their own conclusions.
Just take a look at the coronavirus, and I brought this up on Monday’s episode how so many just blindly listened to the government without ever questioning the policies, the motives, or the science. And as I have been screaming for the last months, most of the decisions that our officials made, the authoritarian decrees, weren’t based in science at all, yet no one questioned them. No one questioned why some businesses were deemed essential, and why others were no essential. No one questioned the use of masks, and how reusing a mask more than once renders the effectiveness of the masks useless.
No one questioned why schools didn’t reopen in the fall even though all the science said it was safe and they should. And no one questioned who it hurts most. You have all these academics, who think they are social justice warriors, in reality, their losers, but they want to complain about the lack of equality, the wealth gap and those on the lower socio-economic scale, treatment of minorities, and on and on it goes.
Using the ability to think critically, who gets hurt most by the continued school closures and remote learning. I can assure you it isn’t the rich, wealthy kids. It’s the people these morons claim they’re fighting for. It’s the kids on the lower socio-economic scale that will suffer the most from the school closures and the distance learning BS.
But it’s not just with coronavirus, it’s with everything. We don’t ask questions anymore, and it’s to our own detriment. Instead, we try to oversimplify things as if every issue is black and white. Well, life doesn’t work that way. Everything is gray, and the only way to derive real conclusions is to question everything, to push further.
However, now we just teach to tests, and how to answer a question correctly. We don’t encourage real thought. We’re too busy teaching student’s preferred pronoun usage, then actual material they will need in life.
But maybe that’s the point because if a student deviates from certain narratives, there are a whole slew of people who will attempt to demonize that student.
How Did We Get Here?
So, what happened? How did we get to this point? There are many things that have happened that lead us to this moment, but I’m only going to focus on a few.
Bureaucrats Make Education Policy
One of the biggest problems is that bureaucrats are the ones making education policies. Most of these people never set foot in a classroom as a teacher, yet they are the ones determining what’s being taught in the classroom. They are not trained historians. They are not trained mathematicians or science teachers. They are not trained in literature. Yet, they have an enormous amount of power over K-12 curriculums. They determine what textbooks are being used. They determine the special programs schools may offer. So, the people with little to no experience have an enormous amount of power, and unfortunately, many of them are ideologically driven.
Removing Discipline & Eliminating the Respect for Authority
Throughout the country, we are seeing a push in many districts to limit and do away with strict disciplinary actions against students who violate the codes of conduct. (EdSource) Since the days of zero-tolerance have been done away with, we are witnessing increasing violence, both verbal and physical, toward teachers and administrators. (USA Today) The failure of schools to hold these students accountable has had a chilling effect.
More importantly, as administrators take a more laissez affaire approach to discipline, teachers see the lack of support and it begins to affect the quality of their work. In fact, many studies suggest that violence, verbal and physical, against teachers leads to increasing sick times being used, and creates a disconnect between faculty, administration, and students.
Overreliance on Technology
Too much technology has been incorporated in the schools, and because we lack the ability to think critically, no one asks why these tech companies are willing to provide schools with so much free technology or technology with a huge discount. The reality is the tech sector is making a big push to take over the education sector. In addition, the tech sector views the students, not as children there to receive an education. They view the students as potential customers for life. Technology has played a big role in dumbing down our society even though it had so much promise to be vehicles of acquiring knowledge. It is time we do away with most technology in schools and start getting back to the basics.
Teachers
And then there are the teachers themselves. The mindset of the teachers has changed as well. Now I’m not talking about all teachers. I know a lot of great teachers out there, and many of them are constantly reaching out to me and thanking me for speaking out.
But we are in a new place. The teachers of the past understood the concept of public education, and they all had various political ideologies. It’s not like far-left teachers are something new. But the teachers of the past were trained not to give their opinions. They understood the importance of having students think critically and discovering for themselves what the conclusion is. Teachers would have command over the material through the vast knowledge they acquired in their subject field.
While teachers may receive more training in pedagogical methods, they are receiving less training in the actual subject material. They are also receiving less training on important teaching techniques like the Socratic method where teachers ask questions and push their students to think deeper.
Many of the old-school-type teachers, who had a love and appreciation for real education, have retired, and a new generation now exists. A generation of teachers who weren’t trained properly on core educational concepts. Many wrongly believe that their opinions matter, or worse, their opinions should be imposed on the student body.
You have other teachers that heavily rely on textbook manufacturers. Understand that the textbook manufacturers are a big part of the problem. Many of the textbooks used today are written by far-left ideologues. The textbook manufacturers provide much more than textbooks. They’ll also provide teachers with PowerPoint presentations, handouts for students, homework assignments, and exams. They can save teachers hours and hours of work.
I want you to consider my field for a minute. Think about American Government. All you have to do to understand the American government is to read the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, the Constitution, and selected works of the founding fathers. Why would we assign a textbook to a student so that they get someone else’s opinion on what those documents actually mean? I tend to have much more faith that students can read the primary sources and come to their own conclusion. Unfortunately, We have created a system where students depend on secondhand sources, therefore relying on someone else’s opinions, and unbeknownst to students, the author’s biases.
Then you have the teachers that got into the field for all the wrong reasons. As teachers’ salaries increased, there are some that figured it’s a great job. Good pay, great benefits, weekends off, summers off, holidays off. They don’t necessarily care about education or the educational process, and so, they lack the passion to inspire the students and instill in them a sense of curiosity.
If a teacher falls into one of these categories, often, these teachers see only the negatives of American history, and not the greatness of our founding documents and our shared history, which has made the United States the last great hope of the world.
Unfortunately, there are teachers that do the right thing and get ignored. They care about the students. They have a hunger for knowledge. They appreciate the field of education. They get up day in and day out and work really hard to try and reach as many students as they can. Unfortunately, many of these teachers are marginalized. They’re never recognized for their service and dedication to the field of education, and more importantly, to the students.
School Shutdowns
And we’re seeing this now. You have to understand that in many locations, children have been out of school for nearly a year. They’ve been doing remote work and not learning a thing, and many of the union leadership have been pushing to keep the schools closed. There are a whole bunch of teachers out there who want to get back in the classroom. They want to be with the students. They want to teach again.
But you have some unions making ridiculous demands that have nothing to do with science or the coronavirus. The pathetic Los Angeles Teachers Union, which should be disbanded, finally came to an agreement that they will return to the classroom in mid-April. Now the L.A. school district’s last day of classes is June 11th. Essentially students will be in person for less than two months, and anyone that knows kids, especially the younger students, it’s going to take at least a month for them to get acclimated to being back in the classroom.
What has been done to the public education system and the students is criminal in my opinion.
Every study shows that students in distance learning fall much further behind their counterparts who attend in person. Even worse is that we know for a fact that the student failure rate has increased dramatically, and students are way behind where they should be.
And guess what? They’ll be pushed through next school year even if they are failing, and they will continue to fall further behind. I know that I am going to be seeing the repercussions of the lockdowns for years to come. And I’m not even factoring in the severe mental health toll this has taken on the student body.
This is the final nail in the coffin for the public education system, and the crisis is at critical mass.
How Can We Rebuild the Public Education System?
You’re probably wondering, “Hey, he said he was going to talk about how to rebuild the public education system.”
Here’s the thing, many of you parents and caregivers out there don’t realize the power you possess. You have the power to foster change. Don’t wait for the government to fix it because the government never will.
We have to do this ourselves, and it takes work, but if you care about your children and your community, you’ll start to get active.
Do you as parents, grandparents, other caregivers, or even concerned citizens realize that you have the legal right to sit in on a classroom lesson being given to your youngster? Do you realize the powerful platform this gives you in reporting back the incorrect, non-factual, even nonsensical information and disinformation being fed to these young minds, by some teachers, in order to socially engineer society?
Today, many of us feel helpless that if we “complain” both the child and parents will be ostracized and stigmatized. However, we as individuals, deciding together to sit in on these classroom lessons can become a real force. Our politicians are cowards, trembling in fear of the woke mobs. They’re not going to do anything. We can foster the change so desperately needed.
There are many who do not realize that as parents and caregivers, we have the power and the control. It is time we utilize that power and take the public education system back from the fringe voices controlling what our children are learning. We can no longer sit on the sidelines wrongly outsourcing our children’s education. It is time to get engaged and play an active role in what is happening in the classroom and foster change to restore sanity and a sense of nationhood, civic purpose, and reignite the students’ abilities to think critically.
As parents, we need to sit with our children and go through the homework to see what they’re learning. We need to go through the textbooks to understand the radical message our children are being brainwashed with. We need to supplement our children’s education and reinforce what the good teachers are teaching while rejecting the others.
Closing
The strongest advocates to change the public education system are the parents, yet many parents are absent. Sure, we may complain to family or friends. We may put out a social media post, but that’s not going to change the system. It is time we organize and coordinate with other parents. It is time we become active in the PTA. It is time we force the school boards to change, and if the school board doesn’t listen, then it’s time for the parents to become the school board.
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And believe me, I know this can be difficult. Many of you parents out there are working. Some are working more than one job. Some are single parents. So, I get the challenges, but we can no longer be bystanders and watch the public education system collapse. The reality is if the public education system fails, we’re all going to fail. Just look at what’s currently going on. If we don’t fix the public education system, nothing else really matters because we will be doomed to fail as a country.
Alright, I think I took enough of your time today.
It’s important you share this podcast with other parents, students, the teachers that believe in quality education, so they know they aren’t alone. Let’s get this message out there. It’s time rebuild the country institution by institution.
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