Thoughts on What Education "Reform" Has Achieved

It's nothing new, but it's frightening to see where it's employed today.

Teaching pedagogy over the last fifteen years, and longer, has included both models supportive of independent thought and critical thinking AND other models that support rote "drill and kill", "sit and listen" direct instruction models- the latter representative of the factory school model.

Typically, one finds the former in better schools with better funding, facilities, and more skilled staff. Students are more likely to have solid safe and healthy homes.
In contrast, the latter model is common in failing schools with overcrowded classrooms, dwindling funds, and stressed staff.

The inequity of education that's presented only reinforces the existence of two classes in our culture; the haves and have-nots.

the change in US education and why I believe those changes occurred.

Your observations are a little too broad to be applied to all schools.

First there are still plenty of public schools that support liberal arts, humanties, etc, as there always have been.

And, there have always been factory schools.

I think it could be argued that more and more public schools have abandoned humanities in favor of test taking.

I'm talking about trends here. Changes from what our academic system was in the 60's to what it is today. I went to California schools when we were #1 in the nation. Now we're somewhere in the middle. That's a stark difference and I'm proposing that that's not by accident.

So, what happened? I'm positing that the drastic change was a concerted effort by people who hold the strings to politicians and curriculum companies (now conglomerates) who had the power to put in place academic "experts" chosen to go on TV and justify the changes. Not so coincidentally, this started happening about the same time as certain conservative groups began taking over school boards, i.e., "stealth candidates."

The fact of the matter is that there is a legit and indispensable (however limited) role for rote learning in education.

Ask any teacher or any parent for that matter. Examples abound: times tables, alphabetical order. It would be nice for kids to know that Columbus "discovered America" in 1492... and not 1942. Most people know the difference because they "rote learned" it.

Broader level: I see less conspiracy here than stupidity, ignorance and opportunism.

What people like Bush, Obama, Gates and Duncan know about public education could fill a library of razor-thin books.

The pols want to be seen "doing something" about education... despite the fact that they have no idea what they're talking about. Inevitable result: more laws passed resulting in: red-tape, regs, "standards" , confusion, bureaucracy, waste...and plenty of chances for people to make $$$.

I could go on but why bother.

uprisings scared the bejeezus out of the PTB. I think there was a concerted effort to "dumb down" the curriculum in order to begin producing good little consumers who don't ask questions. Again, just my opinion.

... when the idea was first mooted, and you will see all the reasons the PTB now want to put an end to it.

-- Mal