Santorum bashes public schools, says they're stuck in factory era

[chervilant]

65. hmm...

Current research indicates that as much as 45% of adults in the US are functionally illiterate, e.g., they might be able to read the words in this thread, but they'd be unable to explicate what they've read. Among the general populace, math and science skills are topical at best. According to the most current comparative assessment (the OECD PISA report), the US ranks 27th out of 34 nations with regards to math education.

Since the mid-60s, our system of public education has been increasingly co-opted by the Corporate Megalomaniacs who've usurped our media, our politics, and our global economy. They don't want citizens with critical thinking skills. They want factory fodder and service industry drones. (Note that the 'best' schools on our planet are still the milieux of the very wealthy.)

I just got off the phone with the mother of my newest tutorees, both of whom are attending a prestigious private academy in a posh suburb of Houston. The first time I met with her youngest child, I tried to assess the child's critical thinking skills, using a rather simple geometry problem that required standard algebra skills. It took this young person more than twenty minutes to solve the problem (I did not charge the mother for this extra time, and I am thrilled that the child actually USED critical thinking skills to arrive at the solution). What became crystal clear to me is the fact that the highly-touted, expensive private academy to which these parents proudly send their children is guilty of the same pedantic, rote memorization style of education that pervades our system of public education.

We have got to effect education reform, and it MUST involve individuals OTHER THAN Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, Arne Duncan, and their ilk.