In part, Mr. Rosenblatt wrote:
> The home schooling theory assumes that anyone can become a teacher,
> overnight. The home school "industry" has educational videos and
> pamphlets to help you become a "teacher." Add to this the attitude
> that no one can do better for your children than you can yourself
> along with a large dose of control issues and you can see some large
> points of failure in your model. Let us hope that the next trend
> isn't home pediatric surgery.

<snip />

> Both public and home schoolers are for the most part missing the
> point. Our educational system seeks to produce a product that fits
> its given norm. At best, we teach our students to "excel at
> mediocrity." Instead using Rudolf Steiner, Krishnamurtai, Abraham
> Maslow and Alan Watts as models, we turn to philosophical
> lightweights, corporations, politicians and quick-fix artists to set
> our educational standards. Our education system seeks to turn out
> corporate cannon fodder instead of innovators. Our education system
> seeks to turn out people that will willing spend the whole of their
> working lives in cubicles; physical, intellectual, philosophical and
> moral cubicles.

In April, 1999, Walter E. Williams, Professor of Economics, George Mason
University, wrote an article that agrees in some part with Yosef but also
has some harsh criticism for those in the education profession.  Being
married to a professor in Biology, I can say anecdotally that the respect
for those in the Education Colleges from the other schools is quite low.
Given that lead-in, here is the article:

American education is in serious disarray. Over the last 40 years, we've
increased education spending by the billions while education results slide
deeper into mediocrity. Now the President and Congress have another scheme
to fix education. They propose spending more billions to hire more teachers
in order to reduce class sizes. Like past promises this scheme will also
produce disappointment. American education will not improve until we summon
the courage to confront a vital component of the problem - teachers.

Dr. Thomas Sowell addresses that issue in his book, "Inside American
Education." In 1980-81, students majoring in education scored lower on both
the verbal and math portions of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) than
students majoring in any other subject. Only 7 percent of high school
seniors with SAT scores in the top 20 percent, and 13 percent in the next
quintile, chose to major in education. At the other end of the academic
spectrum, more than half of those with SAT scores in the lowest 20 percent
chose education as a major. Eighty-five percent of high SAT scoring students
who actually become teachers leave after a brief career.

Education majors remain at the bottom of the academic barrel after four
years of college. The National Institute of Education conducted a study of
student performance on examinations (LSAT, GMAT and GRE) to gain entrance to
graduate schools. Of twenty-five different undergraduate study areas,
students whose undergraduate major was education scored at the bottom or at
best second from the bottom.

Education majors supply not only teachers, counselors and administrators,
but also professors of education and leaders of the education establishment.
Sowell says professors of education rank just as low among college and
university faculty members as education students do among other students.
Given low-quality students and low-quality professors, it is hardly
surprising to discover that "most education courses are not intellectually
respectable, because their teachers and the textbooks are not intellectually
respectable." Neither is it surprising to find these people falling easy
prey to fads and hare-brained schemes.

Does more teacher training help? In the early 1960s, when student SAT scores
peaked, fewer than one-fourth of all public school teachers had a
postgraduate degree; 15 percent lacked even a Bachelor's degree. By 1981,
when SAT scores hit bottom, a bit more than half of all teachers had
Master's degrees and less than one percent lacked a Bachelor's degree.
Advanced degrees do more for teacher salaries than student proficiency.

The public education establishment has a vested interest in the status quo
that stifles competition. Competition produces winners and losers. Education
majors have every reason to fear competition with other college graduates.
They fear the weakening of iron-clad tenure rules and parental school
choice. Professors of education, like their students, are also vulnerable.
Competition would make their shoddy product more apparent.

Not all public school teachers are incompetent. In fact, public schools in
some high-income areas are for all intents and purposes private schools.
Parents are well-heeled, well-informed and well-connected. Administrators
are held to high accountability standards and will oust incompetent
teachers. But incompetent teachers are not fired; they're reassigned. The
burden of teacher incompetency is borne by less well off students,
particularly poor black students. Even if parents know their children are
receiving a fraudulent education they don't have money or clout to do
anything about it. Their plight is worsened by the unquestioned support
black politicians and civil rights groups give the education establishment.

"What can be done, Williams?" you say. There are a couple of starters: close
all education departments on college campuses, eliminate tenure, and have a
school choice system.

Walter E. Williams

http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/99/Time-for-Truth.htm

> So, go home school your kids if you must but do it right. Augment your
> child's education even if you don't home school. There are millions
> of works by thousands of people that can broaden a person's scope of
> thought. Examine the implications of ideas not just the technical
> process of thought. Instead of attempting to excel at mediocrity,
> don't we owe ourselves the right to excel at excellence?

To see the work of Dr. Sowell referenced in the article:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0029303303/r/104-9815625-2361545.  In
the name of full disclosure, Dr. Sowell and Dr. Williams are a rare breed,
black conservatives.  But they'd be the first to agree with Yosef that
parents cannot simply outsource their children's education.  The more we
teach our children that learning is for life and not just for school, the
better off they'll be.

Mark Wonsil

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