Why Education is One of the Biggest Scams on Earth

[bobevenson]

The following article by economics Prof. Walter Williams provides part of the answer:

American education is in a sorry state of affairs, and there's enough blame for all participants to have their fair share. They include students who are hostile and alien to the education process, uninterested parents, teachers and administrators who either are incompetent or have been beaten down by the system, and politicians who've become handmaidens for teachers unions. There's another education issue that's neither flattering nor comfortable to confront and talk about. That's the low academic preparation of many teachers. That's an issue that must be confronted and dealt with if we're to improve the quality of education. Let's look at it.

Schools of education, whether graduate or undergraduate, tend to represent the academic slums of most college campuses. They tend to be home to students who have the lowest academic achievement test scores when they enter college, such as SAT scores. They have the lowest scores when they graduate and choose to take postgraduate admissions tests — such as the GRE, the MCAT and the LSAT.

The California Basic Educational Skills Test, or CBEST, is mandatory for teacher certification in California. It's a joke. Here's a multiple-choice question on its practice math test: "Rob uses 1 box of cat food every 5 days to feed his cats. Approximately how many boxes of cat food does he use per month? A. 2 boxes, B. 4 boxes, C. 5 boxes, D. 6 boxes, E. 7 boxes." Here's another: "Which of the following is the most appropriate unit for expressing the weight of a pencil? A. pounds, B. ounces, C. quarts, D. pints, E. tons." I'd venture to predict that the average reader's sixth-grader could answer each question. Here's a question that is a bit more challenging; call your eighth-grader: "Solve for y: y - 2 + 3y = 10, A. 2, B. 3, C. 4, D. 5, E. 6."

Some years ago, the Association of Mexican American Educators, the California Association for Asian-Pacific Bilingual Education and the Oakland Alliance of Black Educators brought suit against the state of California and the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, charging that the CBEST was racially discriminatory. Plaintiff "evidence" was the fact that the first-time passing rate for whites was 80 percent, about 50 percent for Mexican-Americans, Filipinos and Southeast Asians, and 46 percent for blacks. In 2000, in a stroke of rare common sense, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit found CBEST not to be racial discriminatory.

Poor teacher preparation is not a problem restricted to California. In Massachusetts, only 27 percent of new teachers could pass the math test needed to be certified as a teacher. A 2011 investigation by Atlanta's Channel 2 Action News found that more than 700 Georgia teachers repeatedly failed at least one portion of the certification test they are required to pass before receiving a teaching certificate. Nearly 60 teachers failed the test more than 10 times, and one teacher failed the test 18 times. They also found that there were 297 teachers on the Atlanta school system's payroll even though they had failed the state certification test five times or more.

Textbooks used in schools of education might explain some teacher ineptitude. A passage in Marilyn Burns' text "About Teaching Mathematics" reads, "There is no place for requiring students to practice tedious calculations that are more efficiently and accurately done by using calculators." "New Designs for Teaching and Learning," by Dennis Adams and Mary Hamm, says, "Content knowledge is not seen to be as important as possessing teaching skills and knowledge about the students being taught." Harvey Daniels and Marilyn Bizar's text "Methods that Matter" reads, "Students can no longer be viewed as cognitive living rooms into which the furniture of knowledge is moved in and arranged by teachers, and teachers cannot invariably act as subject-matter experts." The authors explain, "The main use of standardized tests in America is to justify the distribution of certain goodies to certain people."

With but a few exceptions, schools of education represent the academic slums of most any college. American education could benefit from slum removal, eliminating schools of education.

[Arising_uk]

All this appears to prove is that American Education is one of the Biggest Scams on Earth.

And given what you often say upon this forum I think I'd agree with you.

[bobevenson]

Please, you're the one who believes people should be arrested for denying the Holocaust, and whatever education you received is certainly a scam of the highest order!

[Arising_uk]

Please, you're the one who believes people should be arrested for denying the Holocaust, and whatever education you received is certainly a scam of the highest order!

It was the Yanks policy!!

But no, I don't agree they should arrested, I think they should be ridiculed as those who do such a thing are obviously neo-nazis trying to fudge history. But I'll leave it up to the Germans myself, they know themselves I guess.

This is interesting tho', so do you think fundamentalist Muslims should also be allowed to promote their views about America in your country? That you're a bunch of Imperialist Christian Crusaders bent upon killing Muslims and extinguishing Islam. That you torture and bomb Muslims indiscriminately and your CIA are child-murderers?

Oh! And you skipped the topic as usual. So where is my logic at fault in saying that all your article proves is that American education is a scam, not that all education is one?

[bobevenson]

I don't agree they should arrested

Earlier you said, "Do you really think that people should be allowed to deny publicly that the Nazis cold-bloodedly exterminated millions of people?" Let me ask you a question, how many sides of your mouth can you speak out of? I think you could get a carnival job if you put your mind to it!

[Arising_uk]

Let me ask you a question, how many sides of your mouth can you speak out of? I think you could get a carnival job if you put your mind to it!

Fair point. So no, in my country we don't deny them this right and I agree with this, but, unlike you, I'm ambivalent about how others wish to order their affairs in their own countries.

You also didn't respond to the fact that your country, with its Bill of Rights, et al, drone-kills its own citizens for expressing this 'right' to free speech?

You are ignoring my question about your title and the logic of your example. All you have proved is that American Education is a scam, not education per se.

[bobevenson]

Let me ask you a question, how many sides of your mouth can you speak out of? I think you could get a carnival job if you put your mind to it!

Fair point. So no, in my country we don't deny them this right and I agree with this, but, unlike you, I'm ambivalent about how others wish to order their affairs in their own countries. You also didn't respond to the fact that your country, with its Bill of Rights, et al, drone-kills its own citizens for expressing this 'right' to free speech?

Please, don't bore me with your drone crap that has no basis in reality. All I know is that you do condone the oppression of freedom of speech, by your own words, in the rest of the world.

[Arising_uk]

Please, don't bore me with your drone crap that has no basis in reality. All I know is that you do condone the oppression of freedom of speech, by your own words, in the rest of the world.

Once again you ignore your own topic but since we're at it; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_al-Aulaqi

I've told you, unlike you, I'm not naive enough to think I can export my system to other cultures nor judge them by my own. I basically give two fucks about this 'rest of the world' and think they can sort out their own way to do things, I think the world would progress better if we look to our own cultures problems, i.e. the mote in ones own eye, once we've done this and are exemplars then maybe we can spout on from the comfort of our couches.

[bobevenson]

Please, don't bore me with your drone crap that has no basis in reality. All I know is that you do condone the oppression of freedom of speech, by your own words, in the rest of the world.

Once again you ignore your own topic but since we're at it; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_al-Aulaqi

I've told you, unlike you, I'm not naive enough to think I can export my system to other cultures nor judge them by my own. I basically give two fucks about this 'rest of the world' and think they can sort out their own way to do things, I think the world would progress better if we look to our own cultures problems, i.e. the mote in ones own eye, once we've done this and are exemplars then maybe we can spout on from the comfort of our couches.

I wish England had said that in World War II so we wouldn't have bother with the likes of you now. Personally, I thought we got rid of you blokes in 1776.

[Arising_uk]

I wish England had said that in World War II so we wouldn't have bother with the likes of you now. Personally, I thought we got rid of you blokes in 1776.

No, we got rid of ourselves in 1776, with a large dose of aid from the French and Spanish. You on the other hand had bugger all to do with it as you were in Norway.

A lot of British at the time did think we were mad to go to war over Poland but treaties an' all that y'know.

Funnily enough what I said was exactly the American attitude to the Nazis at the time. You only came late because Jap attacked you. Not that I'm not grateful and have and do pay my respects to the Doughboys and GI's who died for us in both wars, have you ever paid such respects?

Nothing to say about Anwar_al-Aulaqi? A drone-killed American citizen.

[bobevenson]

Not that I'm not grateful and have and do pay my respects to the Doughboys and GI's who died for us in both wars, have you ever paid such respects?

I pay my respects by cursing our government for military enslavement, which is the economic imperative of wars.

[Arising_uk]

I pay my respects by cursing our government for military enslavement, which is the economic imperative of wars.

That'll be a no then.

And yet you appear to be all blood 'n' guts and guns 'n' smoke with your 1776 when it suits you. Proper armchair warrior you, love the reflected sacrifice but can't even be arsed to pay your respects to the dead that you laud on about.

[bobevenson]

I pay my respects by cursing our government for military enslavement, which is the economic imperative of wars.

That'll be a no then.

Go on, continue to "honor" the dead and mutilated, as long as it doesn't cost you anything, you mother of all whores (I use the term "whore" as used in the book of Revelation, and it has nothing to do with sex, my friend).

[Arising_uk]

Go on, continue to "honor" the dead and mutilated, as long as it doesn't cost you anything, you mother of all whores (I use the term "whore" as used in the book of Revelation, and it has nothing to do with sex, my friend).

Unlike your country we have a professional army who choose to join to fight not to gain points so that they can get an education, as they can have that for free here if they wish.

Do I laud the horror and suffering? No, its why when I stand at a memorial thats what I think about and thank them for.

I honour those who fought freely against Nazism and sacrificed themselves so that loons like you can promote a second coming that according to your Revelation will slaughter vast swathes of people just because they don't want to kiss a 'Gods' ring.

But once again your monomania appears to be rising. What has any of this got to do with my point that all you've proved is that the American Education system is a scam?

[bobevenson]

Unlike your country we have a professional army who choose to join to fight.

The day one of your soldiers can tell his commander, "Take this job and shove it!" is the day I'll order a case of lip balm and kiss every ass on the Isle of Man!