U.S. Students Spiral Downward While Political Correctness Climbs Upward

I read this published story from the NBC News website yesterday entitled (US teens lag in global education rankings as Asian countries rise to the top, 12/3/13) and was appalled just how far down the ladder American children are from the rest of the world. Here’s an excerpt:

“Roughly half a million students in 65 nations and educational systems representing 80 percent of the global economy took part in the 2012 edition of  Program for International Student Assessment or PISA, which is coordinated by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD.

The numbers are even more sobering when compared among only the 34 OECD countries. The United States ranked 26th in math — trailing nations such as the Slovakia, Portugal and Russia. What’s more, American high school students dropped to 21st in science (from 17th in 2009) and slipped to 17th in reading (from 14th in 2009), according to the results.”

I couldn’t help but get irritated by this story then I stumbled onto another story on facebook yesterday. I remember seeing it online a year ago on the www.examiner.com website and it made me ponder after reading the first story. Even if this is a dated and many of you have already heard of it, it is still relevant and systematic of the educational problems in America today and connects with the story above. The title of this story is (Portland school sees racism in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches 9/10/12). Here’s an excerpt:

In an effort to combat perceived discrimination, one Portland school seems to have gone off the deep end by suggesting peanut butter and jelly sandwiches carry racist connotations, Twitchy reported Monday.

 

Verenice Gutierrez

According to the Portland Tribune, Verenice Gutierrez, principal of Harvey Scott K-8 School, "picks up on the subtle language of racism" on a daily basis.

"Take the peanut butter sandwich, a seemingly innocent example a teacher used in a lesson last school year," the Tribune said.

“What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches?” Gutierrez asked.”

A Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich could or should be considered racist, are you kidding me?

How did she get a job as a Principal? What college did she go to, where did she get a degree, The University of the 3 Stooges, the 1984 Politically Correct Language College? No one denies that racism is still present in our society and we must be sensitive to it but it's the parents job to teach their kids about race not administrative bureaucrats. What about telling kids they can't say sandwich in school because it might be racist, doesn't that violate freedom of speech?

People like Gutierrez are very dangerous and are actually dumbing down our kids with this PC gibberish, advancing racism and divisiveness rather than helping to improve it. Educating children is difficult enough, why would educators waste their valuable time and the kids time with such utter nonsense? Gutierrez and others like her seem to be driven to set up a new politically correct language of which is of their own creation rather than focusing on education.

No wonder American kids are coming out of school 26^th in the world in Math, 17^th in Reading and 21^st in Science according to a statistics of 65 of the world’s top developed economies conducted by the OCED in 2012. The PISA study spells it out in black and white, the US has a second rate educational system which has been true for years now and it has nothing to do with amount of tax payer funding as this survey indicates. In the United States what we have today is clearly a managerial and educational system failure and not a student or financial one.

My take on both stories in total is we need to better educate teachers and administrators and leave the PC Police out it. This among other things, like breaking the teachers unions, changing the tenure system, setting higher educational standards for teachers and eliminating the NEA will help improve the quality of education. Parents have a bigger responsibility in this than anyone and need to take an active role in stressing how important a good education is to their children. 

The responsible is clearly in our hands to change the culture and management that is in charge of bad school districts and what curriculum should be focused on. Wasting the value time of educators and students with sensitivity training is not their responsibility. Speaking of jobs if we keep on the current course the undereducated unskilled students may not end up in the work force at all or worst yet may not have the money to buy racist food like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.