Over the course of the month I found a few articles that caught my attention and illustrate how our of wack our social policies are when it comes to dealing with our children.  One of the items comes from the morally bankrupt state, my birthplace, California.  It seems the bankrupt state of California spends upwards of $216,000 per juvenile offender per year.  The other comes from the recent publication on the standardized test results from the past school year highlighting the flat academic health of the nation as well as nearly flat scores for Latino and continued slippage for African America groups.  Yet another, admittedly not American, hails from New Zealand where the citizens passed a vote to allow them to discipline their kids with a light smack legally, and then the government over riding the citizen’s majority vote.  Now how do these tie together?  Well, they all involve youth and the treatment of them, more importantly is how much resources we dedicate to the raising, educating, and disciplining of our youth.

The information about the tests has been discussed in-depth in some media outlets, however only a few have focused on the trending and corresponding factors I feel resulted in such results.  Below are two charts.  The first is the SAT Scores broken down by race for 2009 (past year) that shows how ethnic groups are improving, or declining in education achievement.  The second is the SAT Average scores from 2005~2009 that shows the trending of scores, which are falling.  A note for my foreign readers, these tests are equal to national exams used to determine which college and which subjects can be taken, they determine the choices and programs suitable to the student taking them.  The charts reflect slight trends, but when stepping back to the root of the problem, to be discussed later, I will outline how our declining social priorities have led to this. 

The good news first.  The number of students taking the test only 1 time has increased to 48.2 from previous year of 46.5, meaning students are achieving good enough scores the first time.  Second we see that among ethnic groups Asian Americans and American Indians have made gains.  American Indians in the US, for the most part, live in conditions that most would call third world or fourth world as to facilities, infrastructure, and proximity to areas where learning can be facilitated (museums, historical sites, learning centers, libraries, etc.).  The gains among American Indians, while modest, are encouraging as it shows that education is being taken more seriously by the families and students taking the test with aspirations of attending college.  The overall results are still below national average by large numbers and show that the quality of education on the reservations is still well below national average.  Asian Americans made significant gains, continuing to out pace their fellow ethnic groups and continuing to leave the national average in the dust when it comes to demonstrating what they learn, especially in Math and Writing (above 27 points ahead of national average).  The continued advance and excellent scores in the Asian American community demonstrate something that illustrates my point and will discuss further down in this article.

SAT Scores by Race and Ethnicity, 2009

Now the bad news.  African American seem to be declining in education quality as represented in the above chart.  This is disheartening result as it shows a far further systemic problem that continues to get worse despite the efforts of policies and practices to reverse that decline.  Next is the below chart that shows the national average keeps dropping.  Sure, the decline is gradual, but over time you see that America is, on average, becoming less educated and knowledgeable on core areas of education, so other areas are going to correlate proportionately.  Next are the scores of today compared with the SAT peak scores for the nation, in 1963.  The linked article, Kids Today: Dumb and Dumber? on Encarta states the national average score are discussed and explored however it is glossed over as more of a fluff piece stating the education is important and kids are smart in areas outside of academia, as if that is really useful.  1981 marked the 19 consecutive year of decreases in all score areas and the the bottom of the test historically speaking with national averages in Verbal 424, Math 466.  1982 saw modest increases of 1 to 2 points and the era of slight gains as the test was restructured and retooled to make the test more fair without compromising the quality of the test as much as possible.  During the 1980’s and 1990’s the SAT test itself came under more scrutiny as it was argued the test was ‘too hard’ for some minority groups, but not others.  After 20 years of work by political parties, education experts, and the booming marketplace of test taking preparation specialty classes and programs we have seen some gains but are still way off the 1963 peak and even in another decline in scores, though not as dramatic as seen in the 1970’s.

SAT Averages, 2005-2009

So what does all that mean?  Well, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it must be a duck.  Our kids are dumber now then they were in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  Since I graduated high school back in 1989 we have seen things from Ubonics, to Hip-hop English to help engage minority students and provide an alternative to learning the subject material.  Well, the class may be fun and entertaining but it sure isn’t translating into good grades and test scores to get kids into college.  How about that new math that was all the rage in the 1990’s?  Well, it seems the Asians are doing much better with traditional math and dedication to study, and let’s get off the stereotype racial profiling of Asians just being better in math due to genetics, math is learned – it is not an instinct.  Dumbing down the curriculum is not a serious option as all it does is drags down other students instead of elevating lower achieving students.  The rage of the 1990’s of self confidence boosting where everyone was a winner and no one was to be placed in a situation of self doubt has only resulted in a spoiled generation of kids unprepared for the harsh realities of uncertainty we face in times like today.  We have seen liberal options like alternative teaching methods and tailoring the curriculum to more ‘fair’ content has resulted in test score stagnation and worse, declines over the modern scores.  We have seen conservative solutions like No Child Left Behind that only targeted kids in k-6 and was grossly underfunded and school vouchers and choice programs that flooded good school systems with good students and left lackluster school systems declining in all aspects, with the exact same results.

So now Obama is saying we need to beef up our education system, and he is 100% right.  How is he proposing to do so?  Good question, one I will be looking at over the fall, and hopefully he will stop appointing czars and finish filling the 50% vacancies of his administration.  I will not get into his address to grades k-6 in this blog, I have to dedicate an entire page to that, and it is not what you will think it is.  Back on topic, our schools are falling behind global standards.  We were the most educated and literate society on Earth in the 1950’s and 1960’s and then we let it all fall apart in the post counter culture years of the 1970’s and self indulgent 1980’s.  So how do we fix this and do so realistically?  Well, we have to go with what works and abandon all aspects of what doesn’t work.  We have to do this seriously.  We need to get educators out of the upper levels of the Department of Education.  Why?  Because they are too close and have too much invested to seeing the education status quo or latest hypothesis to be effective leaders.  Let the specialists play the role they are best suited, advisors.  Let the administrators be people who can make the hard choices without nagging ideas of theories and ideas.  Let stone cold administrators make the hard decisions of reviewing the facts to get the curriculum back to the basics and advice from experts on how to best modernize subjects like science, history, reading, etc.

If I were to put a platform together on education it would look like this; Basic tools, challenging subjects, challenging standards.  Here in China kids learn math in 1st grade, and it gets progressively harder and more intense from there.  We should look at the systems that are current world leaders and emulate them, to a degree, and add in what makes sense to our cultural and educational philosophy.  Reading, Writing, Arithmetic being the basics.  K-2 would focus on these, and do so in a way to challenge and prepare kids for the next phase.  Build off basics and add History, Science, and Literature.  3-6 would focus on this as well as organized sports.  The next group would advance the complexity of the level of subjects and focus on preparing kids for high school.  High School would phase in the advanced tools needed for college and job market positions.  Core requirements would need to be updated for hours needed, classes required, and evaluations for tracking as well as grading scales, regional variations allowable, and ways to deal with struggling kids.  Our kids are not less capable of those of India, Japan, China, the UK, they are just more lazy and have less expectations placed on them, and that is where the next phase comes in, parental responsibility.  The messages goes well beyond Bill Crosby and his hard line message to absent fathers in the African American community.

The social component of laziness has come out of arrogance, ignorance, and lack or responsibility for the lives people in America have created.  Why must we lower grading scales, inject bell curves, or re-write a text book because a socio-economic group is not doing as well as others because of racist perceived deficiencies.  Responsibility is taught at home, not at school.  Respect and dedication are taught at home, not at school.  The job of teachers is to impart subject materials of knowledge useful for succeeding at the next phase up to college.  Parents have to raise their kids and get them to the point of being able to learn from the teachers.  I know not all parents are doing a bad job, but when a recent study states that over 50% of kids today are raised in single parent house holds that means the parent is not around or has the time to adequately raise or assist the child(ren) they have to be able to learn effectively.  When we have become so anal and guarded that a parent is no longer allowed to discipline their kids in an effective manner, time outs and negotiating with children is not parenting but placating, then you get kids who raise themselves and are unprepared for and have no clue of how to deal with or overcome adversity and setbacks in real life.  You gets kids who lack self discipline and restraint and are impulsive and unresponsive to rationale thought.  Think I am crazy?  Sure juvenile crime peaked in 1993 and has since dropped to levels lower then 1983 only rising in the late 90’s for a few years and then falling again.  However, according to History.com: “Since the 1970s, juvenile arrests have risen in every serious crime category, and female juvenile crime has also increased substantially. Unofficial reports suggest that a higher percentage of juveniles are involved in minor criminal behavior; grossly underreported common offenses include vandalism, shoplifting, underage drinking, and marijuana use.” The unofficial account is juvenile activities and behaviors are increasing as well as associations in violent, delinquent, and social gangs.  Influence on kids lives has shifted away from the family since the 1950’s to the peer groups and entertainment industry today.  This means the messages, morals, values, and ideologies of youth in America today is dictated by people who have only self interests or profit motives at the core of their message and not the well being and best intentions of the kid at heart.  Until parents can get over their lazy streaks, work at life together and reverse the tide of over 50% divorce rate, 50% single parent households, and instill normal values and discipline in today’s kids we will only see things get worse as these kids grow up and continue the cycle of uncaring and selfishness.

If we shift our focus to the cost of taking care of our kids, In California last year they spend $216,000 per child in juvenile corrections while in Washington D.C. the cost of public education costs $24,600 per child per year.  I bet you didn’t know that.  First off you can see the most economic solution, keep the kids in school.  Next we have to see why the costs in both ends are so high (my private school education cost less then $10,000 per year!).  Juvenile corrections is a huge money pit.  Facilities have to be built, staffed, have electricity, water, food, sanitation, and medical costs to operate.  Then you have the staff, corrections officers, councilors, other PhD’s, vehicles, communications, probation officers, judges, courts, etc.  If you look at it for a minute you can easily see how the cost can balloon but to such an outrageous level is beyond belief (it only cost $24,000 per prisoner per year to incarcerate an adult in 2005).  Looking at public schools how can we get to $24,000 per student?  Well, believe it or not the lion’s share of the cost comes from labor unions and medical plans for the teachers (who average $47,000/year in salary).  If you exclude them and other bureaucratic fees you come up with a more modest $8,300 per child, which is what schools typically operational costs are.  So where do all the costs come from?  In education the cost come from?  Add up the local operating budget, staff fees (school board members, administrators, secretaries, councilers, coaches, nurses, janitors, bus drivers, security, cooks, maintenance and groundskeeping staff), retirement fund contributions, county and state funding, federal funding and then divide the amount by the number of students and you get the figure.  The most funding we are immediately aware of is taken from property taxes and other certain state and local tax allocations.  This is why the power of teacher’s unions and those in higher education are such powerful forces in politics, they are self serving and must justify their existence and importance somehow.  The problem is how do we funnel all these dollars into the areas that matter the most, facilities, teachers, course materials, etc.  When compared to juvenile corrections the inflated and bloated costs of public education is far cheaper, and private school is a steal (if you rent and don’t pay state and local taxes).  Unfortunately raising costs seldom go towards increasing the value of the education.

Finally is the New Zealand story.  Parents have felt they were having their rights and ability to properly parent their children intruded upon by the government.  So many New Zealand citizens felt so strongly about the law making spanking illegal that they petitioned to get the measure put on a national ballot and then 87.6% of the country voted to repeal the law, lawmakers of course refused to remove the law citing children safety and welfare trumped citizens wills.  That is a great example for democracy.  To be fair the referendum that was voted on was non-binding but it does send a strong message to the parliament.  How does that apply to us?  Well, it is not much different here.  Anyone who has witnessed a full blown temper tantrum in the grocery store or on a plane will understand that parents need more tools to correct inappropriate behavior besides time outs, bribery, giving in, or pleading with the kid to just stop.  Of coarse there is a line, and most of us well adjusted and responsible adults know where that line is.  Child abuse is not like pornography, we all know that a light slap or raising of the voice to get attention is not abuse, but a closed fist hit or excessive use of force is full blown abuse, no room or subjectivity here.  The school I went to exercised physical punishment with parental consent, it worked and worked well.  There is a line, a line where government intrudes too far.  Just as we don’t want the government to tell us how to discipline our kids, we don’t want them in our other lives telling us what to eat, how to dress, what car to buy, etc. 

These 3 stories all have a common thread, kids.  If we are not involved and raising our kids they will turn elsewhere for guidance and support.  Kids need boundaries and consequences for violating those boundaries in order to prepare them for life and to give them the self discipline and sense of consequences needed to judge situations they will face in daily activities.  Parents have to be engaged and responsible no matter their personal situation in our modern world.  Working all the time to provide money for the kids but not spending time with them is not parenting, and it is not right.  Our school systems need to rebuild their methodology for teaching our kids.  For the past 20 years we have not seen significant gains in our nations youth, while the rest of the world continues to pass us in academic achievement we continue to blame the tests for being too hard, the subject material not sensitive to ethnic diversity, and lack of funding.  These are cop outs and false.  We spend more money on education in the public school sector then the highest tier of private schools nationally yet we are not even in the top 20 in global comparisons.  The problems is what we are teaching is not equal to what those who are smarter then us are learning.  We need to abandon these antiquated theories of liberal education and reapply what worked when we led the world in education.  Sure, the world has evolved since then as have the subject material, but the approach was more effective then then today.  If the kids can’t keep up, well they will have to try again.  We need to stop coddling the kids and let them learn from mistakes, humiliations, and tribulations that will ultimately boost their self confidence and instill a true sense of accomplishment once they get over the shock of hard work.  In other words, we have to shift our priorities.  The above 3 stories show how priorities taken away from common sense approaches to raising and educating kids and placed in ideas of how to give them a better experience have failed.  We need to reprioritize and refocus our efforts on these areas of parenting, discipline, and education before we fall so far behind we implode under the weight of entitlements and blame shifting.  As we can clearly see it costs far less to educate a child then incarcerate them.  If are willing to accept taxes enough to support the juvenile justice system then why not shift that money to schools to where kids can learn civics, history, and basics to a degree to where they can pass the immigration naturalization exam, college entrance exams, or name the first president, know what year the War Between the States took place, who we fought in WWII, and the names of all 7 continents as well where they are on a map.  We should not be shocked when we hear of a kid being spanked for stealing, lying, or skipping school or what the parents fee is appropriate punishment as long as it is sensible.  As Obama stated in his last campaign, we have tried these systems in the past and they have failed, it is time for change and to try something new (in this case old again).  We got away from so many things that worked in the past; dual parent families, disciplining kids, teaching basics and holding kids to high academic standards.  Somewhere in the shift between our past culture and the current culture (the past counter-culture) we lost what worked along the way.  in trying to create a pleasing and fair environment where everyone and everything is nice and pleasant we have muddled up things to where they are upside down.  We all knows what works, but no one has the guts to come right out and say it or to actually set for the changed needed to correct the decent into madness we are on.  The real problem is our current lot of leaders all came form the very system we have to change, and they see nothing wrong with it.  We need to demand better, for our kids, for our future, and for our nation.