The American Classroom Is More Broken Than You Think

 

Editor's Note

America’s public schools, the institutions in which the competence and worldview of the next generation take shape, constitute perhaps the single most important theater in a cold civil war. Whoever controls the schools controls the future. This is why Critical Race Theory, transgender ideology, and other political intrusions into the classroom have become political flashpoints in the last few years. Jonah Davids argues, however, that the problem goes much deeper — that the entire structure of American schooling no longer lends itself to proper education. As children return to the classroom and their parents prepare for the ballot box, the consequences of that failure and the will to correct it will both be put to the test.

For those who follow politics and current events, it should be evident that something has gone wrong with America’s public K-12 schools. A recent Pew Poll found that over half of Americans believe public education is heading in the wrong direction, with 69% of those concerned saying that schools are not spending enough time on academics and 54% saying that teachers are bringing their political views into the classroom.

These concerns of the public are well-founded. Math and reading scores are at their lowest in decades. Eighty percent of recent high-school graduates report being taught Critical Race Theory concepts in school such as “America is a systemically racist society” and “White people have unconscious bias that negatively affects non-white people.” Sexually explicit LGBTQ+ books line the shelves of school libraries, with parents who request their removal smeared as transphobic book banners akin to Nazis.

For conservatives, the solution seems simple: Get rid of Critical Race Theory and LGBTQ+ ideology in schools, and education will go ‘back to normal.’ While this is a step in the right direction, things are not so simple. This is because the foundations of public education in America — instruction, curriculum, management, discipline — have dramatically eroded over the last few decades. 

Not long ago, the purpose of school was understood to be the education of students, and deviations from that purpose were regarded with suspicion. Teachers stood at the blackboard and taught from textbooks while students sat at their desks, took notes, and answered when called upon. Students were expected to be punctual and well-behaved, and to master the material given to them. Teachers were expected to be professional, knowledgeable, and impartial. 

Things have changed. Now, many teachers — particularly for lower grades — act more as facilitators than instructors. Students pick what books they want to read, often choosing the latest graphic novel or football magazine over more substantive material. In place of history, high schoolers research whatever latest political controversy interests them most. Personal essays have replaced academic papers. In lieu of textbooks, many teachers use lower-quality online resources and software. Second-hand PowerPoints have replaced original lesson plans. Rarely do students receive traditional instruction, rote practice, or much of anything resembling a classic education.

Teachers who want to focus on teaching find their time eaten away by other required activities: paperwork and reporting to comply with state and federal mandates; professional development sessions to inform them of the latest educational policies and practices; diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings; teacher evaluation and improvement programs; and checking in on students’ mental health on a daily basis. Today, the median American teacher spends just half of her weekly work hours actually teaching.

The behavioral issues students are bringing into classrooms are another source of distraction. Problems such as chronic absenteeism, in-class meltdowns and temper tantrums, verbal and physical fights, and cursing at and threatening teachers are all up post-COVID, and the traditional approaches to discipline that schools once employed to deal with these disturbances have been heavily discouraged and made legally precarious. A Harris Poll of public school teachers last year found that 74% listed “student behavior and discipline issues” as a top challenge, beating out “pay” (65%) and “teacher turnover” (42%). As one teacher wrote in the New York Post: 

Ask anyone who has worked in some of America’s failing public schools and nearly all of them will tell you the same thing: The biggest problem isn’t the quality of the teachers. It’s the behavior of the kids; angry, disruptive, disrespectful kids whose behavior is out of control.

Student mental health has also reached a new low. The number of teens, particularly teen girls, who show signs of depression, self-harm, and suicidality has risen over the last decade, and 73 percent of parents now say their child would benefit from mental health counseling. Some blame social media, others the breakdown of the family, still others the expansion of the mental health industry itself. But with nearly half of U.S. high-school students saying they don’t enjoy life, it is clear that something major has gone wrong. 

To deal with student mental and behavioral health issues, schools have adopted quasi-therapeutic programs premised on the baseless idea that students cannot learn or behave until their underlying trauma and emotional issues are surfaced and dealt with. Social-Emotional Learning, or SEL, injects a cocktail of faux-therapy and far-left ideology into daily routines and coursework. It now takes up 8 percent of teachers’ time on average. Restorative justice programs function similarly: teachers use their class time to pass a totem around and probe students with questions about their negative emotions and family issues. Timeouts, suspensions, and expulsions are replaced with therapy and dialogue between victims and perpetrators.

Make no mistake, the COVID-19 pandemic rattled schools with forced closures, mask and vaccine mandates, and remote learning. But the seeds of America’s public education crisis were planted long before. Unchecked idealism expressed in the form of government mandates has brought us to this point. The more education decisions made by politicians, bureaucrats, and consultants, the lower the quality of education has gotten.

The challenge for conservatives who want to reform public education is not just to excise far-left ideas from the American school system but to restore that system to its former glory. To do this, they will have to confront not just bad ideas but bad laws, bad policies, bad programs, and bad pedagogy. Their message must be that the purpose of the public education system is not to solve societal problems, not to conduct mass experiments, not to therapize students, but to educate them.

Jonah Davids is a research fellow at Maine Policy Institute, an analyst at The America Fund, and the author of the Substack newsletter Mental Disorder.

https://tomklingenstein.com/the-american-classroom-is-more-broken-than-you-think/