Education Has Gone to Pot!

My last post What Should Guide the Classical Education Movement? reminded me of some in-depth research I did years ago, shortly after reading What Do Our 17-Year-Olds Know: A Report on the First National Assessment of History and Literature, by Diane Ravitch, PhD.

I had also recently read The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students by the philosopher Allan Bloom.

Stunned by the dismal picture of US education presented in both books, I decided to do a bit of 'cost-benefit analysis' research. How much had we spent on education in years gone by and how much were we spending then (ca. 1990)?

The graphic used to illustrate Fr Rickert's essay was of the 8th-grade final exam from Salina, KS in 1895. For those whose eyes are like mine, here it is:

Grammar (Time Limit - one hour)

• Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters.
• Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no Modifications.
• Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.
• What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of lie, play and run.
• Define Case, Illustrate each Case.
• What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
• Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time Limit - 1.25 hours)

• Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
• A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
• If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50 cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
• District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
• Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
• Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
• What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at 20 per metre?
• Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
• What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods?
• Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

U.S. History (Time Limit - 45 minutes)

• Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.
• Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
• Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
• Show the territorial growth of the United States.
• Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
• Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
• Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
• Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

Orthography (Time Limit - one hour)

• What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication?
• What are elementary sounds? How classified?
• What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
• Give four substitutes for caret 'u.'
• Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
• Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
• Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
• Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
• Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
• Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Time Limit - one hour)

• What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
• How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
• Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
• Describe the mountains of North America.
• Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
• Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
• Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
• Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
• Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
• Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.Also notice that the exam took six hours to complete.

[Source - NASA]

I did not go back as far as 1895. If I recall correctly, I took 1930 as my benchmark, 60 years before. However, not much had changed in the intervening 35 years. The 'Common School Leaving Exam' I found, which was necessary to graduate from grade 8 in Kansas in 1930, was equally as difficult as the one above.

Using an inflation calculator, I discovered that $100 in 1930 dollars had depreciated due to inflation to be worth $733 in 1990.

Using that ratio, I discovered that in 'real dollars' we had approximately tripled spending per pupil since 1930.

We also radically increased the education requirements for teachers. In 1930, most teachers at the high school level were pften themselves only high school graduates, possibly with a few classes from a 'normal school' teaching them how to teach. Over the years, the normal schools developed into full-scale professional four-year training schools for teachers, granting baccalaureate degrees.

By 1990, the minimum requirement in most States was a four-year bachelor's degree in either education or in the subject the individual planned to teach. and to advance any further, a master's degree or doctorate was required.

Interestingly, this also happened during the same period that the National Education Association (NEA) was morphing from being concerned about educating children into a hard Left labour union. Despite its supposed 'nonpartisanship', since the 1970s it has supported only Left-wing, 'progressive' Democrats. In fact, it has become so obvious that conservatives, libertarians, and parents' rights groups have criticized the NEA's 'progressive' positions.

So, what was the result of tripling the expenditure per pupil and requiring teachers to be educated far beyond high school? Look around you! I graduated from high school in 1965. I would have difficulty passing the exam. I would be happy to wager my last dollar that most university graduates today would also have difficulty. They have not been 'educated', they have been trained to fill needed slots in the economy.

What can be done? We need to return to the 'classical school' model that Fr Rickerts discussed, the same model that existed until it was destroyed by the NEA and their cohorts in the 'progressive' wing of the Democratic Party (read socialists and communists).