Letters to the Editor:
June 11, 2006
Tykes on trikes:
Your essay was incredible in its total disconnect from reality.
As anyone knows who reads a decent newspaper, serious crime last year
hit a 30-year low and has been on a steady decline.
Violence in schools has declined 50% since the early 90's.
Air quality in the nation as a whole is substantially better than it
was in the 80's and continues to improve.
Educational achievement for 4th, 8th and 11th graders, as measured by
the National Assessment of Educational Progress, shows that kids of today
are not doing substantially better or worse than kids 30 years ago. The
NAEP, first given in 1969, shows only very minor changes, (actually more
positive changes than negatives) over that time.
Do you really expect anyone to take your website seriously after all that?
Jerry Parks
Burlington, Iowa
Dear Jerry,
As anyone knows who reads a decent newspaper...
Jefferson had it right when he said "The man who reads nothing at all is better
educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." Today, no doubt, he'd
include broadcast media and schools in the same category. I may only be 4 years old,
but even I know to vary my news sources.
...serious crime last year hit a 30-year low and
has been on a steady decline.
As opposed to "not-so-serious" crime, I imagine? The decline in "serious
crime", to which you refer, only includes rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and
homicide - and the decline is only presented within a survey sample. Actual numbers for
these same events recorded by the police are relatively consistent, but still above
their rates of only 20 years ago. Even then, all other crime classes
have consistently increased, especially drug and "public order" offenses
(such as weapons offenses, which are not included in "serious
crime"). But most impressive is the consistent rise in "young homicide
offenders" (coincidentally, mid- and late- teens, the majority of which attended
preschool) that has consistently increased over the last 20 years, expected to be
responsible for as many as nine thousand homicides this year.
Violence in schools has declined 50% since the early 90's.
Considering what happened in the early 90s it would be quite hard for violence in
schools to have gotten any worse. After all, how many mass shootings and assaults
can take place before the schools are locked down like prisons? Oops...too late.
Educational achievement for 4th, 8th and 11th graders, as measured by the National
Assessment of Educational Progress, shows that kids of today are not doing substantially
better or worse than kids 30 years ago. The NAEP, first given in 1969, shows only very
minor changes, (actually more positive changes than negatives) over that time.
Wow, "educational achievement," that's just great. I wonder how many of them
can write a full paragraph on what they've learned in that 13-year sentence without using
vulgarity or tiny fill-in bubbles. We've devolved into the Jetsons, and anyone with a
multiple-digit IQ shouldn't have to have someone tell them that's a bad thing.
What truly amazes me is that the NAEP can remove so many marks from a ruler and claim
it still presents the same data. Oh, the data? If you've looked at the raw NAEP data
you might be surprised at the consistent DROP from "Advanced"; the NAEP
celebrates mediocrity. Further, they're only making data available for the 1994 and
2001 tests. Are you of a mind that the data from prior years wouldn't present the same
trend? I think you might find that the facts in this case demonstrate children are learning
less, not more. You should know this, though. Twenty years teaching should give you perspective.
Do you really expect anyone to take your website seriously after all that?
At least as much as your regurgitated, "feel-good"-interpreted, statistics.
That's okay. People that don't think for themselves are not our audience.
And it's past my bedtime anyway,
Sandy Vester
Tykes On Trikes
"What does education often do? It makes a
straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook."
-- Henry David Thoreau --
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