The Sad Modern State of Education

As for the declining state of education in America, it’s easy enough to understand. There’s too much else in the environment of any and every youth for them to be much interested in the boring and difficult process of learning. To diagram the problem: The original villains in this piece were – and still are to some extent – television, popular music and movies. These are much more exciting and sensation-producing than anything a parent or teacher or minister has to say (drone on about) to the youngster.

The battle between parents and children over homework time and entertainment time ensued for a generation and a half, and eventuated in most children relenting to their parents’ strictures for study time, but with the compromise that the TV and/or music would be playing simultimely. So it was kind of a Mexican Standoff, but the knowledge and literacy levels saw a steady decline nationally

Then came the personal computer, with its expanded universe of stimulation and interaction, from chat rooms to texting to porn sites to fun websites to Facebook and now Twitter. And downloaded music, easily available and constantly necessary to hear and text/chat/tweet about. Now homework had become not just a dull chore but an evil intrusion into their lives, interrupting the funcitement they were cybernetically surrounded with.

On top of this, and building over the past 15 years into an irresistible force in its own right, are video games – so devilishly vicarious and jaw-droppingly addictive that, for millions of (mostly) males, it has become the diversion of choice. The real misfortune of this development is that, unlike most of the above distractions, many of the full-time video-game players are the more intelligent of the youth generation, youngsters who will now never come close to their potential in school, athletics or even a social life.

Further compounding this decline in education is the fact that something close to half of the children don’t quite understand the need for all the tedious schooling in the first place, since they’re convinced that they’re going to be singing stars or actresses or professional athletes or reality-show stars. Or, in some areas, drug dealers or pimps, like the guys they see in their neighborhoods wearing gold chains and driving expensive cars.