The Nation's Pulse/Excellence in Education
Robinson, Daniel N.
EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION The 18-member National Commission on Excellence in Education has reignited our seasonal debates on the quality of American education by characterizing it as ". . . a rising...
...TOM WOLFE Here's your opportunity to read a copy free...
...What the Commission failed to recognize, however, is that salary never was the basis upon which the brightest young men and women chose careers in teaching and it is not the basis upon which such individuals will choose them today...
...Ours is the civilization comprising what Matthew Arnold dubbed "Hebraism" and "Hellenism"-the Hebraic devotion to a soberly and reverently ethical life and the Hellenic loyalty to reason and its twin, beauty...
...Another theme that delights our readers in every issue: our examination of what passes today for Liberal Culture...
...for it has been a long time since America unblushingly embraced it...
...The peril we face as a nation is rooted chiefly in the inferior education received by the relative handful of exceptional young men and women who might otherwise lift an entire age on their shoulders...
...Families lacking the financial means to do so times old and tired, always on the verge of making a fool of himself...
...theater, politics, the press and other institutions with no concern for Consensus or Conventional Wisdom...
...If I'm not satisfied with my first Issue Ill write "cancel" on the invoice and return it unpaid...
...Of course, with 23 million functional illiterates there is...
...Where the Commission's recommendations fail most clearly is in their attempt to find an effective place within the system...
...The reality, of course, is that if you keep your nose to the grindstone, stay out of trouble, do the very best you can-you still may well fail miserably) D by Fred Barnes out-of-touch public man who, if he would just heed the wise counsel of his loyal staffers, would immediately change his economic policies...
...For once we choose Western civilization, all sorts of considerations cease to be "relative...
...If you are decidedly non-liberal in outlook, we believe you will find what we have to say-and how we have to say it in the pages of Chronicles of Cultureexactly what you have been looking fort otculture 934 North Main Street • Rockford...
...Flaming liberals, doused monthly...
...Fifth, students who create disciplinary problems so regularly as to warrant suspension thus incur fines that must be paid by their families as a condition for readmission...
...What the press has missed, with one or two exceptions, is the roll that Reagan is on, a roll sparked by the quickening economic recovery and marked by White House victories in Congress, rising Reagan popularity, and growing pessimism among Democrats...
...Imagine...
...The President is being daily denigrated by his appointees on both sides of the [economic] policy debate...
...shallow, bumbling, unsure, some 26 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1983...
...Enroll me as a potential subscriber and send me your current issue free...
...One day a week they learned they weren't "freaks...
...Fortunately, bona fide genius often needs little more than time to tinker, so we might hope for an Edison even if there were no schools...
...In Reagan's White House, the valets make their dissatisfaotJon with their boss's performance known to the press...
...Third, there must be a conscientious return to the use of nationally standardized tests (a) for the early recognition of promising students, (b) for the early recognition of backward students needing special remedial instruction, and (c) for the regular recognition of how well a given school system is meeting fundamental educational objectives...
...It is true that our German, Japanese, and Russian future competitors are in school 10 to 15 percent longer than their American counterparts, but the important difference is not in time...
...This is a unique phenomenon...
...The Democrats would love to take credit for the job done on Reagan...
...It hosts an infinite variety of expressions but always around the central core of principles...
...at one with discipline and self-sacrifice...
...With no help from the press, Democrats have caught on that issues are not likely to be cutting heavily their way in 1984, as they did in the off-year elections in 1982...
...Were the current Soviet regime to endure, it -is entirely possible that it would come to dominate the commercial and scientific life of the world-but without ever rising to the level of-a noble culture worthy of reverence and emulation...
...Failure to reach the 80th percentile three consecutive years should constitute grounds for dismissal...
...Western civilization has a surprisingly settled position on a wide range of moral, aesthetic, social, and political matters...
...The Commission performed its duties admirably in delineating the nature and degree of the impoverishment but was somewhat off the mark in setting forth recommendations...
...Fred Barnes is National Political Yet to reporters, Reagan seems Reporter for the Baltimore Sun...
...Why can't we have Nixon again...
...With a twist...
...Their reasons were not surprising...
...one that places a high premium on mental agility, computational skills, linguistic proficiency, and a comprehension of essential aspects of Western civilization...
...His most recent book, written with Sir John Eccles, is Personhood: Our Human Adventure, forthcoming this fall from the Free Press...
...Programs in science education such as those funded by the National Science Foundation must be greatly expanded...
...Nonetheless just because it is a civilizationas opposed to some tribal custom or "pluralistic" smorgasbord-it is always there for the taking...
...It isn't...
...It will take many years to reacquaint American children with reality...
...The complicating factor is his geniality," said the governor, unpersuaded by the reporters...
...And some of Reagan's White House aides have this same impression...
...For this group, internal remedies are probably pointless...
...With a recovery-however feeble-under way, we can't assume that the national agenda will favor us in 1984, Congressman Gillis Long of Louisiana, the chief of the House Democratic caucus, told the Democratic National Strategy Council in mid-May...
...But on two matters in particular-deficits and press conferences-Reagan's underlings give him low grades, and they let reporters know it...
...The result is that Reagan frequently comes off in the press as a boob...
...that 13 percent of our teenage population fits this description...
...That such tests are somehow "culturally biased" merely reflects our national commitment to a given culture...
...It isn't at all clear what the Commission takes to be this "civilization," nor is it clear that it is any longer prized or even recognized by its beneficiaries...
...Illinois 61103 t E I ('hninkies, of ('allure T11319 NON LIBERAL CRITICISM AT ITS BEST I wish to fudge Chronicles of Culture for myself...
...Columnist Mark Shields and a few fulminating conservatives have pinpointed what is going on...
...Every month, we shall drench these disseminators of fiery nonsense with unrelenting observations and critique Too many "hurrahs" far average performances...
...The other mega-issue that hurt Republicans and conservatives last year was Social Security...
...At the Democratic council session, a liberal governor listened patiently while Washington-based political reporters told him of Reagan's perceived weaknesses, some of them related to old age...
...be skeptical of each of these recommendations...
...The unfavorable picture of Ronald Reagan has been created and developed by Ronald Reagan's own advisers...
...In an era when the standing ovation is frequently offered for the most desultory performances-on stage, on film or on paper --we feel bound to cast a somewhat more critical eye than the mass media critics...
...But beyond these formidable logistical problems there is this painful social fact: any serious return to "basics," coupled with a serious revival of traditional standards of performance, will yield awesome failure-rates over the short run and rather stark meritocratic consequences over the long run...
...And it's not just the recovery that threatens to make 1984 different...
...and .(c) providing strong financial incen tives at the entry-level in order to encourage the better university graduates to consider careers in elementary- and secondary-school teaching...
...it is in the disciplined academic standards they are obliged to respect...
...A journal of opinion that begins with that fresh perspective, and then goes about the business of reviewing, criticizing, essaying each month-in little danger of fraternizing with other magazines...
...Often overlooked when curricular reforms are discussed is that any fundamental change is likely to affect instruction at all grades below and above the grade scheduled for the reform...
...b) requiring three years of both science and mathematics as well as two years_ of a foreign language...
...0 Bill me for $18.00 02 monthly issues...
...Serious political damage has already been done...
...Any, attempt to adjust salary schedules will surely come face to by Daniel N. Robinson face with some variety of Shankerism, not to mention the durable infantry of the National Educational Association (NEA...
...In two recent cases I know of, both students had decided to work for considerably less in private schools than they would have earned in public schools that had offered them positions...
...The value of increasing the time a student spends in school is determined entirely by the quality of instruction provided...
...But the Washington press, looking over its shoulders at the just-departed recession and listening to the concerns of White House aides, continues to look PR ESSWATCH REAGAN ON A ROLL Jude Wanniski, the journalist and economic guru, has coined a truism about the myopia of Washington reporters: "The last place to get reliable information on what's going to happen is the Washington press corps, which reports over its shoulder...
...At last, there exists a magazine worth reading for its originality...
...The Commission and many others seem to think that good students with university training in science and mathematics compare the salaries offered to teachers and to "hi-tech" professionals and then choose the latter course...
...These recommendations are but a beginning...
...Chief among these are (a) lengthening the school day and the school year...
...Reagan has become the touchstone for every national issue, which is often not a plus politically, but he also has the most dominant political persona since Franklin Roosevelt...
...NAME ADDRESS CITY STATE- _ zip 25 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1983 A somewhat altered set of recommendations appears when the two different objectives of civilization and competitive advantage are considered: First, the "best and the brightest" must have access to instruction of the most competent and energetic sort...
...It is the no-man-is-a-hero-tohis-valet syndrome...
...The Liberal Follies, exposed...
...Students of the national "culture" (and its vaunted pluralism) surely did not need the Commission's findings to discern the downward drift of our corporate intelligence...
...One cannot decide, for example, to begin Algebra in Grade-9 unless the students have been prepared in Grade-8...
...And then they project this into the future, writing as if the Reagan presidency were inevitably doomed...
...These examinations will do more to affect curricula than any other single factor...
...To expect local school systems to keep up with such children is unreasonable...
...that the rate is twice as high for black teenagers (whose unemployment rate is noncoincidentally twice as high as well...
...To stand aside virtually guarantees that the most noxious of dull material will be revived by an adoring Liberal Media Establishment...
...For sure, Shields overstates the political harm that has been .wreaked on Reagan...
...The point here is that the truly exceptional students must periodically be pulled out of their local schools and nurtured by top-flight, productive scholars and scientists...
...Thus, although there wasn't much new in the Commission report, we may be thankful that a wider audience has been alerted to the magnitude of the problem...
...But then what happens to "pluralism...
...0 Check for $18.00 is enclosed...
...Good economic times will repair the damage, regardless of what reporters write...
...With respect to the well-placed concern for America's future as a commercial and technological power, it is not necessary to transform and intensify everyone's education...
...Even where the faculty is able, eager, and devoted, the system-wide text.book adoptions generally seek out the commonest denominator-the, book that most of the faculty can "teach out of...
...We invite you to read the next issue of Chronicles of Culture free...
...Weekly, more and more of his constituents view the President as an will have their children "work off" the fine through service to the school...
...Interesting as . egalitarianism is as a social theory, individual differences are an irrefutable fact of nature...
...We knew already that there are some 23 million functional illiterates in our society...
...that average scores on standardized achievement tests such as the College Boards have been declining without pause since the 1960s...
...Shanker has (predictably) agreed on the need to increase instructional time as long as there are commensurate increases in salary...
...preferably tests such as the Graduate Record Examination...
...I shall return to this anon...
...AT LAST A JOURNAL OF OPINIO\ T-IATS DECIDEDLY NON-LIBERAL -'IT HAS BEEN A PLEASURE TO WATCH LEOPOLD TYRMAND AND THE CHRONICLES OF CULTURE CONFRONT-A LA ORWELL- THE SMELLY LITTLE ORTHODOXIES OF OUR TIME...
...Is America ready to insist on all this in its public education...
...In the sciences especially, where knowledge is cumulative and where theoretical foundations undergo periodic eruptions, one can only wonder how basic a scientific education can be provided by many or perhaps most of our-public schools...
...If you like what you read, we welcome you as one of our regular subscribers...
...It is faithful to moderation and modesty...
...The first alternative, in fact, is seldom considered at all...
...The curricular demands recommended by the Commission are, of course, unexceptionable, but we have every reason to worry about the preparation of many of the teachers of these basic subjects...
...an unwholesomely low ceiling on the fraction of the citizenry that might be aroused, and once the total cost of the correctives becomes known the ceiling is likely to be considerably lower...
...The growth of science and technology takes place through the efforts of the very few...
...Simply forward the enclosed Subscription Request and Free issue Offer coupon...
...to the President," he wrote...
...High entry-level salaries might attract some new teachers, but there is little reason to expect them to stay, at least as matters 'stand now...
...On the whole, our public schools-particularly in the larger suburban and metropolitan districts-are so toxic to intellect, so dispiriting and aimless, as to raise the gravest doubts about the value of increased exposure...
...his aides did not savage him in the press, disappointed as some of them were in his presidency...
...Like reporters, they see the man at close range, which can breed disrespect...
...There is simply no evidence to suggest that by substantially increasing the number of its educated a nation increases the number of its geniuses (large and small...
...it is now put aside, whatever the economic merits of the compromise designed to prop up the system...
...EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION The 18-member National Commission on Excellence in Education has reignited our seasonal debates on the quality of American education by characterizing it as ". . . a rising tide of mediocrity...
...Thus, our mission is clear...
...The distinguish' ing feature of Western civilization is, of course, the inquiring mind devoted to a life of virtue...
...principles of reasonableness...
...I would have them think about this: the federally guaranteed loans for higher education will, by 1988, be available only to those who have completed four years of science, four years of mathematics, four years of English, and two years of either a foreign or a classical language...
...In each issue of Chronicles, we invite our readers to think along with us as we pun( ture the pompous ideas-and old-idea repeaters-of our time...
...Such students are close enough to their own years in high school to recall the ennui, the bureaucracy, the utter spiritual bankruptcy of such settings...
...What can be known now are the identities of the culprits who have portrayed the President as some sort of dotty ideologue who is intractable and not very bright...
...they learned too that the excitement for science they once had was justified, though their local schools had come close to extinguishing it...
...But do it today, so we may send you our freshest issue immediately...
...It is quite rare in my own university for the outstanding student to make such a decision, but when it happens, income is nearly always of marginal significance...
...they wanted to teach, not police their students, and they hoped their efforts would be part of a larger program of socially and morally informed tuition...
...Seeing Reagan up close-a distance that can be quite unflattering for the President-Washington reporters often miss the larger-thanlife image he projects nationally...
...Everywhere one turns, liberal writers, playwrights, reviewers, editors and such are gushing over the most mediocre of themes-and each other...
...a life whose value is measured in the good works it produces and whose purpose is the triumph of rationality over brute fear, superstition, and animality...
...It is almost as though these Reagan appointees, who provide us hourly with tasty insider stuff about the President's indecisiveness or lack of comprehension, believe that the only way to 'save' the President is to 'destroy' him politically...
...Sixth, merit increases in the salaries paid to teachers should be based in part-in large part-on scores earned on standardized tests in their content-areas...
...Frankly, it is rather impertinent for any contemporary American commission to refer to all this as "ours...
...Our competitive potential in the major industries of the future depends disproportionately on students with utterly unique capacities that all too often atrophy within contemporary school systems...
...Until the 1840s, England had only Oxford and Cambridge with which to refine the intelligences of its most promising scholars...
...Please start my subscription now...
...It took about a quarter of a century to transform the American classroom into what is all too often a woeful fen of mediocrity...
...Looking at the recent past, reporters see a Ronald Reagan burdened with troubles of every conceiv able sort, including a lack of smarts...
...No further obligation on my part...
...We lace each issue of Chronicles with vignettes culled from the self-important follies-creators of our time...
...Alas, liberalism's leading product is the gaseous re-oxygenation of old, trite, tried-and-compromised ideas...
...Fourth, State Boards of Education must have the courage to mandate state-wide examinations as a condition of promotion and graduation...
...But they cannot...
...And if we decide that our schools are to present it, promote it, extol it-win converts to it-then it must be a central part of everybody's education...
...But you deserve a free sampling before your final decision...
...its zest, its willingness to examine books, film, jazz...
...An ordinary school, with its ordinary faculty, cannot keep up with the top one-half to one percent, who must therefore be rescued from without...
...And our editors take some satisfaction in commenting on the absurdities and ironies of liberal atti tudes...
...Let us recall that the Egypt of the First and Second 24 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1983 Kingdoms was a center of extraordinary commercial power and technical prowess yet was strikingly lacking in that philosophical and moral character which defines every august civilization...
...Second, local school boards have to be given something to think about as they proceed to introduce useless "electives...
...There are good reasons to Daniel N. Robinson is Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University...
...Years ago, when I helped administer Columbia's Science Honors Program, I learned first-hand ,how much just a Saturday session of university instruction meant to gifted science students in junior and senior high school...
...at odds with cant and nonsense...
...The future of "our Western civilization" is quite another matter and one that cannot be protected merely by our wealth...
...Additionally, the Commission confuses a concern for the national culture with a concern for America's competitive position in the realms of science and technology...
...For all the faults that existed in Jimmy Carter's White House, this was not one of them...
...It bears repeating that our public-school systems are still very much in the thrall of "educationists" whose own educations have been bloated with offerings of the "Ed-Psych" variety...
Vol. 16 • July 1983 • No. 7
