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"...The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."
I Timothy 3:15
The Sad State of Education
E. L. Bynum
Much of what is passing for education in America is pathetic. We expect educational institutions to educate those who enroll and take the classes. In many instances this is not being done, and it is outrageous. The taxpayers should rise up and demand that this be changed.
Much of the following was gleaned from the Maggie Gallagher column in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 6-14-97.
Hypocrisy in Education
Hostos Community College administration in the Bronx wanted to give diplomas to the almost 90 percent or so of its "graduates," who it turns out can't write a simple essay in English.
Karl Zinsmeister points out in the current edition of The American Enterprise, government studies reveal that half of our 17-year-olds are unable to calculate the area of a rectangle; just 47 percent could tell you how to express 9/100 as a percent; only 20 percent could write a simple one-paragraph letter applying for a job.
A National Geographic Society survey revealed that less than half of young adults in America can locate the state of New York on a map; just a third can find Michigan.
In 1993, the Secretary of Education reported that fewer than 4 out of 10 high school seniors could read at grade level; fully a third of today's college freshman require remedial courses in reading, writing or math (and as the Hostos experience suggests, many of our students aren't getting a high school education even in college).
Prudential Insurance executive Robert Winters reports that 44 percent of job-seekers at his office can't read at the ninth-grade level. At Motorola, 80 percent of candidates for factory work reportedly flunk a company exam requiring fifth-grade math and seventh-grade English skills.
Trying to Change
In Chicago this year, about one-quarter of eighth-graders were told they couldn't graduate because they had failed to master the basic materials (in this case, students were asked to perform at about the sixth-grade level to pass).
Comments by E. L. Bynum
The USA is marching backward toward the status of a third world nation. Unless there are some changes, ignorance is going to prevail. We have been told that failing grades will destroy the self-esteem of children. We must be fair and pass everyone to the next grade, whether they deserve it or not. If we do not do so, we are guilty of discrimination. This kind of thinking is a form of child abuse.
While many decry education today, there is another sad thing taking place. Churches are assumed to be teaching the truth about God, and His salvation. It is widely assumed by many, that one church is doing this as well as another. The truth of the matter is that most churches are not doing this at all. You could attend some churches for 40 years and never learn the truth about God or about His salvation.
It is an outrage that people are going to hell in droves while sitting on a church pew. To me, this is even more outrageous than the situation in public education today. Neither situation should exist, but unfortunately they do.