{"id":1119,"date":"2010-09-24T12:30:11","date_gmt":"2010-09-24T18:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/?p=1119"},"modified":"2014-09-12T11:48:55","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T17:48:55","slug":"comments-on-the-overblown-crisis-in-american-education-in-the-new-yorker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2010\/09\/24\/comments-on-the-overblown-crisis-in-american-education-in-the-new-yorker\/","title":{"rendered":"Comments on “The overblown crisis in American education” in The New Yorker"},"content":{"rendered":"Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>

The overblown crisis in American education : The New Yorker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The author is claiming that things aren’t that bad. More people are going to school than they did 100 years ago and there are lots more wanting to get in.<\/p>\n

Sadly, more is not better.<\/p>\n

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The fact that a greater percentage of citizens go to school than they did 100 years ago is really nothing remarkable \u2013 that is true of every developed nation on earth.<\/p>\n

What is<\/em> remarkable is the fact that compared to 100 years ago, \u2018educated\u2019 Americans are demonstrably less literate, less aware of the world around them, less curious, and less capable than they were then. This is not only true if you compare educated Americans against educated Americans of 100 years ago, but also true if you compare educated Americans against educated citizens of almost every other western nation, and that\u2019s<\/em> why there is a crisis in education.<\/p>\n

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I think that having had the position of \u2018best\u2019 in the past, there is a tendency for people to become complacent.<\/p>\n

There was a time when the US was the place everyone looked to for innovation, for models of entrepreneurialism and leadership.<\/p>\n

There was also a time when the sun never set on the British Empire. It does now. Things change.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n