Common Sense: Reading, Writing, Arithmetic — and Reality

The Search For A Happy Medium

Increasingly, it appears as though the Holy Grail in American life is preventing anyone, at any time, for any reason, from feeling bad about themselves. Somewhere between everyone should toughen up and be capable of handling whatever life throws their way, and everyone needing to be permanently in counseling to deal with the ordinary ups and downs, there should be something closer to a happy medium.

Certainly, there are many instances where seeking professional assistance to cope is absolutely justified and the right thing to do. That does not mean we should cease our desire and respect for pursuing and achieving excellence simply because everyone will not be equally rewarded for their efforts. In plain terms, if the United States is to remain a world leader, we cannot accept mediocrity in the name of avoiding hurt feelings. That approach leads only to a race to the bottom where spoiled, self-entitled individuals believe themselves worthy of living in a world of comfort and “work-life balance” independent of any indication they have earned the right to feel that way.

Self-Esteem Over Standards

No better example exists of prioritizing self-esteem and the “proper” worldview over actual performance than our modern education system. Our children know plenty about “social justice” and “how to ask for help” when they feel the least little bit of anxiety, but precious little when it comes to little items such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. This statement is more than a “these kids today” rant of an old man. The assertion is supported by what we used to call “facts.”

The Reading Problem

Don’t believe me. Here is but one recent headline from Fortune Magazine. “Gen Zers are arriving at college unable to even read a sentence—professors warn it could lead to a generation of anxious and lonely graduates.” The article goes on to quote one college professor who said: “It’s not even an inability to think critically,” Jessica Hooten Wilson, a professor of great books and humanities at Pepperdine University, told Fortune. “It’s an inability to read sentences.” Cannot even read a sentence. Shouldn’t the self-esteem police worry a little about this situation? College students who cannot read would appear to be a problem to most sane individuals.

This hardly represents an isolated situation. “Reading, Math Proficiency Fell In 47 States As Child Wellbeing Slid Post-COVID, New Kids Count Report” reads another headline reporting on a recent study by the Annie Cassidy Foundation. The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports research, programs, and policy efforts aimed at improving the well-being of children and families across the United States.

What Happened To Accountability?

During the George W. Bush Administration, Congress passed “Leave No Child Behind” legislation intended to allow for the performance of students and schools to be measured against consistent national standards. Unfortunately, the combination of teachers’ unions and conservatives opposed to nationalizing education in any way has slowly eradicated the ability to identify and address deficiencies. The result could have been predicted, and indeed, as the data shows, things are not getting better with time.

The Case For Objective Measures

Even in the La La Land of California, college professors are arguing for the need to return to the use of objective measures to evaluate college applicants after the state ended the use of SAT and/or ACT scores for the purpose of admissions.

Fox News reported that “more than 1,400 UC faculty members have signed an open letter calling on leadership to reinstate the SAT and ACT mathematics requirements for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) majors. The massive pushback follows a dramatic multi-year decline in student proficiency after the university went completely ‘test-blind’ in 2021.”

Karajean Hyde, Co-Director of the UC Irvine Math Project and a Lecturer of Education, told Fox News Digital that objective benchmarks are desperately needed to restore academic baselines.

Back To The Basics

Some things are made complicated in order to justify the time and expense spent on pretending the obvious is not the right answer. The time has come for Americans to demand that their education system return to the practices and approaches that resulted in our country being the envy of the rest of the world. For that to happen, our children need to know how to read, write, and do arithmetic. Any argument to the contrary is liberal psychobabble at its worst.

Common sense: A good education system, one that produces students equipped and prepared to deal with the world we live in, should not be a controversial matter. We need to insist on it.