Courses in computer use come immediately to mind.
Some schools go so far as to sign contracts guaranteeing the
appropriateness of the education they provide. In the tradition
of the service industry, they promise to take back pupils unable
to meet the standardized criteria. Every spring, a reality check
is made. In 1996, a poll of 500 graduating seniors revealed that
only 7% succeeded in answering at least 15 of 20 questions
asked. Five of these were on math, the rest on history and
literature-all traditional subject matter.
Experts called to comment on the results of this poll-E.D.
Hirsch, author of Cultural Literacy and active in having his
educational ideas implemented; Diane Ravitch, former Assistant
Secretary of Education; and Stephen Balch, president of the
National Association of Scholars, constitute themselves in the
pragmatic framework of literacy-based education. They declare,
and appropriately so, that educational standards are declining,
that education is failing to produce the type of citizen a
democracy needs. As reputable as they undoubtedly are, these
scholars, and many of those in charge of education, do not seem
to realize what changes have been taking place in the real
world. They live in the richest and probably most dynamic country
in the world, with one of the lowest unemployment rates, and the
highest rate of new business creation, but fail to associate
education with this dynamism.
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