Fourth in a series on learning in America

What’s wrong with being educated?

By Dick Tunison

Have you every heard the acronym, DAR? No, I don’t mean Daughters of the American Revolution. I’m referring to Damned Average Raiser. It was sometimes applied to excelling students when I was a school kid. Perhaps it’s not heard much these days, but if not it has probably been replaced by something even more demeaning.

I always held brilliant people in awe. Rather than wishing they’d dry up and blow away, I tried hard to emulate them regardless of their special aptitudes and abilities. That certainly didn’t mean I succeeded. Chemistry would be a good example: I was lucky to get a “C”! But the feeling of competition that worked its way into my blood always gave me a little push to try harder.

In much of today’s society, kids who strive for excellence are often looked down upon by peers. Not only are bright kids sometimes shunned, but the whole idea of learning has too often taken a long vacation.

American political historian, and long-time professor at Columbia University, Richard Hofstader made an interesting observation in one of his writings. He said, “It has been noticed that intellect in America is resented as a kind of excellence, as a claim to distinction, as a challenge to egalitarianism, as a quality which almost certainly deprives a man or woman of the common touch.” That’s a long quote. Take a second to read it again.

Perhaps it will help to quantify the effect. John E. Chubb, chief executive officer of Edison Schools, notes that national dropout rates are far too high. Twenty-two percent of white kids, 43% of blacks and 46% of Latino students do not complete their high school educations. Perhaps such rates were acceptable a long time ago when children were needed on the farms and in the factories, but that cannot be the excuse for today’s desertion rates.

We’ve got a problem. Yes, if nearly 25% of white kids and close to 50% of our two largest minority populations are not completing high school, we’ve got a problem. Most of the drop-outs will be unable to achieve even modest levels of social and economic comfort during their adult lives. They will be unable to find meaningful jobs, hold their future families together or, sadly, guide their own children into pathways of promise. Today’s high school dropouts will likely become a part of a circular phenomenon that rolls along from generation to generation.

I believe there are several conditions that perpetuate this cycle. There may be more, but I think the most influential contributors are indifference, the lack of a positive reinforcing environment and victim hood.

Indifference manifests itself in parents who, themselves, show no interest in education. This is as infectious as the Spanish flu, and it quickly controls the thinking of children who come to believe there is nothing beneficial about learning. Often, they compare their own parents to the system, recognizing that mom or dad didn’t finish high school so why bother.

Indifference leads to a lack of positive reinforcement which can be a two edged sword. When parents don’t encourage their children’s achievements and teachers feel bogged down and fail to give deserved kudos for good work, we’re in trouble. What’s needed is the magical “push-me, pull-me” animal of the Dr. Doolittle children’s stories. You’ll remember the animal had a head on both ends and no backsides. This means the parents push and the teachers pull.

The last of my three culprits is the very negative mindset of victim hood. Like a gloomy Pygmalion, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: “I am one of society’s victims and always will be.” Professor John H. McWhorter has written a compelling book titled, Losing the Race: Self-sabotage in Black America, in which he treats this subject in great detail.

But lest we think victim hood only applies to blacks, we need to step back and examine human behavior in a broader sense. Many of us possess a protective mechanism that helps us escape the truth about ourselves. In my many experiences interviewing job candidates I discovered a sad consistency in responses to the simple question: “Why were you terminated from your last job?” Seldom did I hear someone say, “I didn’t meet my performance goals.” Invariably, the blame was laid at the feet of something or somebody else.

After a six-month stint as a senior advisor for education to former Ambassador Paul Bremer in Iraq, Bill Evers tells this story: “In Iraq children and grown-ups smile, always say, ‘Welcome,’ and wave. The teachers and administrators are friendly and dedicated to academic success. You could enter a classroom in the Kurdish north, in rural parts of the Sunni triangle, or in Shiite sections of urban Baghdad and sense that students are eager to learn.” And this is war-torn Iraq!

Iraq isn’t the only place where education is prized. In many countries around the world today, gaining an education is looked upon as a necessity. Japan, China and India are prime examples. If we don’t wake up soon we’ll be riding in the caboose.

In a speech to the Omaha chamber of commerce in February 2004, Alan Greenspan observed that the greatest source of wealth creation in America is “the level of knowledge and skill of the American population.” He pointed to the mismatch between the rising human-capital needs – the knowledge and skill requirements – of a successful modern economy and woefully low knowledge/skill level of much of the American workforce. In this instance, as one would expect, Greenspan is focusing on the needs of a successful economy. But it’s important that we recognize the same factors impact the very core of our culture. As Americans, we cannot afford to see our civilization in decline.

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If you are interested in seeing the kind of 8th grade achievement test given in 1895, simply send me an email at rtunison@cox.net with the words “Achievement Test” in the subject line. I’ll be pleased to send you a copy. I bet you won’t pass!