I have been teaching high school for over twenty years now and have also taught as an adjunct professor at college. It is true the general curriculum at public schools has been watered down--common core math (an awful idea), social studies liberal propaganda instead of real history (sad), and so forth. But there is another factor, possibly greater than the cirriculum deterioration, and teachers see it every day in most towns and cities. It is family breakdown. Children are tossed back and forth between divorced Dads and Moms. Home life does not demand or even encourage youngsters to study, do homework, or read anything except social media drivel on cell phones. Children are not taught to respect authority, do chores, or work before they gain a privilege. Many small children come to school unwashed, even unfed. What many children do learn from their parents are nuances of drug acquisition, alcohol abuse, welfare strategies, manipulation of the courts to stick it to your former spouse, etc. Parents today may not mean to be poor parents, but by standards just twenty-five years ago, they are. By standards of the 1970s, when I was in grade school, typical parenting today is an unmigitated catastrophe. Until home life is improved, the public schools are fighting an extraordinary uphill battle. And unwinding the deterioration of the nuclear family in our country will be hard indeed.

I work in an elementary school. Every day I see our standards being lowered so that our test scores can look better. Teachers are put under tremendous pressure to ensure their students pass the STAAR test that what’s not tested remains untaught.

In my opinion, I feel the education system is a complete failure. They offer no real education. In my experience, as a mom, my children have been shuffled through school. The schools only care about test scores, so they only teach the kids how to take the tests. They are run by greed for popularity and how their district rates. They don't challenge kids to think.....they don't teach to ask WHY. They don't encourage independent thinking. They hand the kids everything....very disappointing. Wonder why shit is crumbling?

It is a calculated dumbing down. Ignorant people are easier to control. Being on the inside, I would try to out the leftist indoctrinaters from teaching and from administration. Children will be more informed when they are taught HOW to think, not what to think.

As a follow up, I was teaching my 10th grade students about Dewey again today and we ran across a real gem of his:

"Meaning is wider in scope as well as more precious in value than is truth, and philosophy is occupied with meaning rather than with truth." -- John Dewey

This prompted a student to observe, 'that sounds like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez!' After a brief search I found the quote she was referring to:

“If people want to really blow up one figure here or one word there, I would argue that they’re missing the forest for the trees,” she said. “There's a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right.” -- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

I think they're getting it! Great discussion all around. (Even though I did have to elucidate "missing the forest for the trees" for a student who hadn't heard the idiom before...)

Boy, big topic there! As a high school Humanities teacher it's my goal to avoid the issues you outline.
I'm currently discussing John Dewey and the far-reaching effects of his progressive reforms in education on the state of education with my 10th grade students.
We came to the conclusion that the state of public education has not advanced by any measure other than inclusion since the early 20th Century, and that an 8th grade graduate in 1910 would have a better handle on core knowledge than many college students today.

Witness the historical illiteracy that informs the anti-electoral college movement as a glaring example.

Is it by design? I would have to say that it appears so. The pragmatism underlying all of Dewey's work would otherwise have remedied the loss of knowledge base across the curriculum.

Well, as I see it there has been a steady decline for many years that was accelerated in the US with practices initiated under President Johnson. I look back to direct knowledge I have of my grandparents, parents, myself and peers, my children and their peers, Noting especially that my parents were well read in classics, learned Latin or Greek and a foreign language in high school. I see my education as less complete, but better than that of my children and of those even younger.

Personally I think the state of education is horrid. It doesn't seem we're teaching children anything of any significance. Additionally, we're not teaching in the ways that different kids learn. It's simply how well you can listen and regurgitate.

As many before me have commented, it is a combination of factors. Critical is the breakdown of family and healthy social values. Teaching to the test is also quite destructive. Not least among factors is the rampant political correctness that places greater value on indoctrination than on the instillation of critical thinking skills. I believe there is an underlying agenda to purposefully 'dumb down' the citizenry, as undereducated masses are more pliant and less able to fend for themselves, thus more dependent upon mother government.

It’s similar in Australia. The education system is more focussed on assessment exams than they are creating a friendly learning environment and heaven forbid if you suffer from ADD/ADHD! They just expel the kids instead of finding ways to work with them. Very sad.

I've noticed that many teenagers and college age kids can't even count back change at places like Starbucks. So there you go...

I have short experience teaching HS science in public school. I thought it might be a useful contribution until a non-compete expired. It was entirely demoralizing, a wasted effort, hopeless.

Send your kids to the most exclusive private, or failing that, public exam school you can. If you can't then realize that you have to contribute your own time. Public schools are teaching the Core and the bar is quite low. They've lost their way.

I think it's the lack of curriculum. They took basic life classes and replaced them with sympathy classes. No more shop classes no home ect. Nothing to actually get our kids prepare for life. Then you get Morons who change to common core which overly complicates the most simple of math problems . Don't get me started on science because schools have ditched it because it offends some students. English is ruined by a music industry bound and determined to abliterate pronuciation and sentence structure. Social studies has be replaced with socialism indoctrination. The right to free speech can be band by a principal if he doesn't agree with you even hats and shirts can get you suspended. Long story short. Home schooling. Just saying

The Public School System has turned into the indoctrination centers for the Left Wing Loons that want to dumb down our children so they have to depend on the Government to survive. Common Core is th key to that dumbing down. Both my sons were homeschooled and then went to a Community College where the rest of the students depended upon them to help with their projects.. They couldn't string two sentences together that meant anything. They couldn't do any basic Math without help. And about those 'good intentions'........ There was nothing 'good' about them. It was and is a deliberate attempt by the Left to bring our children down.............. and it worked.............. They can't think for themselves

It is the systematic dumbing down and leftist indoctrination of Common Core that may be contributing to the problem. Dr. Duke Pesta has a few very informative videos on YouTube about Common Core. There's also one called "Story Killers' by Hillsdale College that discusses how Common Core completely wipes out the teaching of literature and literary analysis.

I'm an idiot. I didn't pay full attention in school. I failed a lot. I didn't do homework, yet I always scored among the highest when it was test taking time. My teachers were dumb-founded. The reason for this is because I was mostly self-educated and grew up reading. I challenged teachers when I knew what they were teaching was wrong. To me, school was secondary to real education. To this day, I self-educate. I learn through reading, I observe, and I do. I allow others to correct me when I am wrong. As an adult is has helped me stand out among my peers. I'm not saying this works for everyone, but I do encourage others to self-educate. I hope my son has the same appreciation for reading and self-education that I do.

It seems that a lot of kids are just out of high school, have no idea where they are headed in life and parents encourage them toward college as a "life next step". Money for education has become much easier to come by in the last fifty years, (student loans, lottery financed education, etc.) and so they while away their life in an extended adolescence and often drop out or end up with a degree having little marketable value. The social setting seems to essentially dismiss trade school education despite the high earnings many trades offer. I call it the snob factor. Too many children are not pushed toward being independent. The apron strings are too long and too well tied. Push them out.

Its a calculated dumbing down of Americans.

Schools depend on federal and state monies to function. They must graduate kids who are unprepared to, to maintain grad percentages to maintain monies. Add in the degradation of the family, stuffing children in daycare, and the attendant coddling that happens. We have a generation or more that don't want to think or take responsibility. I am homeschooling!

High schools are graded / funded / ranked on graduation rates. That should explain a lot. Also, pressure from administration and parents to give them yet “another” chance. Failure is not an option when in some cases it should be.

I believe wholeheartedly that the public system is failing to prepare students for college.
I was fortunate enough to be homeschooled for two years (completed 8th, 9th, 10th grades) before taking the college placement exam. Thankfully my education was very good and I was placed above college level in all applicable areas. I went on to enroll in the Running Start program and complete my Associates Degree along with my high school diploma.

With my own children, my wife and I spend a fair amount of additional time with them to ensure they're recieving a higher quality than just classroom time. As they enter their high school years, we plan on supplementing their education with online courses. That's really all I could suggest to parents with kids in public schools.

Carlin said it best. The "real owners" of the country do not want well-informed, well-educated citizens.

Not just your perception. College % readiness is falling while college enrollment is increasing. College admissions are also pushing policies that aren't merit based (downward pressure on readiness).

The dumbing down begins in middle school usually. The public education system has let down our youths.

Education has become Therapeutic, more than 1/2 require Remediation and it takes 6 years for a 4 year degree, at Great Expence with low cost benefit return.