And what happened?

According to the latest report, Pursuing Excellence: A Study of U.S. Twelfth-Grade Mathematics and Science Achievement in International Context:

• American students ranked 19th out of the twenty-one industrialized nations' students in math and sixteenth in science achievement. The only industrialized nations' students to rank lower in the group were those from Cyprus and South Africa.
  
  
• The average students in the European countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand matched the scores of the top 25% of US students.
  
  
• On the math general knowledge test the average score among US students was 461. Hungary, Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, all produced students with significantly higher scores. The highest average score, for students from the Netherlands, was 560 --- nearly a full 100 points higher!
  
  
• Science general knowledge ran about the same. U.S. students: 480. Other countries' students, 559.
  
  
• Among those students from the better schools in all countries, who were also tested for physics and advanced mathematics -- no country's student performed worse than those from the United States.

Now, what gets me about this is that when Americans talk about these kind of results, we invariably say, "It's the fault of the public education system, which is outtah whack." The problem with that answer, in the case of the TIMSS study, is that our best and brightest were tested against the best and brightest in the world and came up wanting. The average scores for US students in the advanced tests ran about 442, the international average on the advanced tests was 501.

Radio Raheem

Asian nations chose not to participate in the TIMSS. In every other international test given, Japanese students have outperformed US students in both math and science, and tend to lead the world. Oh-oh!

So much for the results of the efforts of "Education President #1."

Now we are arguing about the initiatives and budgetary proposals of "Education President #2."

What's gotten me most about all I've heard folks say about the new Bush budget and his tax cutting plan is that I haven't heard word one about what real effects this social agenda will have on America's children. It's all been about which of the taxpayers should get the most pork.

Nobody has raised a single word about the fact that we are living in Dumb America, where the kids are getting dumber by the decade and we are only putting 7% of our budget into education. Why?

The fact is, if you look at the social agenda our American budget outlines, it seems to me that we are bald-faced saying that we consider being parents a hobby in this country.

"What makes you say that, Raheem?"

Well ,stuff like this:

1. Bill Clinton liked to brag about the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act. Me, I ask what's so damned good about that? The Act allows Americans to take up to twelve weeks off to care for a newborn or for a medical emergency. Well, that sounds great until you realize that that's twelve unpaid weeks. How many working families you know can afford that "luxury?"
   
   
2. Our social agenda (based on the federal budget) sends a very clear message that in America children are looked at a form of private property. Every child's access or right to things like health care, education and food is solely dependent on the ability of its parent/s to provide them. If you're parents are poor, tough, you're SOL. Look at the facts: we fund healthcare for children at the lowest level possible, such that most doctors don't even want to take Medicaid. We have "reformed" welfare so that most poor families (30% of which are supported by single women --- who make 72 cents for every dollar a man makes) are medically malnourished. That means we send kids to broken-down schools hungry. Then we blame them when they don't learn.
   
   
3. General Charles de Gaulle once said that he considered motherhood, "...a social function similar to military service for men that has to be financially supported by the whole community." The old Frenchman saw children as the human capital and future of his nation. Lots of folks in Europe seem to hold that view. Here in America, on the other hand, a child's rights and value seem to end at the moment of birth if you judge by our social agenda. We just had the House of Representatives pass a law making it illegal to hurt a foetus. Meanwhile, every single day in America, according to Child Maltreatment 1996: Reports from the States to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, three children die from abuse, neglect and povery. Seems to me that the right to life ends at the moment of birth, Homes.

You might want to send a copy of this article to your Congressman.

Considering all of the foregoing, folks, all I can say is that it's up to us to do something about dumb America besides blame the public school system. Our own "values" and social agenda are the real smoking gun here.

Peace out.

Travel Radio Channel

Search www.generator21.net [ ] Our Link Partners the Web for