Synopses & Reviews
Dumbing Down Our Kids is a searing indictment of America's secondary schools-one that every parent and teacher should read.
Dumbing Down Our Kids offers a full-scale investigation of the new educational fad, sometimes called "Outcome Based Education" -the latest in a long series of "reforms" that has eroded our schools.
-Why our kids rank to, or at the bottom of international tests in math and science
-Why "self-esteem" has supplanted grades and genuine achievements
-How the educational establishment lowers standards and quality in our schools-while continuing to raise their budgets and our school taxes
-The dumbing down of the curriculum so everyone can pass-but no one excel
-How parents, students, and teachers can evaluate schools and restore quality learning
Charles Sykes is the author of three previous books, ProfScam, The Hollow Man, and A Nation of Victims. He is senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Charles Sykes asks why current graduates seem less well-read and less well-spoken, less knowledgeable and less able to compute, and lays most of the blame at the feet of the trainers of teachers, the writers of textbooks and the educational policy wonks who influence them. He convincingly shows that in many different school systems, and in many different academic fields, with the help of goofy text-books, watered-down requirements and "recentered" test grade scales, American students have come to value feeling good about a subject over being good in it. Sykes's recommended reforms include abolishing the federal Department of Education and its state counterparts, abolishing undergraduate schools of education, establishing more alternative routes to teacher certification, and merit raises for good teachers.
"Definitive . . . This excellent book shows us . . . who has undertaken the project of deliberately dumbing down the curriculum; the reasons they give for it and the real reasons."Joseph Adelson, The Wall Street Journal
"Intelligent and devastating . . . Brings together every aspect of the current disaster . . . all in clear, well-researched detail."The Boston Globe
"A very important book."The Washington Post Book World
"A spirited call-to-arms . . . Sykes asks brave questions."The Cleveland Plain Dealer
"A scathing critique that grabs America's educational establishment by the scruff and shakes it . . . Parents and visionary educators, if not educrats, should sit up and take notice."Kirkus Reviews
Review
"This intelligent and devastating book...brings together every aspect of the current disaster...all in clear, well-researched detail." --
The Boston Globe"A spirited call-to-arms...Sykes asks brave questions." --Cleveland Plain Dealer
"A scathing critique that grabs America's educational establishment by the scruff and shakes it...Parents and visionary educators, if not educrats, should sit up and take notice." --Kirkus Review
"A very important book." --Washington Post Book World
Synopsis
Dumbing Down Our Kids is a searing indictment of America's secondary schools-one that every parent and teacher should read.
Dumbing Down Our Kids offers a full-scale investigation of the new educational fad, sometimes called "Outcome Based Education" -the latest in a long series of "reforms" that has eroded our schools.
-Why our kids rank to, or at the bottom of international tests in math and science
-Why "self-esteem" has supplanted grades and genuine achievements
-How the educational establishment lowers standards and quality in our schools-while continuing to raise their budgets and our school taxes
-The dumbing down of the curriculum so everyone can pass-but no one excel
-How parents, students, and teachers can evaluate schools and restore quality learning
About the Author
Charles Sykes is the author of three previous books,
ProfScam, The Hollow Men, and
A Nation of Victims. A journalist who specializes in educational issues, he has written for and is frequently quoted by newspapers including
The New York Times, USA Today, and
The Wall Street Journal. He has appeared on
The Today Show, The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder, and NPR's
Talk of the Nation to discuss schooling. A senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Sykes lives with his wife and three children in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.