We reprint with thanks this excellent (though US centered) attack on schooling.. how our kids get abandoned and wiped out in soulless institutions.
what we need is community based activity and project learning run by volunteers and the youths themselves.
Our kids are in CRISIS.
I work with teenagers in an affluent suburban area.
They don’t comprehend what they read. They use calculators to multiply 10 x 10. The average high school junior has no clue what the word “diligent” means.
They write essays resembling those of a 5th grader. About how Albert Einstein discovered electricity.
In tests administered in reading, science and math to 15 year-olds globally, we are behind TWENTY NINE countries in math. And our kids’ performance in reading and science is not much better. And yet, American investment in education is unrivaled, globally.
Are you scared yet?
We lead the world in the consumption of illegal recreational drugs. And one of the chief sales outlets?
Our SCHOOLS.
Our teenage suicide rate is the highest in the world.
EVERY DAY there are over 5,400 suicide attempts by kids in grades 7 – 12.
NOW are you scared?
The two places teenagers…
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The Free 