Blame the bad students (and parents)
Public schools are failing because they’re overwhelmed with too many anti-social students from dysfunctional families, writes Victor Davis Hanson in his 2011 Politically-Incorrect Resolutions on Pajamas Media.
I went to largely Hispanic and impoverished elementary schools from 1959-67. The teachers, by today’s standards, were probably insensitive and unduly harsh. . . . In September and May the non-air-conditioned rooms were often over 90 degrees. I can remember our second grade class was 44, with 5 folding chairs that we rotated in and out of, given the absence of desks. Instruction was mostly by rote . . .
And yet there was almost no violence on campus – and no counselors, psychologists, or teacher aides. Students from dire poverty arrived clean, polite, and ready to study. Parents came to school night classes to learn English and meet with teachers. Back to school night was packed. . . . A student’s detention was considered a family catastrophe.
With well-behaved, ready-to-learn students, the public schools worked, Hanson writes. Today’s families are