Sorry for the Pink Floyd title, but this is one of several posts I will make about education in the United States of America. Is education failing in the United States? I don’t think that is a binary answer. If you did answer yes or no, could it be you carry a bias? Or maybe it is a lack of understanding of the variables in play. I’ve been in this field for 35 years. I’ve studied political policy and education for about 12 years now. Every time I open one door six more doors open with even more sociological examples of things we can’t predict. In life as with governance there are zero easy solutions for complex problems within a multi-cultural society. LOL, Project 2025 thinks so, but that is why I dissent with it all. It is superficial, fascist, and disrespectful to the multi-cultural society we live in within the United States

Alright, so let’s dig in to the multi-variable issue. I’m not going to start with my own teaching profession or with governance. I am going to start with the general public and the students that attend public schools. This is issue number one. No, I’m not finger pointing, I’m just going to lay out some startling observations, revelations, and some sources. See Project 2025 is all about bringing back the family if you read Dr. Roberts work in the Preface.

According to the United States Census Bureau in 1974, 79% of the households were identified as family households. Today the number is 64%. (https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/families-and-living-arrangements.html) In 1967 36% of married couples had one wage earner (husband.) In 2011 this number is 19% (https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2014/ted_20140602.htm The labor participation rate for mothers in 2024 is 74.0% and for fathers it is 93.4%. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm

Here is why I provide this information. Children will read and perform better in school and social situations when one or more parents spend time reading, playing, and talking with their children. 3 out of 4 mothers are working towards the family budget, and nearly all fathers are working towards the family budget. Just 57 years earlier that number was different. What parent is going to have the energy after working all day and trying to run the daily chores of the household will have time to read 20-30 minutes with one or more children? What if it is a 2nd or 3rd shift job? Add in a substantial commute for affordable housing? The family dynamic the Project 2025 people want is not sustainable when the economics of today’s economy requiring both parents to work to maintain a household financially. This is but one variable in a large equation. No offense parents, but it gets worse.

Since my teaching career began in 1991 I have seen some remarkable changes in our society. I started teaching without the internet. I did not have a computer in my classroom until 1995. It did not have dial up internet access. I finally had hardwired internet (instead of dial up access) for my computers in 1999. Today I have a laptop and dual screen desktop with a projector and interactive smart board. My internet streaming bandwidth is obscene. Gigabytes of data travel through the spaces of my school. When you look at the home in 1991, a cell phone was still a clunky device that only the wealthy urbanite could afford. I finally got my first cell phone in 1998. It did not have texting, internet, or game playing services. I could call people and save contacts. Now my personal cell phone is like a portable laptop with many web applications. Our homes have tablets, smart televisions, and gaming systems. The lap top I’m writing this blog with is going out of favor for the portable tablet. The desktop is also disappearing. I remember buying my first desktop in 1999 for $3,100 US dollars. This has all happened in less than 30 years!!!! Technology has filled the gaps where human interaction once took place. It is a babysitter for the exhausted parent. Talking and interacting is not the priority anymore. Here is a question for all parents. How many times do you have to repeat yourself to get your children’s attention? If it is more than twice, your child does not recognize your voice as being important to them (opinion only, my children do this too.) Technology is their motivator, instead of human connection in the traditional sense (generally.) Now imagine what that looks like for a single parent without a coparent to help?

The final variable for this installment: choice. The American education system is based on capitalistic ideals serving a capitalistic society. Freedom of choice. Unfortunately education is not capitalistic. It is a social system, based on social values. Education is for the betterment of all. Unfortunately, capitalism drives the bus of education and everyone thinks it should be a choice. If you fail your classes though it is the fault of the teacher not the fault of the student’s choice (the entitlement of choice.) This culture of teacher (server) and student (customer) leads to false expectations. “You can’t have your pudding if you don’t eat your meat!” Pink Floyd rears their lyric again. Thanks gentlemen! This is the current culture being advertised by #45/#47 and the Project 2025 cronies. Entitlement based on capitalistic paradigms. My child didn’t learn anything, because that teacher is a failure. Instead of… My child didn’t learn anything because they chose (freely) not to. Vis la Vis… I did not encourage my child to learn anything at school, because I made the same choices so it must be the teacher’s fault. Bad data in and you get bad data back. Garbage goes in and garbage goes out. Bias is as bias does.

This is just part one of variables in play for education. Our education system is a reflection of our society, communities, and home. Our choices, our decisions, our own propaganda of misunderstanding. We are to blame for our own failures. It is a collective we. You can’t duck from this shared responsibility. Neither can I. We are in this together, and once you realize that, then maybe we can put the entitlements away and just focus on helping each other make a better life for our students and children in the United States. I dissent again with Project 2025. You are not going to be able to bring back the traditional American family unit until you realize and bear responsibility for the conservative caucus’s participation in the destruction of the family unit. …so it goes.