This will be brief. I have been fascinated by the field of education for more than 25 years. The thing that first grabbed my attention was that some of the worst prose written in America was generated by so-called educators. I simply couldn’t understand that. If you have something to say, don’t you want people to understand you? Meanwhile, the country was always debating this mystery: every year more money is spent on education, and every year it seems to get worse. Kids can’t read; they can’t find things on maps. Last night I was again watching Jay Leno as he goes Jaywalking. It’s terrifying. He finds people, sometimes they’re teachers or college-educated, and they don’t know the most basic stuff. You have to see this to believe it.

When pundits try to explain all these phenomena, they usually focus on sociological concepts, budgetary restraints, television, irresponsible parents, even incompetence. Nobody mentions malevolence, that is, the deliberate undercutting of the system’s effectiveness.

Well, that’s not entirely true. There was a famous report on education issued in 1983 called “A Nation At Risk.” Here we find one of the greatest tongue-in-cheek or disingenuous statements in the world’s literature. The report said that if a foreign power had imposed on us the dopey school system that we have, we might consider the imposition “an act of war.” Wow. That’s tough talk. But the report immediately backed off, stating that we had done it to ourselves, apparently by accident. Do you believe that conclusion? My own investigations make me wish that the commission had pursued the possibilities that were obviously nipping at their minds. Hostile foreign power? How about a domestic power acting with hostile purpose? Fact is, many people went into education (PhD level) precisely to transform American society. For the extremists that can mean eliminating capitalism, individuality, religion, even democracy. Obviously, if those are your priorities, you aren’t going to worry much about whether kids can find California on a map. Indeed, ignorance may be helpful! So, yes, I do suspect the worse of some of our educators. I can’t see any other reasonable explanation. If an employee keeps causing fires at your warehouse, maybe at some point you have to conclude he’s not clumsy, he’s actually an arsonist.

If you’re interested in these ideas, please visit my site Improve-Education.org where I have two relevant essays (#6 and #13).

My latest project is lighter, a site called Ieducate.info. It’s a Homepage for Teachers, Writers, Researchers, etc. Basically, it’s 50 of the best research links and all those Something of the Day gizmos. It's a fun site but extremely serious and useful.

I can sum up my own educational credo very simply: just say YES to substance. Pass it on!