It's been more than a decade since Charles J. Sykes wrote his book, Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, or Add -- but the bad news, of course, is that the trend he so effectively described hasn't even slowed down.America is getting dumber by the day.
A few examples from recent news stories:
* In Massachusetts, only 27% of those college graduates who were looking to become elementary school teachers passed the math section in the licensing exam.
* In Louisiana, officials are looking to stem the high school dropout rate with a new program called LEAP. But it looks like just another way to pass along education system failures. For instance, students looking to matriculate to the ninth grade need only score 42% on English and 39% on math entrance exams. Can kids with such lousy scores even hope to get passing grades as they go along through high school? Of course not. But not to worry -- education officials have created remedial programs that count as high school credit.
* In Maryland (and everywhere else in the country where the teachers’ guides of the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project are being used), the grading curve that is encouraged is very, very lenient. Try only 85% to get an A; only 72% to get a B; only 60% to get a C; and only 50% to pass.
* In Seattle, Washington, the school board decided to replace its math curriculum (Horrors! Some of their books were 17 years old!) with the Discovering Series by Key Curriculum Press. Officials insisted that the new program fits well with the state's new standards. Uh, make that the state's new, dumbed down standards. But even their own consultants disagreed with the move. "The consultants called Discovering the 'weakest option' in algebra, geometry and advanced geometry. They said the program is 'mathematically unsound,' and even 'unacceptable.'" (Over public opposition, the school board went ahead and voted for the dumbed down curriculum.)
* And the dumbing down epidemic isn't confined to the government schools. Check out Byron Harris' story for WFAA News (Dallas/Ft. Worth television station) to learn how politically-correct dumbing down can even get you killed.
News 8 has recently revealed serious flaws in the way the FAA licenses mechanics who fix planes. There is evidence of years of problems in testing these mechanics. There is also evidence that hundreds of mechanics with questionable licenses are working on aircraft in Texas.
Now there is evidence of repair facilities hiring low-wage mechanics who can't read English.
Twenty-one people were killed when U.S. Airways Express Flight 5481 crashed in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2003. The plane went wildly out of control on takeoff.
One reason for the crash, investigators found, was that mechanics incorrectly connected the cables to some of the plane's control surfaces in the repair shop. The FAA was cited for improper oversight of the repair process.
Repairing airplanes is a complicated business. Airplanes have many manuals. Typically, when mechanics repair a part, they open the manual, consult the book, and make the repair step-by-step, as if it were a recipe book.
They make a list of every action they take, so the next person to fix the plane (as well as the people who fly it) will know exactly what has been done. If mechanics don't speak English, the international language of aviation, they can't read the manual and they can't record their activities.
There are more than 236 FAA-certified aircraft repair stations in Texas, according to the FAA's Web site. News 8 has learned that hundreds of the mechanics working in those shops do not speak English and are unable to read repair manuals for today's sophisticated aircraft...
News 8 discovered that mechanics at one licensing center in San Antonio were being tested in Spanish as late as last fall. The FAA ultimately shut the facility down.
Supervisors in Texas repair stations say they are supposed to oversee the repairs of dozens of untrained mechanics who can't read the manuals and can't write down the work they've done.
But the FAA does not require every person working at a repair station to be a certified A&P. One certified A&P can sign off on the work of dozens of uncertified mechanics.
That creates a huge problem, another certified mechanic told News 8. "I need an interpreter to talk to these people," he said. "They can't read the manuals, they can't write, and I have so many working for me I can't be sure of the work they've done."...
"I've been wanting to leave this company since the day I got there," said one certified A&P. "But with the economy the way it is, I've got kids to feed and I have to stay there. I don't want to be anywhere near one of those planes when it kills somebody."
The FAA is supposed to police repair stations, but insiders say the agency is more focused on looking at paperwork than inspecting the facilities. Insiders also say inspectors warn repair stations when they're coming.
"In Dallas, most of them would map it out and tell them what day they were going to be there," said Gene Bland, a former FAA inspector.
Safety, mechanics say, is at risk. "In my opinion," said one, "company owners should all be locked up because someone's going to die eventually, if it hasn't already happened."
Texas' two biggest airlines, American and Southwest, both require mechanics and the technicians who work under them to speak, read and write English.
But mechanics who work elsewhere — whose repairs often end up on commercial airliners — say their shops are filled with non-English speakers.
The FAA declined to be interviewed for this report.
