SAT Scores A Disaster

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Roanoke Times, 9-15-11, Pg 4: SAT scores fall, reading lowest ever, math lowest since 1995 – Virginia (like Lake Woebegone) was above average
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The liberal-progressive answer to these dismal college entry standardized test results:
1. Get rid of these useless tests
2. Put lots more tax money into the education systems
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Yet another significant measurement data point telling us that our educational system is profoundly broken at the most fundamental level: The classroom teaching-learning process and environment.
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But we can FaceBook and we can Tweet and we can Txt and we can “hookup” with EHarmony! What more do you want the kids to be able to do? Their work-ethic, their study habits, their intellectual curiosity, their classroom behavior and their parent’s attitude are all key elements explaining why the best teachers with the best lesson plans in the best classrooms are not able to teach!
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These empowered students have their lawyers, the ACLU and the liberal media backing them up all the way! And all those entities tell us every day how wonderful this permissive paradigm is and how we’re all much better off now than when I attended school. Their answer to the dismal test results: Kill the Tests! More student empowerment! Less structure and discipline! Freedom rocks!  Down with Responsibility and Accountability!
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A prime example of our warped system: Several years ago the ability of  public school teachers to have students exchange papers and correct them in class went all the way to the Supreme Court of the US for resolution!  What is wrong with a society that promotes these wasteful and misdirected activities?
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Reminds one of HeeHaw: Hey Doc, it hurts when I raise my arm! Well – don’t raise your arm! Not so funny when one reflects on our unemployment problems, our standard of living and our ever demanding world-economic competition and our ever shrinking opportunities to employ marginal workers to put tops on bottoms.
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At what point of failure will our society demand that we fix the core underlying problems with the teaching-learning process? Perhaps we’re past the point of no-return! How sad is that?
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Some prior appropriate items:
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The Wisconsin Teacher Union example
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2011/09/one-walking-out-is-very-bad-fourteen-is.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2011/08/roanoke-times-editors-finally-get-no.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2011/03/obamas-school-policy-dumb-them-down.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2011/03/yet-another-misdirected-roanoke-times.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2011/02/yet-more-roanoke-times-bias-against.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/12/too-dumb-to-serve.html
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