Debunkin' Duncan

Let's get this clear: School isn't being run with you in mind, kids. At least not in the good ol' U.S. and A.

I know that when I was in high school (the first part at least), I practically had no life at all, because I spent almost all of my waking hours at school or working on school assignments. Every single thing I did was because school said so - and it was all for nothing.

What kind of life is that?

If it was that bad 20 years ago, think what it would be like now.

The American school system does not care whether you acquire useful knowledge or skills. It cares only about how well you can follow arbitrary rules and conform to the system. Let's get that cleared up before we go any further.

So Education Secretary Arne Duncan looked awfully silly when he expected to be taken seriously when he advocated that kids spend even more time in school.

Now Duncan's claim is pretty much discredited - by an Associated Press analysis, of all things!

That doesn't mean our schools are great. They're worse than they were in my day.

Often, America's schools are contrasted with other countries in the amount of time students spend in school. Take South Korea, for instance. Duncan has cited South Korea as one of the standards that the United States should follow.

Well, Arne, maybe we should - because the AP finds that South Korean kids actually spend less time in school than their American counterparts. While South Korea has more school days, the average American 8th-grader spends 1,146 hours in school a year, compared to only 923 hours in South Korea.

It turns out the United States has more school hours than just about anywhere.

If that time was used wisely, and if students were allowed to work at their own pace, it wouldn't be such a tragedy. Just think what could be accomplished! But we can't have that, I guess. It would make too much sense.

Some folks have suggested that Arne Duncan is actually the worst appointee to Obama's Cabinet - worse even than Robert Gates or Ray LaHood. People have come to this conclusion after visiting Chicago schools (which Duncan ran) and finding that they now resemble harsh boot camps.

(At least Chicago doesn't have a districtwide uniform policy, in case you're wondering. I checked the Chicago student handbook, and it says that even in schools that require uniforms, the only penalty for violators is possible exclusion from extracurricular activities. So it wouldn't have affected me one bit, luckily.)

Sooner or later, we have to put the facts out there, and then maybe the standards push can finally be reframed. Right now, however, the major parties don't have the political will.

(Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5husRstDOy6YVktMTCOP-pknQw7pAD988GTU00)