Charles Murray: Real Education & Education Myths
In this segment from the McCuistion Program, Charles Murray, author of The Bell Curve, Losing Ground and the recently released, Real Education, explains and expounds on four controversial truths as they relate to the educational system.
Real Education has a simple premise: the way that we are educating our children is based on educational myths and disregards four distinct truths. The lack of concern for these four truths is detrimental to the futures of our children.
Truth #1 – Ability varies. Mr. Murray talks about the “No Child Left Behind” campaign and fallacies of thought. Schools draw on verbal, linguistic, visual, spacial and mathematical skills. However, there are many more skills that aren’t covered in school that should not be disregarded.
Truth #2 – Half of all children are below average. This statement refers to the skills that are taught and graded in school. He goes on to discuss the segregation that goes on from school to school and how that plays into this truth.
Truth #3 – Too many people are going to college. In Murray’s research he concluded that only 10-15% of kids have the ability to actually graduate from college courses, if they were in fact doing college-level work. However, 28% of Americans have bachelor degrees. He then expounds on the educationally elite and the effect that that has had on society.
Truth #4 – The future of America depends on how we educate the academically gifted.Mr. Murray believes it is our bright kids who will be leading the country, and they need to be trained better in those areas they are not currently trained in. According to Murray one of these areas is virtue. He goes on to explain the misunderstanding of true virtue among the rising generations.
He believes, “real education” is needed in order to eliminate the education myths that are being taught in our schools today.
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10.12.08 – 1721
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I really enjoy your programs on KERA in Dallas. On 5/24 I watched the Generational Strom, Part 1 (12:01 PM) with Scott Burns. The second half was to be 5/31. It appears that McCuistion is OFF THE AIR now!
Is this correct? This is a great show! Why?
If you could provide me with an up date, I would certainly appreicate it.
Thanks
Greetings,
I am still frustrated by my experiences in school, at an early age I had reading comprehension difficulties and I didn’t know how to ask for help (that is something I desperately wanted), and none of the important people in my life recognized my difficulty. In 4th grade I believe the new problem arose, it was with long division the bit where a number in the hundreds is divided into a number in the thousands. And, I never really caught up with my peer group in mathematics something that pained me deeply, but no one saw OR perceived my desperation to learn. (i really wanted to know mathematics) Now, I can’t say I didn’t ask for help on a specific problem here and there, say for instance a specific problem on a specific page in our text book’s because I DID do that, but I was always desperate in school and I really wanted someone to notice this.
I recall a poor 6 week report that my parents had to sign and send back with me to give to the teacher, my mom said for me to bring my books home everyday as she was unhappy with the report, and she said she would assist me with any homework (something I had always copied from another student everyday just prior to turning it in). So, I brought home my English homework, and it was all about diagramming the parts of a sentence, and within 45 minutes my mother was pulling her hair out and yelling at me and calling me stupid WHEN she herself could not do it either… Strangely enough, that commandment to bring home my studies each day ended right then, BUT you better believe that I had better bring home good grades OR ELSE. So, I think it was 7th grade the last time that I indicated to my parents that I needed help, and I did so by changing a grade on that darned old 6 week progress report, but my difficulty arose in reading class, comprehension still low and absolutely hating to read I took the punishment meted out by my mom and dad and went about my business of figuring out NOW how to BEAT the system in order to simply get through graduation, and NOT to my surprise I made it all the way through school with only ONE “C” with rest being “A’s” and “B’s.” Now, don’t get me wrong I could effectively study when it came to things that were memory laden like vocabulary, facts in History, Science, Geography, that kind of thing, but English, and Math were still bugaboos.
Thank ALL that is good for Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, and World Book Encyclopedia, because if not for the publishers of those wonderful magazines, and books I would have ended up on the end of a shovel as an adult. I was a smart kid, but the fact that I spent my time in school day dreaming while the teacher gave critical instructions on those new concepts that cannot simply be overcome because someone is sharp. I am disappointed that none of the important adults in my life ever recognized my educational deficits. How about a little irony at this point? When I began High School both of my parents (who had never attended college AT all) returned to school each graduating from TCU, my father took it a step further earning a Masters Degree at the University of Texas, as for me I struggled through 80 plus hours of University level instruction over 5 years, then I quit to take a job in sales. My downfall in the University were my non-existent study skills.
Watch your children they can fool you, if only unintentionally. Me personally, I am fine, I made it to the position of General Manager and am still a hungry learner hoping someday to find someone to tutor me in Algebra. Who knows?