| Speaking of standards and curmudgeons, your column, 3-28-07, either evoked, provoked, or invoked my own on-going dissatisfaction with the declining standards of education in our country, especially since the 1950s post-war era of prosperity and increasing materialism, permissiveness, and concomitant decline of discipline and academic standards. Much has been documented and written in academic and journalistic commentary that verify the facts. I began my teaching career in 1958 in both junior and senior high schools in Massachusetts, Virginia, and North Carolina, in public schools until 1976, and in small Christian schools for nine years until 1986. I also served as a high school principal for two years, 1964-66, and Director of Federal Programs for two years, 1966-68. During those years I experienced and observed the decline in both behavioral and academic discipline and standards. There is abundant evidence that the trend extends from coast to coast and has not yet subsided. While I often smile at Andy Rooney's wry humor, I recognize the difference between insightful satire and biting sarcasm; however, I do understand and share Rooney's disappointments, frustrations, and concerns. We curmudgeons, senior and elderly citizens, recalling the tough "good old days," are a growing silent minority who lack the visibility, celebrity, or notoriety of Rooney. I welcome you to our "club." One final, most important and neglected point: unless standards, laws, rules, and regulations are promulgated, they not only decline, however gradually, but also disappear. Here, I invoke the reality (truth-fact) stated many years ago by St. Thomas of Aquinas, in his classic Summa Theologica, that unless standards, laws, etc. are promulgated, i.e. made known and consistently enforced, they really do not exist. I have occasionally been quoted as asserting, "Social promotion is neither, unless the purpose is to promote failure." This has been and continues to be an on-going problem at every level of public and private education in this country, even affecting and infecting some of our most prestiguous "Ivy League" universities. Jack D. Phillips Springfield |
