A Liberal Magazine Just Spilled the Beans about K-12 Education

By Bruce Deitrick Price

This upscale progressive magazine ran a super-long, super-detailed article titled "The Math Revolution."  It basically wanted to proclaim the happy news that extraordinary things are taking place in American education.

The Atlantic fell all over itself with enthusiasm. You would reasonably suppose that some fresh winds were blowing, and students in America would actually know how to add and subtract with competence, and maybe even multiply and divide efficiently. What else does the word "revolution" suggest but wonderful sweeping change?

 At last, at long last, our public schools will redeem themselves and began to turn out little math experts. Then the writer gave it away: "The students are being produced by a new pedagogical ecosystem – almost entirely extracurricular – that has developed online and in the country's rich coastal cities and tech meccas."

Ooh.

Please savor the words "almost entirely extracurricular."  In other words, these superior, successful math students are not in essence attending American public schools.  They are going outside of American public schools, to something separate, uncontaminated, and therefore superior.

And why would that be necessary?.....Read more