| Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why America's Children Feel Good About Themselves but Can't Read, Write, or Add | 
 enlarge | Author: Charles J. Sykes
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 210426
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 341
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0312134746
Dewey Decimal Number: 373.73
EAN: 9780312134747
ASIN: 0312134746
Publication Date: October 1995
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Amazon.com Review
Nowhere has the flight from quality plaguing American life these days been more obvious than in our primary and secondary schools -- on the whole, the graduates seem less well-read and less well-spoken, less knowledgeable and less able to compute. In this book, Charles Sykes asks why, and lays most of the blame at the feet of the trainers of teachers, the writers of textbooks and the educational policy wonks who influence them. He convincingly shows that in many different school systems, and in many different academic fields, with the help of goofy text-books, watered-down requirements and "recentered" test grade scales, American students have come to value feeling good about a subject over being good in it. Sykes's recommended reforms include abolishing the federal Department of Education and its state counterparts, abolishing undergraduate schools of education, establishing more alternative routes to teacher certification and merit raises for good teachers. Good ideas all -- now if we can only get politicians to put them into action!
Product Description
The author of A Nation of Victims offers an expose+a7 of American public education, charging that faddish educational theories and the drive to inflate students' self-esteem are causing standards to decline. National ad/promo. Tour.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 repeat...repeat...repeat November 6, 2008
I actually agree with the author's basic premise that the public education system is too worried about everything except the academic education of our children. I started reading this book prepared to nod my head and say, "uh, huh" while agreeing with his clever way of stating what I already think.
I read the first several chapters and then just started skimming over headings. The author, while clearly passionate about his subject matter, keeps saying the same thing over and over. Perhaps, as publically educated readers, he believes we will not understand his message unless he states in 200 times in 100 different ways.
I would be very interested in reading a new, abridged, version of this book where Mr. Skyes states his ideas just one time--clearly enough to be understood by his target audience (who I never could honestly identify.)
 Explained: Educators Gone Wild September 10, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
A must-read investigation. Although now 12 years old, this book doesn't seem dated. Educators are still recycling the same old gimmick, which is basically to devise hifalutin excuses for teaching less.
The big shift is that Whole Word hit its peak just after this book was published, and has been in decline ever since. One feels hope at that. Still, the overwhelming impression is one of sadness. It's as if we put hippies and illegal aliens in charge of our banks and water works. You wouldn't expect faucets and ATM's to operate smoothly.
"A Nation at Risk," the report issued by a huge government panel in 1983, stated that our public schools seem to be managed by a foreign power intent on harming us. (I've always loved that deadpan bombshell.) If you would like to get to know that foreign power and hear them discuss their plans for your children, this is the book to read. Sykes did a huge amount of research. It's a serious and sober investigation.
Finally, it comes down to goals. If you think schools should be engaged in social engineering, that their job is to induce dumbing down and collectivism, you will cheer on the educators quoted throughout this book, and you will hate Sykes.
If, however, you think schools should be hugely concerned with reading, writing, arithmetic, etc., you'll thank Sykes for preparing this trenchant expose.
In the most recent government report, "Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century," experts are now saying that time is running out, and that public schools are killing our ability to maintain a high standard of living. How did our educators achieve such glorious failure? This book will show you all their techniques.
 Didn't you get the email? Then why buy the book? August 24, 2007
3 out of 31 found this review helpful
There's nothing new in this book. It's all the same clueless right-wing blather that was in Sykes' other book. This book is also a re-hash of the "chain letter" email, erroneously attributed to Bill Gates, that is still making its way around the Internets. (No doubt Charlie is trying to profit off of his association with that email.) Seriously, though, Charlie, we get it--you don't like public schools, you don't like government, you don't like infrastructure. Then why don't you DO something about it, rather than throwing stones from the outside vis-a-vis books like this one?
Dumb kids....smart teachers July 26, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Millionaire in 365 Days: The Daily Plan to Get There
Unbelievable revelation as to how our kids are dumbed down....and it is getting worse each year....while it is all covered up....we need to know this if we have children in school because we are NOT getting our money's worth and our kids are getting a dumb education by dumb teachers (of course not all teachers)...but the massive unions push the lowest common denominator on our kids in order to increase their memberships....while the whole time "Johnny can't read".
Dumb on Purpose July 12, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Sykes is just one of scores of people who've been warning Americans that public schools are no longer failing; PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE A FAILURE, period. Why aren't parents listening?! Feeling good has replaced facts in government schools. Knowledge and learning itself is secondary to having fun in its classrooms. SAT scores dropped way back in 1963 and haven't risen. No, today's average SAT score of about 1020 reflects the College Board's 1995 decision to re-center SAT scores, which in layman's terms means they added about 100 points to the scores. Kids aren't doing any better, but their scores look better and that makes them and their parents feel better. But it gets worse. The SAT no longer includes antonyms or verbal analogies and students can use calculators on the math section. What's more, students with those James Bond-style IEPs (Individual Education Program) that allow them "extra time" can take as long as they like to do the test. Still, their scores stay low. But the SAT is just one hundreds of standardized tests that reflect what kids are not learning in public schools today. Parents who pretend their local school isn't "as bad" as those schools they hear about on the news are only deceiving themselves. One day, they'll regret, but it'll be too late. Being dumb on purpose is just plain stupid.
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