One professor is urging Americans to break the educational “cycle of failure,” offering practical solutions to fight the “anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and anti-western” ideology poisoning U.S. students’ minds.
“Over the last few weeks, recent events have lifted the veil on the urgency of the crisis we now face,” Prof. Nicholas Giordano began his Nov. 14 op-ed for Campus Reform. An educator and podcast host, Giordano believes that American education is in crisis — but he also has solutions.
Woke leftists are creating the catastrophe, and many conservatives see the problem clearly but don’t know what to do. But Giordano has advice on how to “stop the cultural rot and produce individuals that strengthen our nation which can only be done through a revitalized education system.” Raise standards, cut woke ideology, provide school choice, and teach true history and thinking skills.
The recent pro-terrorist rallies and statements at universities brought educational corruption to the fore in America. “From the pro-Hamas rallies and attacks on Jewish students to Oregon’s abandonment of basic proficiency standards, our education system has become an abject failure,” Giordano insisted. “This includes our Ivy League institutions that are supposed to be producing the best and the brightest.” We must be honest about the problem before we can fix it.
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Giordano continued, “Our education system, from kindergarten through college, consistently yields undereducated, radicalized individuals rather than the informed and capable citizens our society needs. It is time to reassess and dismantle this failing system.” Education has permitted “anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and disdain for Western culture to flourish.” Now is the time to “reshape the educational landscape and produce an educated student body that strengthens” instead of sabotaging America.
At every stage of education, Giordano urged, “abolish the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice (DEISJ) agenda.” He described this wokeness as “a cancer that discourages merit, lowers standards, and erodes academic excellence under the banner of ‘equity.’”
Public schools have cut honors programs, with New York City, the biggest school district in the U.S., an example of one such entity in pursuit of mediocrity. “America rank[ed] 25th in education in the world” as of 2018, Giordano observed, a humiliating statistic as America is supposed to lead the free world.
DEISJ is “toxic” and “wrongly portrays America as inherently racist and oppressive,” Giordano explained. Among its pernicious effects are “tribalism and a victimhood culture while undermining unity and the sense of nationhood.” Giordano mentioned podcast host Charles Love’s son, who was taught even in kindergarten that women and ethnic minorities are allegedly oppressed! Furthermore, this ideology infects all majors, Giordano warned.
A recalibration is needed. Curricula must prioritize critical thinking and a strong foundation in each of the core subjects. Students must be instilled with reading and writing skills, a sense of civic duty, and a genuine understanding of history.
Students don’t need DEISJ to learn about American mistakes like “slavery, the Trail of Tears, [and] Japanese internment camps” and indeed know less about them now, Giordano observed. What students don’t know are the Constitution and American triumphs. Educators should “celebrate our accomplishments, acknowledge past wrongs, and instill the belief in American exceptionalism.”
Children also need higher standards to live up to, Giordano stated. “As states like New York and Oregon redefine and/or eliminate proficiency standards… [and with] our public schools producing a lower-quality student body, our global university rankings continue to decline,” he wrote. Children are not all born stupider now than they were 100 years ago. The standards have simply been lowered.
Giordano asserted that multiple studies support “the Pygmalion Effect,” which holds that “higher expectations lead to superior outcomes.” One study out of the University of Virginia and Rutgers University found that, just as in the fictional play, “teacher expectations were more powerful predictors of postsecondary education status.” Educators and administrators don’t believe that students are capable, so students live down to the provided low expectations.
Neither is increased funding necessarily a solution if it just provides more of the same. “Institutions like Baltimore City Schools spends [sic] over $21,000 per student, yet 40% of Baltimore high schools cannot produce a single student proficient in math. In one high school, a student was routinely cycled through to the next grade despite a .13 GPA.”
Why did students learn more math in frontier shacks than they do now in urban schools? Baltimore City Schools have long been “plagued by mismanagement, bloated administrative costs, fraud, and wasteful spending to the tune of millions of taxpayer dollars, including anti-racism training for faculty,” Giordano insisted.
This is a clear example of why tax dollars should follow the student. Empowering parents through school choice allows them to seek out alternatives for their child’s education, whether in neighboring districts or private institutions. This can break the cycle of failure and reduce academic achievement gaps.
At the collegiate level, institutions that offer useless degree programs and promote anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and anti-western culture, should face funding cuts. This must be done through a review process with clear criteria because tax dollars should be used to enhance the quality of education, not to produce ideological zealots who hate their own country.
Giordano is right to note that a nation — especially a free Republic — cannot be successful without encouraging a “pursuit of truth through facts and critical inquiry.” This requires a “revamped system rooted in American principles and values,” Giordano emphasized, teaching “practical skills, critical thinking abilities, and common sense.” The “cultural rot” must be cleansed, he concluded, and that “can only be done through a revitalized education system.”
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