Reverse Evolution

So in one of the many discussions that come up in our office about the troubles in dealing with our students now I had an interesting thought come up.  Now before I continue I am sure it would be helpful if I were to explain what I do for a living.  I have been in the Navy for nearly 10 years.  I am a trained nuclear reactor operator, i spent 5 years on a fast attack submarine in Groton, CT and now I teach other young sailors how to work on the electronics and operate the same reactors I worked on. 

So as you can assume being in the field of nuclear power we have very high standards.  It has made many in my office, including myself, very sensitive to a persons behavioral characteristics as any of them can make a whole lot of work and god forbid an unsafe environment.  So as I started we were talking in the office about a particular student who was having an extremely difficult time and evolution came to mind.

Evolution is the slow changing of a species over time so as to adapt to changes in weather, society, predators or any number of other things.  In American society especially but in most places all over the world we have placed an extreme significance on our intelligence for survival.  So in short our evolution and survival of our species has been placed on our brain power over, braun or fighting ability.  

So the reason I write this is that I have become significantly concerned.  As time goes on our country is making a very heavy shift away from thriving on our intelligence and even in curtailing those that stand out in our society.  One big problem we have is in our schools.  In order to try and fix this the former President George Bush set into place the no child left behind legislation.  

No child left behind, really no school left behind.  What a horrible rape of the ability of a school to really stand out and teach its students well.  The emphasis has been placed on standardized testing.  Regulating the material tested and lowering of standards across the board so as that all schools in the US have a chance of meeting them.  All this adds up to students that when they graduate have a significantly lower education level than we have seen in many many years. 

Now we have elected a new President.  One that is a typical Liberal candidate, runs on a very left platform then once in office starts to back track on many of those promises.  War in Iraq, state of the economy for just a few examples.  But that isn't the worst part. We actually elected someone with essentially no experience.  Now many people may make the argument that means he will be less corrupted by the system. However I counter with this, whether he is or not is irrelevant with over 400 advisors and people on advisory committees he has surrounded himself with people that are so corrupted by the system they can't even run for themselves.  So how can we expect someone that can not keep to their own word.  Such as denouncing McCain for saying that despite the crises the economies fundamentals were good then just recently using those exact words to describe our economy. It makes it hard to tell if he is incompetent or just a liar.  

Then there is the ever increasing problem that students and children today are not being held to nearly the standards that many of us have been.  Cell phones in school, parents that are more likely to sue a school than accept that their child really is a problem.  Then my favorite when a parent is in the store with an unruly child telling those around her that she can't do anything about it.  

It is this utter lack of discipline, failing in education and following of leaders that are more worried about their wallets and power than what happens to the rest of us that has me concerned and once again asking. 

"In a field that expects the highest of capable students from high school, how do I see ones that never learned basic trigonometry, ones that misspell their own names or ones that write worse than my 7 year old?:"