Public schools and teachers across the nation are facing a tangible lag in the education of our children. Students are not meeting standards and goals that have been in place for years. In fact, they are falling far short. Some try to blame it entirely on the COVID pandemic and the subsequent school shutdowns, but the reality is that these educational shortcomings have been brewing for decades.

The pedagogy is flawed. This is a kindergarten-on-up issue. Children are not proficient in math. They are struggling to read. And yet teachers and schools are passing these students on to the next grade level and the pattern continues up the chain. The result is that 18-year-olds whose reading comprehension is abysmal and whose math skills will set them up for folly are expected to go on to college or enter the workforce.

Faddish changes in curriculum are part of the problem. Without going too deep into the weeds, math and reading have strayed away from tried and true methods such as rote memorization (such as basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), sounding out (intentional and meaningful phonics as well as sight word memorization and recognition), the intrinsic connection of encoding and decoding (writing and reading), and, most importantly, mastery of all these foundational skills before moving a child on to more complicated concepts.

Then there is social/emotional education, an extraneous addition that takes time away from core subjects. Schools are also taking away subjects that spark joy and curiosity that add to the learning experience such as art, music, and physical education.

Another facet is the lack of education for teachers. Saying this is tricky because teaching is a skill that is developed over time. (There are some naturally good teachers, but even they are learning on the job.) However, public schools have a way of overcomplicating an already challenging vocation. Between overcrowded classrooms, lack of support from the administration, and increasingly poor student behavior, teachers are quitting in droves.

There is also a particularly distinct lack of education for teachers in meeting the academic needs of children who have learning difficulties. In my own personal experience with students in the early grades, I was lucky enough to have several mentors who showed me some of their techniques that truly helped students who would otherwise be struggling. This is called differentiation.

Differentiating in a classroom is also fraught with its own political navigation. Children are smart and very easily internalize their educational need as a reflection of their own self-worth. Parents weigh in on differentiating decisions — which can be a good or bad thing. Without a level of competence on the teacher’s part and trust on the parents’ part, communication and effective intervention quickly break down.

The incorporation and adoption of digital technology in the classroom is also a mixed bag. Learning how to be digitally literate and competent is important; however, children are using their access to the Internet and AI to cheat their way through school. They don’t actually know anything. They don’t have to — they have an external brain in their pocket.

Then there is the huge problem of school discipline, rule enforcement, and bullying. They’re all tied together through the undermining of both parental and school authority. Public schools and parents used to have a symbiotic relationship wherein parents and teachers were constantly in communication. Teachers and principals had authority at their schools. Parents had authority over their children. Now, because of abuses on the part of some teachers and principals, that authority has been systematically taken away. On the flip side, there are many parents who also are refusing to be the authority over their child. Furthermore, the parents who are still trying to be that authority are watching as school administrations strip even that away from them.

Kids have had all guardrails removed. Schools can’t discipline. Parents don’t know (or in some cases don’t care) about any behavioral issues. It facilitates a self-destructive cycle for those students, who aren’t old enough or mature enough to make good long-term decisions. This is bad for any aged student, but in a teenager who is already navigating puberty and high school, it is a horrific state of affairs.

Public schools also have a lot to answer for in their handling of bullies. In many ways, bullying in schools seems to have gotten worse, not better. That is in spite of all the social/emotional learning classes telling students about bullying and the consequences that go with it. The definition of bullying is always changing; offending someone (using the wrong “pronouns,” for example) can sometimes qualify as bullying. Kid bystanders are also trained not to intervene in bullying situations. Self-preservation is the motive. All students can do to “help” is video the bullying. God forbid they physically intervene. In today’s “zero tolerance” regime, they would get the same punishment as the bully.

Not every public school is bad, and not every public school teacher is poorly equipped to teach. However, many are. As a result, the children entrusted to them are not flourishing.