Obama on the Watch

Even in the midst of his battles for health care reform, peace in the Middle East, containing Iran's nuclear ambitions, rebuilding Iraq, and stabilizing the U.S. economy, and other national crises and concerns, Obama recently found time to address the problems facing the U.S. from under performing school children. Obama has recently discerned that American school children are spending too little time in school compared to other nations and not learning as they should. Obama says he "just wants to level the playing field."

Apart from the fact that this isn't true, (it was reported that U.S. children spend more hours in the classroom than most, 1,146 in the U.S. against 1,005 in Japan), Obama has taken it upon himself to address the problem. Clearly, state and local governments are failing us by neglecting the problems caused by under performing school children. One might as well add parents to that list as they are, at least in theory, somewhat responsible for their children's education. Clearly, federal intervention is required

Education Secretary Duncan chimed in by criticizing that our school year is based upon an outmoded agrarian economy and should be brought into line with the modern, high tech economy. As is typical in the modern approach to economic and social problems, the fault, the lay in an incorrectly structured or poorly supervised institution. The solution, therefore, requires new policy to improve structure and better supervision to oversee its management. Enlightened policy with efficient supervision, management, and implementation is the solution to all problems.

History, customs, and traditions are often obstacles to progress in the minds of reformers, because they adhere to non "scientific" approaches. Traditions and customs, although comfortable and meaningful to the people who participate in them, operate in ways resistant to the rational, scientific approach of cause and effect. The horrors of Mao and Stalin trying to wrench their people from their traditional beliefs and practices were, in the minds of the reformers, more a testimony to the recalcitrance of the ignorant and malcontent than to any flaw in the idea.

Increasingly, here in the U.S., opposition to the plans and ambitions of progressives to reform and enlighten the public is viewed as a product of ignorance and the machinations of counterrevolutionary elements. The laudable motive of making our children more competitive by manipulating curriculum and attendance is not, in and of itself, objectionable. What is objectionable is that the plan being proposed is being proposed by Washington and based on the economic calculus of international trade. The Soviets, in their prime, would collect and analyze statistics to determine where their economy was under performing and allocate political and economic resources to address the shortcomings determined to exist. Data was collected and analyzed and solutions were proposed, and plans were implemented; and things just got worse.

Things will be different here, it is believed, because we are able to collect better data and so able to create better plans. Furthermore, our planners, unlike the Soviets, are beneficent and our public more enlightened and willing to accept the plans. This is likely to be so until the public concludes that the plans don't work and actually make things worse. How much further our educational system will have to decay before the public begins to realize this is any body's guess.