WESTERN CIVILIZATION, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AND GRADE INFLATION

More than a few of the surveys comparing the academic performance of American children to students in other nations of the industrial world are disappointing, to say the least.  Whether it is mathematics, reading or science, our American students may regularly be found in the second-tier of standings.

Here, in Brownsville, Texas (admittedly, for all practical purposes, a Third World city), where public school buses regularly discharge loads of obese elementary school "honor students" at the local Peter Piper Pizza franchises as a reward for superior academic  performance, I find myself more than little dubious about 1) the nutritional example being set, and 2) whether the students who fill the buses are truly worthy of  scholastic recognition.                                            


 As one who labored in the halls of academe for more than 40 years, I can say without equivocation that the products being turned out by the system in the 21st century seem woefully ill-informed and incredibly short on ability having to do with analysis and rational and empirical thought.  Looking for cause and effect, it becomes more and more apparent that political-correctness, the most brazen system of intellectual and academic censorship seen in the Western world since the 15th century, must bear a major portion of the blame for the Orwellian environment in which present day students must function.

30-SOMETHING LAW STUDENT CANNOT AFFORD
BIRTH-CONTROL 

The hierarchy of nouveaux tribalists who now occupy the highest rungs of the educational elite in America have deprived the young of their magnificent heritage for a pottage of diversity which holds that Hottentot nomads are as "exceptional" as the great thinkers of Western civilization, and that all cultures are equivalent in value and standing.  With no objective standards being imparted,  the end result should not be surprising.

In a recent survey of recent American college graduates, only 48% could identify James Madison as the father of the Constitution, while 98% correctly identified Snoop Doggy-Dog as a rap musician.  And, at an Obama campaign event in late September of 2012 on the campus of Ohio University, students at the rally were unable to place "Benghazi," many of them thinking that "Ben Gazi" was either a Mafia crime boss or a major fund-raiser for the Republican Party.

One of the greatest achievements of Western civilization and the common law has been the concept of  individual rights and, with it, the assumption of individual responsibilities. But, today (sadly), a high regard for rights and responsibilities is  giving way to a statist sense of entitlement, fostered by those who wish to see rights subjugated to governmental authority.  With our Republic predicated on the premise of informed participation, it should not take many more generations of  informationally-challenged citizens to effect a downfall that that could not have been brought about by multitudes of foreign adversaries.

Shockingly, but very true, the most common grade given in American colleges and universities in 2013 is "A."   More than 40% of students matriculating in higher education receive A's in their courses.  In contrast, during the 1960's the most common grade was "C," and the percentage of A's awarded was a mere 7%.

More than 30 years ago, when I was an associate professor of history in a state university, our administration decreed that the foreign language requirement for the B.A. degree should be dispensed with.  Consequently, I and other members of that department waged a successful effort to retain the requirement, while other more feckless departments were giving in.  From my vantage point of the last 40 or more years, there has been a vast and continuing trend toward relinquishing standards in an effort to accommodate  diverse societal elements.  And one consequence for certain has been that of grade inflation.

Virtually every day, the core-values of Western civilization are under attack. What shall we do?  Shall we protect our heritage, letting it be known with no uncertainty that not all cultures are equal and that Western civilization has brought mankind more freedom and well being than any previous system in world history?  Shall we stand for our legacy of reason and individuality? Or, shall we continue to accommodate and relinquish while our foundations of greatness are slowly but surely undermined by the charlatans of opportunism and ignorance?  If there is a cause that is worth "standing tall" for, surely this is the ultimate.