For many years, debatably since the advent of new age standardized testing, the educational system in the United States has taken a sharp decline. Although many attribute this degrading of intellectual standings to wild and unchecked, so called ?Affirmative Action? and possibly even the corporal failings of youth and their literal intellectual levels; it is my own personal belief that this decline is unmistakably the work of a loss of focus on the part of the educator, and the decrepit educational system as a whole.
Though it may seem a wild allegation at first, how the educator is actually the culprit for falling intellectual standards, I do have quite a significant amount of findings which support my thesis.
First and foremost, let us review the purpose of an educational program, in order to fully analyze where the failings have incurred. The purpose of a school, despite recent changes which contradict this, is to:
- Primarily educate, this is the main focus of any educational program;
- Recognize ability, cultivate passions, and give direction to youth;
- Teach teamwork, social skills, and other real world abilities though experience and a well monitored environment.
Although in most respects the schools of today excel in most areas, it is slowly losing grip of its primary objective, and the reason for this is standardized testing.
Standardized testing was conceived to become a way to fairly, accurately, and in an unbiased fashion qualify the ability of students nationwide. This was a groundbreaking initiative, and would change the face of public education forever, although not necessarily for the better. Although the original concept was a good one, the end result was far from what it was conceived for.
