As early as 400 B.C., Socrates complained about the ineptitude of Athenian youth. This has persisted in every generation since. If people had the facts they would realize that exactly the opposite is true. American public school children are doing better today on national tests than they were 20 years ago. And the international comparisons that claim we are near last in the world also are false.
American kids compete well internationally.
They were second in the world in reading, for example, but almost nobody knows that. Reformers decided that if they just demanded more, the students would respond by performing up to expectations. Although students have always been tested to determine whether they were qualified to be promoted or to graduate from high school, the politicians believed that current tests were just too easy. They began demanding tougher tests, which they called higher standards. As one educator recently noted, this is like raising the basketball goal to help players dunk the basketball.