Bachelor of Arts degree now equivalent to a high school diploma [View all]

[Thespian2]

Having taught on several levels in the US education system, including high school and university, I was not at all surprised when I read the following comment in the UK Guardian (online):
David Null 1 Jul 2014
(speaking of American education)
"Yes, you can get small classes at $40,000+ a year.... I used to teach at a liberal arts college. And also at a big R1 state university. I guess what struck me at the time was that students had to pay to get the level of education I had gotten for free in high school in Italy. All my students were taking courses titled 'Introduction to...' (chemistry, English lit, algebra etc) which made me wonder what exactly they had studied in high school. I got the impression high school was a parking station for hormonal teenagers where very little learning was accomplished, which meant that a postgraduate degree was the bare minimum to reach university level education."

While I do not paint all students with a broad brush, my 40 years of experience leads me to see much truth in David Null's statement. Furthermore, with the abandonment of public education for voucher systems and charter schools, I see high school education suffering even more. When we add that far-right religious fanatics are doing all in their power to re-write the curriculum to abandon fact-driven education and replace it with their own fantasy world, education in American public schools is breathing its last breath. I wish it wasn't true.