Learning Sabotaged

• Students are learning to “do school,” taking shortcuts, manipulating adults, and outwitting the bureaucracy. In an effort to succeed, they often lie, cheat, plagiarize, skip class, and suffer from anxiety, health problems, and sleeplessness. Clark-Pope documented how the grade-driven system provides “little support for intellectual engagement and passion” while promoting memorization and shallow understanding. The graduation rate declined greatly from 1983 to only 3/4 by 2001. The Gates Foundation reported an even lower rate and labelled the dropout problem a “silent epidemic.” Dropouts are “not motivated or inspired to work hard” and find school boring. No wonder that the teacher dropout rate is sky-rocketing, too.

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