In concordance with the World Bank’s “World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society and Behavior” on the foundation for economic wealth creation lying in social and human capitals, the Caux Round Table has been advocating a wholistic approach to enhancement of global standards of living – start with human and social capitals – living out values and ethics, if you will – in order to build financial and economic capitals – property derived from the wise use of life and liberty.
The U.S., in recent decades, may have turned off the road leading to future social and economic happiness by not developing human and social capitals for its citizens and its economy.
Former Senator Ben Sasse made this damning assessment of public education, at least in California, in the Wall Street Journal.
I read these comments with alarm:
The number of freshmen entering the University of California San Diego (USCD) whose math skills fall below a high-school level has increased nearly 30-fold over the past five years, according to a shocking new report from the university’s Senate-Administration Working Group on Admissions. Worse still, one in 12 entering freshmen have math skills below middle-school levels. That means college students might struggle with questions such as this: “7+2=6+__?” Or this: “Sarah had nine pennies and nine dimes. How many coins did she have in all?”
The UCSD revelation likely means the U.S. has millions of recent high school graduates and 20-somethings who are unprepared to navigate modern work and life and lack the logical problem-solving skills with which algebra has traditionally armed adolescents.
But it gets worse: The students admitted to UCSD were, on average, receiving “A” grades in high school math classes that supposedly built multiple years beyond algebraic and arithmetic foundations. This was a fraud. High schools have clearly been inflating grades beyond what many students earned or deserved. How could schools do such a disservice to taxpayers and more important, to these students?
What now is to be done?