by Ernest Smartt

Created on: June 28, 2009   Last Updated: June 30, 2009

Schools across the country are facing a seemingly endless list of issues that will, in many ways, change how the education system works. Moral and ethical issues are being compromised in such a way that schools often become war zones because standards are being lowered, and staff and students are confused. Political correctness is invading the free speech of teachers and administrators, causing a deterioration in educational standards, allowing for our students to move on from grade to grade, often without learning. An economic meltdown of national proportions is robbing our schools of needed staff and materials, effectively bringing education down to the lowest possible levels.

These issues are all current, and powerfully destructive, but that really does not have to be the case. It is possible to take these issues and boldly use them as stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks in the education process.

If professional educators will take a serious look at how we became a great nation, and the role that education played in that process, they will notice that the high standards once held are now crumbling. Rather than seeking ways to improve the education process, it appears that professional educators have slipped into the blame game, and the CYA game, instead of finding solutions. So caught up in pointing fingers, these educators have lost their grip on lifting up the process as a team, or unit. Now there are tests to measure (supposedly) how well the teachers and/or administrative staff are performing. In the process, they seem to have left behind the importance of student personal responsibility to their own educational progress. Students are not able to build their motivational muscles because those muscles no longer have anything to stretch them or stress them. They are not held accountable for their personal grades because it is the teachers' responsibility to make sure they pass. They no longer have to do the work, because they are given ways to make it all up, without any effort on their part at all. They are becoming motivationally weak, and will become slackers in their adult lives. This will lead to the meltdown of a great nation.

Moral and ethical issues are being allowed to deteriorate because somewhere along the way Americans have become emotionally weak and are offended by the smallest things. This has been prompted by unwritten demands of political correctness. While being politically correct is often a very kind thing to do, it has

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