Not A Joke

It's not your imagination: Americans really are getting dumber every day. In fact, some teachers are as dumb as their students.

According to an article in today's Wall Street Journal, the one newspaper that still has a modicum of my respect, many teachers are hired despite having had only a C+ average while they were in college. Here are a few more grim facts to consider:

One in eight college freshmen lacks rudimentary math skills, including algebra and geometry. Many incoming students cannot do higher than 8th-grade math, like adding fractions and rounding numbers.

National teaching credential programs require only a C+ average in undergraduate studies. One result of this is that many teachers cannot do higher than 8th-grade math, and instead "rely on calculators and the internet."

Many colleges, like the University of California at San Diego (ranked sixth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report) have lowered their admissions standards to attract more students and thus make more money.

Last year, the College Board shortened their SAT exam to two hours from three to encourage more participation. It also eliminated "long reading passages that might strain TikTok attention spans."

Mediocre students regularly graduate high school with all As, making their parents "feel better about a public school education and easing political pressure for education reforms."

Don't wait for it. There is no punchline because this is not a joke.