I'm convinced education's steep decline began and continues today for 3 main reasons!

As a veteran teacher, I have seen first hand the enormous educational decline in students today compared to 20 years ago and it's getting worse every year. Today's students are much lower academically, more disrespectful/aggressive and parents are much less involved in their child's education and it shows.

The days of Billy and Susan walking into the classroom quietly and beginning their work is a thing of the past, but I attribute this change to 3 main reasons:

1. Removal of God from the classroom - sadly, these days you even mention God in the classroom, you could get written up, fired, or some radical group might show up outside your school protesting.

2. Removal of good, old fashioned discipline - when teachers/administrators loss the ability to spank a student, the classroom was changed forever and not for the better. Today, students will tell you that you even touch them in any way that they're going to sue you. These days a student can curse you out, walkout of your class, bully/assault others, bring drugs to school, steal and destroy school property and they will be suspended for a few days, but will be right back in your classroom.

3. Removal of old fashioned teaching - today, we think computers are supposed to teach our children, but they've become more of a problem than an asset. Call me old, but there is a tremendous amount of value in a pencil and a piece of paper. I can remember doing my multiplication chart over and over, until I finally got it all right and my parents said I could stop. Today, we care more about optics and not reality. School systems across the country want everything to appear great, but the reality is social promotion is alive and well, even if the student barely picked up a pencil all year. School systems care more about making the numbers look good, regardless if a student can read or write.

The reality of education is we are falling further and further behind each year and it's only going to get worse. As a teacher only a few years away from retirement, I often wonder what lies ahead for future teachers. There is already a shortage of teachers and young teachers are quitting every day because they want to be a teacher, not a babysitter. Sadly, we all know nothing will change, which means less teachers and more students going out into the world without the basic skills needed to hold a job. The good news is the numbers will still look great and those in charge will continue to get big pay raises for a job not well done.