re: Students are entering college unable to write

I believe this. K-12 was never the best and since covid it’s been exponentially worse.

My daughter (elementary age) today said they talked about 9/11, somehow presidents came up and her teacher said Biden is a great president. This is her first year teaching fresh out of college. I’d rather these idiots who were in diapers at the time not teaching about 9/11 when they don’t know the full impact of that day. I was in 8th grade history when 9/11 happened and was deployed at 19.

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My daughter (elementary age) today said they talked about 9/11, somehow presidents came up and her teacher said Biden is a great president

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I think mine started getting a light dusting of 9/11 education in 2nd or 3rd grade. Thankfully, our district seems to keep political stuff about presidents, etc. out of anything that the kids hear (according to a lack of such reports from my kids.) If anything, I've had to stop my eldest from talking the way his peers do (Trump is the best, etc.) I'm trying to train him to not make emotional statements when he doesn't have enough knowledge to back said statements up.

You have arrived! Welcome! Or should I say Shalom?

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the states where it is accepting to support lgbt actually have higher rates of education, as well as better public education systems.

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You were saying...

wmar2news - maryland-math-assessment-data-shows-decrease-in-proficiency-among-students

dailywire: a-whopping-85-of-maryland-students-are-not-proficient-in-math-after-covid-school-closures

Walters: California students among nation’s worst for math and language
State is falling short in some very important indices of societal achievement, such as public education

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You ever seen obama sign a document, the way he curls his hand around the entire document, its so his writing leans right, he conformed like so many others.

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I knew a guy once that told me he was supposed to be a leftie, but the Nuns at his preschool "convinced" him otherwise.

Most people don't understand how true this is

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A “substantial education” is attained through the use of
memory and gives the individual the methods and
habits necessary to acquire the fundamentals of knowledge. The student is to “accept the authority of the
teacher for the truth of what he is told, and does not
question it or seek to obtain insight into the reason for
its being so.”

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In the early 20th century, the objective was to make sure every kid learned to happily be a replaceable cog in the industrial machine. The old movie "Metropolis" took on a new meaning after I learned this.

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One problem is the method of teaching basic reading in 1st grade.
Before 1970 it was always phonetics. Then it turned to 'whole word.' Phonetics produced kids who could read much faster and comprehend better.
Most private schools realized this in the 80s and stuck with phonetics. Most public schools still use whole word.

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You are exactly right.
When someone learns to read with phonetics it also allows them to see things in other languages and recognize roots, prefixes, and suffixes that come from derivative languages.
Even dead ones like Latin.
I would say 90%+ Americans don't realize how much Latin is incorporated into all Western languages.

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phonetics it also allows them to see things in other languages and recognize roots, prefixes, and suffixes

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Are we conflating phonics with phonetics? I don't remember hearing the latter while I was in primary school, just phonics.

I was in elementary school in the middle of the phonics movement. I never understood it. Schwa? Upside down e? Huh? I don't know what those are, and it sure as hell never helped me connect English, French, Spanish, and Italian words together. That was just me reading a lot (which didn't come from school, Department of Defense schools usually.)

Learning to see word roots doesn't, at least to me, have anything to do with the stupid word diagramming or whatever the hell they tried to teach me in the 80s.

My view is that the more you read, of everything, the less people need weird crutches. I admit I learn heavily from inferred context about words and their meanings, and it's not right for everyone.

Understand that the educational establishment benefits from making sure parents are confused at all times. This encourages parents to say stuff like, "I don't know how these teachers do it." The educational establishment likes that.