Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, was an insightful, “to the point” writer. Without her counsel, our second president would have stumbled, lost confidence and his way. Top of her list was faith, family – and education. We must hear her wisdom again, now.
Wrote Abigail: “Learning is not obtained by chance. It must be sought … with ardor and diligence.” Ardor is, of course, enthusiasm, passion, or love of a thing. Diligence is just plain hard work.
The latest national education results show America’s students are not learning “ardor” or “diligence.” They are hardly learning, at all. This year, the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) reported that American students are not just lagging the world, but their past.
Math scores are at historic lows for 8th and 4th graders, reading scores falling from the 2022 all-time lows. This 2024 drop is more than troubling, it should be setting off alarm bells.
Without math and reading skills, achievement has no chance, progress stalls, and survival becomes an issue. Without math, trades fail. Carpenters, plumbers, mechanics, welders, electricians, ironworkers, machinists, paramedics, radiologists, masons, loggers, and fishermen all fail.
Without math skills, tied to reading, houses, cars, trucks, ships, planes, as well as roads, shipbuilding, airports, and energy fail to be designed, built, and maintained. Absent learning, what breaks just stays broken. Just check out places like Afghanistan, Laos, Bolivia, much of Africa.
Bottom line: We are in trouble – and that is before we get to education of engineers, doctors, accountants, biologists, chemists, physicists, economists, historians, law enforcement, firefighters, and a qualified military.
Peeling back the onion, some states are bottom of the heap. Maine – once on top for public schools – is one, failing its youngest generations spectacularly, unforgivably, betraying them with politics.
Why focus on Maine? Because Maine is a glaring example of what happens when one party – the Democrats – controls things for 30 years. FAILURE, in capital letters, is the outcome. In 2023, Maine ranked dead last in the US News ranking of education outcomes.
And 2024 is a little better. Data does not lie. It tells a story. The 2024 NAEP scores show Maine with the lowest math and reading scores in history, after topping the nation 30 years ago. Today, only 33 percent of Maine’s 4th graders are math-capable, 26 percent in reading. So, 67 percent of Maine’s 4th graders lag in math, 74 percent in reading – and Maine’s Democrat government could give a rat’s…
Maine’s Democrat leaders wear a “scarlet letter,” an allusion to Hawthorne’s book by that name most will not get. They have devasted the future of Maine kids, and families fleeing our public schools.
Maine’s primary and secondary schools are in freefall. Statewide enrollment, even before what is left unlearned – and teaching that has no place being taught – fell from 207,000 to 168,000 – or 19 percent – from 2000 to 2023. From 2007 to 2015, Maine teachers dropped from 16,700 to 14,500.
As teachers are punished for imposing consequences by Democrat-dominated administrators, Maine’s Democrat governor, and legislature, teacher morale plummets. Many move or retire.
As teachers lose control over their teaching plans, curriculum, and freedom, big things go untaught. Back when Maine schools topped the nation, even average students like me got four years of math, science, English, a language, two of history (one of Maine history), industrial arts, and time to wonder.
Those days are gone. Today, Maine public high schools are in trouble, discipline problems rampant, driven by fear of holding kids accountable, standards lowered (11 credits will “graduate” a student), Democrat political priorities replacing objective learning, drugs everywhere – NO LEADERSHIP.
Speaking frankly, this is on us – the voters. Teachers are given the freedom we let them have, through state political leaders. Kids learn what we teach and model, what we care about.
Fact: Maine, like other Democrat-dominated states, is paying a terrible price for indifference to kids, pretending their success does not count, that skill learning (which is hard) can be replaced by emotional learning, sensitivity, and the grievance culture. Spoiler alert: That does not work, never has.
Without teaching values – like Abigail Adam’s appeal to “ardor” or enthusiasm for learning, and the power of “diligence” or hard work, we are doomed to the insanity of repeating bad outcomes.
The problem is not money, as students per teacher have fallen by half and spending doubled in 20 years. It is about the quality of what is taught, not critical thinking, teaching kids to question the assumptions not accept them, and think for themselves, not pose and play.
Student outcomes go to undercut, second-guessed, unfree, demoralized teachers, pushed by administrators and politically craven leaders in Augusts. When Democrats push indoctrination over real education, kids lose. Time to start winning. Maine’s kids – and the Nation’s – need us. Somehow, I think Abigail would agree.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).
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