Warren Lee Culpepper
In case my “drcoolpepper-email address” has fooled anyone, I better confess that I’m not actually a doctor; however, I may have discovered a new mental illness. I would like to call it Persistent-Inconvenient-Serious Specifics Disorder (or PISSD). From my research, I estimate about fifty percent of the American population is PISSD. Ironically, those who suffer from this disorder generally dislike labels, unless they are labeling others. For example, they might “feel” they are above partisan politics – despite indisputable evidence contradicting their “feelings.” They also might be quick to label those who use facts in arguments as mean or stupid.
If you haven’t noticed, I tend to mock the politically correct (PC) practices circulating in public schools. As a result, former colleagues and people I have never met, but who have read my columns, have developed serious and classic symptoms of PISSD. Some PISSD-former colleagues even argue no such PC agenda exists in education. I concede the extent of damage inflicted in public schools by PC remains unknown, but I’m absolutely astonished that PISSD people deny PC’s prevalence in public schools.
A PISSD-former colleague of mine who apparently has a reading comprehension problem – I noticed his deficiency because I am an English teacher — accuses me of not focusing on the two real issues facing education today — the incompetence of many teachers and the status quo of mediocrity. The fact is my writing addresses both issues just about every time I sit down at my keyboard – I call the technique enforcing my argument; others might call it repetition. Regardless, I assert that both issues (teacher incompetence and mediocrity) are the offspring of political correctness; conversely, my PISSD-former colleague “feels” PC in education doesn’t even exist. But what produces incompetent teachers? Hmm, the politically correct fantasy of a world without competition couldn’t possibly have anything to do with that problem. Nope, the watered-down standards that have led to a surge of students having above-average grades that boost their self-esteem surely don’t have anything to do with political correctness either — meanwhile indisputable facts prove American students are falling behind their foreign counterparts, not to mention performing worse than American students from a generation ago.
No, the real problem with education, according to this PISSD teacher, is that politicians on both sides of the fence and I (a delusional English teacher, barbaric Marine, and self-proclaimed pragmatist) are masking the “actual” issues in education so that America’s wicked economy continues running smoothly! Wow, now I’m totally confused because this PISSD teacher told me he was above partisan political views and my myths about PC! Furthermore, he “feels” schools have always “sucked” (his word) and have never taught students to think. When I innocently asked him why he thought SAT scores began falling between the 1960s and the early 1980s, he implied I was stupid because the increased diversity among students taking the test naturally explained the drop in scores. But when I asked him how diversity explains the significantly lower number of students achieving the highest scores – simply raw numbers having nothing to do with factoring in lower scores — he refused to acknowledge me. I guess he was PISSD.
According to this PISSD teacher, capitalism is the obvious problem with America’s public education. The fact that my mentor’s husband, a prominent surgeon, could not begin teaching high school biology tomorrow because he doesn’t have a teaching credential – clearly has nothing to do with PC eliminating competition or ensuring mediocrity! Of course, my friend’s husband can educate other doctors and cure patients, but he’s not equipped to teach teenagers about biology or chemistry because he lacks a teaching credential. That parents pay taxes but cannot choose to send their children to a school willing to hire a retired surgeon without a teaching credential isn’t a problem either. Nah, according to this PISSD teacher, education’s problem is that kids are not taught to think because we needs them to “work menial jobs” in our capitalistic society, and politicians don’t want students smart enough to exercise their right to vote!
Give me a freaking break! I have no other response when I am confronted with such idiocy. Maybe kids are not being taught to think because PISSD teachers like the one to whom I referring don’t know what thinking is! If the teacher doesn’t know the difference between facts and feelings or serious arguments and silly opinions, how can his students?
I’m not even going to bother documenting facts about the low academic ability of many college students who are majoring in education. Thomas Sowell’s book Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas does a far superior job than I could do. Besides, facts and their persistency are just inconvenient to those PISSD people who “feel” they are smarter than everyone else, at least everyone who relies on serious facts, not feelings.
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Warren Lee Culpepper is currently writing his first book, Alone and Unafraid: One Marine’s Counterattack Inside the Walls of Public Education. Additionally, he is a contributing columnist for The Publius’ Forum, The North Carolina Conservative, and The Hinzsight Report.
A 1991 graduate of Virginia Tech, Culpepper majored in both English and Communication. He was also a varsity wrestler. He attended the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia, and received his commission in 1993. He served four years on active duty before settling in southern California to begin his teaching career. He taught high school English in both California and Texas. He recently moved to eastern North Carolina with his wife, Heather, and their bulldog, Shrek.
Lee can be reached at drcoolpepper@yahoo.com.
Visit Lee’s blog at http://wlculpepper.townhall.com/