Chalkboard or score board?

We seem to think that most kids can do both, but elsewhere they don't!

The 21st Century may well become known as the "Knowledge" Century as opposed to the "Industrialized" moniker that may be attached to the 20th Century.

Yet we seem to be preparing our children for something else other than the acquisition of knowledge unlike the emerging powers that may dominate the 21st Century.

Schools used to have what was called "extra curricular activities."

It is interesting to see that this term has begun to migrate to "co-curricular activities."

In fact a review of our local papers shows that there is very little "news" that relates to anything else but what used to be called "extra curricular activities."

According to the March 5th issue of "Education Week," America's students are now 21st among North American and European children in academic achievement.

If we were to add the Asian countries to this list, I feel certain that our placing would decline even further!

We are placed between Iceland and the Slavic Republic.

I would suggest that most of our students couldn't find either of these two countries on a map.

Please also remember that Washington State is 50th in the nation in college completion. Not impressive.

Are we concerned? I haven't noticed anyone but Bill Gates who seems to show it. Bill puts his money where his mouth is on this one, but even Bill cannot overcome the lethargy of local school boards, parents, legislatures, and educational associations when it comes to fixing this.

I would like to suggest that the "co-curricular" activities that our children are spending so much of their time on do not even exist in most of the schools of the 21+ nations that exceed us.

Only in North America, and by the way Canada is 2nd on the list where we are 21st, do these kinds of activities invade the school grounds.

In Asia what happens after kids leave secondary schools for the day?

Most kids go to supplementary schools to hone their academic skills.

They go to school for 220 to 240 days a year where we, in Washington, have about a 145 full instructional day school year.

Is it any wonder that they exceed our children in basic knowledge? The most attendance the Federal Way School Board ever had at a work study was when they had to decide how to make up school days for a windstorm, as this would effect "vacation plans!"

Here in America we have allowed kids to believe that they can succeed in adult life through athletics, becoming a rock star, or some other "vocation" that minimizes the importance of academic achievement.

The results seem to show this. 50 percent of our 10th graders cannot do 8th grade mathematics, but most could identify more rock stars and athletes than the Vice President or House Speaker.

Ask them to give the chronological order of major historical events in American or World history and you would find some interesting understandings of our nation's legacy.

Why is this so?

We adults have allowed "extra curricular" activities to overtake the importance of acquisition of what used to be considered knowledge.

We have brought up a generation of "Educationally Disabled," ED for short. I would suggest that this syndrome is a principal cause of ADD, and ADHD.

Kids call it "focus" and many just don't seem to have a positive one and there are no consequences for this.

Our daughter participated in an international exchange program with a group of German students.

When they came here they were asked what their schools "mascot" was. They were completely puzzled by the question! Their school was "school", not a playground, and there were no "extra curricular" activities that were not directly connected to academics. Nevertheless we spend significant educational dollars on these diversions.

Couple this with I-Pods, My Space, video games, etc., and you have a certain recipe for disaster academically.

Ask kids who their heroes are and they are not likely to suggest any academic personages.

Athletes, rock stars and Hollywood personages will far exceed those who have made genuine contributions to world progress.

Is it any wonder that America's students do so poorly on academic matters, when we adults allow them to focus on diversions in school and elsewhere?

It does allow us to be comfortably numb, and our children to be "satisfied" with mediocrity.

Romans were probably satisfied with chariot races also. There is more concern with winning a basketball championship than winning a National Merit Scholarship in Federal Way. This is a sad comparison.

At a recent School Board meeting the administration trotted out three athletic teams. One supposedly has the "highest GPA" in the league, and the other two, no mention of GPA, were regional finalists.

Since "GPA" isn't tied to any realistic standard, even within the league, it is impossible to attach any real meaning to this.

In a recent local newspaper article there was a summary of the activities of many of the recent "athletes" of our district. There were two clear patterns.

Many were not able to go to the schools they had signed up for. This is probably a matter of grades even though these schools offer "special programs" for the "educationally handicapped athlete."

Secondly, many were attending community colleges where there are no admissions standards. None were attending what might be considered academically competitive colleges.

Educators will respond to this by suggesting that many students would not apply themselves in school were it not for the academic requirements, as little as they may be. They will also cite some examples of the changes that coaches might have made in some individuals lives.

Recently I read of a very successful school in a depressed neighborhood of a depressed city whose motto was "Get Ready!"

Perhaps we could change our future by adopting this motto?

Taxpayers, you might want to reconsider where your dollars are going. Are you a contributor to "ED?"

Charlie Hoff is a former member of the Board of Education for Federal Way Public Schools. His weekly column will appear in upcoming issues of the Federal Way News and online at www.federalwaynews.net.