European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 11, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes monday january 11,1988 columns James j. Kilpatr1ck beefing up school requirements necessary logarithms trigonometric functions do Ilovsky has Bill Bennett lost his mind is he seriously proposing that american High school students be required not just encouraged but required to study this stuff the Secretary of education is dead serious and he has not lost his mind at All. In n year end statement describing a hypothetical James Madison High school Bennett recently resumed to a theme he has harped on for the past four years. He is convinced that every High school student not just the gifted col lege bound students but every student from the ninth through inc 12th Grade should be cd nosed to a Tough and de manding Core curriculum. His recommendations make great Good sense nearly five years have passed since the National commission on excellence in education brought Forth its stunning report a nation of risk that report documented and denounced the rising tide of mediocrity that had overwhelmed Public education. It fired up the boilers in Many slate Legislatures and Here and there the report produced real improvements. Than the steam leaked out most of the states have significantly improved teacher salaries a few have opted Abr systems of Merit pay. But Only 13 percent of the school districts have instituted minimum competency tests for teachers. None has extended the school year and Only three slates Florida Louisiana and Pennsylvania have mandated the kind of required courses that Bennett recommends when will inc people and the state Legislatures Wake up Public education in America is in serious trouble. The tax payers arc supporting 17,000 High schools with an enrolment of 12 million teen agers and with some notable exceptions these Young people Are being Short changed. They Are not gelling the Educa Tion that will equip them for the competitive world of inc 21st Century. Maybe Bennett s statement will inspire state legislators to mandate re forms. In Bennett s Ideal James mad Ison High students would be required to take four years of English three years each of social studies math and science two years each of a foreign language and physical education and a half year each of Art and music. At every step along the Way students would be Jim Fain required to write papers. They would read serious books and plays. They would gel a solid grounding in history and government. They would been peeled to master algebra and trigonometry and they would have an Opportunity to study calculus. The schedule would leave abundant room especially in the senior year for elective for band typing computer operation Driver education and the like. Bennett emphatically challenges the notion that he is promoting Al item. Me finds the charge insulting 10 poor Blacks and hispanics who May be culturally Dis adv nudged. Of course they can learn he says and he cites examples to prove it. At new York City s a. Philip ran Dolph High school half of the 1,500 Black and hispanic students come from poor families but they Are thriving on a Core curriculum even tougher than Ben Nett s Ideal. In los Angeles the James a. Gnu Field High school serves 3,500 Stu dents in the East los Angeles Barrio 90 percent of whom Are disadvantaged. Sev Enty percent of of article s students go on to higher education the school s greatest Pride is its excellence in mathematics. Bennett makes the same joint hat the commission on excellence in education made in 1983, our planet shrinks. Our teen agers will be competing As adults with their opposite numbers around inc world. Doe he ask Loo much in the area of mathematics in an International Competition in 1982, our Best High school mathematicians finished dead last. Is it unreasonable to require two years of a foreign language in France students must take six years of one for eign language and four years of another. We want our students to take from High school Bennett says a shared body of knowledge and skills a common language of ideas a common moral and intellectual our graduate should know math and science history and literature. We want them to i Hank for themselves to respond to important questions to solve problems to pursue an argument to defend a Point of View to understand its opposite and to weigh this is what education is All about the development of those habits of mind and train of character that our society prizes. To the extent that our High schools arc failing to inculcate those values they Are failing the children and failing the country As Well. Putting some realism Back into defense budget under president Reagan the United slates has pampered the Pentagon with the costliest Binge of throwing Money at defense in peacetime history. What did it get for its Money maybe 30 cents on the Dollar. Morale and troop Quality arc improved which is All to the Good. But most of the Booty has gone to intricate weapons systems of dubious Quality most of which do not address the most pressing Security needs. Conventional readiness remains underfunded and largely neglected. Two of the most controversial systems Ilie my mis Sile and the by bomber verge on irrelevance. The my never has found a suitable Basing Mode from the car Ter Nightmare of cruising it Over the Western Stales to today s myth if Garriso Ning it on rail lines and trundling it out in emergencies. The my is a 10-warhead Albatross highly vulnerable to a first strike. The Multi glitch by was outdated by the stealth bomber almost before it could be deployed. Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci is making a few timid Steps toward introducing some realism but the real hangover will confront the nut administration. Here Are a few suggestions for restoring some Cost effect ivaness after Cap Weinberger s no Var mind the cup Cense seven year revel Cut Back Star wars to a sensible research program and push for Extension of abm treaty restraints on testing and deployment. Improve conventional readiness Ond beef up a coordinated incr Scricc capability for anti terrorism and guerrilla warfare. Rich groups and battleships. Co to smaller submarines using the deadly new Trident ii d-5 missiles with eight rather than u War Heads. By having fewer missiles per submarine and fewer warheads per missile we can accept the Likely constraints of a Start treaty without becoming dangerously vulnerable to soviet breakthroughs in anti submarine warfare. Develop and deploy the single warhead Mobile Midge Man missile to reduce the vulnerability of land based nukes to a potential first strike. Produce a cheaper More rugged air plane fur ground support in conventional warfare. Beef up sea and Airlift for deployment and resp by in the Type of Bushfire wars that seem to be our lot in an pm of strategic nuclear stalemate work at ridding the officer corps of the bureaucratic cover your backside mentality thai per meates it and get Back to the basics of Battlefield discipline. Insist on a Central coordinated command under a general staff that will Root out and destroy incr service rivalry and bickering. End the political symbiosis of the Pentagon and Congress under which the defense budget has become a Gigantic pork barrel with Pentagon officials protect ing pet programs by bribing influential congressmen with contracts to munitions makers within their districts. That s not an All inclusive list but it s a Start. Down the Road you will know we Are serious about defense when we go to National service and must that the Well to do carry their share of the Burden. Right now politicians of Boih right and left shun that Kinder realism. When they prattle about defense most of the Lime they re blowing smoke. What s worse under their cynical sophistry they know it
