美学生读写能力危机严重削弱对华竞争力
2023-04-29 07:17阅读：
无论我们是否承认，以中国为首的“全球东方”正在崛起。
仅在过去的一年里，中国就大举推进其国际优先事项，这表明中国不再担心直面以美国为首的西方所产生的影响。此外，中国还促成沙特与伊朗这对宿敌之间的和解、参与俄乌冲突解决、促使美国及其欧洲盟友在台湾问题上产生分歧，并与巴西总统统一姿态，后者上周发推称巴西打算与中国合作“以扩大贸易并平衡世界地缘政治”。
与此同时，美国人似乎对这种国际变化的影响不感兴趣。美国媒体上铺天盖地的大字标题肯定会引起中国的嘲笑，特别是有关美国教育水平江河日下、美国无法让其学生掌握基本阅读技能的报道。美国最新的全国教育水平评估显示，美国四年级学生缺乏基本阅读能力比例达到令人瞠目结舌的2/3。而且，美国多达86%的15岁青少年分不清观点和事实之间的区别。
简言之，下一代美国人将比现在更容易遭受外国“心理战”的影响，且更没有能力与中国在全球经济中竞争。与此同时，中国学生继续引领全球步伐。最近对79个国家的60万名15岁青少年进行测试的国际学生评估项目显示，中国学生的阅读、数学和科学技能领先世界。美国在阅读方面远远落后于中国，在数学方面甚至落后更多。
我们的教育失败对下一代美国人及其家庭将有悲惨影响。成功地提高美国人的读写能力问题事关美国的“生死存亡”，在这个日益虚拟的无国界世界，如果没有能熟练阅读的公民，美国的生活方式肯定将从地球上消失。
当然，这将被美国各大学人文学系的左翼教授视为可喜的发展势头，因为在他们看来，美国从本质上来说是个代表着全球最大威胁的邪恶国家。
一个健康、运作良好且希望保持其地缘战略地位的全球大国，将会强调教育在其日常话语体系中的重要性。无论这场读写能力危机能否通过引入拼读教学、推动择校改革或者借助其他手
段来解决，都需要给予认真和持续的关注。随着我们进入2024年总统竞选季，角逐白宫的竞争者最好在各自平台上强调这一问题。很难想象还有比这个与美国命运更直接相关的问题。
How America's literacy crisis will cripple our ability to
combat China
By Peter Laffin
Americans seem to behave as if they are not locked in a
civilizational struggle with a malevolent adversary. Not even a
Chinese spy balloon floating over the U.S. mainland and collecting
intelligence from military sites could focus our attention on the
threat for more than a fleeting moment. But the China-led Global
East is rising with or without our acknowledgment.
The past year alone has seen Chinese President Xi boldly advance
Chinese international priorities, which suggests that he no longer
fears the consequences of bucking the U.S.-led West. Among other
things, he’s brokered a detente between ancient rivals Saudi Arabia
and Iran, entered the foray in Ukraine with deepening military ties
to Russia, created distance between the U.S. and its European
allies about Taiwan policy, and struck a unified pose with
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who last week
tweeted his intention for Brazil to work with China “to expand
trade and balance world geopolitics” (emphasis mine).
Meanwhile, Americans appear uninterested in the implications of
this international shift and consequently lack the urgency
necessary to fend off the challenge. Headlines abound in the
American press that must cause Xi to chuckle himself silly —
especially reports that involve the ballooning failure of American
education , particularly its inability to teach its students basic
reading skills.
According to the most recent National Assessment of Educational
Progress , a jaw-dropping two-thirds of American fourth graders
lack basic proficiency in reading. (To put this in perspective,
imagine three American schoolchildren sitting beside one another in
a classroom. Two of them can’t read.) In addition, a full 86% of
15-year-olds are unable to tell the difference between opinion and
fact.
Put simply: The next generation will render Americans even more
vulnerable to foreign psyops than we are at present, as well as
less capable of competing with China in the global economy.
Meanwhile, Chinese students continue to set the global pace.
According to the latest Program for International Student
Assessment (PISA), which is an international test of 600,000
15-year-olds in 79 countries, China’s students lead the world in
reading, math, and science skills. America lagged far behind in
reading (13th) and even farther behind in math (36th) .
Beyond the tragic implications of our education failures on the
next generation of Americans and their families, the eventuality
that these children will be relied upon to resist the spread of
Chinese techno-authoritarianism is harrowing. Successfully righting
the literacy ship is not primarily a moral issue but an existential
one; without a literate citizenry to defend national interests in
an increasingly virtual and borderless world, the American way of
life will almost certainly perish from the Earth.
Of course, this will be considered a welcome development by the
overwhelmingly leftist professoriate in our university humanities
departments that trains our education professionals, since, in
their warped view, the U.S. is an inherently evil nation that
represents the greatest global threat. These departments produce
endless streams of teachers and administrators who prioritize
leftist moral instruction through Social Emotional Learning
programs over building basic skills. Suffice it to say, the
purveyors of SEL are unlikely to be moved by the implications of
childhood illiteracy on the U.S.-led global order. (Until, perhaps,
they discover the state of LGBT affairs under Chinese Communist
Party rule, as well as the government’s treatment of
minorities.)
A healthy and functioning global power intent on maintaining its
geostrategic position would emphasize the importance of education
in its daily discourse. Whether the literacy crisis can be solved
by reintroducing phonics instruction, promoting school choice, or
by some other means, it demands serious and sustained attention. As
we enter the 2024 presidential primary season, White House
contenders would do well to feature the issue on their respective
platforms. It would be difficult to imagine an issue more directly
related to the fate of the free world.
Well, perhaps, except for this New York Times report from Wednesday
that details China’s drastic expansion of its nuclear arsenal ,
which will elevate the country to the rank of nuclear
superpower.
Are we paying attention yet?
