All of the above and many more. My wife taught high school English for thirty yrs and found little consistency in testing demands (standardized) support from administrators on discipline. Parental involvement was also miniscule as you got to students with lower grades. Mainstreaming and inclusion with social promotion caused a pattern of teaching to the lowest common denominator. IEPs (individualized education plan) for multiple students caused disjointed planning and established a new teacher position to formulate plans but not teach students. Very few want to put in the work any more.

I used to evaluate student essays in the standardized testing industry. After reading thousands of essays, a pattern haunted me. Even the articulate, psychologically savvy students, who could construct coherent essays, had no sense of historical chronology. It was as if there was a deliberate suppression of history - especially of Western civilization. Now, I do my best to resist paranoia. So, I don't imagine a group of commies formulating this plan so much as I imagine an unconscious mass of fear and nihilism driving educational policy. As the acceleration accelerates, ill-conceived urgency seems to reign.This equals chaos in every sector.
Students have the luxury of time to think. Adult policy-makers to not. Those of us who can sit still long enough to think have an obligation to promote sober reflection, and to carry the arc of the past to the ears of the future.

What's your opinion on Pajama Days?

"Children are being taught what think instead of how think." This has been said too many times to overlook without some sense of loss.

I'm in my early 40's, so I completed school before the "no child left behind" doctrine. My teachers were of such an age that they reached adulthood during or before the 1970's. So, for me, it was a benefit to learn from teachers that actually understood the importance of critical thinking. According to some of the textbooks that have made it into the news in recent years, it's now of more importance to defer to the statements and opinions of so-called "experts". Meanwhile, those that can afford private or home schooling are more apt to have children that will understand the world in a more complete manner. As a result, the old adage of the "haves and have nots" starts to leech into education.

I'm sure I'm going to botch explaining this, but I'll try.

In chemistry, I was taught that hydrogen and oxygen could join together and produce water because two atoms of hydrogen gave a +2 , and one atom of oxygen had a -2 , for a net of 0. So, combined, the compound was very stable, and not incredibly reactive with most other chemicals. In present day, students are more likely be taught that hydrogen and oxygen will form water, but in terms of an explanation why, it's simply taught that chemists (the experts in this case) have done research and this is what happens, end of story. Teaching the real "why" of the matter is absent.

When you apply this manner of teaching to things like history, it becomes an even bigger issue. In teaching what to think, concerning a particular topic (like the Japanese internment camps of WWII), students are left incapable of an honest critique as to whether or not it should have been done. Without this ability, they never actually learn from history. Instead, they doom the students to repeat historical mistakes. This can be seen in the uptick in support of communism in the west, or the incredibly surprising rise in segregation proponents among black Americans. If students actually understood the history, they would better grasp the millions of deaths brought about by communism, or the reasons behind desegregation so many decades ago.

It's both sad and disappointing.

Schools are like pot holes on roads. Fixing and funding them them is done locally. The schools in my area are great. Sorry that the ones in your area aren't good. I don't think it is some grand conspiracy.

I highly recommend reading Walter E William's book called "Liberty Versus the Tyranny of Socialism: Controversial Essays". That book contains colums written by him and the dumbing down of students in schools and universities. I read the book and it contains many sources ranging from statistics, historical information, etc.

You can buy it on Amazon.com for 15$.

I have a feeling it's a combination of all of those mentioned above.

All of the above