Includes bibliographical references and index.

Dumbing down America's kids. Scenes from the front: "Mere facts" -- Andrea's complaint -- Dumbing down our kids -- Losing the race -- Scenes from the front: An endangered species I -- The American way of denial -- Dumbing down our schools. Scenes from the front: How did Einstein feel? -- Feelings -- The religion of self-esteem -- Scenes from the front: The mission statement -- The attack on excellence -- Scenes from the front: Leaders and followers -- The making of an educationist -- Scenes from the front: "I wanted to be a teacher" -- The new illiteracy -- Why Johnny can't add, subtract, multiply, or divide (but still feels good about himself) -- Dumbing down the texts -- Scenes from the front: The political classroom I -- Dumbing down the tests -- Scenes from the front: The political classroom II -- Moral dumbing down. The "values" wasteland -- Telling on mommy and daddy -- Doctor, doctor -- The attack on learning. The attack on learning -- Scenes from the front: 1928 -- 1958 -- Educational wastelands -- Scenes from the front: Mold -- Reform and counterreform. The blob -- Outcome based education -- Goals 2000 and the counterreformation -- Scenes from the front: An endangered species II -- Schools that work -- Scenes from the front: Barclay -- The coming educational revolution.

In this book, Sykes argues that the school wars of the 1990s will be the defining cultural and political debate of our time. While many parents bask in the glow of complacency about their own children's education, Dumbing Down Our Kids documents the collapse of standards in our schools, the flight from learning, and the triumph of mediocre, feel-good education that is more concerned with pumping up self-esteem than it is with passing on knowledge. This dubious triumph includes the latest educational fad, "Outcome Based Education." Although known by different names in some states, OBE is the most recent in a long series of "reforms" that have eroded our schools. Charles Sykes traces these fads from their roots in the early "progressive" theories of John Dewey, through Dick and Jane and Spot, Life Adjustment, New Math, Mastery Learning, and other reforms-gone-wrong. Sykes concludes with a checklist for parents, students, and teachers who want to evaluate their schools, and a series of recommendations to restore quality learning to America.