Education Disaster in America: Surrender Management (Surrender Management: America in Retreat Book 4)

This book is part of a series of eleven illustrated volumes entitled Surrender Management: America in Retreat. This series is a non-fiction narrative about America’s most serious economic and social national problems. It presents the thesis that our nation has been practicing “surrender management” by postponing solutions to lethal problems indefinitely. Each of the books of the series contains the same first three chapters because they provide the historical background that traces the condition of national “surrender management” that is at the root of each of topics discussed in this series. Each of the books also contains a similar last chapter that reviews the proposals for change that are being advanced.
This series is written for the average person, it is not an academic text; clear and simple description of the history and present magnitude of the problems are provided, followed by numerous common sense proposals for solutions. It also does not try to address all national problems; it rather selects a dozen issues that are presented as extremely serious and threatening the security of our society. The first three chapters present to the reader a view of a country in trouble, without sounding hopeless. They provide a historical analysis of how accelerating technological and social changes have disoriented and created a degree of social disorganization. Finally, they point to how our nation has begun a process of surrendering to problems deemed too difficult to confront.

The national problems discussed in the books in this series include national debt, disconnected youth, illegal immigration, drugs, criminal justice, education, globalization, energy dependence, space exploration, national defense, and the moral dimension. The final chapter calls for the American people to organize in political action to save the nation. Each of the book’s chapters dealing with issues are organized in three parts: first, they provide a historical background of the issue; second, they provide a graphic description of the issue as a major problem in our society today; third, they offer many proposals for change in search of solutions. These proposals for change are suggested based on their intrinsic value, disregarding the present national political polarization that would keep them from becoming viable today.

Public education, an American invention, is perhaps responsible for leading the United States to its pre-eminent position in the world; it is perhaps also the most likely tool available to our nation in its quest to remain a wealthy and influential society on the planet. The deterioration of quality in public education of the last half century has been a tragic and dangerous development; it is not irreversible, but it will be costly, revolutionary and necessary.

The concerned public is eager to hear common sense solutions that transcend political extremes. Everyone knows that many of our economic, social, and international problems have reached intolerable levels that will require drastic and painful measures. Political deadlock will continue and will bring about upheaval soon; this book is a prescription for what to do after that.