CNN’s Fareed Zakaria did a special on education on Sunday, November 6^th. I have the utmost respect for Zakaria and regard him as the most insightful commentator on TV. Amidst the commentary was this shocking statistic: “Half of our teachers graduate in the bottom third of their class.” If this is true, God help us. What it means is that we are entrusting the education of our young to the dregs of the education system.

The American education system is in trouble. Everyone knows it. All kinds of ideas and remedies are floating around out there. Bill and Melinda are throwing money at the problem like crazy. Sadly, the system is beyond fixing under the prevailing American mindset. Here’s why.

In most other countries, teaching is a respected and honored profession, but not in America. This country does not place a premium on education, and that’s an unassailable fact. We say instead, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.” College education courses are historically famous for being soft. Bright kids are encouraged to go into medicine or law, or even business—any profession where serious money can be made.  The budding Bernie Madoffs have society’s respect, not the local third grade teacher.

         After listening to Zakaria’s description of the intense competition in Finland to get into the teaching profession, the description of the rigorous training Finnish teachers receive, and the description of the ongoing training and evaluation they undergo, it is no surprise that Finnish society reveres teachers and pays them well. In contrast, we have little reverence for our teachers, and that is reflected in their paychecks.

         America no longer values the future enough to prepare for it. We no longer make tough decisions based on the long-term benefit. We make decisions based solely on short-term cost. It’s why most of our electrical lines are overhead instead of underground. It’s why our companies are run for the sake of investors and not for the long-term health of the company.

Americans do not want to commit the effort, time, and money to a training system that will produce what the Finns turn out. If such a system happens to emerge from the Gates Foundation research, fine, but it’s not going to come from the entrenched Department of Education or the teacher’s unions that are primarily concerned with preserving the status quo.

We have not concentrated on training teachers with a deep fundamental understanding of their subject. Our current predilection for political correctness and low expectations (higher expectations might damage tender psyches) does not equip students with either the prescience to understand the value of knowledge or the desire to acquire it.

Zakaria’s program revealed that the Finns and the South Koreans turn out good students with vastly different systems. What the systems have in common is good teachers. The show also mentioned the fact that Finland and South Korea have the advantage of relatively homogeneous societies. America does not. Only 4% of Finnish students live in poverty. A full 20% of American students do. This fact alone brings a host of societal problems to American schools, not the least of which is an almost universal discipline problem. Many of our high schools are glorified detention centers that warehouse children until Mom and Dad drag home from 12-hour shifts, or from other activities, too tired or detached to check on Junior who is in his room using his computer not for the great research tool that it could be, but to update his narcissistic and self-centered Facebook page or to send pictures of his genitals to his girl friend. Think that happens in a South Korean home?

Then there is the flawed structure of our schools. If there is a complaint, odds are that a spineless administration will support the helicopter parent (“My Johnny would never do that!”) or the kid. Rarely the teacher.

And finally, the home front. Many American children, regardless of family wealth, receive little training in manners or decorum at home. Teachers are expected to turn little savages into semblances of human beings with more resistance than support from parents. Add to this the decades-old American schoolyard tradition of ridiculing or picking on the kids who actually do want to learn and behave, and you have a Lord of the Flies scenario. Why would someone in his right mind want to attempt instruction in such an environment?

         Without fundamental changes in the American attitude toward school, there is scant hope for improvement. Without this basic attitude adjustment, any effort to correct the educational system will be both superficial and inconsequential.