Why Johnny Still Can't Read or Write or Understand Math: And What We Can Do About It

by Andrew Bernstein

The current school system churns out millions of illiterates and mental zombies—but here’s how we’re going to fix it, starting today.

“Stephen King? A no horror story is as harrowing as Andrew Bernstein’s must-read Why Johnny Still Can’t Read or Write or Understand Math. Bernstein tears the genteel cover off the educational system and reveals the truly shocking extent of the destruction that has been wrought by fashionable Leftist educational theories, the con men, quacks and psychopaths who have gained control of American public education over the last few decades, and the public educational system’s addiction to taxpayer funding and the latest societal trends, no matter how damaging they are to children. But Bernstein doesn’t just leave us he also offers a practical, readily applicable program for taking back the educational system and saving our children from these lunatics. If you have children in school, this is essential reading. And even if you don’t, but care about the future of society, you must not miss this all-important book.”

—Robert Spencer, bestselling author of The History of Jihad, Did Muhammad Exist? and The Critical Qur'an

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, parents across the nation grapple with a new and horrifying understanding of just how bad our educational system has become. It all adds up to a system that seems hopelessly, terribly, and irrevocably broken. But as an educator and author, Andrew Bernstein reminds us that American education in the nineteenth through early-twentieth century was superb. This nation once knew how to turn out the brightest, most resourceful and independent-thinking people the world had ever seen. We can do it again.

209 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 23, 2022

About the author

Andrew Bernstein is an American philosopher. He is a proponent of Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, and the author of several books, both fiction and non-fiction.

Reviews

[Dwayne Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent review of where we are and where we COULD go if we had the will.

[Walter Sylesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fast and simple read for me. Kudos to Dr. Bernstein for efficient writing that doubled as pathos for the book. I could sense that a proper educated mind that could think on its own and reason clearly is the end goal of any system of education from his writing.

There are so many shocking facts that I came to know through the book on how the public school systems in the US (that were given a gilded status in developing countries such as India) had a sinister devaluation of the individual and was in effect anti-intellectual in its premises. Though I was taught to admire John Dewey as the progenitor of the modern progressive schooling system, I was surprised to see him advocate for a system so bad that it refuses to budge even after decades of negative reviews. Dewey and his fellow educators/philosophers from Columbia seem to have proposed a novel better way of learning but have hidden terrible concepts beneath such as uncertainty, interrelatability and social relevance of education.

They make Macaulay seem better as the British education system which although notoriously promoted rote learning ended up exposing the students to all forms of literature and ideas from across the world. The Indian freedom struggle for example was fomented by that system where scores of leaders and individuals railed against the imperial policies of the British and aspired from freedom and self-rule. The so called progressive system on the other hand has effectively dumbed down generations of Americans and made them docile and vulnerable to a ruling class.

Dr. Bernstein encapsulates the above horrors through his experience and research in the first half of the book. He then progresses to show alternatives to the system. While he writes off any reform within the Education Department as an impossibility (Aptly referring to them as an impregnable fortress), he suggests various ways in which parents can take control of their child's education. His foremost suggestions include using phonetics as opposed to any form of whole-word method as a more efficient way of learning to read, homeschooling or community tutoring where possible and privatization of education as a better solution.

Through the book, I felt various concepts that were incorporated into Indian schooling curriculum originated from leftist theories of education (Such as use of social studies to cover history, geography) and of late, I can sense that the right-wing government seeks to "rationalise" parts of syllabus based on similar premises as the American progressives. I was really happy to see the strong emphasis on reading and writing to be the base upon which math, history, geography and philosophy could be built on and I wholly caught myself nodding throughout.

If there was a miss, I think this book was tailored specifcially to the American audience and some of the examples taken from developing countries lacked the proper nuance it should have been given. But it makes sense given the purpose and target of the book was to criticise the public school system for its decrepit state and incorrect premises and the possible solutions within the American context. However, there are a lot of takeaways for every one irrespective of Geography.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rousing call to action.

[Sam Reither · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great perspective on education and what's wrong with the system. And what went wrong. Really influential in my view of how schooling should be constructed.