The Decline of Education 2.  by Donald E. Simanek Observations
on 30 years in the ed-biz, chronicling the decline of education,
and a pessimistic view of its future.  [This document was
originally two long postings to the PHYSHARE Bitnet discussion
group in July 1995. It is an opinion piece intended to stimulate
discussion of the very real problems education faces today. I
deliberately took positions not often openly expressed. The
volume of requests that this be reposted (even from people not
members of the discussion group) was great enough that I found
it simpler to post it here on my web page for people to
download. I thank all of those who privately e-mailed support,
and who shared with me their own experiences.]  Related
documents: The Decline of Education, Part 1 (1974, 1994), What
Is The Meaning Of 'Academic'?, and Designing a math curriculum
for today's students.  The problem.  Lately I've had
conversations with faculty colleagues, admissions directors and
administrators, at several schools, about th