Image courtesy of the University of Minnesota
Over the past six years, students in much of the United States, particularly in blue cities and states, have experienced significant educational interruptions. First, the COVID lockdowns kept kids out of school entirely or in part for as many as four years in some states. As a result, by the end of the 2024–2025 school year, students were still half a year behind.
This disruption was compounded in states that prioritize DEI, ethnic and gender studies, and other social-engineering classes, which consume valuable class time that would otherwise be spent on math and science. Currently, some schools are dismissing students so they can protest against ICE rather than complete their lessons. Protests and walkouts, coupled with teacher strikes and activism, are forms of disruption that negatively impact educational outcomes, particularly skill development.
Certain school subjects, such as mathematics, music, and foreign languages, are skill-based. If a student does not practice, the skills cannot be mastered. These skills must also be learned chronologically. If you have not completed chapter seven of the math book, you cannot do chapter eight because the knowledge builds as you progress.
Once a student has missed a significant percentage of the material, there is no real way to catch up without repeating the grade. However, schools generally lack any structured means of making up the lost learning.
To further compound the issue, No Child Left Behind and similar “everyone gets a pass” programs advance students to the next grade level even when they do not possess the required skills. The simple logic these policies ignore is that a student who did not pass seventh grade cannot pass eighth grade, and by ninth grade will be so far behind that they stop trying.
Allen Epstein, author of The Handbook to Educational Reality Manuscript, is a veteran teacher and university professor in the California education system. In an interview with the Gateway Pundit, he explained that “lost instructional time breaks continuity, and mastery collapses. And schools almost never repair it once students are promoted by age rather than completion.”
The liberalization of education is holding students back. One of the most common examples cited by parents is the rejection of the idea that there is one right way to solve a problem. In some classrooms, teachers give partial or even full credit for a creative but mathematically incorrect explanation. The emphasis is placed on a student’s “mathematical identity” or “sense-making” rather than accuracy. Critics argue this produces math illiteracy. When students are taught that their process matters more than the correct answer, they struggle in fields such as engineering or medicine, where a single decimal error can have serious consequences.
Another shift has been the de-emphasis on automaticity, including memorization of basic math facts. Timed tests and rote learning, such as memorizing multiplication tables, are sometimes described as stressful or harmful to a child’s confidence. Instead, students are encouraged to use strategies such as drawing dots or relying on calculators rather than memorizing that 7 × 8 = 56. The result is a cognitive load problem. By the time students reach high school algebra without having automated basic arithmetic, their brains are still occupied with simple calculations, leaving less capacity to understand abstract variables. This contributes to higher failure rates in advanced math.
Grading practices have also changed in the name of equity. Some schools use group grades, avoid penalizing late work, or adopt “no-zero” policies in which the lowest possible grade is 50 percent even if no work is submitted. Critics argue this weakens accountability and fosters learned helplessness. High-achieving students may feel their effort is devalued, while struggling students are advanced without mastering the material.
In California, a related push allowed “data science” courses to substitute for Algebra II, framed as more relevant than abstract algebra. However, universities, including the University of California system in 2024, began rejecting such substitutions because they did not provide the functions and rigor required for calculus. Students who take the softer path often find themselves blocked from STEM majors later because they lack the necessary mathematical foundation.
In some school districts, students are being taught that math is racist.
Educators attempt to approach science and STEM subjects in the same way as the social sciences, allowing multiple answers, claiming there is no wrong answer, or suggesting it is racist to say that two plus two is always four. These attitudes and the corresponding modified lesson plans are further disruptions.
“There’s a curriculum that needs to be covered,” said Epstein, explaining why these modifications are disruptive. He added that the curriculum does not get taught when “you start sliding in other things. It encourages these breaks, and learning continuity needs to flow without interruption.”
Epstein also described how he dealt with tardy students. He said he used to lock the doors because certain classes would intentionally arrive late, sometimes making a dramatic entrance. He recalled arguments with the administration, which questioned whether locking the door was discriminatory.
He explained that some students were seated in the front row with their books open, ready to begin exactly when class was scheduled to start. When others came in late, throwing their books down and interrupting the lesson, it broke the learning flow. “When other people come in and throw books down or whatever, it breaks the learning,” he said, adding that he would have to start over because the momentum had been lost.
It seems that in the United States, the momentum in education has been lost. Epstein is hopeful that his book outlines a means of recovering it. But whether through his work or the work of other dedicated teachers and parents, the political will must be there, or there is no path toward recovery.
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