In his State of the Union speech our President exhorted Americans to make sure that higher education is available for everyone.

At the same time he told us that a quarter of our students do not graduate from high school and that our students lag behind in science and math.

Those back-to-back statements beg the question, "Is the problem a lack of higher education or a lack of basic education?"

Coincidentally, this week the Wall Street Journal reports on a new study attesting that after four years of college education 36% of students had little increase in critical thinking skills, an indicator of academic achievement.

After teaching for 20 years at the college level, I can see why the results of a college education are too often abysmal.

Our society is so pervasively imbued with political correctness that it is anathema to parents and educators at all levels to even hint that there should be exacting standards to which students are held accountable. Also, it is heresy to suggest that not every American child is best served by a college education.

This tandem of well intentioned but misguided social engineering robs our children of the opportunity to be what Glenn Beck describes as the person they were meant to be.

It is a cruel lie to our children to tell them they are all equally capable and accomplished in math, science, English, etc. Then, necessarily, we dumb down the subject matter so they can be given a passing grade.

Doing so, we deny students the honest feedback of exacting standards. That feedback would communicate to them their unique strengths and weaknesses. It would empower them to improve on their weaknesses and fully develop those areas where they excel...the fact being they may excel amazingly at something outside of academia!

Instead, too many students are told the big lie...that they are as academically capable as anyone and everyone, and that a college education is their only path to success, respect

and financial security.

Then these students come to colleges expecting the same lax standards to apply and that they will somehow move along to be awarded a college degree. Faculty members are faced with no small number of students who expect good grades though they cannot master the subject matter and truly believe they are being ill treated if the professor holds to a higher standard. The experience of their earlier schooling has taught them what to expect.

And what does this do to America's children? It deceives them about the real world in which they must eventually provide a valuable product or service in order to be successful. It denies them the chance to be that person they were meant to be.

Their unique abilities and talents were never nurtured as they were pushed into the mold of "college bound" as if there were no other worthwhile, successful and rewarding choices.

So should America commit more precious resources to a goal of higher education for all? Or should we look to those earlier years and focus on the basic education of our children? Could we deconstruct the irrational fear that not every child, even given the same exact opportunities, will develop the same capabilities or goals? Could we then remember how we used to teach those most basic skills so that our youngest students could read and comprehend, calculate even without a calculator, and memorize when needed to master certain materials?

And could we proud parents and grandparents affirm that each child has unique talents, abilities and a unique future. Would we have the courage to demand the highest standards in our schools knowing that our student may not be in the academic top ten? Could we encourage each student's path to developing his skills and finding his talents without pushing him into some mold we have crafted of our own hopes and ambitions?

The more we adults free children from the false equalizer that is political correctness and from the burden of our projected goals, the more we empower America's children to learn and succeed to the very best of their own abilities.