Posted on 07/07/2008 4:07:49 AM PDT by Kaslin
There are new studies and new polls that strongly suggest that we are breeding increasingly stupid kids here in America. Like our tasteless tomatoes, they merely look good and healthy.
But of course there is more than one way to test intelligence. So, while only 43% of our 17-year-olds know that the Civil War took place between 1850 and 1900, as opposed to, say, 1750-1800 or after 1950, they are very good at text-messaging. They also probably know the names of Britney Spears’ kids, which is more than Ms. Spears does at any given moment, but they have no idea why December 7, 1941, was a day of infamy. They also don’t know what “infamy” means.
What makes the situation even more pathetic is that these kids, for the most part, have a terrifically high opinion of themselves. To be fair, nothing much has ever been asked of them, let alone demanded, and yet they are constantly being told how special they are. Hardly any of them are expected to do chores, and as teachers have been ordered by craven school boards to pass along any student who’s breathing, D’s are frowned upon and F’s are verboten. As a result, 18-year-olds, who can barely count up to 18 without taking off their shoes, automatically get their high school diplomas.
Part of the problem is that far too many parents don’t place any particular emphasis on education. They worry plenty if their kids aren’t popular, but hardly at all if they can’t write a coherent sentence or identify Tom Sawyer’s best friend or name the inventor of the electric light bulb.
The fact is, you can’t fault the kids when it’s the parents who decide whether or not to contribute to the college alumni fund on no other basis than whether or not their alma mater fields winning football and basketball teams.
On top of that, you can hardly blame the youngsters for preferring to spend all their time exchanging confidences with their classmates than with the likes of Shakespeare, Dickens, Tolstoy and Dumas, when they see their adult role models vegetating most weeknights in the company of Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Ryan Seacrest.
This is not to say or even suggest that there are no brilliant young people out there who will grow up, in spite of everything, to design beautiful bridges, compose and perform gorgeous music, reach distant planets and, if we’re lucky, even cure the diseases the space explorers will inevitably bring back with them.
However, the greatest danger of this backsliding into the abyss of ignorance, this 21st century version of the Dark Ages, where emotions and self-satisfaction constantly trump logic and intelligence, is that Democrats may never again lose a presidential election.
I discovered recently that my almost six year old son can read upside down. I was reading the children’s version of National Geographic and he was following my reading - upside down. It floored me. He hasn’t been to first grade yet just Kindergarten.
It’s a world where form triumphs over substance, and the package is more important than the contents.
Ping?
I for one have first hand knowledge of this happening. Attempt to hold a student accountable, you get in some trouble. Part of the problem stems from NCLB, which dictates a high graduation rate.
Can’t graduate unless you pass the class.
While this may be seen as an *excuse* it is in actuality a fact. A teacher cannot get in trouble for passing a student.
It is a shameful side of education to be sure, but there is only so much I can do with a student when they get to me in high school. I cannot unteach 10 years of bad habits any more than you can unring a bell.
So does that mean the eagle is really sharp or just sharp by comparison. I think you meant that in a complimentary way but the analogy is frightening. Eagles always soar whether surrounded by turkeys or not.
Yep!
Well, they do make good military volunteers.
Don’t send him to public school, that’ll take the intelligence right out of him.
The opposite is in Japan and China and Korea where the education system is tough — kids can fail and there is a stigma attached to it
however, do note that while these kids may be eagles in the US, what if they were compared to the smart kids from Eastern Europe, from Japan, from India, from China? Post grad schools — especially Engineering — are dominated by smart Asians
Evidently, this is a hopeless corrupt educational plan that is doomed to fail.
Why are teachers cooperating with this? With the most powerful union in the nation, surely as a group they could change this.
There is nothing more dangerous than a confident idiot.
True, but you get the point... :)
They have beautiful new buildings. They have conflict resolution specialists. They have an enviro pond complete with a poison hemlock infestation. They put out a spendy and totally uninformative little newspaper. They get special supplemental taxes from the neighborhood. And yes, they're demanding more money. Those solid rock skirts on the buildings in earthquake country are simply a must. It's a matter of community pride you know.
He has the makings of an excellent Attorney! That's a prerequisite to being a successful lawyer. :O)
At 3 years old, our daughter could read, could name all 50 states and identify them by shape alone, and could name most of the dinosaurs by their scientific names, among other amazing things (for her age at the time).
Now, at 17, after 11 years of "government" schools", she's as smart or smarter than most of her peers, but no where near as learned as we thought she'd be.
She is a good kid, well rounded (not fat, I'm talking about her studies, sports, social activities, etc.), and she has formed many good habits, attributes, and interests, to serve her well through life, I think, but I don't think she'll be engaging in "rocket science" for her life's work.
She is caring, likable, has a good sense of humor, and generally, for her age - has more than a "lick" of common sense.
In other words, I think that, especially after another year of high school, and then college, she'll be alright, and do well for herself, and her future husband and family.
I do wish, however, given her early learning skills and knowledge base (with our prompting, and support, i.e., all of the books and learning games we bought for her and helped her with), we'd have thought to use our money more wisely, and had her in the best private school we could afford from DAY ONE.
I'd like to think we couldn't afford it, but in actuality, looking back (that good 20/20 vision), we could have, and should have.
Though I was in the military at the time, and not making good money, my favorite uncle (like a second dad) died and left us $120,000. We received the money right before I got out of the service and settled down in Georgia.
After taxes, paying off bills, putting some in an emergency fund and Roth IRA, putting dollars in a college savings account for our daughter, buying a new vehicle (the biggest mistake - I never buy brand new vehicles anymore), and using money for a down payment on our first house, there was little left for anything else. Amazing how fast money can go away.
Anyway, the bottom line is, looking back, I wish we had sacrificed much of what we did, to get our daughter in a good private school until she graduated high school. Like most parents, we saved for college, when we should have emphasized the best education we could afford when our daughter was in her formative years, when children are motivated to learn, and seem to soak up GOOD teaching and information like a sponge.
Instead, we did like most, and let our daughter go to good (but not outstanding) public schools, where she, over time, lost the edge she had displayed early on.
To you raybbr, and all other thinking parents out there, sacrifice NOW to get your kids in the best private schools you can, and keep them there for the duration. You, and they, will be glad you did.
ping
Are you saying today's volunteer military is uneducated? If so you better crawl back under your rock
You shouldn’t be beating yourself up. From what I’ve read your daughter is well on her way to being a happy and productive member of society (many thanks to her parents). If she was a drugged-out loser ‘ho, then maybe I could understand you second-geussing yourself.
No, That’s what you were thinking. I’m saying that we have the best all-volunteer military in history. You may want to relax a little.
Why are you pinging me? I posted the editorial
What makes you think I am thinking that? *rme*
That is an asinine comment, and very much like the stupid, thoughtless, comment liberal democrat john kerry spouted during his ill-fated run for president.
I was a volunteer (Marine Corps) in 1975, right out of high school.
I was (123 GCT on the ASVAB test), and am, very smart, like MANY who serve and have served in our military, whether enlisted or officer.
Like being an auto mechanic these days, MANY military MOS's do not allow one to be a DUMB ASS. Modern technology, and potentially dangerous equipment and weapons, demand a certain level of intelligence and common sense.
So, in closing...
STFU, idiot.
Because you typed it?
See #24
I imagine most anyone can look back and see something they would have done differently, if they knew then, what they know now.
Carry on.
....my wife taught “developmental English” at a juco for 5 years....those kids couldn’t write a simple declarative sentence...they call it “developmental” because “remedial” sounds like a put down...it was one of the hottest fields in college education at the time...a lot of the kids were smart asses when they should have been grateful they were getting the help....those were obnoxious to teach....many demanded an unwarranted grade....the attitude was “I am the customer; you must please me!”
|
|
Average science score | Average civics score | Average history score1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reported number of books at home |
|
|
|
| More than 100 | 161 | 167 | 305 |
| 26-100 | 147 | 150 | 289 |
| 11-25 | 132 | 134 | 275 |
| 0-10 | 122 | 123 | 265 |
I doubt that sending your very intelligent daughter to private school would have yield results much better than going to government school.
When my kids were preschoolers and I was investigating private schools I found that private schools tended to follow the same lock step, Prussian model of the government schools. For this reason we opted for homeschooling.
Yes, I know that many parents do not feel that they knowledgeable enough to homeschool...but...Ask the question:
“How much private tutoring could be bought ( maybe from a retired teacher) with that private school tuition money? “
Honestly, my homeschooled children rarely spent more than 2 hours in formal study at the kitchen table. The rest of the day they played and followed their own interests. In was an amazing processes to watch but gradually their play became intense adult interests and adult level honing of talents.
By the way, my 3 homeschooled children were admitted to college by the age of 13, 12, and 13. All had finished their general college requirements and Calculus III by the age of 15. The two younger earned B.S. degrees in math by the age of 18. One earned at masters degree by the age of 20.
The oldest is a highly ranked athlete, has traveled widely, lived in Europe, is fluent in Russian, and will finish his MBA at the same age as his contemporaries.
There were no private schools in my area that would have allowed my children to excel in the way that they did. They accomplished this because of homeschooling.
Fine, I'll say it. If things don't improve, there will be no space travel, and bridge designers will be cleaning the streets while musicians will be repairing bridges.
At my university it was “zero level”. Still doesn’t quite have the punch of “remedial”, but much better than “developmental”.
The first time I took the ACT I would have been in remedial math classes. There was no way I was going to let that happen. Still at the best my math score was 6 points lower than my next lowest score.
While I certainly shoulder a good portion of the blame for that, disinterested teachers also played a role. Having a coach for a teacher can set you back pretty good. Not to paint with a broad brush but they certainly seemed far more interested in keeping athletes eligible than they did actually teaching.
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Yes, I know this is a highly inflamatory and utterly outrageous statement to make....but.. Really, we should be asking two important questions:
1) **Where** does most learning take place?
2) **How** does most learning take place?
If most learning is occurring at home through the efforts of the parent and the child himself then the current model of government schools will **never** effectively help the majority of failing children from dysfunctional families.
Failing children from dysfunctional families will need one or both of two things:
1) Work intensively with the parents.
2) Place the child in an environment like the KIPP school that essentially entirely substitutes for failed parenting.
If studied I would bet that academically successful children who are attending the tradition Prussian model private or government schools are ( if one looks closely) essentially homeschooling. The school is merely sending home a curriculum for the parents and child to follow.
Are there exceptions? Yes, probably, but not many.
One more thing:
Government schools because they are constrained by the First Amendment can **not** dish out the very needed but highly moral and ethical advice that is based on religious values. Any principal how would say to a parent, “Get married to your live in honey!” or “Stop dressing yourself and your daughter like Brittany Spears!” , would soon be in serious trouble.
For this reason, private schooling is most likely to help children from dysfunctional families. Only a private school could give the hard advice and make the demands these parents need.
A good education is as much about what *not* to teach as to what to teach.
The standard US high school history book, that for many years everyone bought, but no one used to any degree, is a superb case in point. Utterly sterilized of any controversy or content, this fat tome was not a monument to mediocrity, but utter failure.
Notoriously, it had a paragraph dedicated to the lives of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. One paragraph each. And THREE PAGES devoted to Marilyn Monroe. It was vacuous and useless.
It is always easy to assume that students are airheads, as they are filled with the petty trivia of the day. But unless something is terribly wrong, all that trivia is not learned at school, but elsewhere.
Quizzing them won’t help to divine the truth, either, as spur of the moment answers often make people seem ignorant, when if given time, they could correctly divine the answer. A classic quiz to show ignorance was a microphone ambush to demand that someone on the street recite the names of the SCOTUS justices, with perhaps 30 seconds to answer. Of course, people were seldom able to do that.
It still burns me up a bit when students answer the question of what was the bloodiest war in US history?, with “Vietnam”.
I did notice that the article got that partially correct:
teachers have been ordered by craven school boards to pass along any student who’s breathing
...they should have added principals to those who order teachers to socially promote...
Sorry!
I meant to ping myself as a reminder to read the article.
I’m not going to repost your reprehensible comment. But, I’m sure you, like the misguided, mistaught youths this article is discussing, feel unnecessarily good about yourself.
I’ve had the joy of teaching these spawn of Satan in college. They don’t think they need to come to class or complete assignments, since they’ve paid their tuition. They can’t take constructive criticism, because they already know it all. Whatever they don’t know or understand is “lame,” and they make no effort to learn. They expect every little pathetic effort to be applauded as excellence, so their self esteem is not damaged. When held accountable, they attack and attempt to ruin careers. I’ve observed several who’ve gone out into commercial jobs, and didn’t last beyond a couple weeks.
???
I'm quite sure that I blew one interview when the principal asked me whether I would fail a student. "The short answer is 'yes'," I said. Even though I then went on to explain how I would have arrived at that unfortunate turn of events, I could tell by the stunned look on her face that I had not answered wisely (in terms of getting the job).
Hey, I'm unemployed as a teacher (except for subbing) but, I have my integrity.
Read upside down? Great news. My daughter did that and she was a great person to play Scrabble with. We never had to turn the board around.
Screw you.
Have you even tried reading further?
A coach for a teacher? You should be so lucky. If there was one person that got things done and done right it was the teacher/coach. No nonsense and fair. I had several and while football may have been their passion they brought the same intensity to the classroom.
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