Could Isaac Newton answer these questions?......If not, I suppose we must decide he was an uneducated dunce and not as smart as the 10 year old.
Posted on 12/19/2002 3:08:50 AM PST by kattracks
The achievements of today's college under graduates, in the hard sciences such as math, physics, and chemistry, is not worse or better than it was in 1950....true. We are talking here about the unchangeable basics of science that cannot be "dumbed down".....and the computer studies you infer are all based away from this fundamental and unchangeable scientific foundation.
Nonetheless, such things as English literature and the various social scineces, for example, are mere shadows of what was once required curriculum. Now we have the wonders of such things as Edridge Cleaver displacing Shakespeare and graduates in many fields nearly put out into the world nearly illiterate. As a result, many Universities have found it necessary to teach renmedial high school work to enable young people to "master" the most elemental of these non-science courses.
Sad
I have a friend who graduated from Central High, Little Rock, in 1958 with the National Guard camped on the football field and patrolling the halls.
As a junior he hooked up his mother's stove so that a phone call home turned the oven on.
After college he was a jet pilot in the navy; landed jets on a moving ship.
After Viet Nam and 5 years in the navy his degree (EE)was obsolete (computers had become big) so he went to Georgia Tech for a Master's.
He retired last year (VP) from a major computer corp; has 7 patents used in computers.
His best friend in high school went on to a Ph D in bio-physics and retired from Brown University.
Meaning they know more about gays and Eminem.
Without a doubt, the '50s was the best time to be a kid in the entire history of mankind.
Still talking the talk, eh? Scared to WALK THE WALK? I'll be online here on Christmas Day and will be looking out for you. As I stated before, I will take any quiz questions on American History from other Freepers and the first one to answer each question (to prevent wasting time looking up the answer on the Web) wins. Then all of the winning answers are tallied to determine the final winner.
I'll be here, cynicom. Will you?
The attitude then was "this is what you're expected to learn -- those who cannot keep up can drop out". The attitude now is "no child left behind -- we will dumb down the curriculum until ANYBODY can pass it, no matter how dumb"
Well, I'm not certain that he can describe the mercury light thing, the other two are a shoe in. He was taught by the Franciscan Nuns.
I would call him and ask him, but this is finals week. One more semester and I'm and I'll be disconnected from the tuition leach.
Having a command over a body of knowledge and being able to apply it and being able to add to it is a lot more than memorizing those silly lists of 1,000 facts that educated people should know.
Oh, they think they do, and asking students what an oratorio is could be considered sexual harassment on some campii...
Not according to the Libs. According to them, little kids lived in constant terror of THE BOMB back then. DUCK AND COVER!
Could Isaac Newton answer these questions?......If not, I suppose we must decide he was an uneducated dunce and not as smart as the 10 year old.
I humbly suggest not asking today's kids if one wants a valid answer...
Beatcha.
Being a Class of '56 guy, I suppose I'm representative of the control group.
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