Education in America

[Shiftless2]

This article is almost ten years old but things have not gotten any better. In fact, if you look at Texas and Florida (among others) you'll see that things have gotten significantly worse

The cult of ignorance in the United States: Anti-intellectualism and the "dumbing down" of America -- Sott.net

There is a growing and disturbing trend of anti-intellectual elitism in American culture. It's the dismissal of science, the arts, and humanities and their replacement by entertainment, self-righteousness, ignorance, and deliberate gullibility....

www.sott.net

Two other articles you should read

http://churchandstate.org.uk/2017/09/why-do-conservatives-hate-science-so-much/

2017 was a big year for scrubbing science from government websites. Here's the list.

After all, we can’t have students learning that science stuff because they might start asking questions.

 

[Shiftless2]

But the issues don't stop with high school - it extends to universities. Even the Ivy's are succumbing ....

University of Pennsylvania does away with dean’s list recognitions | The College Fix

A 'reduction of emphasis on grades.'

www.thecollegefix.com

 

[Shiftless2]

Hits the nail on the head ....

Stoic | Motivation | Mindset on Reels |

740K views, 21K likes, 122 comments, 15K shares, Facebook Reels from Stoic | Motivation | Mindset.

www.facebook.com

 

[titan]

Shiftless, politicians will continue this madness as long as they're rewarded at the polls for it.

 

[Shiftless2]

politicians will continue this madness as long as they're rewarded at the polls for it.

Agreed.

And it's actually worse than that sounds - by effectively dumbing down the populace they're creating an even bigger pool of people who will vote for them.

 

[sear]

Agreed.
And it's actually worse than that sounds - by effectively dumbing down the populace they're creating an even bigger pool of people who will vote for them.

Ditto ditto t #4 & S2 #5, BUT !!

Republicans make similar accusation against Dems.
Their accusation:
Democrats buy votes with tax revenue with welfare and other socialist ("communist") programs. Welfare queens don't have to go to work, so they can stay home, and churn out future Democrat voters.

 

[Shiftless2]

Democrats buy votes with tax revenue with welfare and other socialist ("communist") programs. Welfare queens don't have to go to work, so they can stay home, and churn out future Democrat voters.

You mean like these guys? The ones who are always demonized by the GOP

 

[sear]

"Schrodinger".
Quantum laziness?

A quantum of light = "photon".
A quantum of laziness = "beer"? "Burp"?

 

[sear]

I'm guessing "tuition free"* K-12 education was established as the U.S. standard, deemed adequate for a high school grad. to meet the hiring requirements of employers.
These standards are obviously out of date. Some Western nations apply a K-14 standard.
But in addition, are there basic citizen skills not currently part of the U.S. K-12 curriculum that should be added?

When a mortgagor makes extra (unscheduled) payments intending to reduce the interest paid (without affecting loan %) the bank can accept the pre-payment.
The bank can even credit it to the account. BUT !
The bank may legally treat the pre-payment merely as an additional payment, and claim most of it as interest, and only the standard ratio counted as paying down principle.
But the mortgagor is entitled to have such pre-payments 100% pay down principle, zero interest from that one payment.
How many high school grads. know this? And how much $interest it can save them?

Many if not most U.S. high school grads. are public (government) school grads.
Haven't government schools, some obligation to at least provide these young adults
basic skills for avoiding familiar institutional scams?

If so, either some current element of the curriculum would have to be displaced,
or K-12 would have to be extended. K-14 in the U.S.? Overdue?

That's over 16% more education. Meaning 16% higher school taxes?
So would the tax payer prefer lower taxes, & our teens graduate naïve about common adversities?

* Government cannot "give" to its citizens anything that it has not first taken.
Perhaps wisely the U.S. funds K-12 not by the wealth of the parents of the students
but on the wealth of the school tax district, & the budgets they approve.

6HR CPO NBC

 

[Shiftless2]

Way back when, grad student days, I taught theory at our local ham radio club - I remember having to teach basic arithmetic - in particular how to add fractions (necessary if you were going to study series/parallel circuits) - and that was to the adults. And I had a couple of adult students with grade 7 educations.

 

[sear]

I apologize in advance S2, I sense I'm not addressing the key issue, but your #10 inspired my curiosity.

Way back when, grad student days, I taught theory at our local ham radio club - I remember having to teach basic arithmetic - in particular how to add fractions (necessary if you were going to study series/parallel circuits) -

With dissimilar denominators?
IIRC LCD, then add numerators?
Perhaps that was before the advent of the "four-banger" (add, subtract, multiply, divide) shirt-pocket calculator? [& in the new millennium, the "smart" phone w/ calculator app]
If in that same situation today, would you teach w/ calculator dividing the numerator by the denominator, and then adding the decimals? [M+ useful for that]

"... didn't properly comprehend ..." #10

I've encountered this so many times, when I quote Governor Clinton's self-admonishing campaign slogan "it's the economy stupid" I've learned to explicitly state:
- I'm not calling anyone stupid. I'm quoting Governor Clinton's campaign slogan as he ran against President GHWB (the one term President Bush). -



Ugh !

PS pending

 

[sear]

" with grade 7 educations." #10

The familiar cliché is, half the people you know are below average.
But under-educated and unethical are not synonyms.

We might be able to dismiss Trump's broad support on gullibility of the electorate.

"... And I will have Mexico pay for that wall, mark my words." Republican primary presidential candidate Donald J. Trump 15/06/16 www.DonaldJTrump.com

- piffle -
But Trump was party to insurrection:
Trump saying to the Jan 6 rally: "If you don't fight like hell you won't have a country anymore" telling them to march down Penn. Ave.
Support for Trump after that manifests an entirely different form of deficiency.
We may excuse inadequate education.

How do we explain tens of millions endorsing a convicted felon for president?

In 2016 voting for Trump might be excused: if Trump accomplishes these unlikely campaign commitments, impressive?
In 2020 Trump had a track record, or lack thereof. But the 2020 election which relieved Trump of office preceded the insurrection of 2021.
In 2024 ?!
Who among Trump supporters TODAY, October 2024, don't know Trump is a felon?
And how would Trump voters expect President Trump to function in a 2nd presidential term, if he can't even visit our neighbor to our North, Canada?

Entering Canada With a Felony​

Last updated: 29 November 2023
If you try to enter Canada with a felony conviction on your criminal record, you could be deemed “criminally inadmissible to Canada,” and denied entry at the Canadian border.

Entering Canada With a Felony

For help entering Canada with a felony record, contact CanadaVisa for guidance. Our immigration lawyers specialize in criminal inadmissibility cases.

www.canadavisa.com

"We're seeing what I think is a very, very broad Harris coalition.
I mean a coalition that includes like Dick Cheney and AOC is a big coalition.
Most Americans see themselves somewhere between AOC and Dick Cheney.
And if you're between AOC and Dick Cheney on the number line you're in the Harris coalition.
And if you like J.D. Vance you're in the Trump coalition." Rachel Maddow PhD 24/09/18

 

[Shiftless2]

And the dumbing down of America continues

 

[sear]

Cultural non-literacy certainly an alarming issue, but there's more to the story. The cultural model of the book as a repository of wisdom is a static model, undermined by exponential progress.

And the dumbing down of America continues #13

- alright -
Not everybody is fluid in shake spear. but

Though the "book" standard has applied for centuries, it's a new millennium, but an old (obsolete?) standard.
We have newspapers. So did Ben Franklin.
We have magazines. Did ol' Ben? Invent them?

We've got broadband at 260 Mbps, with access to a staggering amount of information. What would author / publisher of Poor Richard's Almanac Ben Franklin have thought of Wikipedia? And the thinking machines it's accessed with?
It's a long way from flying a kite in a lightning storm to 5 VDC from a USB port.

Post #13 presents a grim impression.
But its standard of reference is inadequate to quantify reading habits in 2024. Where's the scholarly counterpoint?

None the less S2, thanks for giving us something else to be depressed about, apart from Trump.
In prospect of 4 years of additional Trump rubble it's a refreshing change of things to be depressed about.

"As the area of our knowledge grows, so too does the perimeter of our ignorance." Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson

To know 1% of European culture in the 18th Century qualifies as mediocre?
But 1% in the 21st Century? Genius?

Reading between the lines in #13, books are not obsolete. But amidst exponential technological evolution, the ink in a printed bound volume may not be dry before a re-write is due. That doesn't excuse non-literacy. But it's insight into how progress has eroded the standards by which even progress itself is measured.