American Teens lack of general knowledge
- Thread starter swordfishME
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hotguy8884
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EW! the news is, like, so totally boring.. YAWN, omg, i, like, hate watching the news unless they, like, talk about, like, celebrity breakups or something like that.
like, omg, only old people watch the news, and old people, like, smell
Why would i, like, watch like the news, when i could watch, like, ET?
Srsly, OMG!
Rob <3
JustAsking
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comic perfection, mem.
I endorse this post as cogent and astute. This nails it.
I am not one to have a kneejerk reaction to problems with youth by invoking the traditional family, but Meg has an important point here. More than ever, kids are hugely influenced by school, peers, and the media compared to times past. However, the environment they grow up in, be it a family (or a group home for that matter), still has a lot of influence on the mental makeup of a growing child.
Meg's observation is a good example. In homes where certain levels of awareness of the outside world is discussed and valued, the kids will take on those habits and those tendencies. In a family that keeps up with politics and current events and discusses them around the dinner table (or wherever) the kids will grow up and maintain that kind of awareness.
This is the reason why some subculture, even in America, put out children who excell academically. Get invited to supper in a Jewish or an Asian household and pay attention to the dinner conversation. I have a number of Jewish relatives, and I can tell you that the dinner conversation is lively contentious, and articulate, when it comes to politics and other things. The debate is complex, and the level of knowledge of the subject matter is very high.
Especially on the East Coast near New York, where the general demeanor of everyone is "in your face", dear friends and close relatives will have vigorous arguments with each other about politics or something where no punches are pulled. Although it will seem confrontational, there will be a general subtext to the conversation that the importance of the subject matter, the importance of the ideas, and the importance of the debate is what is fueling the passion, and not anything personal.
This kind of stuff goes on whether the adults are white collar, blue collar, college educated or not. In fact, in a big Jewish family event, you will have a very difficult time distinguishing who among them is college educated or not.
Going from my usual white-bread WASP midwest environment to visit my Jewish relatives, the difference is like day and night. You cannot bring up any topic without three of them joining the discussion parsing your argument into little pieces, and then giving them back to you with a different spin.
One of my Jewish relatives is a lawyer and one is a carpet layer, and I can easily lose an argument with either of them on sheer logic alone. Arguing with them about politics, for example, is like wrestling with a tiger and I look forward to those dinner table discussions whenever I make the trip back east.
My point is that this is all cultural. It is passed from generation to generation by example, and by setting a standard that life is to be lived in many ways including intellectually.
This long-winded example is not meant to suggest that we all become Jewish. It is meant to illustrate the power and influence the culture of any particular family has on the development of a child, even in this age where most of the influences are external.
Oh this topic is so rich for discussion.
We fail our children in our public school system. The Rapethepublicans have gutted the public school system over the past couple of decades and saddled it with an insane amount of testing instead of teaching. This way they will have whole generations of unwashed masses that will be gullible enough to believe that they won the last two presidential elections because these sheep don't understand even the most obvious workings of our government.
And parents are to blame too. First these parents "voted" these Rapethepublicans into office. Then these parents place no importance on education at home.
We fail our children in our public school system. The Rapethepublicans have gutted the public school system over the past couple of decades and saddled it with an insane amount of testing instead of teaching. This way they will have whole generations of unwashed masses that will be gullible enough to believe that they won the last two presidential elections because these sheep don't understand even the most obvious workings of our government.
And parents are to blame too. First these parents "voted" these Rapethepublicans into office. Then these parents place no importance on education at home.
- 36DD,
It's embarrassing the lack of education evident in the youth of America. I was fortunate...my children were recognized from early on as being extremely intelligent and therefore put into advanced classes, but even then, at a certain point I took them out of public school and into a private school where they received an excellent education and could take courses at their level and could also take college courses while in highschool. My son took Calculus III at the university while a junior at highschool. The public school system is in dire need of re-focusing its priorities...and I think that goes for many parents as well...children need to be paid attention to and encouraged to learn, especially when they are young and their thirst for knowledge is great.
Simcha's great post touches on something else.
All those federal and state mandated performance standards aren't funded. It's up to the local school districts to raise the money to fund what the feds and states dictate. For small rural school systems with few students the costs can be back-breaking because there's simply no money.
One county up from me has over half of its property off the tax roles because it is owned by tax-exempt organizations yet people live on that property and send their kids to the school systems. That means that half the county is paying for the education (and municipal costs) of the entire county! This is a poor county with no industry, high poverty rate, and nothing to really attract business (like most of New York) because the costs are so high.
All those federal and state mandated performance standards aren't funded. It's up to the local school districts to raise the money to fund what the feds and states dictate. For small rural school systems with few students the costs can be back-breaking because there's simply no money.
One county up from me has over half of its property off the tax roles because it is owned by tax-exempt organizations yet people live on that property and send their kids to the school systems. That means that half the county is paying for the education (and municipal costs) of the entire county! This is a poor county with no industry, high poverty rate, and nothing to really attract business (like most of New York) because the costs are so high.
Jason,
Thanks for your above posts. You took the time to explain our crazy system where I just didn't have the energy to do so.
What I find so incredibly frustrating is that the same politicians who claim they are for "family values" gut every program geared toward developing the children who are the products of our families. This doesn't sound very "pro-family" to me.
However, there is a great swath of rubes who support these politicians and believe that these politicians have their interests at heart. It's sickening to me that people vote against their own interests. That's just another example of how the education system has been broken for decades.
Thanks for your above posts. You took the time to explain our crazy system where I just didn't have the energy to do so.
What I find so incredibly frustrating is that the same politicians who claim they are for "family values" gut every program geared toward developing the children who are the products of our families. This doesn't sound very "pro-family" to me.
However, there is a great swath of rubes who support these politicians and believe that these politicians have their interests at heart. It's sickening to me that people vote against their own interests. That's just another example of how the education system has been broken for decades.
bottombuddy
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can i come too rob?..id love to.........and one thing in my favour - im scottish :smile:
Oooo! You won't get much change out of him then, Rob. It's so cold up there north of the border that their balls are frozen off. Which is why they all come to England and run the country.
Learning starts at home, continues in the community (social network) and is reinforced nationally (through the media). If there is one, "magic bullet" to solve this problem, we (as a nation) need to shut off the TV, spend time with our children and instill in them the values of learning and the desire to do so.
SpeedoGuy
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Awww, now quit beating up on the boob tube. I mean if you see it on TV then it MUST be true, right? :biggrin1:
We can blame all kinds of factors for this but what it comes down for me is something some of you have touched on- lack of parental involvement. It seems that parents just don't care or have the capacity to be involved in their kids life. You cannot expect to send kids to school and for them to magically become scholars without some effort on your part as a parent. I know several expatriate parents in the ME (some of them American) who I interact with on a frequent basis and they all seem to be much more involved with their kids lives even though they are just as busy as parents in america. Culturally speaking in the ME even among American and European parents it would be blashpemy to leave the upbringing of one's children up to teachers and schools, so maybe the culture that one resides in plays an important role in this as well.
B_Think_Kink
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I couldn't name you 10 celebs by name or picture... who gives a shit. I think germany is in central europe, dunno what Apec is? American presidential who cares... UN? got me beat.. MD, MI, MN, DC, MA, WI, CA, NJ, north and south dakota, FL, IL, NY, KY, WA, TX....
mmmm Canada...
Lol... yes keep it up... being smart of having common sense is not important.
I don't have a cell phone I use regularly.. I do have a laptop however.. and I'd much rather be online than learning..
Yes Canada rocks!
Thanks for including the attribution at the end, Mem. When I first read your post I thought that it was a parody of George W. Bush.
B_Think_Kink
Sexy Member
No, that's what I'm saying hun.. there are kids out there that aren't falling under that bar... there are people who have general knowledge.
I don't know either, but it occurred to me after reading Think_Kink's post that the OP probably meant either AIPAC or OPEC— in which case, he's not in a good position to complain about the ignorance of people who don't know what the acronym (whichever one was actually in question) stands for.
Elmer Gantry
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