Principessa
Expert Member
I have a lot of odd theories about what's wrong with this country, none of which I can support with scientific data. :redface:
IMHO, television is only partly to blame. Our education system is a mess and NCLB has only made it worse. We need to go back to having state teachers colleges. Doctors go to med school, lawyers go to law school, and dentists go to dental school. For some reason, in the 1970's state teacher colleges got sucked into the vortex of liberal arts education. Around the same time people lost respect for teachers. Why? Because they were no longer seen as professionals. It didn't help that we started producing a lesser quality of educator as well.
The major societal change that occurred almost simultaneously was that people stopped being parents to their children and started being friends, best friends. I have a friend whose mom used to smoke pot with her at the kitchen table when she was in high school.
WTF?!? It may be easier to be a friend than a parent but that has a tendency to create a sorry excuse for a human being. Not to mention an incorrigible brat who disrupts the classroom.
I'm sure many folks will disagree with me, and may even think I sound like an elitist snob. That's okay, it's just my theory, not an amendment to the Constitution. :smile:
IMHO, television is only partly to blame. Our education system is a mess and NCLB has only made it worse. We need to go back to having state teachers colleges. Doctors go to med school, lawyers go to law school, and dentists go to dental school. For some reason, in the 1970's state teacher colleges got sucked into the vortex of liberal arts education. Around the same time people lost respect for teachers. Why? Because they were no longer seen as professionals. It didn't help that we started producing a lesser quality of educator as well.
The major societal change that occurred almost simultaneously was that people stopped being parents to their children and started being friends, best friends. I have a friend whose mom used to smoke pot with her at the kitchen table when she was in high school.
I'm sure many folks will disagree with me, and may even think I sound like an elitist snob. That's okay, it's just my theory, not an amendment to the Constitution. :smile:
You know, nj, I never really thought of it like that but I think you're on to someting here.
Schlocky, trashy TV that appeals to the lowest common denominator mentality is probably what's at the root of so many of our problems in the US. Anti-intellectualism made popular and its getting worse, not better. I mean, schlocky TV just encourages viewers to be vacuous, uninquisitive, voyeuristic and just plain stupid.
Those court shows are probably the worst. Just trashy fights and conflicts. And "Roseanne" was awful. I never understood what people saw in that show.