BnD, I was in high school in the 70's and it was apparently much different. I guess I didn't really find out HOW different until the later years my daughter was in school. I was a lot more involved in elementary school with her, and it seemed pretty much the same as I had experienced. I was working "real jobs" by the time she got to high school and I didn't get to see firsthand what was being done. The things I saw happening to her were beyond my wildest expectations. Her school, which was touted as one of Cincy's finest, was more of a baby-sitting service and a place where robots are manufactured and indoctrinated. If you didn't happen to be in sports, you got no attention at all. Art, theatre, and even SCIENCE classes were cut, or made extra-curricular, what a load of shit!
My school didn't spend much time on current events, I think mainly because our books were a few years old, but we did study the formation of the government. As a matter of fact, we had a course called "government" that was a full quarter long and was required to graduate! My daughter had no such class.
You are right on target with this one. I was just talking to a Jordanian lady at the store down the street. She is a teacher and her husband owns the store. She was telling me about language and how it differs here from everywhere else. In Jordan, English is taugh as a second language, but basically every educated person learns it, as a source of pride. They frequently learn French as well. Yes, our schools teach languages too, but we never really use them. I don't know many people who can use the language they learned in school. Of course, this is just one small example, but when we lose our educational advantage globally, I think we are going to find ourselves in an undesirable and rueful position of inferiority. None of the turdballs in our government who were only interested in keeping us stupid enough to be easily controlled will be taking any of the blame either.
How on earth can we have people voting who don't even know how our system of government works? This boggles my mind. I think every person who wishes to vote should have to pass a basic test about the functioning of the government. No names or dates, but one should have to prove a general knowledge of the branches of government and their proper interaction with each other, or lose their voting priveledges pending taking a refresher course on the subject. Why not? We do it for a driver's liscense, isn't voting as important as that?
Classically, Democrats have been more interested in social issues such as education and healthcare, perhaps they'll run on such a platform this time. I hope they will lobby for what they want to do that's good and profitable for the people rather than what the repubs did to fuck up. That part will be abundantly clear by then (in case there's anyone alive who can't see it now). I want to hear a leader come out and say that what has happened here should never have happened and that we must do what we can with as much effort as we can to correct the flow. I want to hear a PLAN for retreat from Iraq (since I'm sure we'll still be there, no way bush and cheney would stop bilking the American people or the Iraqis any sooner than necessary) and I want to hear a well-spelled out PLAN for what is going to be done about our huge national debt. Perhaps we can start saving money by not picking fights with other sovereign nations who aren't attacking us, there's a start. THEN, I want to see OUR money being used to help OUR poor, needy, our children get proper educations, a national healthcare plan. As a cherry on top, I'd cream myself if a politician said something about looking into capping profit margins on drug companies and opening up trade for drugs to foreign competitors. This situation of forcing senior citizens to pay top dollar for drugs or just DIE has got to stop. If Canada can sell drugs for less, it is ONLY in the interest of fucking drug companies that we don't allow them to market here. I'd also like to see profit limits places on oil companies. There's no excuse under the sun why they were reporting record profits while we were paying top dollar at the pumps. I'd love to know how much bush and cheney made PERSONALLY, as in, for themselves. Not that I'd believe info presented by them, but I would love to know the reality of it.
People my age are really fucking pissed off. We smoked pot during high school and didn't pay as much attention to our classes as we should have, but we learned a little by accident. The younger people don't even get the opportunity. Yes, something has got to be done about that, or the current trend will inevitably be our undoing.