The Dumbing Down Of America

[MikeBjerum]

Over the last couple generations there has become more and more emphasis on task oriented education.  It started with the government opening more technical "colleges" to go along with the multitude of private ones; universities have increased the number of majors that are really nothing more than a glorified technical education; and high schools are increasing the number of trade courses that can be used to meet graduation standards.  The justification behind this is that not everyone is college material, and for those that only want a certain type of job there is no reason to waste everyone's time and money to force something more on them.

Does anyone ever remember sitting in a geometry, algebra, writing, history, or art class saying that they will never use this again only to find themselves ten years later trying to determine the volume of a sphere, solve a problem with eight parts and only having four pieces of information, trying to write a proposal to a corporate manager, trying to explain the meaning of a decision based on something that happened 175 years ago, or wishing you could arrange items at a party so it felt more welcoming for your guests.

Every day I read, see and hear more and more news reports that the general masses don't get.  We have had threads started here in the last couple days that prove our new President has made a 180 on his spoken promises during the campaign, and none of his flock get it.  News casters are giving us double speak, and more and more are getting sucked in daily.  One of the worst leaders in terms of gun rights is in office, and many are getting sucked into his shell game not seeing what he will try in the future (maybe after the 2010 election or after the 2012 election).

I believe that the change in our education system, lack of basic education, and lack of family training is depriving our children of the ability to think critically and for themselves.  I admit that my own generation is lacking in this, and many of my friends are walking around like deer in the headlights.  I used to make fun of the old jokes about "underwater basket weaving," "music appreciation," and the like, but I have learned that in life part A is affected by part D, which is affected by part B which is reliant on part W, that wouldn't exist if it weren't for part P ...

We've been sucked in, and some of us even demanded it, but we are all victims of under education.  Whether we are guilty or not, the lack of ability to reason and think for ourselves (the American Public) has twisted our lives.  However, all is not lost.  Rebuilding what has been lost is a lot more work than maintaining something, but it can be rebuilt ... And, we must rebuild it NOW!

[fightingquaker13]

Plus 1000, and a side of damn straight. I majored in international relations at a pretty good university. I was thrilled at the time that not only was I geting taught by academics, but also by the current deputy undersecretary of this or that (it was in DC). It took me a couple of years to realize that I (or rather you, as it was ROTC funded) had paid for an expensive education in modern history. I would have been a lot better served with a classical liberal arts education of math, philosophy, basic science, the cannon, western and world history and either Latin or Greek with one modern language (or scrap the latin for  two MLs). Not only does this give you the tools, as M58 points out to do whatever you want later (scientists and engineers excepted), but it grounds you in a common cultural vocabulary. Its not that Shakespeare wrote the only good plays, its just that if we've all read them, we have a common ground for discussion and reasoning. Multi-culturalism, which I once saw as enriching us with new ideas, is a source of zero culturalism, as we don't have that common base uniting us.
FQ13

[tombogan03884]

Vocational training is a good thing, EVERY ONE should have the ability to actually DO something, But again I find myself in agreement with FQ (   ) Despite the name a Liberal Arts education is geared toward teaching you HOW to think and express your ideas (Logic and Rhetoric ) The emphasis today though is on teaching WHAT to think, to be a good little cog in the machine, toe the line, and stfu.

[MikeBjerum]

But again I find myself in agreement with FQ (   )

I apologize deeply for that 

[Timothy]

Years ago, I lamented not finishing my degree.  Today, not so much because I would never have been able find out how adaptable I am in an ever changing work environment.  I've done alot of different things, made some money, though the wife has it hidden somewhere, and managed to stay employed when my peers and aquaintences have struggled.

Had I finished school and tried to have a "career", I think I would have gotten bored or at least stagnent in one pigeon hole or another and been miserable.  Instead, I've been able to move around when I get bored and manage to stay ahead of the economic downturns and been pretty lucky.  I attribute most of that adaptability to an outstanding public school education because in the '60's and '70's those things STILL existed.

I watched my child struggle to find her place, taught to pass a test rather than open her mind to the wonderment of knowledge.  Thankfully, she is a bright young woman and inherited my insatiable apetite for the written word and has overcome the horrible education that was provided her.  Some of her friends have not been so lucky even though they went on to higher education.  They find themselves trapped between the dream of their childhoods and realism that their childhoods are over and their philosphy, music and arts degrees are worth nothing more than the paper they are printed on.

It's a shame, and though I would love to relive some parts of my life, I would not want to be in their shoes.

[Sponsor]

[m25operator]

An absolutely TRUE and great subject, most of my grade schooling was done in Garland TX, then a small community, finished 2nd through 12th here. At that time it was in the top 10 in the US, due mainly in my opinion " Great teachers " especially from junior high on, ( yes will still had junior high, not middle school, I hate the mixing of 9th graders with 12th graders ), my american history teachers where often veterans of Korea and WW2. You could read the text and have the teacher, say " now this is what really happened ". My math and science teachers were top drawer, science was my fascination and I was in honors science enough, that when high school came, I did not have to take chemistry or biology, wished I had, but to the point, the teachers were so good, I knew the basics very well. Even though a voracious reader, I hated english class, but passed anyway, I know the subject, just did'nt like it. Very good side story there .   In Houston, where I was born, we got spanish in 1st grade and I picked it up again in high school, I had a hard teacher who demanded excellence especially from kids from a spanish speaking family, which 1/2 half my family was. That still serves me very well today.

My social studies class in the 8th grade, made us study politics and voting, and We were required to run for office, as one of the present candidates, and go interview candidate and run on their platform, present it to the class while being questioned by the teachers, who had done their home work better than I did on that occasion, but I learned something.

I have to bless my typing teacher, Mrs. Wetzel, sweet lady but a hard taskmaster, the hardest class I ever had, because after the basics, you typed the minute you entered, til the bell rang, I can only remember 1 person in that class, because he was a guy, and he shoots at my local club, there was absolutely no time for fraternization, but when the most basic computers came out with a keyboard, 15 yrs later, my fingers still remembered where they should go. Of course we learned on Royal manual type writers.

I have never attended college, although my electronics teacher got me a 2yr gig, full tuition at his alma mater, the university of Houston, but with 2 younger sisters coming up, parents could not participate, and if they tried would have suffered the younger girls. I elected to go to work instead. I should have tried though, but I really hate Houston, good place to be from.

2 yrs after I graduated, the School superintendent retired, and the new one, who served for 20 yrs was a socialist bitch who loaded the board with other socialists, and immediately started cutting the PTA, out of decisions, the We are professionals, and you don't know what your talking about routine. Of course colleges had already begun this shit, in the early 70's,  Students loved it for the most part, because it was easier than high school, in many cases.

School boards are where to start, and with that the city councils who approve and fund them. Now with the ethnicity equality requirement of most municipalities, it will take a huge uprising to change for most of us, I'm not against a mixed school board, if they require the student learn and learn well, benefit good teachers, and throw out the bad. Get the curriculum changed to the history we were taught, us old guys anyway. To hell with the feds, learn your local history 1st, american history 2nd, and not just a week of it, world history last, or as we did it, those were 3 different classes, and some may take 2 yrs to learn.

[fightingquaker13]

On the mixed school board thing, thats not always bad. A lot of older African Americans were pre-busing (and can I coment on what a good idea bussing isn't). I am in no way, shape or form defending segregation here, but back in the day, in a lot of African American communities, the local high school was like the local church, a point of pride for the community. Teachers were working in a third rate building with second rate books, but they soldiered on, and did the best they could and by God, you had your butt in that chair and your homework done when you walked in the door. Any black woman of a certain age wearing  a church hat will make that very clear to you. Its just that as James Carville (not someone who gets quoted here a lot, but for this deserves to be, as both a former teacher and former marine) said, not every good disciplinarian is a good teacher, but every good teacher is a good disciplinarian. We seem to have forgotten that, or misdirected it into stupid zero tolerance, one size fits all, policies.
FQ13 

[runstowin]

Dumbing down of America? I don't get it, how could our communist style education system possibly dumb down it's students?

[PegLeg45]

You've all pretty much hit the proverbial nail on the head. Not much I could add to what you've said.

The educational system is an abstract of what it once was. I'm seven years older than my brother and I could see a distinct change between the way I was taught and the way he was taught just a few years later....even by some of the same teachers. There were even a few teachers in our system that taught me back in the early 80's, and were still there to teach my boys, and the change in teaching styles was even more drastic than with my brother...........which points back to gubmint-mandated curriculum.
Students these days are no longer taught 'how to learn' to begin with.

Sad for the kids..........Sad for the country.

[twyacht]

Research some of Neil Boortz on "gov't schools".

The decline is unmistakable, and has generational effects on our society.

There were no books about Dad's friend Bruce, when I was in school, and yes, I was on the receiving end of corporal punishment. Learning went much faster when the alternative was 5 whacks from Coach Annunziato, that little Italian P.E. Coach, had a Tiger Woods swing......

Oh, that's right,.....Physical Education is going the way of the dodo bird also...