Mrkim Report This Comment Date: May 18, 2014 07:11AM
A concept as foreign to todays school kids as are LPs
pulse Report This Comment Date: May 18, 2014 08:40AM
It's sad but true. And not just for the kids.
I've spent some time this afternoon helping my wife (primary school teacher) in
her school's words "dumb down" the reports she's written as the school
thinks the words and concepts will be too hard for the parents.
It's worth pointing out that this is a 'high achieving' school....
jgoins Report This Comment Date: May 18, 2014 11:10AM
Most of the ones who need the "dumb down" version are the ones who
were jocks and cheerleaders in school. The schools gave them preferential
treatment through the teachers and staff so they basically only a bare minimum
to get by. Those of us who were nerds have no problem with reading
comprehension. Just try to imagine who we will be handing off civilization to
in the near future.
BlahX3 Report This Comment Date: May 18, 2014 02:19PM
I have worked for over 15 years in education in Oregon, my kid is in grade
school, and in my experience this is simply not true concerning the use of
multiplication tables and having to learn basic math concepts. Sure there is the
problem of making things look better on paper than in reality in the interest of
appearances that help them keep the money coming in (political, all about
appearances, etc.), but in the classroom the focus is entirely different in most
cases. The teachers, the students and the curriculum are not the problem in
public education that I have seen. Political bullshit is.
Mrkim Report This Comment Date: May 18, 2014 06:05PM
Which is exactly my point when saying the level of education I received in
plain public schooling prior to the implementation of the federal behemoth known
as the Dept of Education is far superior to what is meted out today.
I was sittin in a bar one night in a suburb of Indianapolis when on the road
installing a machine and happened upon a college professor who seemed like an
interesting guy, so we chewed the fat for a bit.
I was relating to him details of a trip I'd taken to Washington state and how
impressed I'd been with the lifestyle and scenery there and in mentioning having
seen some incredible water falls I said "This one in particular was really
amazing, I mean here you have this sheer escarpment rising over 600 feet up and
water just falling off the top of it, creating this beautiful, lush area
beneath, where the falls pooled down below."
He looked at me incredulously and asked me if I had really just used the term
"escarpment" and if I truly knew the meaning of the word, to which I
said yeah and regurgitated the definition of the word, while he stared at me in
amazement.
When I finished he asked me what my degree was in and I chuckled telling him I
didn't have one, which seemed to mystify him even more.
He related that he doubted most of his professorial colleagues would even know
the word, much less be able to use it in a sentence or define it and was
mystified that a simple high school education anywhere would have availed me of
such knowledge.
I picked up my glass, shoved it his way and said "A toast to education
then!". As we both smiled and downed our sups of scotch I thought to myself
.... "Sheesh, what a buncha dumbasses they must be raisin in this end of
the world!" (headexplode)
BlahX3 Report This Comment Date: May 19, 2014 02:52AM
It's been the same all along. The most educated people are those who have
learned how to learn and are self motivated and self taught, irrespective of
their formal educations.
jgoins Report This Comment Date: May 19, 2014 11:53AM
I thought everyone knew the word escarpment. At least everyone in their '60s
who watched Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan movies. While talking to my
Granddaughter who is attending college right now, I have noticed the lack
knowledge the kids are graduating high school with today. They don't seem to be
able to use pen and paper to figure out math problems. All my grand-kids are
allowed to use calculators in school which is something I was never allowed to
use in school. The don't even know much history and a lot of it they do know
seems to be different than what I was taught or even lived through. They don't
seem to be taught proper grammar or sentence structure either. I think the kids
today are being taught how to play the system and get good grades without
learning even the basics. My granddaughter graduated with very high grades and
seems to have learned very little.
BlahX3 Report This Comment Date: May 21, 2014 04:15PM
Maybe so but I had to learn to use a slide-rule in school, which is just a
different type of calculator, and I bet your granddaughter knows more about
using a calculator than we do.
jgoins Report This Comment Date: May 23, 2014 10:15AM
True she probably does but what good would it do if one was not available? I
doubt if kids today even know what happened in Pearl Harbor let alone the date
it happened.
fossil_digger Report This Comment Date: May 23, 2014 07:03PM
it really doesn't matter what the truth is concerning Pearl Harbour.
revisionist history dictates that we (the united states and our allies) deserved
anything that was given to us.
Mrkim Report This Comment Date: May 24, 2014 04:14AM
Yeah, but that's the fly in the ointment iddn it, that regardless of what may
have been written regarding what happened at Pearl Harbor, there are those among
us that believe each of the various tales having been told as "the
truth".
I "think" I know what happened and why at Pearl Harbor, but can I
unequivovably say I "do" know the real truth ..... nope.
The older I get, the more I understand how few answers I really have to
anything, and I'm even beginning to doubt what I've always felt were at least
good clues
pulse Report This Comment Date: May 24, 2014 08:41AM
200 planes X 15 bombs = 3000 launches..?
jgoins Report This Comment Date: May 25, 2014 11:06AM
As far as truth goes, there is no truth anywhere in the world. The truth, just
like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
woberto Report This Comment Date: May 26, 2014 04:19AM
pulse Report This Comment Date: May 26, 2014 07:18AM
