"Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are We?"

[zacmenta]

Athletes make good money because sport makes good money. Its the entertainment industry and it pays for itself.

That's the problem... that sports is making huge money while the education of children is taking a backseat in favour of the profits that pro NFL and other utter bullshit is raking in.

Unfortunately this will only lead to a further lack of education, these kids will grow up being a shade more ignorant than the generation which preceded them, they will in turn place less importance on education and more on NASCAR and whatnot, and so on an so forth.

I do agree with your later post about condensing school, at least to an extent. We just simply don't need 12 years to learn what school has to teach, at least in purely academic terms. The importance on how children develop their ability to interact with other people is probably the most important thing school will teach you though, and this is definitely not something that can be condensed, or done "more efficiently" (at least I wouldn't think so).

 

[Fenrisúlfr]

The latter point begs the question: is it the role of school to teach social interaction, and is it necessary for such a consideration to come at the cost of an efficient education necessary for one to enter the workforce?

From a libertarian perspective, government has no business in education to begin with, so such a question is moot. It would be one thing if government were asking industry 'what must we teach these young people for them to be employable?', but they do not. Private education, where the forces of supply and demand are unleashed to bring about the virtuous cycle through competition, does. In addition, one should inquire why, after 12 years bussed in and out of a government school, so many lack basic literacy and mathematical skills!

I shall tell you why this generation is more than a shade stupider than the one preceding: it's because these incompetent big-government louts fudged things, diluted the standards, and only reacted by throwing money at the problem. It is no wonder the factories are going to China!

This is what happens when we do not subject the nose of any institution to the grindstone of the markets. Now, the cartilage has become so soft, the nose has been reduced to a sack of flesh about to fall off the face.

 

[razoredge]

I dont think sports is making any generation of any given local any more ignorant. In fact sports has been largly responsible for breaking down some cultural or ethnic barriers. Sports in school is also used or at least supposed to be used as a method of keeping those involved, grade average somewhat exceptable. The main thing is there is nothing that can be done about the popularity or incomes involved with sports. You in fact just mentioned ability to interact, sports in school is part of this.

Much interaction learned in school could be considered a very negative byproduct, where do you learn your dirty little words ? Where do you learn to play your dirty little games and tricks, where do you learn your bad attitude and forms of disrespect ?

Yes school is a very drawn out, painfully boring process and the highschool years occur during some pretty hard times in a persons life. There are so many "prioritys" going on at once, with the mature mind of a parent or adult, thinking that education is priority and the hormonally overloaded teenage body & mind struggling with social issues. All at the same time that one is supposed to be fascinated with non exciting, non current, unapplied subjects. Too many are lost during this period and it has little to do with "brains". It just amazes me that after all these decades and all the awareness, especially today that no one has ever looked into solutions for this critical period in ones life and the system continues business as usual.

 

[razoredge]

The latter point begs the question: is it the role of school to teach social interaction, and is it necessary for such a consideration to come at the cost of an efficient education necessary for one to enter the workforce?

From a libertarian perspective, government has no business in education to begin with, so such a question is moot. It would be one thing if government were asking industry 'what must we teach these young people for them to be employable?', but they do not. Private education, where the forces of supply and demand are unleashed to bring about the virtuous cycle through competition, does. In addition, one should inquire why, after 12 years bussed in and out of a government school, so many lack basic literacy and mathematical skills!

I shall tell you why this generation is more than a shade stupider than the one preceding: it's because these incompetent big-government louts fudged things, diluted the standards, and only reacted by throwing money at the problem. It is no wonder the factories are going to China!

This is what happens when we do not subject the nose of any institution to the grindstone of the markets. Now, the cartilage has become so soft, the nose has been reduced to a sack of flesh about to fall off the face.

Social interaction is a byproduct of being in one large institution with hundreds of others. It is not taught.

It is the responsibility of a government to see that all its children have a shot at an education.

It is also the responsibility of a government to keep itself in check, this is where it fails in every single population throughout history, nothing new there. Exists in the corporate world too, its called greed and self entitlement.

Jobs went to China or where ever for the sole purpose of cheap wages and more free money for wallstreet types, you can try to mask it all you want but this old boy aint buyin.

"The markets" is a great mask of promotion for free profit for the lazy. All institutions need to be subject to the scrutiny of rationalism, in essence some heads need to roll, then the next person stepping up to the plate will have to think twice about their priorities.

In the case of our schools, teachers and adminstrators make demands on the budget and a community has to dance to their tune. They play their "free market" game very well. Here today, gone tomorrow to the next highest bidding on their salary, or use the "teachers at _ _ _ _ make sooooo much more than us"... Thats the "free market" for you. They as well as government officials and corporate officers need to be told what everyone else in the work place is told. "This is your job, shut up and get to work or go live on the street."

 

[Thoth-Amon]

Here's something I found which should illustrate my earlier point about the media:

perfect... it's so fucking sad

 

[I Breathe Spears]

The average American citizen has nothing to lose in the war in Iraq - at least, nothing of any obvious importance. Sure, in a few years it will become painfully obvious, but right now, the average American family with 2.4 kids is too busy paying bills, racking up credit card debt on HDTVs and home theater systems, and buying new cars to ferry their kids to soccer games and dildo practice to really give a shit.

THe average American citizen will turn on the television, flip through channels trying to find 'Grey's Anatomy' or 'Lost,' and only briefly watch the news. If it's not celebrity gossip, they just shrug and ask, 'How does that affect me?' and move on to their force-fed 'entertainment.'

 

[razoredge]

Most of what you say is true, except that "they have nothing to loose". We are loosing big time due to these little jet plane flights. Our economy has gone bust, they are spending, if not our great grandchildrens taxs today, they have spent our childrens. So that police action in Iraq is one of the worse thing ever in this country, surely eclipses VietNam, at least we had money then and were still an intact country, industry, self sufficient. The fallout from VietNam, patriot wise, the attitude of the youth that got to grow up watching the whole thing was bad enough. I cant imagine the fallout from engaging in these stupid middle east pissing matches. Its a money spunge and Bin Laden knew that, he was very successful in his mission. Talk about creating a giant distraction and Bush both fell for it and used it hook, line and sinker.

 

[I Breathe Spears]

Most of what you say is true, except that "they have nothing to loose". We are loosing big time due to these little jet plane flights. Our economy has gone bust, they are spending, if not our great grandchildrens taxs today, they have spent our childrens. So that police action in Iraq is one of the worse thing ever in this country, surely eclipses VietNam, at least we had money then and were still an intact country, industry, self sufficient. The fallout from VietNam, patriot wise, the attitude of the youth that got to grow up watching the whole thing was bad enough. I cant imagine the fallout from engaging in these stupid middle east pissing matches. Its a money spunge and Bin Laden knew that, he was very successful in his mission. Talk about creating a giant distraction and Bush both fell for it and used it hook, line and sinker.

That's what I'm saying. America lives in the moment, and at this moment the average civilian has nothing to lose. If you look back at World War II, American citizens were very much affected when the economy was switched to a full-swung war effort. Food and supplies were rationed, etc. In a few years, this country will pay dearly for Iraq.

If Congress passed a bill that said there was a new war tax on everything from income to sales, you can bet your ass more Americans would stand up to end the war than there currently are.

The wallet - the USA's weak point.

 

[razoredge]

Good point, so they mask it by going into debt to other countries, many of which were formerly our foes. Personally I still feel they are but again... a mask

I think there is plenty of opposition but lets be real, Americans are so frigin busy, tired and caught in the distractions or not knowing what could possibly be done anyhow and that it would make no difference that they appear more passive than they are. We've been very desensitized and corraled, most shake their head and go about daily business but then I've seen many a conversation get going and then you find out just how many people are really pissed off about the whole thing, not just "the war".

 

[Carey]

Concerning the Iraque war, I must say tha this "event" is not accidental any way:
1) do you remember the first war in gulf. Actually it was lost by US Gow, in political sphere. They need to have a revenge.(does enyone find smth familier with 1917 & 1939 in Europe?)
2)this war is one step of,so called, "ANAKONDA Plan", wich was created in 1947 or 1949 by 5-star general Mehhon of US Army. This plan was based on works of McKinder,Spikeman(Rimlent) and Fukuyama(End of history).The thing is to control the shore-line of Afrika, Europe and Asia in order to control the transportation of supply(any)-it's only the general point, read these authors and you'll get more astonishing details
"Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are We?"-it's not right, I think, to call people-stupid, because they are deprived from the total amount of true information

 

[razoredge]

interesting

 

[monoxide_child]

Did you stop to think that if teachers were better paid, the job itself would attract a higher calibre of mind?

no
almost the opposite actually
the teachers in america understand that the job pays ridiculously low wages
but they still show up to work because it's the job they want to do, they're willing to do a job with crap wages because they want to be teaching, educating, interacting with children
but
if the pay increased to a large enough amount, then you would get a lot of teachers that absolutely do not give a shit at all about the students and they're just looking for a fat paycheck

the only way you could increase the teaching world's paychecks is if you became way way stricter about who it is that you let become teachers, you've already got the american school systems filled with teachers that become teachers because they're cougars looking for prey or semi-pedophile guy teachers lookng for a kitten

 

[razoredge]

Oh christ, teachers are paid above and beyond the wages of the parents whos children they teach, for what amounts to a part time job.

what you say is already going on, they only teach or adminstrate in one community until the next higher bidder comes along.

 

[monoxide_child]

Oh christ, teachers are paid above and beyond the wages of the parents whos children they teach, for what amounts to a part time job.

what you say is already going on, they only teach or adminstrate in one community until the next higher bidder comes along.

teachers get paid per school-year, not per hour, dumbass, they have to interact with the students for a full 40-hour work week, (except those self-paced, half-day schools where the teachers interacting with the students is exactly 20 hours a work week) then they have to grade homework/classwork, then do all these "teacher preperation" days of showing up to the school building on days that the students aren't there, and the amount a teacher makes is different from one school district to the next, if you take the amount of money that a teacher makes in their yearly salary, then divide it by the number of hours they actually work, it turns out that most teachers are actually making slightly less than minimum wage, the low wages is the explination of why the shcool systems are being filled with cougars and semi-pedophile male teachers looking for kittens, when i was in highschool all the teachers were sleeping with some students, we never had a "mary-kay" case because the students enjoyed having sex with the teachers and all the kids willing to have sex with the teachers were totally afraid of the police

 

[monoxide_child]

Oh christ, teachers are paid above and beyond the wages of the parents whos children they teach.

are you living outside of the United States of America, here in the States teacher wages are the lowest in proportion to the cost of living compared to most other countries

 

[Einherjar86]

Oh christ, teachers are paid above and beyond the wages of the parents whos children they teach, for what amounts to a part time job.

what you say is already going on, they only teach or adminstrate in one community until the next higher bidder comes along.

I think you just don't like teachers, razor.

 

[Vimana]

You need to post more Ein.

 

[derek]

Even more Jar couldn't save this place now.

 

[Fenrisúlfr]

What they flush on Liberty Forum ends up here

 

[razoredge]

Well ,my dear friends, my father was the Superintendent of my school system. I am well aquanted with school politics and teachers job duties. My family is also filled with teachers, doctors and laywers. My sister was a teacher and told me straight up that I should look into it, its a damn good deal. Im also a school tax payer and know first hand what any given school teacher makes. I also know when they arrive and when they leave. I also know they have study hall appointments that give them more than enough time to grade papers and tests. They are golden and amounst the only people I know of that are guaranteed a set percentage raise every year as well as 100% benefits. Many are pulling 80,000 for a half years work... I hear the summers are hell... dumbass... lol and that weeks vaction during Christmas, then winter then again in the spring is just unbearable... for shame for shame