The Dumbest Generation

[JBeukema]

You got somethin' against robots, Mag?

Think your answer through carefully

 

[MaggieMae]

I don't know about this. My boy is doing higher level math and english than I had in senior year in his sophomore year. He is learning a foreign language.

For those who are willing to do the work, they are learning more than was available. My high school library was pretty big, but it always seemed that the book you needed was not there. If he needs to research something the world is at his fingertips.


Few students took advantage of what was available 35 years ago. There is so much more available now. I think the differences in attainment between the top workers and the bottom is going to get ever wider.

The operative words are "for those who are willing to do the work." Today there is way too much distraction for young people, starting in adolescence and through high school. Unless parents restrict their use of cell phones and computers, kids will naturally gravitate toward their friends who are constantly within reach on those venues. The problem for parents who do care these days is how do you balance restricting a child's use of those social network conveniences without risking that the child would be alienated and probably bullied as being a wimp, or worse, because he/she has parents who actually care? So a sense of responsibility MUST actually come from the child--willing to do the work.

 

[MaggieMae]

I don't know about this. My boy is doing higher level math and english than I had in senior year in his sophomore year. He is learning a foreign language.

For those who are willing to do the work, they are learning more than was available. My high school library was pretty big, but it always seemed that the book you needed was not there. If he needs to research something the world is at his fingertips.


Few students took advantage of what was available 35 years ago. There is so much more available now. I think the differences in attainment between the top workers and the bottom is going to get ever wider.

I forgot I wanted to mention using the library. When I was in school, friends actually got together after school to study, because there often was only the one needed library book to share. (We weren't using studying as an excuse to trip on down to the local mall to gather with friends.) Plus, although we weren't dirt poor, we weren't wealthy by a long shot. Nevertheless, my parents made the decision early on to invest in a set of World Book Encyclopedias with annual updates that cost a whopping $500 at the time. These days, of course, kids can actually do all their homework online, in fact copying much of it from websites. But are they absorbing any of it?

 

[Trajan]

I think every generation in history has been viewed as the dumbest generation by the generation in power.

I remember the stories in the 60's about Baby Boomer Hippies being the end of civilization as we know it.

Somehow, those hippies are calling the shots now

yes they are..and?



but in all seriousness...you're right, "old times" are the best, people pine for the days way back when...., when you hit a certain age there's a proclivity to engage in some melancholy and tend to believe that when YOU grew up things were soo different and better, the tools change etc....what really changes though is attitude.

anyway I will comment that according to OECD stats, there's nothing wrong with our kids; in the early years they are just as intelligent and have plenty of aptitude, BUT their achievement falls off each year they make their way though our school system winding up 11- or 12th in math , the sciences etc. by the time they graduate\....hummmmm

 

[MaggieMae]

YouTube - Limp Bizkit - My Generation


yeah... definitely not as good

Oh God, I hope Limp Bizkit isnt used as any type of measure to judge people my age.

Atleast I can say us young americans are not the ones who lived beyond their means, were unable to meet their financial obligations, made terribe investments, ran america into the ground, and created the economic cluster fuck we find ourselves in... atleast not yet anyways. Thats all on you old folks.

Surely you jest. Teenagers today MUST have designer clothes (no more Sears or JC Penny, nor GASP Wal*Mart duds), MUST have a cell phone, MUST have a laptop, MUST have a car. Just wait until you're an adult and you MUST have TWO cars, a starter castle for a home, all the latest IT stuff, a big screen BluRay TV (or whatever will replace that tomorrow).

So at what point does the young American plan to stop wanting everything in the world in order to help save the economy?

 

[Modbert]

So how many people who are sprouting off about how teenagers or people in their early twenties, blah blah blah are actually teenagers or in their early twenties?

Sounds like a bunch of movie stereotypes to me. Seriously, every generation seems to think the generation after theirs is somehow worse or dumber. Think back for a moment what the people that most of you are now for ages thought of you back in the 60's and 70's when you were growing up.

Probably the same thing or something similar I'm willing to bet.

The more time passes, the more things truly do stay the same.

Edit: On a note, when it comes to political awareness, can anyone give me a good reason why somebody my age would want to join a message board like USMB? Especially when so many of the members act like children on a daily basis.

 

[Samson]

Edit: On a note, when it comes to political awareness, can anyone give me a good reason why somebody my age would want to join a message board like USMB? Especially when so many of the members act like children on a daily basis.

Your age?

For the OctoErotica?

 

[Modbert]

Your age?

For the OctoErotica?

 

[ConHog]

So how many people who are sprouting off about how teenagers or people in their early twenties, blah blah blah are actually teenagers or in their early twenties?

Sounds like a bunch of movie stereotypes to me. Seriously, every generation seems to think the generation after theirs is somehow worse or dumber. Think back for a moment what the people that most of you are now for ages thought of you back in the 60's and 70's when you were growing up.

Probably the same thing or something similar I'm willing to bet.

The more time passes, the more things truly do stay the same.

Edit: On a note, when it comes to political awareness, can anyone give me a good reason why somebody my age would want to join a message board like USMB? Especially when so many of the members act like children on a daily basis.

Anyone who joins a board like this to become more politically aware has problems. This certainly isn't a place to get your news.

 

[R.C. Christian]

The current batch of filthy young vermin can't take a leak without it running down their pants or god forbid find Virginia on a map. Too busy piercing their genitals with stainless steel, and decorating their bodies with disgusting tattoos, like aboriginal filth. I feel certain that if Lindsey Lohan put a bone in her nose that would the next fad.

 

[uscitizen]

Is the Palin fad over yet?

 

[jeffrockit]

A while back I started a thread and asked: How would you change K-12 Schools in America?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have some ideas but would like to hear what others think. Please, leave the partisan rhetoric out and offer the best ideas you have.

I will bump up that thread, the question posed on this thread deserves attention and some of the ideas on the older thread merit additional attention.

Teach actual facts and not partisan slanted teaching, (mainly in colleges so I know its out of the K-12 range) and to that end reduce the PC control and teach actual facts. Don't edit history textbooks by partisans on either side. It is what it is whether the editors like it or not.
Get rid of bad or uninspired teachers by less union power and embrace school choice such as Charter and private schools using the voucher system as competition is good (because unions are totally against that and have so much pull with the politicians, this will be hard to achieve). Not all public schools are bad and not all private schools are bad but there is bad in both.
Attempt to get parents involved though I am not sure how. Some parents think that school is responsible for so much more in their children's lives that they actually are. CRT testing is almost useless and I will give an example; My wife works with special needs children in middle school. They are mandated to have those children pass the same tests as the non-special needs children which is completely asinine. That either dumbs down the tests or forces the numbers to be fudged.

 

[rightwinger]

So how many people who are sprouting off about how teenagers or people in their early twenties, blah blah blah are actually teenagers or in their early twenties?

Sounds like a bunch of movie stereotypes to me. Seriously, every generation seems to think the generation after theirs is somehow worse or dumber. Think back for a moment what the people that most of you are now for ages thought of you back in the 60's and 70's when you were growing up.

Probably the same thing or something similar I'm willing to bet.

The more time passes, the more things truly do stay the same.

Edit: On a note, when it comes to political awareness, can anyone give me a good reason why somebody my age would want to join a message board like USMB? Especially when so many of the members act like children on a daily basis.

You join because you think you will change the world, influence the common dialogue and pick up chicks

 

[MaggieMae]

You got somethin' against robots, Mag?

Think your answer through carefully

I loved them when I was about six. My favorite book was Isaac Asimov's "I Robot."

 

[MaggieMae]

So how many people who are sprouting off about how teenagers or people in their early twenties, blah blah blah are actually teenagers or in their early twenties?

Sounds like a bunch of movie stereotypes to me. Seriously, every generation seems to think the generation after theirs is somehow worse or dumber. Think back for a moment what the people that most of you are now for ages thought of you back in the 60's and 70's when you were growing up.

Probably the same thing or something similar I'm willing to bet.

The more time passes, the more things truly do stay the same.

Edit: On a note, when it comes to political awareness, can anyone give me a good reason why somebody my age would want to join a message board like USMB? Especially when so many of the members act like children on a daily basis.

It wouldn't bother me one bit what teenagers do with their spare time. What bothers me are the troubling numbers that show the United States lagging way behind other countries in basic education.

Illiteracy - Major U.S. Problem

We need to return to a strict K-12 curriculum, and if a student' can't pass, say 11th grade required Geography, then he/she simply doesn't get passed on to the 12th grade. But since we live in an era where nobody is allowed to lose, kids are being shuttled into grade levels they are unprepared for.

 

[MaggieMae]

So how many people who are sprouting off about how teenagers or people in their early twenties, blah blah blah are actually teenagers or in their early twenties?

Sounds like a bunch of movie stereotypes to me. Seriously, every generation seems to think the generation after theirs is somehow worse or dumber. Think back for a moment what the people that most of you are now for ages thought of you back in the 60's and 70's when you were growing up.

Probably the same thing or something similar I'm willing to bet.

The more time passes, the more things truly do stay the same.

Edit: On a note, when it comes to political awareness, can anyone give me a good reason why somebody my age would want to join a message board like USMB? Especially when so many of the members act like children on a daily basis.

Anyone who joins a board like this to become more politically aware has problems. This certainly isn't a place to get your news.

I have always presumed everyone who enjoys posting on USMB is aware of the news (or topics under discussion) in the first place--before posting. Unfortunately, that's not true.

 

[MaggieMae]

My wife works with special needs children in middle school. They are mandated to have those children pass the same tests as the non-special needs children which is completely asinine. That either dumbs down the tests or forces the numbers to be fudged.

That's a tough one. In my opinion, after a professional analysis that a child has "special needs," there should be special schools for them, apart from the din of 'normal' school curriculum AND 'normal' kid behavior. But that costs money, folks.

The alternative is special classes within the school system, but that's the way it used to be in the 50's and before, and the practice was deemed too humiliating for kids to be in the "B" class and not in the "A" class. So what's the solution? Kids especially today can never, ever be told they are losers. Only winners. Even on the soccer field.

 

[psikeyhackr]

The word curiosity is not mentioned in the entire thread.

That is why I talk about science fiction books so much. I remember getting ready for school in the morning when I was in third grade wondering how I would get through another TOTALLY BORING day.

But science fiction from the 1950s and 1960s had science, technology, ideas, psychology, history and physics. Consider Isaac Asimov, how many different things did he know about in the 50s and 60s. Arthur C. Clarke used Plato's Allegory of the Cave in his book, A Fall of Moondust.

So if we supplied grade school kids with good SF what might happen.

Of course the problem with SF since the late 60s is the amount of sex in the stories and what do parents want to give grades school kids today? Consider Barbarella from 1968.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaiEhaaLF6Q&feature=related]YouTube - Barbarella(1967) - Barbarella[/ame]

But what science can be learned from Star Wars novels?

How about this?

The Year When Stardust Fell, by Raymond F. Jones
The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Year When Stardust Fell, by Raymond F. Jones.

This only has 4 sci-fi works at 8 and above and only look like literary science fiction.

Level O Books

psik

 

[jeffrockit]

My wife works with special needs children in middle school. They are mandated to have those children pass the same tests as the non-special needs children which is completely asinine. That either dumbs down the tests or forces the numbers to be fudged.

That's a tough one. In my opinion, after a professional analysis that a child has "special needs," there should be special schools for them, apart from the din of 'normal' school curriculum AND 'normal' kid behavior. But that costs money, folks.

The alternative is special classes within the school system, but that's the way it used to be in the 50's and before, and the practice was deemed too humiliating for kids to be in the "B" class and not in the "A" class. So what's the solution? Kids especially today can never, ever be told they are losers. Only winners. Even on the soccer field.

These children are in their own class. Some of them are on a 1st grade level and some are very low functioning. I don't think that any of them have concerns of humiliation. They are definitely not losers and I think the competition thing is not really relevant to them.
I don't agree with the PC logic (?) on winning and losing, keeping score and etc.

The other problem is with some of the parents. They just want the school to take care of their children and not be hassled with any of the problems that are part of the special needs child.

 

[chanel]

So how many people who are sprouting off about how teenagers or people in their early twenties, blah blah blah are actually teenagers or in their early twenties?

Sounds like a bunch of movie stereotypes to me. Seriously, every generation seems to think the generation after theirs is somehow worse or dumber. Think back for a moment what the people that most of you are now for ages thought of you back in the 60's and 70's when you were growing up.

Probably the same thing or something similar I'm willing to bet.

The more time passes, the more things truly do stay the same.

Edit: On a note, when it comes to political awareness, can anyone give me a good reason why somebody my age would want to join a message board like USMB? Especially when so many of the members act like children on a daily basis.

Interesting question modbert. There's been a lot of controversy over labeling young 20 somethings as "emerging adults" and not full fledged grownups. Interesting (but lengthy) read here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html

Sociologists traditionally define the “transition to adulthood” as marked by five milestones: completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying and having a child. In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent of men had, by the time they reached 30, passed all five milestones. Among 30-year-olds in 2000, according to data from the United States Census Bureau, fewer than half of the women and one-third of the men had done so. A Canadian study reported that a typical 30-year-old in 2001 had completed the same number of milestones as a 25-year-old in the early ’70s.

Even if some traditional milestones are never reached, one thing is clear: Getting to what we would generally call adulthood is happening later than ever