Stupid In America.

www.youtube.com...

I watch this on tv awhile ago. I thought this was important to those who are concerned about our kids. I think this video helps shed light on America's school system and why American kids and teens are behind than the rest of the industrialized nations, and even some poor nations. Any comments please. I would appreciate what you think of the video and if you agree or disagree. If there are former or current teachers here on ATS, it helps to add what your opinion is on this subject.

I've seen it, it's really good at pointing out most of the problems with the public and some of the private school system, here in the US.

Thank god I am getting schooled in Australia, the 6th best schooling country

I also found it amusing when American kids couldn't answer questions about America and I could.

[edit on 15-10-2006 by PisTonZOR]

True, they teach it our own country somewhat too broadly here. But there's very little the public can do to the teacher's union or to circumvent the laws the goverment has in place so they can indirectly dicate to the school system how vaugly to teach specifics about our country, goverment, politics, and history to us. Sad. Simply, sad.

Yeah thank God I was educated in the UK...

Thanx for sharing this, but not really news...We've known this for a long time...

The whole school system is just not set up to motivate kids to want to learn. It's just set up to drive into your head to obey authority. So when the big guy says Muslim terrorists did it you'll believe him, and even come on ATS and prove me right...

All kids, people, have a desire to learn, but when you try to force someone to do anything it's human nature to rebel. Kids should be allowed to develop their own desire to learn in a none authoritarian environment. But of course the system relies on drones to work the capitalist system, it don't care if you can read as long as you can say 'yes boss'.

[edit on 15/10/2006 by ANOK]

Yes, We should be performing multiplication from left to right instead of right to left(by recognizing the value of the numerical notations). We should have no limitations and no boundries. We should teach the patterns of mathematics aside from the frequent temporal computations. Familiarize our young ones with the anomolies found within multiples of 3. We should also help teach them to recognize that division is no more than fractions and can be carried out in such a manner while inducing properties such as inversed operations into the equatorial sequence. In English classes we should be teaching all of the kids the complete and full meanings of all prefixes and suffixes through the entirety of their educational process. History class should be an elective or moreover a 'selective'. We should also implore for the introduction of an empathy class guided not by the teacher's ideas, but rather by universal laws that are derived through a thorough understanding of the effects that our thoughts and actions have on the space around us.
Infinite love and eternal peace,
Go give someone a hug.

[edit on 15-10-2006 by UbiquitousInfiniteReality]

Australian education rocks

There are a lot of smart American kids but something is definitely wrong with the education system.

This video is a real eye opener.
With this system you keep the general public stupid.
I embedded the video so maybe some more people would watch it.




Here is an other video from a former government official showing how a lot of dumbing down is planned ahead.

Charlotte Iserbyt - Deliberate Dumbing Down of the World



More here

Chemical Dumbing Down of America



And here more.
Charlotte Iserbyt - The Dumbing Down of America EXCERPTS



It seems that there is a system in place that tries to dumb down the general population.
And it looks like they have a lot of succes.
The examples here are mostly american but i am sure that this doesnt only take place in the US.






[edit on 28-1-2009 by jaamaan]

Originally posted by PisTonZOR
Thank god I am getting schooled in Australia, the 6th best schooling country

I also found it amusing when American kids couldn't answer questions about America and I could.

[edit on 15-10-2006 by PisTonZOR]

We know more about the US history due to TV rather than what is learnt at school, most Australian School students couldn't even name our own prime ministers.
You may think that the schooling here is Number 6 in the world, but we like all other western countries are being dumbed down, mental arithmetic, spelling and critical thinking are all being phased out.

Students don't fail anymore, they are just less competant so as they don't have their feelings hurt, School is now more about learning like a parrot through repetition and not about thinking.

you repeat what a teacher tells you and you pass, try questioning a teachers answer and you will fail.

In a critical essay published by the institute, David Perks, head of physics at Graveney School, London, also describes the changes as a "dumbing down" of the subject.

He argues the new qualification will produce citizens without "a thorough grounding in the sciences" and suggests instead everyone should study separate chemistry, physics and biology.

news.bbc.co.uk...

A little article to show that this does not only happen in america.
In my country, the netherlands, history lessons are a very good example that could point out the dumbing down effect.
85 % of the kids above 14 dont get any history lessons any more.

Here is a bit on the australian education system.

Australian students have slipped from second to sixth place on reading in the latest Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report and are now ranked only ninth in maths.

But the teachers' union says the Howard government ripped so much money out of education in the last decade that it is surprising schools are not in even worse shape.

Some analysts though say student standards are declining because curriculums have been dumbed down.
(snip)
Dr Kevin Donnelly used to work for former workplace relations minister Kevin Andrews, but he is now an education consultant based in Melbourne. He says the problem is that curriculums are being dumbed down.

"But all the research overseas proves that's not the case. If you look at those countries that out-perform Australia, especially in mathematics and science, they actually spend less on education," he said.

"They often have more students in the classroom. It's not about money, it's really about how effective you are in terms of teachers and the curriculum.
www.abc.net.au...

I live in Macedonia, which is not a wealthy country.
But I can say that the school system which is still unchanged from the
communistic times is better than the western. It has its flaws to it is not
perfect, but when I went to high school I had 14 subjects.
We weren't allowed to use a calculator, we used it only when we worked with
lets say .0000001 decimals or something like this when it gets impractical to
do it manually, I had friends from America and other developed countries and
they were amazed by this.
We studied addition, subtraction, multiplication, division in first grade,
square roots, radicals and exponents in 4th and in 8th( the final)
permutations, variations, probability and etc sorry I cant remember exactly,
mathematics isn't my strong side .

In high school we had :
Biology, Chemistry, History, Physics, Psychology, Pedagogy, Geography,
Mathematics, German language, English, Italian, Grammar, Literature, Philosophy.. all of this is a must we dont have to choose like you do.
I remember when we studied geography we had to remember the average
rainfall of all of the countries, their economy, climate and similar.
I got frustrated with all of the info, I remember I had a hard time in high
school with Mathematical Induction.

A lot of the info I cant remember now. But I think it isn't bad to learn it
when you are younger. Knowledge is power.
I can say that in Serbia the schools are even better( the universities), I dont
know about the other countries.
This kind of system does have some effect on the IQ but it depends on the
person(genetics, environment and other) but I think it is good stimulus.

It is said here though a lot of people dont reach their potential.

The CIA - Illuminati is in control of science as evident by UFOs and ET bull
and the convenient myth of free energy as discovered by Tesla
by withholding from the public his documents.

The published document themselves are a good educational experience.

Thus the CIA - Illuminati are thus in charge of education as well.
Just the amount of lies from WWII make it impossible for the
Illuminati to truthfully educate the public.

Not to mention how government is run.
The NYC MTA is prevented from making sufficient monies so
the lawmakers can play big shots every fiscal year to
save the fare.

I went to private school. I actually think I got a grade A education. It showed when I got into public high school and I was already far ahead of the juniors as a freshman. When you limit the curriculum based on anything you really loose a lot in educational value.

Definitely.Im a teenager and I recently immigrated from another European country.The education in NA is about 1/2 years behind oher countries