Dumb As A Rock: You Will Be Absolutely Amazed At The Things That U.S. High School Students Do Not Kn

reply to post by mnmcandiez


hi
that is bang on
it applys here in england
i took history and learnt pre ww1 to the end of the cold war
very interesting and makes you see how the governments have manipulated us over the years
even the majority of people nowadays cant comprehend propaganda
let alone when its staring in your face
the whole worlds going downhill wen the rocks been pushed to the top

I am currently in High School and it's pretty terrible looking around every day at the quality of kids. Really. Dumb as a rock basically sums it up. Most kids don't have any behavioral skills whatsoever, and more and more, just care about their hard--- reputation than anything at all. Not to mention how EASY school is.

I wish I could've grown up in a different generation. Becuase I really dislike the one I'm in now : /

ha! this reminds me of jay leno's 'walk' when he asks people on the street simple questions,and they can't answer and make themselfs look like idiots on tv!!!
hey,i thought the civil war was ww1!!!!! english,french,african american,american,native american all fighting!!! ha ha ha!

..And the other side is it also amazing at some of the things high school students DO know, and CAN do.

We have some very brilliant young people out there. Maybe somebody should make a video about them to level things out..........

There are 3 parts to an education...the student, the teacher, and the parent(s) of the student.

Unfortunately, here in NC...the end result is not teaching the student or taching the student how to critically think. The objective is to pass the end of grade tests. The EOG tests determine school rankings, budgets,prestige, the design of districts, etc. So every thing the student is taught is aimed at the EOG tests.

So, as pointed out, many students are at a disadvantage because of where they live and income levels. Many do not have access to computers at home or do not have the extra money to pay for some field trips.

As for the parents, most are working and so lack the time and will to ensure homework is done, that reading assignmnets and reports are finished and thorough.

And teachers are bound by a curricula set by the county office and mandates from the state that the EOG tests are passed and avoid public scrutiny for failure to do so.

Budgets have been cut so there are limited music classes and art classes...it is now an option with a waiting list. The mass body of students will not go to an opera, or the art museum, or a science museum... and so a potential student that would be inspired is never exposed to thinking outside of the box. A potential classical music major inner city youth to be exposed to ragtime Joplin is left to flipping burgers as a career.

Extra readings and reports and essays and lively debates on history and social issues are left undone so the mass body of students can "memorize" the answers for the next round of EOG tests...doesn't matter if they learned them... just memorize them long enough to pass the tests. You don't have to understand that A=B and B=C, therefore A=C in the Transitive Property in Geomotry... just know that it does and fill in the little circle with your No2 pencil. Why doesn't matter.

All that being said, I am making generalizations about one segment of students. There are just as many really great and smart students. We just don't remember them... everybody remembers the pink volkswagon with bunny ears on the highway, nobody remembers the gray 2 door hatchback import you passed this morning.

Likewise, I have elementary level Hispanic kids that come into my farm store with their parents that are bi-lingual. They already know the basics of farming and hard work and can even do the math for their parents on costs and figuring sales tax.

I have young HS graduates that are buying an aircompressor, air tools, a trailer, and are starting there on mobile tire change and repair business and selling used tires. Some are taking over for their older parents and raising cattle or stepping out on their own and starting their own farms.

Others come in and are majoring in veterinary medicine or starting a farrier business and horse shoeing and horse maintainance business... they buy the tools, buy new tires and accessories for a used trailer they just bought.

Their are some really bright kids out there also...we just kinda miss them as they seem normal to us, and normal kinda goes unnoticed.

This is why you should have a school vouchers if you want to send your kids to a private/boarding school. The public school system is horrible, it's not designed to teach its just a government sponsored baby sitter.

reply to post by AlreadyGone


Same everywhere in the western world and the sad thing is that teachers know this, talk about how wrong it is in the staff rooms and are then in absolutely no position about doing anything about it as they would be failing to meet the targets and therefore liable to losing their jobs!

It is just crazy. I have talked to teachers from all over the western world about the way this is going (as have other former colleagues). We need to accept that some people learn and some don't. Some will pass tests and some won't. We cannot have an effective system where everyone fits - reality has shown this doesn't work. The only way to raise standards is to start teaching knowledge of subjects again instead of exam knowledge and to then accept this means some will be deemed academic failures. We need to stop mollycoddling children and let them get used to the fact that they may well fail in things in life. Success isn't guaranteed.

reply to post by joyride0187


Wow a lot of useless information. ...who cares?

Can we move along now and leave our ancient history in the dust?

Yeah I know... we are bound to repeat it.

That tired expression gets old and useless to.

Our children know different things today.
Information you cannot quantify or place a value on.

I may get slammed for this, but we get what we deserve. These ppl deserve what they get.

Back in the day, if you wanted to find out anything worthwhile, you had to look through something called a "card catalog", read numerous books, and maybe, maybe you got two pages of the info you were looking for.

Now? Now you can sit in your underwear at 3 in the morning and with a few keystrokes & mouse clicks you can find out almost ANYTHING. And despite THAT, we're dumber than ever before.

There's no intellectual curiosity, ppl believe they're govt, and most ppl still believe "there are only a few bad apples" on the police force. All the things in the OP could be found out easily by themselves.

You can argue that we've been stripped of our ability to think for ourselves, or haven't been taught that anymore in school, but that doesn't explain the ppl here ATS who come on a regular basis to "deny ignorance".

Ppl are dumber b/c they CHOOSE to be that way. Oh sure, you can't blame a child for not knowing these things, but what's the 20 somethings excuse? etc etc.

As long as ppl can still afford their six packs while watching american idol and vegging out in front of their flat panel tv, nothing will change, b/c there's no need to change.

You think the problem is ignorance, I think the problem is apathy & complacency.

My two cents.

reply to post by schadenfreude


Totally agree. The problem with instant knowledge is that it gives an instant answer to the question you are looking for. As you pointed out, this doesn't mean you understand the question or even the general info around the question, rather you simply know the answer to the question.

The result is what we sometimes see here on ATS (and i myself am also sometimes guilty of) - people with a smattering of knowledge getting upset when others point out that they do not understand what they are saying. If you only have a fragment of the picture, you cannot hope to see what the picture really looks like.

Isn't it ironic. Education these days is aimed at sending all children to college and university.

When I was coming along, about the 7th grade we took a test to see if college or a skilled career was the path to be educated for.

Not everyone is meant for college. Oddly enough, many college graduates can't find work, but many older skilled electricians, carpenters, tradesmen, auto body mechanics can't find anyone to help them and their work load is backed up and they are making a very nice income.

I have an 82 year old uncle that retired from store maintainance for a grocery chain... he still does a couple of jobs in the morning and a couple in the afternoon... simple home fixeruppers and maintainance. Stuff like fixing faucets and fixtures, outlets that don't work, hanging doors... changing water heating elements... always busy, always has a wad of cash in his pants pocket.

I know another guy, family friend and is 67 years old...has a used tire business. This guy is as country as dirt and plain jane...heart of gold, a real salt of the earth kind of guy. He sells used tires and mounts them. Dirty work and hard work... he literally has a wad of cash in his pants that would choke a horse and operates out of a cigar box... really. Every Saturday night, he goes out and eats at a highend steak house in a nearby town, drives a hopped up restored 1963 Thunderbird, and is never alone.

Back to point, not everyone is meant for college and should not be prepped and time wasted on if they do not want to go to college. At some point, we have to do educational triage and send the students along different paths and careers.

One other point. The university is not there to ensure a good job upon graduation. It is there to teach people how to critically think and how to learn... a skill often over looked today.

reply to post by AlreadyGone


That's actually a very good point. We should encourage more skills based people because, as you say, not everyone is academic (despite guidelines pushing teachers to believe they should be). After all, if we are getting more and more smart people from university, we need more people skilled enough to actually build and implement what they are designing!

Why do people measure intelligence by facts you know? There are university professor who lean left, so knowing a lot doesn't make one intelligent.

reply to post by joyride0187


Last time I checked the international education status back in 2011, the USA was rated 14th in the world, Australia was rated 8th.

reply to post by 547000


I smell a troll..

Political leanings are not based on intelligence. If a professor is smart enought to lean left, the student needs to be smart enough to argue his point to the right.

One of my favorite professors and damned challenging too always said..." There are no right answers or wrong answers on this exam. However, you do have to support your argument with names, dates, facts, and examples."

Is not just USA, here in the UK is just as bad.

A few months ago I got the chance to hang out with some high school kids, I was in town with my friends on a Friday night and as we were leaving the bar we saw my friends little sister and her friends trying to get in but as they are all like 15-16 they werent having much luck getting into bars or clubs.

As me and my friends knew them and are close friends with her older sister we invited them back to our house to drink....

This really opened my eyes... so many things that get said as jokes they thought were facts, it was scary and the rate they were drinking was alarming too, between 4 of them they drank over a litre of vodka in under 30 mins, we started drinking at like midnight, before 1:00am 3 of them had passed out.

As we rent rooms in my house we once had a 17 yr old moving in... I have never met someone so stupid.

I was in my room with my girl and he knocks the door, he tells me that the fridge broke as its really really warm... I went to check it out, I open the fridge and it seems fine to me.... he then tells me: "no, put your hand over the light, is really warm there!"... he would ask the most stupid questions all the time... once he asked where the main supermarket was, I just said: "next to your College you go to everyday" to which he said: "oh, so if I leave the house do I go right or left?" it was like... how the f*** do you survive?!?! how do you miss a massive Wall-Mart like store that is on the way to the College you go to every day? in a drive that is less than a mile long.

My girl was in the kitchen and he comes down to make pasta with mince beef, he had no idea how to do that, my girl had to explain to him, she tells him to use as much mince as he wants, so he puts the mince to one side and asks her: "erm, what do I do with the mince I got left over?" I kid you not... my girl: "erm, put it back in the freezer?"

Then after weeks of living with him we noticed the same pattern, it did not matter how many times he cooked something, he would spend like 10 mins reading the instructions, even for pasta he would just stand there for ages reading the instructions EVERY SINGLE TIME he was cooking that.

We just had an Indian student moving in, he is just as bad, in fact he reminds me of that retard... took him over a month to work out how to use the washing machine and the microwave, when he needs to open cans he goes around the house looking for people as he cant use the can opener, you teach him but he forgets the next time.

reply to post by AlreadyGone


There's nothing to argue. Anything not politically correct is evil. Anyone who can't see it is thought control is already beyond hope. You would expect anyone who studied history to see this, yet many educated cannot. College professors are a strange contradiction: they've studied a lot. They know a lot. But they can't understand reality. That just goes to show you knowing facts does not always make one intelligent.

Using one's own thoughts and not blindly following the thoughts of others
Discussion of ideas and not forcing a philosophy or framework or agenda upon others
Personal observation contemplation and study
In the end the best teacher is within ones self

reply to post by 547000


You are correct in saying facts do not make one intelligent. However, not all professors are left leaning... and not all of the ones that are will try to force their views upon the class or student.

I make generalizations as do so many others, but they are really damaging to an argument... a fell swoop judgement without facts. So, I first posted making a generalization, but in hindsight, I tried to correct my stance and broad generalization about young people...

Likewise, generalizations about professors are just that... generalizations. Some truth, but not 100% factual.

reply to post by joyride0187


I remember kids being pretty dumb when I was in school too.

For instance, I remember that only myself and two others actually answered this question with a valid answer...."What is your favorite country?" Most people answered with cities, states, or even continents. (I answered with the U.S. of course, as I had just come back to the states after being overseas).

Another example was when only two of us (another student and myself) could actually walk up to a wall map and point out Vietnam. Now, this was on a map that was labelled, so as long as you knew the general area to look, well...pretty easy from there.

And, this was in HIGH SCHOOL folks.... Sad, sad, sad....

Of course, I also remember we had a lot more tools available to us, like the ritual of Saturday morning cartoons with interspersed lessons from Schoolhouse Rock...or daily shows like Sesame Street and the Electric Company. While these are still out there...there are SO many other choices that dumb kids down, that instead of being limited in choice, now, everything is on demand....and many choose something else.