American kids, dumber than dirt

It is true, the educational system is a bit flawed. I went from high school straight to college, and it was a huuuge jump. We were taught nothing about the materials they covered in college, nor were we prepared. It seemed like as quick as the teachers seen us, the quicker they wanted us out.

It appeared to be very real untill the bit where he stated students don't know how to use rulers. .

Rulers. Come on.

...the smart ones give their kids no TV and minimal junk food and no video games.

A few thoughts

Jesse Jackson said years ago that "no one is so poor that they cannot turn off the tv."
Are pre-school children in an active daycare/homecare situation where the mind is active with activities/instruction (physical play as well as books to look at, songs to sing, etc), or a passive setting where they are sat in front of a tv, an electronic babysitter?

I have read over the years, that evidence suggests that the brain gets hardwired early, not just as a result of formal but also as a result of psychological situations. For children who are in stressful family situations (children of alcoholics, or abusive situations, for example), the reactions get hardwired in. I venture to guess that the brains of children who come from families who lose their home, have little to eat, or suffer from inadequate medical care, are busy building new neural pathways to cope, not for maximum learning.

From looking around at just families I know, I see that children in school nowadays come from parents who were heavy into recreational drug use: party with not just alcohol but meth, crack. These children seem to suffer mild forms of brain damage, difficulty memorizing or synthesizing new information. Raising an adopted baby born with mom's heroin addiction was a lot of extra work for one family to turn out a physically, mentally, emotionally well adjusted child. What about the children of these other drugs, not born with withdrawal symptoms, but suffering from effects harder to detect at birth?

I can remember years ago, when a tax on snack (junk) food was proposed, the snack food industry claimed that such a tax would hurt the poor most, as this was their food of choice. Ha! Like they really cared about their users. How many lower income students believe breakfast is a soda and "yogurt" flavored piece of cookie or "fruit"?

Will "privatizing" education help? From a news article I read, no. Out of 1,400 students who could qualify for free tutoring (taxpayer dollars going to tutoring businesses), only 14 parents showed up at a meeting to choose the service.

As a professor, I teach students who come from both public and private high schools. There are plenty of highly intelligent students, those with both academic and social skills.

What I do see declining is the ability to think critically. By that I mean the capacity not only to absorb new ideas and information but to test it in their minds, to ask intelligent questions and come to their own conclusions after serious thought.

Maybe this is happening because middle and high schools are teaching mainly for standardized tests.
It could be they don't have the time or resources to challenge students to think deeply. Or maybe they think the students will get that in college.

The best schools, public or private, are the ones that encourage the development of both academic excellence and critical thinking. There should be more activities like formal debating or even
playing chess, as well as vigorous outdoor exercise. Maybe students could polish their skills by going to ATS!