The deliberate dumbing down of America...

[Insein]

America's education system is a joke. Compared to that of even the most remedial of third world countries, America's public education system has the efficiency of 2 high school parking lot attendents clearing a Wal-Mart parking on a weekend while high. There is no leadership, no direction, no accountability, no punishment. There is only endless circles of beuracracy piled on top of indifference.

Now for many years, I simply felt that this was due to incompetent leaders being in charge of this institutions. I always felt that if a business mind would be allowed to run the "business" ened of a school system, then it would improve productivity. Then it began to dawn on me that the reason business minds do not run school systems is deliberate. Idiots run school systems because they are chosen to run this facilities into the ground. Principals and Superintendents do not back up their teachers with unruly students. Curriculum guides are so convuluted and pointless that even if a student figured them out, they would be learning nothing. Endless standardized tests wear students down to the point that they just don't care what they get anymore.

With teachers afraid to discipline students for fear of not having any judgement placed on the offender there by underminding their power, they have become prisoners in their own classrooms. The inmates run the asylums. Students are passed on to the next grade because they do not want to be dealt with again despite their inability to grasp the fundamentals of that grade level.

My wife is a teacher. She works with low income students. Just a sampling of what she deals with on a daily basis includes students that routinely mouth off and leave the classroom only to have an incompetant guidance counselor say that they are "dealing with stuff at home and need some time to cope." Combine that with a principal that treats said students like a buddy that they would hang out with after work and you create a child that knows they don't have to do anything and can make the teacher's life hell.

Some other tidbits she has seen. A student that reads on a kindergarten level in 6th grade was recently moved to 7th grade (in april) because the administration "didn't want to deal with them." Next year they will move on to 8th grade. The student reads at a kindergarten level and is graduating to 8th grade. How will this person become a productive member of society.

My thoughts are so jumbled and random right now and I wish I organized them better but my whole thought process on this is that the American Education system is not merely incompetent. It has deliberately been setup to fail in order to breed morons that can be controlled by the government.

[n0spam4me]

The school system is truly a joke.
I dropped out of high school in the '60s
and ya, it was a mess then also.

There is a legal term, "by accedent or design..."
that is used to point to the end result of some action,
that is the fact that kids are NOT getting an education in USEFUL INFORMATION THAT THEY CAN USE, and not that it doesn't matter if the people running the schools have intended this result, or they are incompetent, given the result, they are still at fault.

I have noticed a rise in awareness in homeschooling and private schools.

This is a good thing, & I hope its not too little too late.
oh well....

There is another feature of the whole scene, and that is the ownership of the media, kids grow-up these days watching a LOT of TV and the media does a lot toward shaping their world view.

I look at what the "GOV" has gotten away with even in the last 8 years and all I can say is ... THE EMPEROR IS NAKED!

WHY do people continue to NOT see or not recognize what they are seeing when they see it?

Some of the education responsiblilty is on the PARENTS, I heard from one parent recently who was very proud that his 8 year-old (who is attending public school .. btw...) could recite the entire Declaration of Independence.
Groovie! Some PARENTS care and do some instruction to suplement the Public School work.

[glockmail]

My grandfather graduated from the 8th grade back when High School was the privileged of very few. He was one of the most well spoken men that I have ever known. He started work when he as 13 and kept at it until he was 82, and never had a problem keeping up with the technology of his chosen career: manufacturing chocolate.

The dumbing down of America is entirely intentional, and related to the socialist movement under the Affirmative Action President that we are seeing today. Dumb students make dumb adults who vote Democrat.

My grandfather was a Republican until the day he died and never worked for a union. He hated the unions and saw then for what they were.

[Agnapostate]

The dumbing down of America is entirely intentional, and related to the socialist movement under the Affirmative Action President that we are seeing today. Dumb students make dumb adults who vote Democrat.

Referring to the policies of the current president as "socialist" is an inaccurate distortion of political economy. That being said, my opinion is that reference to political economy may actually have some relevance to this topic.

My own view is that modern schooling functions as an instrument of oppression due to its compulsory, hierarchical, and authoritarian nature. Numerous theoreticians of the most diverse political perspectives are united on this fact.

For instance, we might consider the perspective of socialists Bowles and Gintis in Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life, in which they argue that the hierarchical subordination of students inherent in schooling is designed to indoctrinate students so that they might conform to the hierarchical subordination of labor under capital later in life. The libertarian socialist (and indeed, the Marxist) is able to recognize the role of this form of hierarchical schooling in preparing students for the similarly hierarchical workplace and weakening the working class so that they may score few victories in class conflict.

If we are displeased with the perspective of socialists, we might consider the perspective of classical liberals. (Described as "libertarians" in modern American political circles.)

[Psychoblues]

Any cursory reading of these threads proves that the dumbing down has been going on for years. Some here promote it with vigor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[April15]

My children had excellent education in the public system. All have very nice careers. None are republicans.

[Insein]

Any cursory reading of these threads proves that the dumbing down has been going on for years. Some here promote it with vigor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The GOP,,,the party of fear and loathing,,,sad,,,,



Psychoblues

Thank you for proving my point so well. By the way, those little pictures to the right are not actually words but I do know its hard for you to express yourself with that great public school education you got.