Why are American kids so dumb?

[Darkstar]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
I'm not talking about THOSE drugs.

I'm talking about prescription drugs.

I'm sorry. But that is just so funny. Those drugs cause enough behavioral problems in class. But I take your point. Do you want it back?

[aneeshm]

Why are American kinds so dumb ? Here might be a view from an American .

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Just one question. How do you manage to keep your head up your ass so long?

I use a combination of strength training, flexibility exercises, and Windsor Pilates.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

Not sure If i should come back here. Such passion i see but not directed were it needs to go.

[Ted Striker]

notyoueither has some strange fetish with my ass.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

ok then, Never seen his ass, but who am I to argue

[Ted Striker]

[Mrs. Tuberski]

well please let me know when we got off teds ass and back on whether us kids are dumb
no offense about you ass ted

[Dis]

Re: Re: Why are American kids so dumb?

Originally posted by Odin
1. Schools are underfunded.

2. Our popular culture makes liking school "uncool," kids who like school are osctracized from peers for being "nerds."

3. Our PC culture forces schools to have unintresting and uninspiring curricula out of fear of offending someone.

#1 is not correct. These same underfunded schools produced the best and brightest kids in the 50's and 60's.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Ted Striker


More blaming the people on the job.

Oh there's no doubt that the quality of teachers has gone down since the 1950s. They're more educated, but the value of that education has diminished greatly. Moreover they aren't as intelligent / simply not the best and brightest on the whole. Back when teaching was one of the few professions that women were allowed to pursue the women who today are doctors, professors, lawyers etc. were often teachers. If we want that quality again we're going to have to pay dearly, or re-enslave women.

Originally posted by Ted Striker

I disagree wholeheartedly. The expectation may be higher, but the incidents of broken homes are much higher than they used to be, parental involvement is in the crapper, and now alot of the kids are drugged up on something.

Take a little bit longer view Ted. Everyone of my grandmother's siblings (all 9 of them) had to quit school during the depression in order to work. Otherwise they'd starve. Malnutrition was rife at that time, and not uncommon until rather recently. In the earlier part of the 20th century the immigration rates were staggering, which meant that there were huge numbers of kids who didn't speak english as their first language compared to today. The average level of education of the parents of schoolchildren was also quite low. And don't think that there weren't plenty of other social problems back then as well. Substance abuse, abandonment, incest etc. were all going on, but no one went to spill their guts to Montel about it.

Originally posted by Ted Striker

Standardized testing has always been used in the classroom.


However, the problem, now, is that it has become so huge that it has replaced actual teaching with teaching students to take tests.

Teachers are complaining that they no longer get time to actually teach.

Which falls somewhere between hysterical teachers trying to get rid of "no child left behind" by overstating the impacts of the state testing (while others don't seem to be particularly impacted), and disingenuous Republicans trying to destroy teachers unions by making the penalties for failing schools arbitrary and unduly punative.

I mean really, how much time does it take to learn how to take a test? How complicated can it be? Of course if the test if a good one and actually tests exactly how much of the curriculum the student is familiar with, then one could teach that every minute of every day. In such a case, "teaching to the test" would also be teaching the curriculum, which is the point of the whole thing in the first place.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
At least most of Europe has TVs which show a large enough amount of English-language programmes that the viewers learn a foreign language while they watch it if nothing else.

Yes, well, it's not our fault English is the only useful language

[Agathon]

I can tell you the real problem - no one makes the children work. There are no real sanctions for poor performance, so they end up satisficing. If people tried to instill sanctions for poor performance, the parents would whine.

Moreover, teaching used to be a comparatively well-paid profession and so attracted a lot of talented people. Now it's a **** job and pays peanuts, so you get monkeys.

For a large proportion of the population schools are really just daycare: somwhere to keep the children while their parents work.

[Kuciwalker]

Do you have evidence that this is different in the EU?

[Agathon]

It is in Germany, they are pretty ruthless with students. We had a German exchange student stay with us for a year in the 90s. He considered his year in NZ a holiday and pwned everyone at our school. He wasn't even particularly bright, just used to working hard.

The same has happened in the university. If I was honest about it, I'd fail about 2/3 to 3/4 of the students I've come in contact with. Most of them either have no business being in higher education, or don't work. It is possible to get very high grades without doing that much (I know.. I did in my undergrad years). I wish I'd been pushed harder as I'd probably be a much better student.

[Dr Strangelove]

I think you'll find that when educational surveys are done in the US a broader segment of the population is tested. The educational systems in many European countries segregate students whom perform better on tests from those who don't, shunting the poorer performers towards a less academic education. When those countries select students to take international educational surveys, they only test the students in the academic programs. In the US we don't segregate students, in fact even "intellectually disadvantaged" students are required by law to be educated in the same schools as the mainstream if at all possible. Hence when American students are selected a wider range is selected from.