"Parse Tree" <parsetree at hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<MM4Y8.8305$c_2.2113186 at news20.bellglobal.com>...
> "Richard C. August" <raugust at ptd.net> wrote in message
> news:rK3Y8.33351$Q43.1013368 at nnrp1.ptd.net...> > Dear Hope Munro Smith,
> >
> > Mere books and uniforms do not account for the cost of SHEER STUPIDITY in
> > the American Educational Systems.
> >
> > My mother related this story to me last night. A gentleman she knows
> > inquired of three teenage children on the streets of my hometown
> concerning
> > who bombed Pearl Harbor at the beginning of US involvement in World War 2.
> > One teen answered that US Forces bombed our own base under friendly fire.
> > Another answered that Usama bin Laden bombed Pearl Harbor, when he wasn't
> > born until c. 1959, since he was 12 in a photo featuring his family in
> > Sweden in 1971. Yet another answered most intelligently, that he didn't
> > know.
>> And you're suggesting that adults do much better? This ignorance is
> characteristic of most Americans, young and old. Other countries are pretty
> bad too, but the topic is the US (so I'll ignore them).
It's actually very nice to go to cities like Tokyo or Beijing or
Moscow or Stockholm and see normal people dressed in their non-slutty
national dress. What we call "fashion" most of the rest of the world
calls trash. It used to be the other way around--we were the leaders
in fashion. Now we're the leaders in trash and not parent anywhere
wants their children looking like "Americans" any more.
>> > Never mind that our kids never learn real American History or Spelling, or
> > that they learn revisionist standards from highly paid but untrained
> > professors who earned their degrees from diploma mills and were promoted
> by
> > the Peter Principle. Our kids are rapidly becoming even more INCOMPETENT
> > than are these professors, to the point that they can't even figure out
> the
> > numbers on a calculator, much less work a slide rule.
>> I find it amusing that in the US such a high value is placed on American
> History. In fact, you apparently place it on the same level of importance
> as Spelling.
>> A slide rule is archaic and useless. We don't teach children how to operate
> a spinning wheel, either.
>
Yes, and that's why even American companies are moving their
manufacturing to every possible off-shore location--to get away from
morons who "think" that history, spelling, slide rules, and the trades
are "amusing".
The REST of the world disagrees with this "liberal" assessment, just
as Mr. August does.
> > Lastly, I was taking an evening walk last night, when I observed several
> > teen girls rather provocatively dressed. Granted, it is summertime and
> they
> > need to dress to be cool. But to wear clothes only a prostitute would
> wear
> > would make one wonder where their brains really are. Can they read
> clothing
> > labels, or bottles of hair colourant? Is it any wonder our American
> Schools
> > are now wasting more money and talent with day care centers in our high
> > schools whilst pregnant teenagers usurp our tax dollars ostensibly
> obtaining
> > an education when they've been told flat out they can earn more money on
> > their backs than they can on their feet?
>> Yes, because exhibitionism is equivalent to a vacuous mind. Slutty outfit
> does not equal slutty person. It's just that society is moving towards a
> state of less clothing since most of the time clothing serves no purpose.
>
Wrong. Dead wrong. The only vacuous mind is the one who doesn't even
appreciate Mr. August's point, which you obviously don't.
> > Face it, Mrs. Smith, American Schools are a dungheap, and American
> Children
> > are its fodder. Billions of American dollars are wasted educating the
> > uneducable MTV generation, who care nothing about the real world other
> than
> > watching "The Real World" on MTV. Talk to these kids, and find out how
> > dumb, or how smart, they really are. "Beavis and Butthead" have met their
> > progeny here.
>> The children are no stupider than the parents...
oh, really? When their parents went to school, SAT scores were 98
points higher, teachers didn't think accurate spelling or history
lessons were "amusing", dress codes were decent, most had spoken
Christian prayers in their classrooms, and our "education" system
wasn't the laughing stock of nations.
Do you think there's possibly anything you could say to contribute to
the solution, or will you instead continue to make excuses for the
FAILURE?
John Knight
