Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Education
I feel that Education is the way that humanity can better itself, and in doing so save itself. I also think that America has the potential to be the leader in this movement. Yet, lately I have read that America is behind a lot of countries in the academics. Fifty percent of students on average graduate high school. At first that seemed unrealistic to me, then I thought. My graduating class consisted of eighty-three people. I know that a lot more people went to school with me than that. Some failed, some moved, but an overwhelming number did dropout. I say this after thinking how many people I saw on the streets of Winnfield, who should have been in school. What is it? America was once the leader of the world in the sciences. The newest, and best developments came from here, but not now. I personally think that it is the culture we live in. We glorify the people who contribute least to society. Athletes, they serve a purpose, they entertain us which is needed in a society. To me the thought of professional athlete is the most ludicris idea I have ever heard. Teachers and scientist the people who contribute the most are paid the least. That does not make sense to me. The millions of dollars that athletes are paid to play a game. What really gets me is that not only are they idolized, but also remembered. Think about it. Who has the most rushing yards? Who created the polio vaccine? Who scored the most points in their first professional NBA Game? Who invented the printing press? If you think about it you know which questions that most people can answer. It is not only athletes, singers, rappers, and actors also get too much recongnition. Most people who drop out aspire to be like the people or rather persona's that they see on TV. Thugs is what they want to be. People feel that school is not necessary to be a singer or actor. Both are very respectable arts, but I feel that they don't want to be artist they want to be famous. That is a huge difference. So now we have an epidemic of actors who can not act, singers who can not sing, rappers who can not rap. People aspire to be famous, they want the recognition, money, andd the easy life for the littlest amount of work. What I just spoke of disturbes me very much. This is causing people to shift their focus from education. Which in turn is causing America to fall behind in the math and sciences. All of that means that people no longer want to do good for others. To better humanity. They only want to betters themselves. What happened to making a difference that will better the world for future generations?
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8 comments:
I graduated in 1967 from a small H.S. My class size was 72, entering my Senior year. 71 Graduated. One was killed in an auto accident. The reasons for our decline are many, and complex, but it boils down to the dumbing down of America, and you should google that term. Here's how it works on a very basic level:
We decided quite some time ago, that "you" (meaning the whole of America's youth) were being "damaged" by holding you back (formerly called failing). So we invented touchy feely excuses for how much better your "self esteem" would be, if we advanced you a grade anyway. But all that was simply a cover sheet for what nobody wanted to say, or face: Our schools were overcrowded, our teachers stretched far beyond their limits. That was when we invented "assembly line" education. One in, one out. We bragged and reassured ourselves of how much "self esteem" students had now, how "empowered" they felt now, a whole host of code speak to cover one thing: We were now graduating idiots. They couldn't read, write, and do that science experiment. Then we expanded it to racial and geographical boundaries. You couldn't ____ because you were ____. This was yet more code speak for graduating more idiots.
Then we moved the whole brilliant idea into our colleges, as we knew our colleges would dry up, were they to hold to the "old" standards. We started letting you into college because you were ___ and/or from ____. Those assembly line students graduated with the help of the excuses we made for them. But throughout the entire system, we never actually focused on "how much do you know?" We had just reinvented incompetence. There's one more link. Those incompetents went back to the grade schools, the high schools as teachers, principals, etc. Guess what came off the end of that assembly line?
Sorry to rant, but education is one of my top soapboxes. I tend to get carried away. And I strongly encourage you to google "the dumbing down of America"
I am not as deep but yes, it is a strange world.
Advertisement is the greatest human invention that affects the human psyche at its primal - repetitive reminder about feeling good.
hmmm- take overindulgent parents who are hands off and permissive- make them teachers and professors. mix in rampant consumerism and rise in wealth overall- and you get spoiled brats who expect others to do for them, expect to be at the top without working for it or earning it- and could give 2 sh--s about anyone other than themselves. they have zero social skills and don't want to grow up. school and learning is unimportant. welcome to the new third world america.
Just read your post and I more or less agree with you. People do want to have it all for little or no work. The problem in society isn't just that people want fame and fortune-they's also too lazy to work hard, finish school and go into a more realistic career.
But trust me, once those people drop out and realize that it's damn near impossible to get into that career path of fame and fortune, they relize what lazy dumbasses they were and finish off school.
At least the relatively smart ones do that.
By the way, the printing press was invented by that Gutenberg dude which made literacy more available to the masses.
Um, I understand your point, and I agree with you on many items here, but according to the US Census Bureau (which I would consider the most reliable source on this matter), high school graduation rates were 85% in 2004/ For that figure to have dipped to 50% within three years would be so strange as to be noticable to the most casual. So your intuition that the 50% figure is unrealistic was correct.
Furthermore, this was an all-time high in the history in the US.
I've seen a lot of screwed-up statistics that attempt to depict American education in a a falsely inferior light. Judging it against the education systems of other nations is like comparing apples and oranges in many circumstances.
A lot of the condemnation of American education comes from a particular source, one that's hoping to private education.
this post is sooo true!!
I completely agree wid ya!
the only people makin money and gainin recognitions these days are the actors & politicians!
btw why dont' u jus get A Cbox and put it in ur blog! will be easier for us ta talk!!
and also read the 2nd post in my blog and lemme know ur opinion bout it!!
Thanx!
Peace & Love
Rajeev.
This an excellent post. I agree with everything and everyone here....Popular culture be damned! I looked at my grandmother's 1912 sophomore HS grade card...she was taking courses in botany...Shakespeare study... these are university post-grad courses now...and she was 15 when she took these!!!...Yes dumb down the masses. This frightens me much more than nukes in Iran.
From grades 2nd - early 5th; my parents had separated and we moved with Mom into Gram's house. Dinner was at 6. Gram insisted on homework being done immediately after dinner, before anything else. No leaving the table until the homework was done. Bedtime was at 9, and tomorrow's clothes were to be set out for the morning. I had top grades across the board during that time.
Mom remarried, and homework became, "I already did it," "Okay." Bedtime was negotiable, as were most things. And everything went downhill from there; to crack-addicted prostitution and ultimate death, alone and naked in the gutter, until utter humiliation and an angel from above brought me back around. But, I digress. And fictionally dramatize. So, anyway:
All building of a character must have it's foundation in the home.
And it must have homes that accept that we all deserve an equal, quality eduction. Privatization of education only goes to further divide us along class lines. All k-12 schools should be available to all children, based on proximity of school-to-home. This can include some city/county line crossing.
Any qualification of acceptance to any higher-learning institution should be merit-based. And all education should be free.
Ask me about my tax code!
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