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Trust me, teachers "on" weed are much better than teachers under government rule.
It has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with schooling. |
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Not our fault that all our teachers do weed :0 |
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The public education system in the US is terrible, despite the amount of money that is spent. The
US ranks 27th in the world (admittedly this is not a current stat, about 2 years old), tied with
Germany in that ranking. The top ranking countries tend to be Asian cultures that are very
homogeneous.
On the up side; the American college system is very good; particularly the private colleges. They
actually compete pretty well internationally. |
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Education level and intelligence aren't equivalent. I do think the school system here is weak in
comparison to other countries, but not for the reasons you provide. |
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I would take standardized test scores with a grain of salt. Traditionally, schools in Europe and in
many other parts of the world emphasized the importance of lexical knowledge, whereas US secondary
schools have focused more heavily on creativity, discussion and debate. As such, many continental
European students may be much better at giving you a run down of key events, individuals and dates
in world history, but they may be less comfortable giving a class presentation, debating with their
peers or writing an opinion-based essay, than their US counterparts.
I do believe that there are certain key concepts in the field of social sciences and humanities that
form part of a basic education. Nevertheless, I still think that it is far better to emphasize
public speaking skills and creativity in high school than sitting in a classroom and acting like a
sponge-- uncritically absorbing information passed on by a lecturer. High schools should strive to
train critical, thoughtful citizens and not walking encyclopedias. |
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I do not believe that American students are less intelligent. However, they are less educated. Young
people in America have too much freedom. They are subjected to way too much violence, many do not
have families who care, and many have no morals or values. Therefore, they do not know right from
wrong. They cannot make good decisions. Everyone blames the teachers and the schools, but the root
of the problem really does start at home. American kids can learn, they just don't want to. They
want everything for nothing and they never want to make an effort to move ahead. “Hard work” is
not part of their vocabulary. They think the world owes them something. But the day will come when
they will wish they paid more attention in school. Their day is coming. |
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It doesn't say anything about native intelligence, just about poor education and that's been a clear
fact for decades. We need to fix our educational system, throw out all the religious crap that the
morons on the right keep trying to force into the classroom and teach our kids FACTS. |
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American children may well be less adept in mathematics and other academic subjects than children in
other countries. To say that, however, is to say that they are less well-educated than children in
other counties, not that they are less intelligent. Intelligence is surely a basic genetic attribute
and broadly equivalent across the world (at least I haven't seen any research that suggested
anything different). Only nutritional deficiencies in childhood could possibly affect a person's
intelligence fundamentally.
Susan Jacoby published a book recently, and wrote an article in the Washington Post last week
deploring the levels of ignorance in America generally. I'd tend to agree with her. It wouldn't
matter so much if America wasn't such a powerful country. But the level of American democratic
discourse is frighteningly low. Even the uplifting, inspirational rhetoric that American politicians
always attempt - and that Barack Obama is very good at - is, in many ways, really just a poor
substitute for substantive political discussion. |
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23 Feb 2008 15:32
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