I think the point that Gen was trying to make is that there should be a zero tolerance policy for this kind of ignorance. If they don't know the basics for each grade level, they should be held back. That threat of being held back is one hell of a motivator. Of course, standards need to be "appropriate."

Pwieland wrote..

They dont teach critical thinking skills at schools nowadays.

Clearly not, because if they did no one would use the term "critical thinking" because they'd recognize it as being logically incoherent.

"Critical thinking" implies the existence of multiple types of thinking, of which at least one type must be non-critical thinking. It seems like non-critical thinking would be the opposite of thinking, though, not a sub-category of thinking. So there is no need to modify the word "thinking" with an adjective. Non-critical thought isn't thought at all.

I do have to agree with the girl who, when asked about what countries border the US, said:

"Well, wait, what? Canada? No that's a state, never mind."


It IS our hat, after all.

Reminds me of the citizenship test - a lot of citizens can't answer basic questions that we expect citizen applicants to answer.

When I was a kid, we were at a summer camp with a lot of Canadians. They knew every US state and capitol, most of us did not know any Canadian provinces or territories, and no one knew any provincial capitols

God... We are so screwed! .....


Sure this is a failure of teachers, obviously, but it's a much larger failure on the part of PARENTS! If any of my young children are THAT empty headed when they reach that age group, I'll ****ing hang myself!

I would bet, at 100 to 1 odds, these kids could answer a similar set of questions related to the topics of TV and music. The sort these kids regularly watch/listen to. They would get high grades, IMO. So, I hold the position these kids are not dumb or stupid, the problem is the lack of discipline at school and at home.

The solution is not to close the school, rather it would be to change the ENTIRE management of the schools by firing everyone involved in the education system, cut the education funding by at least 1/2, and institute a true learning environment that simply teaches the necessary skills of how to learn and focus on the core subjects.

The thing that bothered me the most about the video wasn't that they didn't know the answers, but the way they treated the whole thing as a joke. They didn't seem embarrassed by their ignorance, and thought it silly that anyone would expect them to know.

I'll bet they all have high self-esteem, though.

The problem is they do not understand why they should know these facts...

The portion where they didn't know about the Revolutionary War was particularly sickening. The Revolutionary War is probably the most significant event in the history of our country.

As I understand it though, they don't teach nearly as much about the Revolutionary War as they do regarding the Civil War. They act as if our nation was founded then, and Lincoln was our forefather.

Here's a prime example of the brainpower teaching your children today --

I used to have a teacher (2nd grade) that lived across the street. One day while I was working in the yard, she came over and started talking to me, and remarked that she was having trouble grading papers because she left her grading chart at school.

I asked her what she was trying to do, and she told me that the test had 15 questions, and she was trying to determine the percentage correct on each paper, but was unable to do so because she did not have the chart. When I tried to explain to her that you just divide the number correct by 15, she had the proverbial "deer in the headlights look", and had no idea what I was talking about. What a moron!

Steelhead nailed it. My SO is a tech ed in middle school. She sees examples of parents every week who want to know why the teachers aren't teaching there kids. Parents literally want the school to raise their kids for them. Many parents are becoming lazy and irresponsible.

The bright side of the ignorance of the youth today for those of us in our forties is we wont have to worry about competition for jobs from theses kids in a decade when we hit our fifties. That is if there is still a functioning economy by then.

How many correct answers were edited out?

@Nomullet --
Doesn't matter. These are things every HS student should know. They shouldn't even have to think about the answers to these questions.

I guess the school system just "passes 'em on through". It scares me what the generation after this will be like (if we last that long).

Well it does matter. Maybe there is two hours of video total and if you watched it all you would have a different impression.

Propaganda is still propaganda if it supports your viewpoint.

If the interviewer were asking them to discuss The Whiskey Rebellion, or what state Tammany Hall was in, you might have a point.

Instead, these kids failed to identify the correct number of stars on the US flag, or to name any Democratic candidate for the 2012 Presidential election. These are the sort of things any semi-literate American should be expected to know.

Bear in mind also that some of those scholars will be 18 and of legal voting age by November.

Remember a large percentage of teenagers think it's not cool to answer questions like this, regardless of whether they know the material or not. I wonder if their accuracy would have improved if you offered $20 for every correct answer.

Lots of you seem to think school is about educating children. I used to think that also.

Reading a couple of John Taylor Gatto's books convinced me that education isn't the purpose at all.

From looking at this video, it appears that the system is working as designed. In my opinion, public school isn't the problem, compulsory schooling is the problem. In any reasonable society, these girls would be out on the street corners and we wouldn't be wasting their time or ours.

Quote:

She didn't know who Biden was.

Lucky girl.

I'm wondering why this is such a travesty, i.e. why they should give a **** which particular brand of puppet is being used in today's Punch & Judy.

I watched it again, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the kids who answered "51" for stars on the flag were doing that deliberately. Remember this has been edited, by another kid, and it might be a little bit of a put on.

I do believe they don't know who Biden is. But why should they? [devil_01]

Quote:

Bear in mind also that some of those scholars will be 18 and of legal voting age by November.

Thankfully most of them probably won't bother (or know what day to vote if they wanted to). If only we could get the other generations to quit voting as well, then maybe a third party would have low enough barriers of entry to fix things.

Quote:

She didn't know who Biden was.

I'm with Hierophant, she's better off saving that space in her brain for something more important than Biden.

I don think its write two make fund of these kidz on youTube like that, it could herd there self esteam. Scools got to pick and chews what they will need out in the whirl, they can't teach everythings. As long as they no the dangerous of climate change and how to put on condiments, that's what's most kneed.

Its not that bad. Look at how the guys in 'Animal House' turned out..

'No child left behind' has resulted in 'no child pushed ahead'.