Dumb As A Rock: You Will Be Absolutely Amazed At The Things That U.S. High School Students

[Icymudpuppy]

Am I like one of the few people that actually got a pretty good public education. Then again I was always in honors classes along with my friends and we were all basically a grade ahead with the way we were taking classes (like we all took high school credit classes in middle school). I had a 20th century history teacher that taught us about the military industrial complex and the economic problems with war. He taught a rather objective history of the presidents. He was a liberal, but he even admitted nothing the new deal did improved anything economically and was actually counter-productive. I had great English teachers who really pushed thought provoking talks and such. I had a chemistry teacher that was pro-Ron Paul in 2007 - 2008. I was taking college level calc in 11th grade. There was a great emphasis on personal responsibility in regards to learning.

I also don't really live in a very partisan area in PA. My school district absolutely hated No Child Left Behind and ever single teacher I had explained how it was detrimental to teaching as well as insanely costly in resources. I even heard the principals and such speaking about how much they hated the federal take-over of schooling. My school district privatized bus services. I wasn't from a very religious area, but it wasn't frowned upon. I can't remember a fight ever occurring in my high school. Everyone was nice to everyone.

I don't know I had a really good experience with my public schooling and actually got a pretty good education. I suppose my school was an exception or maybe I just had good teachers that weren't just repeating whatever was mandated to them.

I had a similar experience. The resources were there for those of us who wanted to excel. I was doing genetic engineering in high school in my advanced biology class, calculus, physics, college level English literature, and learner most of the OPs questions in grammar school. I remember learning about the separation of powers, and checks and balances in 5th grade.

 

[Icymudpuppy]

True. People here should see Mike Judges' film 'Idiocracy' if they haven't already, it is spot on.

Too bad it is such a stupid movie. The premise was good, but the delivery was weak.

 

[Rothbardian Girl]

I'm a public school brat. I'm grateful for my education. Seems like the situation is worse in some areas than it is in others. (I grew up in eastern PA, in a public high school that had a 97% graduation rate, with nearly three-quarters of all graduates going on to four-year universities after graduation).

Not saying that it can't be better done in a private market/more homeschooling options for education, but the reflexive "blame-the-government" mantra doesn't quite work in some respects. I was bombarded with all kinds of propaganda during my high school years particularly (at least that was when I started recognizing it as such), but the difference was that I liked to read a lot and I was always verifying what I had learned through all the encyclopedias that I had.

If you want to make a difference as a parent, teach your child how to read. I started reading at two years old and never looked back since that point. Your child will start discovering things on his or her own once you give them that sort of access to the world. Maybe I'm being foolish in pinning my success solely on the fact that I learned how to read at an early age, but my parents never ran into problems with me, and I learned to develop quite different perspectives on the world than they had, just from all the reading I had done.

Sure, some of the problem is government schooling for those kids who were never exposed to reading when they were little, but the major problem is parents not doing a good job.

 

[nbhadja]

Pretty much everyone in America is stupid. Let's not act like the older generation is not stupid. At least the young people are more receptive to Ron Paul and are usually anti-war.