Forum Post: Will this years High School Graduates be Dumber than their Parents at Graduation?
Posted 12 years ago on June 26, 2012, 9:19 p.m. EST by hchc
(3297)
from Tampa, FL
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
After talking with a decent amount of teenagers, I think we have officially reached the tipping point towards "idiocracy".
I really believe that this generation of students would perform worse on a standard test than their parents did when fresh out of high school.
Why is this happening? Where is the outrage? How can this be stopped?
It is likely that the richer kids will be more stupid as time goes buy as they can afford all of the technical distraction devices. Artificial A.D.D. through technology. The digital world. Multitasking? or Multidistracting?
The Lenno - jaywalkers.
I agree. The combo of parents not caring, the tech, and the constant dumbing down of our schools by the gov is a combo made in hell.
Nope / Yes - corpoRAT Hell. Easy to control the stupid/uneducated.
You who are on the road Must have a code that you can live by And so become yourself Because the past is just a good bye.
Teach your children well, Their father's hell did slowly go by, And feed them on your dreams The one they picked, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry, So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
And you, of tender years, Can't know the fears that your elders grew by, And so please help them with your youth, They seek the truth before they can die.
Counter Melody To Above Verse: Can you hear and do you care and Cant you see we must be free to Teach your children what you believe in. Make a world that we can live in.
Teach your parents well, Their children's hell will slowly go by, And feed them on your dreams The one they picked, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry, So just look at them and sigh and know they love you
Texans want to ban critical thinking in the schools. And while they're at it, repeal the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Seen today on Young Turks.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp7IfxKarzE
I imagine kids are smarter these days
what with the super library and all
Corporate influence; universities are pandering for money. These days our kids are being taught the corporate line rather than to think for society and for themselves. Take for example Milton Freedman economics. One has to pretend to believe the B.S. to pass the class, and too many actually come to believe the stuff. There is systems engineering with its top down philosophy. Great for instilling in young people to follow directions from the top. Not to say the least of MBA programs which teach students greed, and how to rip society off. With curriculums like that, so many graduating students are truly numb Corpro-fool/asses. But to see young people participating in OWS, it is refreshing to know a few still have a brain.
It's a definite sign of old age when a person sees the younger generation as inferior to themselves.
haha
So which generation was the smartest we've produced and what were national policies and school structures at that time?
Your smartest? No such thing.
Your best educated?
The children born after WWII and educated prior to the fall of the Berlin wall. Critical thinking was prized during this period.
1945 to 1990. According to stats below, that is baby boomers, gen x, and gen y. How was critical thinking emphasized? What are we doing different, iyo?
It is not all about the school system - it is also about the information/propaganda fed to the masses through media.
Kids are shown one thing in school and then are shown another in the real life of their family and then another from media.
Commercialization consumerism possessions money are pressed as the symbols of success - at the same time they are not shown that they can achieve this meaningless empty life - they are shown instead that it is likely they will be lucky to get a minimum wage job and need public assistance to get by.
Society is failing and it is apparent to those who are coming behind us.
The real school system is life when you stop and get right down to it. Kids are always learning. They take cues on what is valued from the environment around them.
Correct - at a certain time in our life we are all dependent on the information that is given to us - as we have no reason to doubt. The best gift a teacher can give to their students is to teach them how to learn - teach them how to take in information and weigh the contents - then deduce the aim of the content of the information they just examined.
I don't think kids are any less capable today than at any other time, but their potential for success is being undermined by a rigged system that favors the rich. It's blunt to say it that way, but it is how I see it.
Yes - the system is rigged. Problem - the powers that be - do not see how they are feeding the destruction of society by their manipulations.
There is a program that was on PBS - something like the digital age - anyway it showed how the kids of today are growing-up thinking they know so much - but have basically missed much of the basics let alone advanced skills because of their immersion in gadgets - it is referred to as an artificially induced attention deficit disorder. They are in class and surfing the web and texting their peeps and have no attention/ability to focus on what is in front of them. In this tech society the rich are the handicapped as they can afford to be more distracted. Unfortunately those who can't afford the distraction are dropping out as they see no future for themselves in a legal job.
Im not sure. I just amazed at kids inability to problem solve when faced with a task that isnt spelled out for them. Im talking about highschoolers and college kids.
And the constant whining. Dont even get me started on the whining!!
Let's discuss. On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is it, iyo?
Im not sure, because Im only 32 and dont have a whole lot to base it off of, to judge it against.
I mean, I guess with 1 being horribly ignorant and spoiled, and 10 being a kid with a good head in his/her shoulders, then I would have to put these current crops of kids in the 2-3 range.
I dont think kids even do chores anymore. They all just literally sit around and watch really messed up programming.
Do you sit around the water cooler and talk with your friends about all this stuff?
Most peopel could care less about the level of education kids are getting, its not even worth bringing it up.
Private school
Private schools usually have the smarter kids, but its the parents not the schools. The parents are more involved.
Private schools do not have smarter students - just richer parents.
It really pissed me off when I saw other kids at my school getting shitty grades when their parents are shoveling out 8,000 a year to give them a good education.
It truly is not all about money. It is also about our society and the pollution/poison that is served-up by media and consumerism. We live in a society that has been under attack for decades and we are seeing the results of that attack in the ills of our society.
Richer parents who tend to put more emphasis on their kids education. Its plain as day. Ive got cousins with messed up parents, and cousins with parents who bend over backwards for help with school stuff.
Same districts. I dont have to tell you which ones do better.
Poorer families have both parents working in excess of forty hours a week to keep a roof over their heads and food in their stomach. You want to see an improvement in poor family involvement with their kids and education?
Support a living wage at 40 hours per week then illegalize overtime.
Make overtime illegal? Are you kidding me?
So what is the excuse for parents who dont work?
So what is the excuse for parents who dont work?
I think that would be obvious. What took them out of the working population?
Lack of work?
Education?
Health?
Im not asking why they dont work, thats another topic.
My question is, for the parents that dont work, they have an ass load of time to donate to their kids schooling.
The culture of our country is horrendous when it comes to education.
But kids of parents that dont work usually dont do that well.
So what gives?
They have the time - do they have the physical or mental resources?
Those who are out of work due to health issues may very well not be in a position to be involved.
Those who are out of work due to lack of work or education may very well be in a very poor frame of mind to support themselves let alone a system that has failed them.
No one is talking about supporting a system. We are talking about making teh time, turning off the tv, to read to your kid. Teach them how to act. Get involved.
I know shit can be rough, trust me, do I ever. But there comes a point where people are going to have to start looking in the mirror and decide what is important and what is frivolous nonsense.
Work with those in a position to hear weigh understand relate and act. Deal with the ill as the means to heal become available.
Those who are only beaten down will be the easiest to heal.
Me and my siblings all had the blessing of being able to go to private school for both elementary and Highschool. Our public education system is so bad now. I was blessed with parents who could provide a great education and all children should have that.
This is definitely not true of all, or even most kids, come on, hchc! I will say that the education system lacks in quality in many areas and that kids' success very much depends on the school system they are graduating from.
I agree it does depend on the system. And the system freakin blows :(
Agreed. It is pathetic and outrageous that a kid in one town gets an "A" quality education while a kid in another town gets a "C" quality education. Where I live you just have to cross a certain street to go from one of the best school districts in my state into one of the worst.
Society fails when it fails the people - all of the people.
Right because failing some of the people is failing all of the people.
When you have a failure to support half your population - in income - in education - in opportunity - you see the rise in all forms of crime - violent domestic abuse - violent street crime. It is a cancer metastasizing in the body of society.
Absolutely amazing what money will buy.
I have found that in the really bad schools, the parents usually drop the ball much more often than the schools do.
Nah. I don't think that's true at all. A bad school is a bad school. There's not much parents can do about that except be richer to live in a high income school district or send kids to private schools. Not feasible for the majority of people.
Go check out the parents in teh bad schools. Then go check em out in the good ones.
Ive talked to teachers that agree 100%. When the parents dont teach them the basics, like sit still, its impossible to teach em.
That's not as cut and dry as you'd like it to be. There are good parents in bad schools and bad parents in good schools.
I understand that, but there are definite trends.
I think one of the biggest problems we have is that we spend too much time and effort catering to the lowest performers and the high-level achievers are not being challenged. I don't want any child to be "left behind" but we can't sacrifice engineers, scientists, astronauts, researchers etc - so that we can make sure everyone gets to graduate. I know that is harsh - and if we can do both, then I'm all for it.
"Will this years High School Graduates be Dumber than their Parents at Graduation?"
Yes. Today's youth are ignorant of the world as they are sheltered from hard facts while in school and at home. OWS is living proof of the dumbing down of America.
I wouldn't put too much faith in the teen age group. Just give them some time. In the last six years of being out on my own, I've learned at least twice a much about myself and the world than I had the preceding 18 years.
Here's an unofficial list of generations by year of birth, just for fun.
Lost Generation: 1883-1900
Greatest Generation: 1901-1925
Silent Generation: 1926-1945
Baby Boomers: 1946-1964
Generation X: 1964-1982
Generation Y: 1982-1995
Generation Z: 1995 - Present
Life teaches people things, Im talking about overall levels of competency.