Schools today

[BroomJockey]

if there's any proof to show that schools really do suck that much more now.

Well, if you want proof, there's this...

“Recent polls have shown that a fifth of Americans can’t locate the US on a world map. Why do you think this is?”

“I personally believe, that U.S. Americans, are unable to do so, because uh, some, people out there, in our nation don’t have maps. and uh… I believe that our education like such as in South Africa, and the Iraq, everywhere like such as… and, I believe they should uh, our education over here, in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa, and should help the Iraq and Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us.”

The real landmine, relevant to this discussion isn't the pure idiocy of the reply. After all, someone is under a fair deal of pressure up on stage. She just totally lost it is all. The real problem is 20% of Americans can't find their own country on a map. If you look for other similar studies, you find worse numbers for people finding their state on an unmarked map, the US's rank in English and mathematics is falling in the world stage, and so on.

[Greenday]

I'll give you the map thing, though I'm curious as to who and where people were questioned.

As for the Miss South Carolina thing, you are taking one of the dumber people and saying that's what America is. It'd be like taking a complete redneck and saying that's what a southerner is, a CEO is what the North is, a hippy is what California is, and a person with a few missing teeth, a hockey stick, and says "eh" every sentence is a Canadian. They are all poor examples of what we really are.

[BroomJockey]

As for the Miss South Carolina thing, you are taking one of the dumber people and saying that's what America is.

Err. No. I'm not.

The real landmine, relevant to this discussion isn't the pure idiocy of the reply. After all, someone is under a fair deal of pressure up on stage. She just totally lost it is all.

Please read and comprehend my post before replying. I specifically said her reply wasn't the issue. I had to include it so that question would make sense, however.

[BlaqueKatt]

considering there are americans out there that don't know that we were ever at war with Germany-or japan. And americans that are blissfully unaware that
during WWII we had concentration camps on our own soil(japanese interment camps)-while we were fighting to free german and polish citizens from camps we were rounding up our own citizens for no reason other than their ancestry-in short....hypocrites...

[Lace Neil Singer]

Sounds like the fact that there are kids in our schools over here who are blissfully unaware of the bombing of Dresden, and who get passmarks on the kind of essays that would have earned me and my ilk a D and a "See me". -.-

And let's not forget being allowed to use Wikipedia as a source. Using it as a means of getting hold of sources; yes. The genuine sources are listed below. Using an actual page, that any old person can edit; no. That's like using your mad Uncle Charlie as a source.

[blas87]

I personally blame No Child Left Behind and idiot parents pushing "snowflakes"....and schools where sports are more important than academics, physical education is supposed to define who is who.....ugh.

I kid you not, guys, I went to high school with kids who probably had the reading comprehension of elementary school kids.....and probably couldn't even tell you the captial of the state we live in, let alone the capital of ANY other states.

If I ever have kids, they will be home schooled. I'm not going to subject any child of mine to the cesspool of idiot kids who can score the most points on the field but can't spell Wisconsin. Especially since the kids who seem to be halfway intelligent get bullied the most because they hate sports or the popular kids or all the dumb sheep kids.

[Rageaholic]

I'm glad I was homeschooled. All I remember in middle school was being forced to get up at 6:30, get on a bus where I would be bullied by other students, get crap from teachers for forgetting a "blue book" or showing up a couple seconds late, and STILL having to complete coloring assignments. I've never been to prison, but from what I have seen of it in movies, it reminds me a lot like school.

I hated most of my classmates for being stupid assholes who would pick on me for being "Smarty pants" (I was good at math), I hated the teachers who would harp on me over stupid crap, I hated being herded around like mindless sheep. I hated the whole thing. The focus wasn't on getting an education, it was on doing what the teacher says and following a bunch of stupid rules. Then when I got home, I had to do more useless homework. The problem, too much time spent on otherwise useless crap instead of actual learning.

And high school *Shudder* I am NOT sad to have missed that. Sounds like more popularity contests, glorification of sports, more authoritarian teachers, and just an unsafe, unfriendly environment.

[blas87]

The over-glorification of sports isn't prevalent in ALL schools.

I just noticed that in a lot of these small towns in Wisconsin, sports are all that the schools have going for them, because the kids are so dumb. Strong as oxen, but dumber than rocks.

Yeah, it's a horrible stereotype, I'm a bad bad person. Wah wah wah. Cry me a river for talking poo about my communities and not being proud of my small farming town heritage. I don't care. Around here, it's true.

If you weren't in sports or academic activities that were part of sports, you were no one. Teachers hated you, other kids hated you.......except for maybe the art or music teachers, they seemed to be the only ones who didn't treat the jocks better than the rest. It's pretty sad when you're one of the most brightest, literate kids in the class, but the teacher likes the mildly retarded quarterback more than you.

[AdminAssistant]

I am so glad I didn't go to a football school. Basketball was really important, baseball/softball less so, and track, golf, and cheerleading were at the bottom of the totem pole. Amazingly, our cheerleaders actually *gasp* were not allowed to wear midriff-showing uniforms or practice during school. There were also limits on how far away teams could go to for weeknight games and if an athlete's grades fell, then they sat the bench.

But even then, there really weren't any teachers who favored the athletes over the other students. Of course, some of the male teachers would give special privileges to some of the girls who'd flirt with them, but..eh. There was some leniency during harvest/planting, especially for kids who got out of school to work in the fields until nightfall (or later). But I know my school isn't a representative sample, not even in my area.

Despite that, high school was still hell. I still got pushed around by bullies, teased because of stuff going on with my parents, yelled at when I'd score a 100 on a test and 'break the curve'. And most of all...was the expectation that I would be a younger, blonde version of my picture-perfect sister. Class valedictorian, cheerleader, softball player, all-American high school sweetheart. Instead, I was the salutatorian, on the debate team and drama club, and generally an outsider. Kid you not, when I scored a 30 on the ACT (good enough to get the best scholarship the nearby state college offered), everyone including my parents wanted me to re-take the damn thing so I could beat my sister's score (31). GAH.

[DesignFox]

I liked school. But I'm beginning to think I was lucky and grew up in an area with really good ones. I had a lot of excellent teachers, and while the sports programs did have a tendency to get more attention than anything else, at least our arts teachers and our parents were their to fill in the gap the district's budget left behind.

It shocks me to hear about how bad some of you guys' school experiences were.

[Stormraven]

In that respect, I got fairly lucky. While there were jocks who were dumb as rocks, most of the actual sports players were in the smarter half of my schools - right up there with many of the brains, in some cases.

This didn't completely erase bullying, of course, but by and large the bullies were wanna-be jocks, rather than the actual ones, and I actually was on decent terms with most of the jocks in the school.

Getting bullied at those schools usually came because you were slight, or odd, not because you were smart. Since I was all three, being smart didn't keep me from being bullied.

On the other hand, I think I may have been attending schools on the downward part of the bell curve... I learned things at those schools - in standard classes - that people no more than five years younger than me never did. One of my favourite Doctor Who quotes has always been 'Did you know 'Eureka' means 'my bath is too hot'?'

I got the joke because of a story we read in one of my math (or science) books - again, general, not specific, and they were required classes. But elsewhere, and only five years after I graduated, people looked at me blankly whenever I would say it.

[the_std]

I think that this forum is a terrible sample group of how schools are doing. The type of person that is attracted to this sort of website is the type of person who is more likely to be targeted by bullies, to be bored by the so-called "cookie cutter' classes, because the type of person that frequents this forum is far less likely to be neurotypical.

I think the majority of people have a normal high school experience, enjoy it to an extent, get through it, learn a pretty good amount of stuff and are moderately successful later on it life. Why do we never hear about it? Because it's the norm. People don't generally talk too much about what's normal.

[Boozy]

You're right that these threads aren't exactly scientific samplings, but I wouldn't draw any conclusions about the forum membership at large.

"Normal" more or less describes my hgh school experience. I tend to be quiet in threads that talk about bullying, bad teachers, and silly school rules. I don't have much experience with those things, so I don't feel I have anything to add.

I've noticed this phenomenon in the "bullying" threads here and at CS. One would think that every forummer was bullied in school if one focussed only on who was posting. But you'll find that most members either don't post in those threads, or only post to express sympathy (but not commiseration).

I'm not saying that bullying isn't an issue, or that teachers are awesome everywhere, but I suspect that good school experiences are more common than bad.

[Pedersen]

I'm not saying that bullying isn't an issue, or that teachers are awesome everywhere, but I suspect that good school experiences are more common than bad.

You are correct on that Boozy, of that I'm fairly certain. I've discussed my school experiences enough here and elsewhere that I'll not bother with doing so right now again.

The only times it really bothers me is when I get someone who insists that high school was wonderful for them, and they can't understand why I would have found it any differently. I still remember my high school graduation very well. And the one thing I remember most about it was failing to understand why anybody was sad about leaving it behind. My thoughts were "Finally out of this hellhole. Thank god I made it."

And then, every so often, I run into someone who says "No way, it wasn't that bad." They'll even argue with me about how I felt about my experiences. Those sorts are when I tend to become angry about it. Aside from them, I can usually forget about it.

For those of you who had such wonderful experiences, I'm actually jealous of you. I wish I had managed not to hate it, at least. That would have been nice.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I actually got on really well at my primary school, and at the secondary school I went to after leaving the all girls' school. I think it's cuz both were mixed; plus, both were just better schools all round. I was sad to leave both; however, when I left the all girls' hellhole, I rejoiced. Ironically, it's now one of the top schools in the area, cuz a new head basically turned it right around and made it excellent.